Wellbeing in Digital Learning
What kind of things should we consider when engaging with learners online or in person?
The digital world has many positive and negative impacts on our wellbeing, and it is important to consider all of these when using technology for learning. Wellbeing, simply defined, is being happy, healthy and comfortable, both physically and mentally. The better we look after our learners’ wellbeing, the better they will be able to take in our messaging.
Wellbeing in digital learning has many cross-overs both with accessibility and safeguarding, and while we may touch on some of this topics here, I want to focus on the importance of protecting mental and physical health in the context of digital learning, as a less discussed topic. Maybe we’ll look into future DLNET topics about accessibility and safeguarding in more depth!
Technology for positive wellbeing
We love technology for its ability to make us feel more connected. We have the whole world’s worth of knowledge at our fingertips ready to enrich our lives. We can keep connected with family and friends all around the world at the touch of a single button. In terms of digital learning, we can use technology to make our content more accessible and more engaging to the benefit of all our audiences’ wellbeing. There are even some fab examples of the use of digital learning to increase wellbeing, or of getting learners more physically active whilst learning about topics in new and innovative ways.
Potential negative impacts
In this digital age, many of our younger learners have never known a world without technology, and therefore sometimes people overlook the potential for negative impacts on our wellbeing when it is so much a part of life. There are still many people who do not feel comfortable using technologies, and this can create barriers or anxiety in our learners accessing our digital learning. There are lots of physical accessibility issues to the use of technology we must consider for the wellbeing our our learners. Achieving a healthy balance of screen-time is important, and we need to consider how our digital learning solutions impact this as well.
Top tips to improve wellbeing in our digital learning
Check in on learners
If you are running online learning sessions, check in on your learners regularly to see how they are doing, and adapt your session on-the-go to meet their present needs. Are they getting tired/distracted? Maybe it’s time to add in something interactive!
If you have a digital learning installation, add in questions to your evaluation about how it made them feel, or make some time to observe people’s wellbeing while they use it. Are they showing signs of tiredness, or difficulty concentrating? Also making your hardware adaptable will make it comfortable for as many people as possible.
Get people moving
Make sure that whatever your digital learning solution, you are not asking people to spend more than 20 minutes looking at a screen without taking a break.
Always add in comfort breaks into your online sessions. Why not try implementing something to get people moving? Whether it’s something your learners need to physically interact with to get them moving, or something more simple - I like to get my learners jumping like a penguin for a few seconds! Learners of all ages really love this ‘animal action break’, and they return a few seconds later feeling refreshed any ready to learn more!
Set expectations
Waiting can cause anxiety in many people, particularly so in digital learning, when we are so used to almost instant responses from our technology. Set expectations about how people will learn from your activity, how long things are likely to take them, when you will reply if required, and whether or not they are being observed/recorded. There are even some fab AI tools which can estimate how long your activity will take!
Acknowledge distractions
Digital learning very often asks people to use their own devices, and this can bring all sorts of distractions, which can cause stress to our learners. It’s important to acknowledge all the different types of distractions - let learners in a remote online session know it’s ok to go and answer the door, or you can try to remove other distractions altogether, maybe by popping tablets into kiosk mode in your installation.
Look after yourself too!
Make sure to prioritise your own wellbeing as well as that of your learners! Create personal space for yourself, remember to take those screen breaks yourself, and take those work emails off your personal phone!!
If you need help with your wellbeing, here are a few useful resources:
The 4Cs of Digital Wellbeing (control, connection, content and care) can help you assess your tech usage to be more mindful, productive and have fun!
Please reach out if you need support. The Samaritans are there any time day or night on the phone at 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org