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.

The Student Devised Assessment (SDA) offers students a personalised chance to display their critical engagement with the themes and theories of modules and to take a considered approach as to how they might practically apply what they have learned in a medium of their choosing.

A negotiated curriculum allows students to choose (within set parameters) the content of a module. By empowering students to choose topics that they find the most urgent, important, or interesting, the practice of a negotiated curriculum enhances student engagement, active learning, and inclusivity.

An e-portfolio is a digital collection of evidence and artefacts that represents the knowledge, skills, and accomplishments of an individual or group. There are different types of e-portfolios but in SMLC we use the ‘assessment portfolio’, where our students can reflect about their learning, achievements and challenges in their own time. Thus, it can be very beneficial in the promotion of metacognition. It can also include more specific tasks or group work projects. Another advantage of using these online platforms is that students can be creative and include audio-visual materials.

Support for staff members across the university can come in many forms – such as line management, team meetings, support and advice from Human Resources, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), etc. However the support from colleagues is vitally important and can be extremely beneficial when either starting a new job/ role, during challenging times or in general. Subsequently the introduction of buddying systems can be beneficial in the development of staff members, the management of work, creating a support network and improving general wellbeing. Shadowing opportunities can also be beneficial and built into the buddying system and into inductions for new members of staff.

This approach is for use in anticipation of a short to medium term project in which students are to work together in a team. It affords the team the opportunity to identify and agree to a set of ground rules in the form of a social contract which they will all respect in order to facilitate optimal teamworking and consideration of one another’s wellbeing.

A module design tool and accompanying video that aims to help plan workload expectations and assignment deadlines around the assortment of the expected student work hours.

In order to improve student inclusion in teamwork, student experience and learning from the outcomes associated with group work, and student access to help and support, team formation methods should be considered. This pedagogy advises the use of personality profiling, and consideration of student’s ‘minority status’ to form well-balanced teams.