RESULTS

R1. Quantitative study on the factors affecting digital well-being – an international perspective

Over the recent years, technology has emerged as a challenge to academics’ well-being and performance, technostress being regarded as a “dark-side” of ICT. On the other hand, ICT brings benefits to the academics’ professional activity, making their work at a distance possible. Therefore, the main aim of this result is to analyse the way in which the effective use of technology and the personal factors explain the digital well-being of higher education teachers at the workplace. Indicators of digital well-being included in the study will be work engagement, digital fatigue, work-life balance in digital settings, emotional self-regulation. A cross-sectional research design will be used for this study. The participants will be academics and students from the universities of the partners countries. We assume that technostress creators and inhibitors will influence the engagement of teachers and the use of digital resources. The need for professional development opportunities and perception about the student learning engagement will also be measured. The analysis of the results will provide a model of the relationships between creators and stress inhibitors, as predictors of work engagement and use of digital facilities, which in turn, could predict academics’ digital well-being and their perception on student involvement in online learning. The study results will help to identify the factors affecting well-being in HEI’s which would be included in the training program. The results will also provide a profile of the digital well-being in academics and will provide criteria for the selection of teachers who will mostly benefit of the training program. Differences between participants in each country will be analysed, to develop the training modules highlighting the needs of teachers form different countries. 

Result 1 - Quantitative Study
Result 1 - Research report

R2. Workbook Digital well-being – manual for facilitators/ mentors - From emergency remote teaching to approaches promoting well-being and resilience

The Workbook Digital well-being – manual for mentors will represent a tool with a practical content, including activities to be use in a mentoring program. The workbook will include case studies, discussion guidelines, exercises, self-assessment tools follow-up activities aiming to be a practical instrument for every university preoccupied to maintain high level of well-being of its employees. The structure of the training activities will be improved based on the opinions of experts in each partner university. The workbook will be used within a Virtual Center for Academic wellbeing in each partner university. The Workbook, the Booklet and the Online course are integral parts of the mentoring and peer support program. The Virtual Center for Academic well-being – Teaching/ practice communities and peer support will be implemented online (using online session on the platform used in each university) aiming to: -Facilitate teacher interactions across a variety of contexts -Promoting approaches to resilient teaching/ working and teacher support -Provide a forum for peer discussions and review of professional practices -Training of future mentors in each university. The aim of the program is to support good practices sharing and peer learning, and to contribute to the development of well-being. 

R3. Booklet - Digital Wellbeing: A guide for teachers

The booklet will include guidelines to support university teachers in the implementation of the methods able to  stimulate a positive climate and engagement using digital tools, it will be a guide for teachers. Starting from the training modules, examples of good practices and exercises developed by the trainees in each country will be selected and included in this booklet. The booklet will consist in several sections:

  • a) How to maintain a high level of well-being in the context of digitalisation? The section will include comments of mentors and teachers, opinion about the profile of a highly adjusted and efficient digital educator.
  • b) Does the teacher well-being influence students’ wellbeing and engagement? What I, as a teacher, could do about it? Examples of good practices.
  • c) Managing technostress and promoting agency within the professional role
  • d) Assessment tool (questionnaire) to evaluate the level of digital well-being in university. The booklet will include several worksheets, self-assessment resources that teachers can use in their current activities to practice monitoring, reflection and assessment of their professional behaviour.
Result 3 - The Booklet

R4. E-Learning course Digital well-being: The Virtual Centre for Digital Well-Being

The online platform will contain sections with guidelines about digital well-being and the expansion of digitalisation on the working life. While the booklet will  list the activities through typing and illustrations, the online course would provide the output in a “digital form”, using pedagogical principles of e-learning. The following topics will be included:

  • What is digital well-being
  • The impact of digitalization on academic work life: dealing with technostress and upskill fatigue etc
  • The impact of digitalization on teaching and learning; adaptability as a key competence for educators in the era of digitalization
  • Cultivating Digital Well-Being in the educational context
  • Technostress and well-being. Dark and bright sides of the digitalization of the working life in academia
  • Inclusion, collaboration, and digital wellbeing in academic context
  • Impact of teacher well-being on the student learning engagement The aim of the online resources will be offer teachers a support for reflecting on the benefits of using digital tools in an efficient manner and to find a balance between digital and non-digital aspects of the professional life
  • A better understanding of the digital landscape in higher education
  • Recognition of the importance of maintaining a high level of digital well-being and its consequences on student performance, satisfaction and learning engagement. The platform will be used by teachers in each partner university during the mentoring program. The feedback of the mentors and teachers will be used to improve the final version of the platform. The activities and materials on the platforms will be developed to be used both synchronously and asynchronously. The platform will remain active even after the end of the project, ensuring the sustainability of the project and further use and improvement of the resources.