Responding to crisis: creating a wellness video.

Abstract

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it became increasingly clear that students were struggling with their productivity and mental health, which was institutionally evident in the increasing number of drop-in requests we were getting during Office Hours. Whilst the institution has a set of resources to signpost students to, in our roles as Course Leader and Lead Personal Tutor, we wanted to create a resource that students could easily interact with when required. We created a 3-minute video promoting wellbeing techniques in the context of remote learning, in partnership with our dissertation students. The video was intended for students within the School of Computing, to provide quick snippets of advice and support to those who needed it, without having to wait for a meeting opportunity. Initial impact was promising, with students sharing it amongst themselves and commenting that it was something to "play every morning from now on". It was eventually featured on both the staff and student Bulletins, and had impact across the University's social media, reaching the following stats by mid-2021: almost 3000 people on Facebook and performing 1.7 times better than other videos promoted by the University over a two-week time period; over 4400 impressions on LinkedIn, with an engagement rate of 1.93%; "I think that you [...] taking the initiative to make that video shows that you care about the wellbeing of your students, and I wish more staff around the University led by your example." -- Megan Beaudry, Digital Marketing Officer. Whilst it would take more than a video to make a significant impact on students' mental health, there has been a noticeable uptake in staff and students referencing it within the School, and often students come to our Office Hours having pre-emptively watched it and wanting to discuss a wellness technique in more detail.

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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1898840