2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Applying Personal Strengths: Building Well-Being and Resilience Strategies in an Undergraduate Wellness Course

Presented at Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM) Technical Session 30

Supporting and increasing students’ well-being and resilience will positively impact their academic success. In this study, we analyze students’ reflections in a newly designed health and well-being course to see how they demonstrate embodiment of the course learning objectives, knowledge, and skills.

In Summer 2021, the Effective Team Dynamics Initiative, in collaboration with Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) School of Biological Sciences, piloted the course “Flourishing: Strategies for Well-being and Resilience” (APPH 1060) as one of three courses satisfying a wellness requirement for all undergraduate students. This course was designed to improve students’ well-being with a focus on flourishing (achieving success; prospering), outlined in the course description as focusing on “the conceptual pillars of coping, resiliency, optimism, gratitude, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence”. Students were asked to complete the CliftonStrengths for Students Assessment and apply their results to assigned reflections that focused on relating their CliftonStrengths to past life experiences, working in teams, and managing stress.

At Georgia Tech, where approximately 43% of students are within the College of Engineering and 78% are pursuing STEM degrees, this course promotes resilience within rigorous curricula. It also satisfies ABET’s criteria of institutional support by providing “an environment in which student outcomes can be attained.” Additionally, utilization of CliftonStrengths has been proven to improve post-graduation outcomes, and a person’s top five CliftonStrengths tend to stay consistent over time, allowing for application to engineering employment and personal endeavors well after graduation.

The objective of our work was to answer the research question: “How effective are the course content and assessment methods in ensuring students meet course learning objectives?”. We hypothesized that conducting a thematic analysis of student reflections could serve as a reliable method for assessing students’ understanding of their strengths and their ability to identify strategies to develop and leverage them towards well-being and thriving. We analyzed the student reflections to identify emergent themes in an assignment at the beginning of the course (reflection on strengths in relation to previous life experiences) and later in the course (reflection on strengths in relation to managing stress) and compared these emergent themes to the learning objectives of the course.

Deidentified examples of student work with their associated themes coded and analysis of these codes are presented. Five themes emerged in the responses: (1) personal growth and understanding, (2) acceptance and moving forward, (3) coping strategies, (4) problem-solving process, (5) motivation. Overall, there was evidence of personal growth, including increased knowledge and application of coping and resilience strategies, and an increased understanding and application of CliftonStrengths present in the reflections. Additionally, there were notable parallels evident between subthemes and course learning objectives, implying a correlation between content retention and intended course outcomes.

Authors
  1. Julianne Latimer Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]
  2. Clara Blue Templin Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]
  3. Jill Fennell Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]
  4. Dr. Christie Stewart Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]
  5. Lesley Baradel Georgia Institute of Technology
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