OVERVIEW

About Swansea University

Swansea University is a leading university with a reputation for prioritising the quality of its students’ experiences. Thriving on exploring and discovery, Swansea University is innovative and offers an enriching educational experience. The welfare team had previously purchased off-the-shelf eLearning courses from Marshall E-Learning, and determined that Marshalls was the right partner to help them develop a bespoke, impactful, learning resource.

Key points

• Swansea University identified that their current resources were lacking information about the difficulties of transitioning to university
• They wanted to develop two eLearning modules: one for students and one for parents, guardians and partners of students, that were accessible, informative and engaging
• ‘Hapus: The Student Life Toolkit’ and ‘Hapus: A guide for parents, partners and guardians’ eLearning courses developed with Marshalls have helped prepare students (and their loved ones) for university more effectively

The challenge

Swansea University recognised that some students were not well-equipped for university life, or the transition to university, when they arrive. After evaluating their existing resources, including website content, the university noticed the overly positive nature of these resources and that there was a lack of content that discussed the potential difficulties of transitioning to university life. The challenge was therefore to create an accessible and engaging resource for students to access in their own time to educate them on what they can expect upon arriving at university.

The university’s welfare team was also experiencing a rising number of calls from parents concerned about their child, the student. Stu Gray, the student life officer at Swansea, said the team recognised that the transition to university was equally difficult, if not more so, for parents, partners and guardians who must also adjust to the change. Therefore, the university wanted a second resource that parents, partners and guardians could access so they felt supported and informed about the impact of university life.

Collaborating with Marshalls – experts in creating eLearning content for higher education institutions

Swansea University had previously purchased off-the-shelf eLearning courses from Marshalls, which encouraged Swansea to approach Marshalls to voice their vision and determine the strongest format for these valuable and innovative resources.

Swansea trusted Marshalls to bring the university’s ideas for the resources’ content and look and feel to life. Creating these new eLearning courses was part of the university’s ongoing commitment to student mental health – a perennial challenge for its welfare team, said Stu. That’s why the eLearning modules were created in partnership with Togetherall, the 24/7 digital mental health service available to all Swansea University students.

Marshalls stood out from competitors by offering to create and deliver a high-quality, asynchronous and user-friendly eLearning unit. “We had an idea and vision in mind, but it was very hard to articulate to other people, but David (Marshall, the company’s founder) understood straight away what we needed and was able to give some examples of what [Marshalls] had done before and provided suggestions” said Stu.

The student module features the following sections:

• Managing stress and uncertainty
• Culture shock
• How to use problem solving to help low mood and worry
• Overcoming social anxiety
• How to manage feelings of loneliness and isolation
• How to stop procrastinating with an effective schedule
• Healthy lifestyle
• Money and your mental health
• How to develop resilience
• Support services at Swansea University

The parents, partners and guardians module features the following sections:

• Conversations
• The university and ‘third party’ relationships
• Trusted contact
• How to look after yourself
• Support services at Swansea University

Making a difference to students and parents

Since its launch, more than 600 students have enrolled on the module. Feedback so far has been overwhelming positive, with many saying it helped them feel recognised and understood by the university. For example, one student said that the module “made [them] feel more at ease and that other people probably have the same feelings as [they] do”, with another praising the “links to the different support systems” available both internally and externally.

The parents, partners and guardians course cannot be measured in the same way as it is freely available to visitors of the university’s website. But Stu noted that feedback from students’ family members – collected during campus opening weekends – was also positive. Commenting on the reception from parents, Stu shared: “Anecdotally, speaking to parents on arrivals weekend, [parents] complimented the fact that [the University] were putting time and effort into thinking about them and recognised that no other university was doing this sort of thing”. This course is making a valuable difference as the happier and healthier that those around the student are, the more they will be able to support their student.

The next step for the collaboration between Marshalls and Swansea University is translation. As these modules are readily available in Welsh, the next stage is to translate them into other languages, such as Chinese and Arabic. The key priority regarding translation is to ensure the accessibility of these eLearning resources.

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