Student well-being is vital at SAMK – Survey revealed views and needs

Elina Elo stopped by Relaamo, the sensory-free space designed for students and freely available on the Pori Campus.

Lecturer Elina Elo says that the purpose of the survey is to regularly assess the students’ needs for guidance and support and how they experience their ability to study. Elina also works as a project researcher and a student of special needs at SAMK. She has been involved in designing the survey and analysing its results for three years. Since the spring, Elina has also been visiting various events to present the results of the survey.

– At the beginning of the autumn semester, a day focusing on pedagogical well-being and guidance was organised for the staff. It covered a wide range of issues related to overall studying ability that can be implemented in the students’ everyday lives, she says.

Other measures have already been taken too. Elina is organising, for example, several study support workshops with special needs teacher Pasi Lehto in the autumn.

– The topics for the support workshops emerged from the survey. The topics range from concentration to learning skills, scheduling and stress.

Students’ well-being is improving

– The survey provides us with important information about, for example, how our teaching and guidance process works, what kind of resources our students have and how we can improve our own learning environments, says Elina.

SAMK has more students that are doing well now than in the previous few years.

– The direction is right. We have moved from a truly dark age of COVID-19 into a new era.

The COVID-19 years certainly fostered the utilization of online learning. There was also a greater appreciation of the value of face-to-face teaching, which had previously been taken for granted.

– For the first time, the survey highlighted perceptions of what it is like to be on campus. Someone wondered about the lighting, someone else about the furniture. Several people brought up the sense of community – how important it is to have fellow students and a community of your own.

Introducing solution-focused feedback

In particular, the students of the master’s degree programmes, multiform and online studies pointed out that they are very lonely with their studies. These challenges of grouping and a sense of community should be taken into account.

– In general, students are aware that their resources are being tested. They need flexibility and support to cope with the puzzle of their lives. We need to treat students as individuals, says Elina.

What everyday things can be done to improve students’ well-being?

– Students want to become better learners. This is clear from the survey. Students would like more feedback, for example on assignments and exams. It is not enough for them to know that they will get a certain grade. They want to know why they got that particular grade and how they can improve their performance or identify their strengths.

Elina says that solution-focused feedback could be a good practice.

– Encouraging feedback can be given, for example, face-to-face, in small moments. I would like our whole culture to be more interactive.

How is student well-being reflected in learning outcomes and academic performance?

– Someone answered this really well in the survey: “People’s well-being is also reflected in their studies. Everything needs to be in good balance. So, if one part of a person’s life is weak, it affects everything. Not to mention if there are no resources or support networks, says Elina.

Read more about student well-being at SAMK

Student well-being survey

SAMK has conducted a student well-being survey already for several years. This year, the survey was expanded to include many new categories, in line with the ability to study model by the Finnish Student Health Services (FSHT, in Finnish YTHS).

The survey has been carried out in cooperation between the Learning and Well-being development team and the FeelWell project.