Three-quarters of students reported struggling to stay focus, over half of participants had a hard time completing homework and more than 40% of students had a hard time attending class. The transition to a virtual learning environment has truly impacted students performance and wellbeing significantly. Many have found themselves compromising their education plans, whether it be only taking online classes, taking a leave of absence, or even moving back home.
Successful communication is key when it comes to remote learning. The Impact Edtech Adoption Platform provides the ideal platform for collaborative communication through Impact Messaging. Here's how institutions can approach these issues with Impact.
Create Messages with List of Campus Support Center
In the Hobsons and Hanover survey, returning students reported feeling that they were not as prepared to come into the semester as in previous years. Students sometimes need to be reminded of support services their institutions may offer. With Impact, institutions can create popup messages for their campus service guides directly in their LMS. These messages can make students aware of the support they have throughout the semester, should they need it.
A Reminder of the Importance of Mental Health
College and universities are finding themselves having to condense or eliminate fall and spring breaks. In addition, institutions also held "wellness week" during midterm and finals week on campus, where students can participate in activities to help them relax. However, these in-person events are not possible during the pandemic. Amid online learning, students sometimes need to be reminded of the importance of mental health in their academic success. Impact can help institutions create effective wellness messages through systray messages to ensure students are taking care of their mental health.
Video Content with Impact Messaging
The transition to a virtual learning environment poses such a concern for first-year students who may not have experience with LMS. Therefore, institutions need to provide support in guiding these students with its usage. A way to do so is to create messages with the goal of driving traffic by combining texts, videos or images, and call-to-action. Impact Messages are an effective way to drive communication within an institution's LMS. This is the case at Foothill College, where they had one of their student government leaders create videos on tips for using Canvas and uploaded them for all students to see. They also saw the potential for this kind of message to be utilized in other departments. Foothill College saw an opportunity to use Impact Messaging to be able to effectively communicate with their entire student body.
Encouraging Students to Meet with Advisors
Fall 2020 brought students to stress in the form of worrying about their educational futures, financial responsibilities, and meeting deadlines. Hobsons and Hanover's survey reported students feeling a decrease in their confidence of employment after college, and some having to delay their degree completion altogether. Institutions need to make sure they are checking in on their students౼now more than ever. With the help of Impact, users can create messages that encourage students to book a session with their academic advisors, career center, or even personal counseling. Students must have an educational plan so they can set goals and meet them for the next semester or post-graduation.
Check-In on Students Before & After Class
Academic performance has been the top concern for students. Fall 2020 has shown that, not only do students struggle with online learning, but hybrid classes pose unique challenges as well. Instructors can support students within their course by doing a wellness check. Through Impact Messaging, instructors can create wellness check messages that can contain a survey link for their students to take. This can give an overview of students' wellbeing to ensure academic success. This type of messaging can also be utilized by tutoring center, academic center, counseling, and the like to encourage students to take advantage of services offered.
During the ongoing pandemic, communication is key in institutions' mission to continue to provide higher education. Impact can help to create consistent and centrally-located messages to keep communication at the forefront of online learning.
