Maintaining mental health and wellbeing is important for students in and outside of the classroom. The following resources focus specifically on supporting student mental health and wellbeing in teaching which can in turn support faculty and instructor mental health and wellbeing.
Recorded webinars
- Design Teaching and Learning that Supports Student Mental Health (60 min. video): This recorded training shows how to apply empirically-based teaching and learning practices that promote student mental health, reduce anxiety, and maintain academic rigor.
- Starting a Conversation about Mental Health (60 min. video): This recorded training shows how to review and apply effective ways to start a conversation about mental health with students, including resources that support student mental health.
- Teaching Strategies that Support Student Well-being (60 min. video): This recorded training explores concrete, empirically-based strategies that support student mental health and well-being. It discusses how you can reduce stress in your educational setting, including areas of course climate and belonging, effective teaching strategies, managing cognitive load, and planning your course policies in the future.
Other Resources
- Mental health training for university employees (5 min. read): This webpage by Boynton Health lists free professional development opportunities for UMN employees to learn up-to-date information about UMN students on their campus and essential skills for supporting the needs of today's students.
- Red Folder (15 min. read): Authored by the Office of the Provost, this folder is designed to help you recognize indicators of student distress and how to respond and refer the student appropriately.
- Practices to Support Student Mental Health and Wellbeing (30 min. read): This document summarizes research and effective practices on adjustments to the learning environment that can reduce stress, improve mental health, and reduce the need for accommodations. It was created in 2021 alongside the President’s Initiative for Student Mental Health (PRISMH) with a systemwide focus, extends prior work and aims to engage the University of Minnesota community in promoting mental health and well-being.
- Wellbeing Enhances Learning (WEL) Model (20 min. read): The Wellbeing Enhances Learning (WEL) Model theorizes that student wellbeing improves engagement and learning. It has been used by Bakken Center instructors and was created after the Bakken Center’s leadership gathered focus groups of instructors to identify key teaching practices that they used in their courses to support student wellbeing.