In pre-pandemic times, Ken Steele sits down on the Carleton University "Friendship Bench" with president and vice-chancellor (and neuropsychologist) Benoit-Antoine Bacon to talk frankly about his own journey to mental health, and his advice for students.

Mental health has been a significant concern on higher ed campuses for a decade or more. Anxiety and depression have been rising. In Fall 2019, the National College Health Assessment found 39% of students in moderate or serious psychological distress, 49% experiencing loneliness, and 27% reporting consistently high levels of stress for the preceding year. The COVID19 pandemic has exacerbated those feelings of loneliness, stress and distress.

But President Bacon emphasizes that mental health issues are not a new problem, although there’s a growing realization in our society of their prevalence and impact. “It’s really the new generation… that are leading the way. In many ways, we’re following their lead… because the young people are showing courage.”

He has been quite open about his own mental health journey, even at his presidential installation ceremony in 2018 ( https://youtu.be/zI_XuTexdPo ). His father was abusive, and Benoit himself spent 20 years in and out of depression. “I thought it was important to lead from a position of honesty… Talking openly and honestly about mental health issues, their symptoms and their causes, is the first step towards addressing them, both as an individual and as society.” Certainly students at Carleton appreciate their president’s willingness to speak openly about mental wellness.

“You don’t have to be bound by your past… The journey of healing is always continuing, it’s never ever done.” The worst scenario is to be someone who believes they don’t deserve to seek help or speak openly about the healing they need. “A live lived in trauma, by yourself, is a desperate life that you don’t want to live.”

Mental illness has multiple causes, genetic and epigenetic, and it doesn’t matter what form of trauma a person experiences, the issue is the self-perceptions and habits of thought that hold them back. “If you’re raised in a way that you’re worthless and that the world is dangerous, you’ll never have a fun day, ever!” People need to retrain their minds to perceive reality differently: “The world is both beautiful AND dangerous… We have more control than we think about whether the world is perceived as beautiful or dangerous.”

This part 1 of a series on mental health at Carleton. We’ll be back soon with:

- Suzanne Blanchard, VP Students & Enrolment, on Carleton’s holistic approach to mental wellness

- Rebecca Drodge, a recent graduate, on Carleton’s peer wellness programs

- Shannon Noonan, Special Projects Officer for Student Mental Health Engagement and Pet Therapy, about Carleton’s impressive therapy dog programs

Stay tuned!  Or to be sure you don’t miss them, take a moment to subscribe, here or by email at http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/

A special thank-you again to Benoit, Suzanne, Rebecca, Shannon, and the Carleton University videographers who made this possible!

“Blended” approaches to teaching and learning (sometimes also called “hybrid”) combine in-class discussion and activities with a substantial proportion of online course delivery. Done well, blended courses can combine the best of online and on-campus pedagogy, improve student learning outcomes, provide flexibility for non-traditional students, and even save institutions on classroom space and operating costs. To really maximize flexibility for students, about a dozen institutions are pilot-testing “HyFlex” courses, which allow students to seamlessly shift between attending class in person, joining in synchronously online, or catching the class asynchronously later – and they can change their mind, fluidly, from day to day. HyFlex courses might just be the best way to ensure academic continuity in the face of campus disruptions, whether floods, wildfires, earthquakes, or even… global pandemics.

This week, Ken Steele sits down (via Zoom) with Dr Jenni Hayman, Chair of Teaching & Learning at Cambrian College (in Sudbury Ontario), to learn more.

The goal of HyFlex course design is to give students access to equivalent learning experiences, whether in-person, synchronous or asynchronous. There are “affordances” to each mode of delivery: in-person and synchronous learning provides immediacy, access to body language and conversational interaction. Asynchronous learning allows students to pace themselves, reflect more, and participate online if they are uncomfortable doing so in class. Giving students choices allows them to accommodate changing life needs, from work or childcare responsibilities to inclement weather or self-isolation. Choice also helps motivate adult learners, empowering them and engaging them more.

Hyflex learning design starts with learning outcomes, with thought to encouraging active learning and authentic assessment. Only then does the HyFlex teacher start to think about technology and delivery modes, and the different activities that can happen in different spaces. How live on-campus students interact with online students depends on the approach of the faculty member, who needs to juggle the needs of three audiences simultaneously. At a minimum, all the students will share an asynchronous LMS shell, and ideally the students will support each other and help each other learn. “Leveraging the learners is where the gold is,” Jenni observes.

The challenge for faculty developing and delivering effective HyFlex courses is (naturally) finding enough time for planning, for the technology learning curve, and for maximizing use of the LMS.  Hyflex takes as least as much time and effort to plan as a fully asynchronous online course. Jenni is really appreciative of the Cambrian faculty members who have been partnering with the Teaching & Learning Innovation Hub, who are open-minded and eager experimenters with pedagogy like HyFlex.

HyFlex is still a relatively new delivery method. In addition to Cambrian, there are 8 US institutions pioneering HyFlex: Ohio State University, University of Denver (University College), University of Michigan, Montana State University Billings, San Francisco State University, University of St Thomas (Minnesota), and Peirce College (Philadelphia), and Delgado Community College (Louisiana). Internationally, HyFlex is also being used at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

At Cambrian, 3 of the 4 HyFlex programs are graduate certificates, which appeal both to working Canadians and to international students. (The former find distance learning more flexible, but immigration requirements demand that the latter study in-person on campus.)

For successful HyFlex delivery, institutions need to think through the learner experience and the experimental mode of teaching, and ensure that there are adequate supports and expertise in place to help faculty and students alike. The most important thing we are learning right now, Jenni observes, is “digital red-lining.” Many community college students do not have access at home to broadband internet or modern computers for effective online learning. Many programs and students at community college also need face-to-face, hands-on vocational learning opportunities. The students will need additional support, encouragement and care to be successful online.

Thank you to Cambrian's marketing office, for providing stock video footage to help illustrate this interview.

An even bigger thank you to University College at the University of Denver, for generously allowing us to use excerpts from their video, "Hyflex Lab at University College," to provide a really helpful look at a HyFlex class in action. (Unfortunately there would be no way to film a class on campus at the moment.) You can see their beautiful 2-minute video at https://youtu.be/zwTdscUPUHo

For the latest emerging trends and bright ideas shaping the future of higher education, subscribe to Ken’s free daily newsletter, the Eduvation Insider, at http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/