Open University launches free course providing tutors and lecturers with tools to support learners’ mental health
OpenLearn has launched a new free online course designed to help tutors and lecturers in recognising and supporting learners with their mental health and wellbeing.
The eight week course has been endorsed by mental health charity the Charlie Waller Trust. It aims to develop an understanding of how poor mental health can impact learning and help educators safeguard learners’ wellbeing before they are struggling.
Titled Supporting Adult Learners’ Positive Mental Health, the course explores a range of strategies for assisting mental health and supporting educational success.
The course takes 24 hours to complete and is designed in a bite-sized format, with a quiz at the end of each session, to allow educators to complete it over a period of weeks.
Health charity MIND says one in every six people experiences anxiety and depression in any given week in England.
Sarah Mander, one of the co-authors of the course and a Staff Tutor at The Open University, which OpenLearn is part of, explains: “I’m at the chalkface with adult learners and I see an increasing level of mental health needs amongst them year on year. I line manage lecturers, and feedback from my colleagues informed me that this was the same for them.
“As mental health needs increase, professional development opportunities need to increase. I felt that developing this course might meet some of those needs for our educator colleagues.”
Mental health expert Neill Boddington, another course author who has worked in college and university settings, adds: “I’ve seen, in speaking to educators and to learners, how powerful and influential the role of an educator can be towards the learners’ wellbeing and mental health.
“What I’ve tried to bring into this course is simplifying things to bring some easy and more simple considerations to what can really make a big difference in that learning environment.”
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