scholarly journals Awareness, Policy, Privacy, and More: Post-Secondary Students Voice Their Solutions to Cyberbullying

Author(s):  
Chantal Faucher ◽  
Wanda Cassidy ◽  
Margaret Jackson

This paper discusses solutions to cyberbullying posed by post-secondary students from four Canadian universities. The qualitative data used in this analysis were drawn from one open-ended question on an online student survey completed by 1458 undergraduate students, as well as 10 focus group transcripts involving a total of 36 students. Seven key themes emerged: awareness and education; policy; protecting one’s privacy; technology-based solutions; empowering better choices and responses; university culture; and disciplinary measures. The findings show that post-secondary institutions need to make preventing and curtailing cyberbullying more of a priority within their campus communities, including engaging in responsive consultation with key stakeholder groups, such as students, to develop meaningful solutions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (03) ◽  
pp. 343-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinh T. Nguyen ◽  
Rebecca Hite ◽  
Tommy Dang

Web-based virtual reality (VR) development tools are in ubiquitous use by software developers, and now, university (undergraduate) students, to move beyond using, to creating new and energizing VR content. Web-based VR (WebVR), among other libraries and frameworks, have risen as a low-cost platform for users to create rich and intuitive VR content and applications. However, the success of WebVR as an instructional tool relies on post-secondary students technological acceptance (TA), the intersectionality of a user’s perceived utility (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU, or convenience) with said technological tool. Yet, there is a dearth of exploratory studies of students’ experiences with the AR/VR development technologies to infer their TA. To ascertain the viability of WebVR tools for software engineering undergraduates in the classroom, this paper presents a 3-case contextual investigation of 38 undergraduate students tasked with creating VR content. In each use case, students were provided increasing freedom in their VR content development parameters. Results indicated that students demonstrated elements of technological acceptance in their selection of webVR and other platforms, and not only successfully creating rich and robust VR content (PU), but also executing these projects in a short period (PEOU). Other positive externalities observed were students exhibitions of soft skills (e.g. creativity, critical thinking) and different modes of demonstrating coding knowledge, which suggest further study. Discussed are the lessons learned from the WebVR and VR/AR interventions and recommendations for WebVR instruction. This work may be helpful for both learners and teachers using VR/AR in selecting, designing, and developing coursework materials, tools, and libraries.


Author(s):  
Konrad T. Lisnyj ◽  
David L. Pearl ◽  
Jennifer E. McWhirter ◽  
Andrew Papadopoulos

Overview: There has been an increase in the frequency and severity of stress experienced by Canadian post-secondary students, which has adverse implications on their academic success. This work applied the socio-ecological model for health promotion to explore the contextual factors that influence this relationship at the individual, interpersonal, institutional, community, and public policy levels. Methods: Using a qualitative, phenomenological approach, we conducted 38 semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students and on-campus staff who provide services to this population at a post-secondary institution in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Thematic analysis inductively identified overarching themes among participants’ perspectives. Results: Several positive and negative factors were identified at each socio-ecological model level, demonstrating the complex interplay of demographic, psychological, emotional, social, physical, and academic factors impacting students’ academic stress. Conclusions: A lack of communication and knowledge seems to underlie many factors, highlighting the need to strengthen communication strategies to promote awareness, accessibility, and availability of services and programs on campus. Results also pointed to focusing on proactive, resilience-focused, upstream mental health promotion efforts at post-secondary institutions to reduce stress and improve academic success. This knowledge can help Canadian campuses better address students’ needs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-607
Author(s):  
Victoria A. Sanderson ◽  
Amanda Digel Vandyk ◽  
Ian D. Graham ◽  
Sophie Lightfoot ◽  
Mackenzie Murawsky ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Victoria Calvert ◽  
Halia Valladares Montemayor

  In Mexico, the community service strategy and requirements for undergraduate students are both longstanding and mandated by the Mexican Constitution. Students undertake a minimum of 480 hours of service during their undergraduate degrees, which are coordinated through their universities’ Social Service (SS) departments. Many Canadian universities and colleges offer community service through courses and volunteer programs; however, the practice and adoption levels vary widely. Student involvement with community partners, as represented through community service-learning (CSL) and volunteerism in Canada, are sponsored by many post-secondary institutions but are not driven by a national agenda. While, in Mexico, community service is documented at a departmental and institutional level for reporting to stakeholders and the government, in Canada, documentation of community service varies with the institutional mandate and is often sporadic or non-existent; the imperative for systematic student engagement and citizenship development has not been recognized at the national level. This research paper provides an overview of the community engagement practices in both countries, with the national patterns represented through a summative review of selected Canadian and Mexican universities. Suggestions for processes and practices for Canada are proposed based upon the Mexican model.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Linden ◽  
Randall Boyes ◽  
Heather Stuart

BACKGROUND: Canadian post-secondary students are considered to be at risk for chronic stress and languishing mental health, but there has been no longitudinal analysis of the available population-level data. The purpose of this study was to examine trends in the overall and sex-specific prevalence of self-reported stress, distress, mental illness, and help seeking behaviours among Canadian post-secondary students over the past several years. METHODS: Using the 2013, 2016, and 2019 iterations of the National College Health Assessment II Canadian Reference data, we conducted a trend analysis for each variable of interest, stratified by sex. The significance and magnitude of the changes were modelled using cumulative linked ordinal regression models and log binomial regression models.RESULTS: With few exceptions, we observed significant increases over time in the proportion of students reporting symptoms of psychological distress, mental illness diagnoses, and help seeking for mental health related challenges. Female students reported a higher level of stress than male students, with a statistically significant increase in the stress level reported by female students observed over time. In all cases, larger proportions of female students were observed compared to male students, with the proportion of female students who self-reported mental illness diagnoses nearly doubling that of males. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis indicated that the proportion of students self-reporting mental health related challenges, including stress, psychological distress, and diagnosed mental illnesses increased between the 2013, 2016 and 2019 iterations of the NCHA II conducted among Canadian post-secondary students.


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