Spark-It Week Message October 20, 2020
Today's Daily Spark: Small Gestures Can Make a Big Difference for Students
Dear Colleague,
In yesterday's Daily Spark we focused on taking care of yourself. Today, we want to focus on how significantly the pandemic is affecting our students.
In a spring survey of KU students, 76% of respondents said that problems in personal health, finances and similar issues were making it difficult to do schoolwork remotely. 70% reported heightened general anxiety.
In a broader survey by the Healthy Minds Network and the American College Health Association, 64% of students said they were extremely worried about how long the pandemic would last. More than 50% reported feeling lonely, 40% said they were depressed, and 24% said depression had impaired their academic abilities.
And recent research suggests that our own students are continuing to struggle. An ongoing study following 633 students at KU and three other universities revealed that even as the Fall semester was beginning, our students were showing significantly elevated levels of depression, anxiety and other psychological symptoms. They also reported being stressed by an average 16 of COVID-related difficulties, such as health worries, problematic living arrangements, or financial concerns.
For all of these reasons, instructors should pay special attention to student mental health as the pandemic drags on. Here are a few small things you can do:
Take a few minutes each day for community-building
Ask students to share a quote, story, or video that inspired or delighted them, or end class by asking students to write or report out one thing they learned from someone else this week. All the Spark-It activities and suggestions are simple ideas aimed at improving connection with students. This is especially important for freshmen and transfer students, who have not had pre-pandemic opportunities to establish networks of friends or to establish lives on campus. Consider using one or two of these activities to help our students feel more a part of a community.
Send an email
Reach out to students who have dropped away. Instructors around the university report declining attendance in online and in-person classes. If that happens in your class, email students individually and check in. Ask whether there’s anything you can do to assist them. Sometimes students just need a reminder that they matter.
Contact Academic Success
If you have students who have stopped showing up for class or who have fallen severely behind in their work, contact the University Academic Support Centers in the Academic Success unit: uasc@ku.edu | 785-864-4064
Additional resources
- Student mental health. In two videos on the CTE website, Jody Brook, an associate professor of social welfare and a CTE Fellow, and Christian Vargas, a psychologist at Counseling and Psychological Services, talk about what to watch for among students and what steps an instructor can take.
- Supporting the whole student. The Flex Teaching website offers ways you can support students and encourage self-care among students.
- Campus resources. The Student Affairs website provides tips for talking with students you are concerned about and includes links to the many resources available.
We hope these suggestions are helpful. Tomorrow we will resume our usual lighthearted tone, in honor of both International Nacho Day and National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day. Please keep the great Spark-It ideas coming (we are also collecting nacho and cheesecake recipes please!!): cte@ku.edu, #KUSparkitweek.
Best,
Dea and Doug