Abstract:

Dramatic increases in students’ mental health issues have prompted administration to recently implement an EDII (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization) approach at university. Paying closer attention to all students involves what corresponds to individual support and instructors find themselves behaving like personal coaches and ensuring that no one is left behind. This entails increased awareness and additional interventions. Not only does this create a heavier workload in terms of time involved but also the added complexity causes more stress to instructors. Instructors have to take compulsory workshops and are left to their own devices to rework their courses and their different approaches to learning and grading. With on-line teaching, difficulties are often compounded as technology does not allow the closeness that may be required in certain cases for support.

The method used is empirical and qualitative in nature. The study involves the analysis of an instructor’s teaching journal notes over one year of on-line teaching, to uncover a number of issues related to this situation. This also involved case study throughout the journal notes. In all, 12 cases were identified. These are described and steps taken are listed.

The results show positive outcomes in eight situations while four cases remained problematic. Among concerns in the findings there are questions regarding additional time involvement without added instructor support, miscommunication between administration and instructors, and two students leaving the program. Among positive outcomes there are the successes of eight of the problem case students added to all the others in the course, increased peer support and interactions, and increased engagement and motivation for learning.

Overall, in this time of crisis, the extraordinary support requested from instructors is absolutely necessary. Only time will tell if the amount of supplementary effort is acknowledged even if it not been rewarded. There is no doubt that with the need for continued on-line teaching, instructors will need a reprieve or burn-out might follow.

Keywords:

Attention to mental health, personalized support, case studies, increased engagement.