Health Promoting Practices

Supporting Students

An inclusive learning environment is established when all students are supported in adapting to the structure, schedule, expectations, and technologies used in the course. Supporting students requires thorough communication about how the course is set up, what they have to do, how the course is run administratively, and what resources and services are available to help them succeed.

Recommendation 2.4: Health-Promoting Practices

Design and teach your course using health-promoting pedagogies and trauma-informed practices; destigmatize help-seeking behaviors; and recognize when students might be struggling, respond appropriately, and effectively refer students to campus resources.

Background Information

What is this?

Instructors have the ability to influence student health and well-being. Health-promoting pedagogies and practices are those that support students’ holistic well-being, both in the classroom and through referral to appropriate campus resources. The university provides a wealth of resources, training, and support for both students and instructors to promote a healthier campus community for all.

Why is this important?

Our students struggle with anxiety, depression, and other stressors that can impact academics and are influenced by social determinants of health, such as food or housing security. In addition, social connectedness and belonging are protective factors that can be cultivated through effective online teaching and health-promoting pedagogies. By addressing these challenges, we create academic environments in which students can thrive.

How to implement

When teaching online, resources can be shared in the syllabus, through the online Student Resources link, and offered regularly at the point of need, during stressful periods throughout the semester (e.g., midterms, finals).

Synopsis from Self-Review

In academic contexts, instructors can use health-promoting pedagogies, identify challenges to student well-being, normalize help-seeking behaviors, and offer resources to help students thrive. Instructors can use formative assessment measures to gauge student needs and stressors and should be trained to destigmatize help-seeking, effectively respond to students in distress, and offer referrals to appropriate resources (via referral to UWSP Mental Health Resources, Canvas, email, during office hours, etc.).

How to Put into Practice

Students learn best when they have their basic needs for physical and mental well-being met and feel connected to their peers and instructors. This expands their capacity to engage with the rigors of their academic courses. As an instructor, you can use health-promoting pedagogies, identify challenges to student well-being, normalize help-seeking behaviors, and offer resources to help students thrive.

Some of the broad principles that instructors can follow to foster well-being in learning environments include:

  1. Destigmatize help-seeking and normalize asking for help by including syllabi language that supports student mental health and learning.
  2. Understanding and applying principles of Universal Design for Learning will help make your course more engaging and inclusive.
  3. Design for accessibility and provide individual accommodations. The UWSP Disability Resource Center (DRC) is an excellent resource for instructors and students. The Disability Resource Center (DRC) supports accommodations, assistive technology, and auxiliary services for students with disabilities, working individually with qualified students to identify, design, and implement an academic accommodation plan.
  4. Model self-care and the importance of help-seeking as an instructor.
  5. Remind students of the Student Resources menu in Canvas (left-hand blue link menu). This link directs students to the UWSP Student Resources page.
  6. Share resources (below) with students in your course orientation module and at the point of need (e.g., in the instructions for major assignments.

Useful resources to share with students

Familiarize yourself with campus resources and be prepared to refer students to appropriate resources as needed. These resources can also be highlighted in the Course Orientation materials (See Recommendation 2.3: Course Orientation).

Example of a Health-Promoting Pedagogy: Daily/Weekly Rituals or Warm Ups

Establishing a daily/weekly ritual is an easy way to check in with students and gauge their well-being. There are many ways to do this. For example, leave five minutes for students to check in at the beginning of every synchronous course session or offer a brief “mindful moment” before diving into course content in both synchronous and asynchronous courses.

Example Ritual – Synchronous
  • Let students know that you’ll be available before class to chat.
  • Log in to class early.
  • Post a thought-starter or dialogue prompt for students who arrive early. For example:
    • What surprised you about the last lesson?
    • Have you observed the principles discussed in the last lesson outside of class?
    • What are you excited to learn about in today’s class?
Example Ritual – Asynchronous
  • As a part of your daily/weekly plan of content, post a dialogue prompt that is light-hearted, fun, and/or reflective in a discussion board. For example:
    • What are you excited to learn about today/this week?
    • Share something interesting from your life outside of class.
    • On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most stressed out, how would you rate your stress level today/this week? What are some strategies that you could try that might help?

Follow up with students who express distress to help address any constraints that may be complicating individual students’ learning experience (e.g., location, parenting, work, disabilities, internet access, etc.).

Additional Resources: