Remind college students they're not alone in pandemic

My youngest started college this fall, classes fully online like many other students. Despite the pandemic, he started with excitement and optimism, but then came midterms. As the stress mounted, his enthusiasm for getting out of bed waned. He's not alone of course. One client observed that some students at a small college went completely AWOL mid-semester.

We know people the world over are suffering from stress and anxiety due to the pandemic. The CDC reported an increase in suicidal thoughts among young people ages 18 to 24 this August compared to reports for the same month two years ago. Last April as the number of coronavirus cases rose in Texas, the U.S., and parts of the world, researchers at Texas A&M University interviewed college students about their well-being. Students expressed concerns about their own health and their loved ones as well as their performance in classes. Large percentages struggled to concentrate and reported troubles with sleep.

You probably have observed these struggles among your own students this fall. Take a look at what these interviews exposed. I'm curious to hear what it's like on your campus.

Image by Tobias Rehbein from Pixabay

Classes going online? Make it active learning

The pandemic is really turning things upside down. It's changed the way we are living in ways we could not have expected. Sometimes it's a silver lining; for example, my daughter with one more year of college spent six unplanned weeks with us after spring break taking her online classes from her childhood bedroom.

Now it's time to prepare classes for fall, and everyone needs to have some facility with online instruction. We've all gotten better at using Zoom for meetings, but that's not the same as teaching. Although MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have been around for years, many people are having to bone up on how to use technology for teaching and expand their skills...fast. Yet, the classes don't have to be lectures in the traditional sense with the professor talking and students note-taking. Instead, teaching online can embody active learning where students engage with the content, build their own understanding, and reflect on what they're learning. Columbia's Center for Teaching and Learning put together strategies that faculty can use to keep the learning active, such as breakout rooms in Zoom to allow small groups of students to address a question and bring it back to the larger group (e.g., "Think-Pair-Share"). Similarly, faculty can have students write a "Minute Paper" using Zoom or similar platforms to reflect on the lesson's content or as an informal assessment of student understanding. Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has recorded webinars and resources to help faculty get up to speed quickly with online learning. I'm curious about what you have found that is helpful in putting together online instruction that begins with active learning Drop me a line and let me know.

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STEM Faculty Beliefs Link up with College Student Success and Motivation

I want to make sure that you know about some important research that came out this year. Canning and colleagues studied the beliefs that university faculty in STEM fields hold of their students' abilities. Embedded in Dweck's research on "fixed mindset," that is, that intellectual ability is fixed, innate and does not change much, compared with "growth mindset," that is, ability is developed through persistence, effective strategies, and mentoring. Canning's study looked at how these faculty beliefs related to students' academic performance and their motivation to do well in class. These beliefs actually explained achievement gaps between underrepresented minorities – Black, Latino, and Native American students – and White and Asian students. Check out the article. You won't want to miss it.

Image by Myriam Zilles from Pixabay