About
Background to the Study/Aim
The COVID-19 pandemic can be said to have ravaged the world in unimaginable ways with thousands of death tolls globally and on human well-being. WHO reports show that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted or halted critical mental health services in 93% of countries worldwide. This necessitates an urgent situational evaluation programme as the world is gradually recovering from the shocks caused by the pandemic to ensure a progressive learning curve on students’ well-being with a focus on the aspect of mental health, which is as important to students' lifelong success as their academic achievement. This study aims to develop an assessment programme for evaluating mental well-being as a support service that would enhance the provision of mental health services for enhancing students’ well-being. This study adopts a tri-method design of Utilization-Focused Evaluation Research Model (UFER), Mixed-method Research Design and Development Research (DDR), and you would be involved at the Mixed-method Design stage of the research using the instrument development model variant of exploratory design for developing a well-being scale. Participants in this project are in three groups.
Group 1: Consultants on Item Writing
As a consultant in this study, this group of participants would be involved for 5 weeks spanning from the 25th of July 2022 to the 29th of August, 2022 in two stages. In the first stage (weeks 1 and 2), they would be required to provide a convenient time for a one-hour online interview session using Zoom for a discussion on the construct of well-being based on their experience from practice. This is geared toward understanding the subjective aspect of well-being and to aid in writing items for the scale. In the second stage (Weeks 3 and 4), they would be required to write at least 50 items for evaluating well-being in line with standard item development procedures.
Group 2: Consultants on Item Validation
As a consultant in this study, this group of participants would be involved for 6 weeks spanning from the 25th of July, 2022 to the 29th of August, 2022 in two stages. In the first stage (weeks 1 and 2), they would be required to provide a convenient time for a one-hour online interview session using Zoom for a discussion on the construct of well-being based on their experience from practice. This is geared to understanding the subjective aspect of well-being and to aid in writing items for the scale. In the second stage (Weeks 5 and 6), they would be required to validate items on well-being in line with standard item development procedures.
Group 3: Students Participants
This group of participants would be expected to take a survey with about 250 items for pilot-testing the developed scale. Before taking the test, it is required that they have participated in the online mode of teaching and learning process either exclusively or as a hybrid. They should also be an intermediate computer user; this skill is needed as the questionnaire would be deployed via an online, secured platform. Upon consenting to participate in the study, this group of participants would be granted access to the assessment portal through a secured link. Also, their identity would not be required. It is important to note that a one-time sitting of 30 minutes would be required for the survey. However, they would be given a period of one week to respond to the questionnaire and the portal would allow them to save progress and return at their convivence. Participants would be able to either save their progress or make a final submission. It would be great to have university undergraduates participate in this study, and responses would be treated with the utmost confidentiality. The researcher, at this moment, gives full assurance that the test is strictly for research purposes while participating in this study is voluntary. Participants may withdraw their consent to participate in the project at any time during the project with no consequences. A decision on whether or not to be part of the study will not affect students continuing access to any services that might be part of this study.
Quality Assurance Team
Quality assurance experts would be involved throughout the study to oversee all the research activities to ensure a qualitative deployment following the Utilization-Focused Evaluation Research Model to ensure the research process quality assurance, inform decisions and improve performance. Relevant resources can be accessed through the link: https://bit.ly/farleaf_ufm
The activities of this study are outlined in the phases outlined here.
Research Progress
Working with the teams resulted in an item bank of 377 items which has been subjected to psychometric analysis and inline for standard setting. The resulting scale will be deployed through Computer Adaptive Technology. To ascertain the adequacy of the scale, relevant stakeholders will be engaged based on the participatory model to provide professional insight that can facilitate improvements for end users of the developed mental well-being scale. You will also be expected to make recommendations that would be implemented through the Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability, and Quality (AAAQ) framework from the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for implementation of the right to students’ mental well-being in Nigeria and South Africa Universities. Kindly access the AAAQ Framework document HERE.
Questions concerning this project should be directed to oladele@unilorin.edu.ng, u05186332@up.ac.za or +2348060226110 (WhatsApp).
