Online Intercultural Exchanges offer a form of computer-mediated learning whereby students from geographically remote classes work together online (in pairs or small groups) on learning tasks developed by teachers or educational facilitators. They allow students to have a meaningful intercultural experience as part of their education, increasing mutual understanding and global citizenship. Besides, our students’ feedback has also shown that this pedagogy has helped them to boost their mental health and wellbeing. This was particularly evident during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Promoting student societies to help build a culture of student collaborative learning.

Students develop Multiple Choice Questions as part of a formative assessment process, a percentage of which contribute to their summative assessment. This fosters respect, reciprocity and shared responsibility and provides understanding of the development of their assessment as well as investment in a collaborative partnership approach to their assessment.

At the end of the introductory day the new group is consulted to see whether they would like to be included in the formation of a WhatsApp (or other social media type platform) group. The purpose of this group will be for the group to support each other in between taught elements of the programme. It might be a place where the students can informally discuss the teaching content and assignments. We also suggest that it can be used as a platform for setting up a buddy system for assignments where the students pair up to proof read each other’s work prior to submission (eg: checking referencing and typos, critiquing etc) It is also suggested that it is an opportunity to practice the attitudinal qualities of mindfulness in particular compassion for all members of the group.

As a whole, our 2nd year cohort have encountered consistent difficulty with a particular assignment in my module. This is largely accounted for by assignment timing (after the Christmas vacation and an early January exam) and poor time management by students- however, this results in less-than-optimal coursework for students (in terms of format and summative/formative objectives) and a potential wellbeing for both staff and students. By reviewing assignment objectives, constraining the time demand of the assignment, but not compromising its ability to differentiate and challenge students, we have created a more resource-efficient/wellbeing-consistent assessment for both staff and students.

Students writing an essay on a negotiated topic are required to have the topic agreed by the module leader before the end of term, and to provide a draft essay structure and an indicative list of sources. In order to ensure there are no last-minute crises, I use this approach to ensure that a) students have a good source base for topics that can be very varied (and perhaps not covered in detail in the module and/or the module reading list), and b) aware of the extent of the topic as set by the essay question.

To carry out group presentations via submitted video instead of in front of the class. This allows students who are more introverted to feel comfortable presenting their ideas at their own pace and time.

Wellbeing journaling empowers students to create their own proactive plans and techniques to manage their wellbeing through stressful periods at University and beyond. By identifying a module where students make regular records, and embedded wellbeing journaling into this record keeping it makes it natural for students to make wellbeing a regular part of their schedule and makes them accountable for taking action on it. Regular supervision helps with accountability and encouragement to act and reflect.