Oasis of radical wellbeing results page

The HowUTeach pilot with ELEC involved the use of the HowUTeach questionnaire and self-reflection tool to support teachers' wellbeing and self-reflection. The pilot aimed to gather feedback and insights to improve teaching practices and enhance the overall wellbeing of teachers. The results are solid data on the correlation between the measures to improve wellbeing and the actual wellbeing of the teachers at ELEC.

The ELEC HowUTeach pilot resulted in clear numerical data on correlation in the key dimensions, teaching related wellbeing, experiences of work environment, integration of teaching and research and approached to teaching.  

One of the main findings was that pedagogical competence as well as community support enhance the wellbeing of teachers 

The pilot revealed that unreflective approach to teaching was positively correlated with self-criticism, stress, and burnout. The more participants used unreflective approach, the more self-critical they were and the more stress and burnout symptoms they experienced​.

The results indicated a positive correlation between organized approach and one’s self-efficacy beliefs, 

Community support was positively associated with participants’ wellbeing. Perceived support from one’s work community was positively related to self-efficacy beliefs and negatively related to self-criticism and burnout symptoms. 

Practical implications – What to do? Actions?

• Development of curriculum planning process​ 
• Fostering an atmosphere of open communication and collaboration where everyone is invited​ 
• Opening a discussion of how we talk about what is teaching in academy (to students)​ 
• Continuing offering pedagogical support and places to reflect and share 

The pilot indicated that, in the future, a cross-disciplinary HowUTeach survey should be considered at Aalto.

HowUTeach is part of the UniHow product family of digital reflection and feedback systems, developed at the University of Helsinki. 

The ELEC HowUTeach was conducted by Tiina Pylkkönen and Viivi Virtanen of for Oasis of the radical wellbeing.

In spring 2024, OASIS of Radical Wellbeing conducted an investigation to identify cornerstones of a flourishing programme. 

Flourishing Programmes focused on promoting wellbeing and personal development among students and staff in programme planning. The pilots aimed to provide resources and activities that help programme planners to foster, through planning work, a sense of belonging, resilience, and personal growth within the Aalto community.

The key finding of the project was that flourishing people and communities are prerequisites for a well-functioning degree programme. The programme is influenced by both its internal actions and the external conditions it exposed to. The internal actions include the members' experiences of the institution’s leadership's actions: 

• Do they feel that teaching is valued?
• Do they feel that the programme is well resourced?
• Is the community fostered through the collaboration period? 
• What are the students' perceptions of the impact of their actions?
• Are the students involved in development work. How are new individuals welcomed? 
• Is expertise acknowledged allowing everyone to contribute the best of the programme?
• Is everybody welcome to participate in development actions?
• Are the programmes and the departments goals clear and mutually agreed upon: how does the programme fit into the larger context of the university and how is it developed collectively towards its goals? 

Recognizing and fulfilling basic human needs for community and a sense of belonging significantly impacts wellbeing and quality of life. Feeling part of a community fosters security and meaningfulness, contributing to self-awareness and self-esteem. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

The takeaway is that supporting the sense of belonging and flourishment within a programme and thus developing and improving the community is a common responsibility. 

EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) is one of the key issues Oasis has been concerned with. Oasis has organized EDI workshops aiming to create a more inclusive and diverse environment within Aalto University. The workshops have provided opportunities for participants to learn and engage in discussions about EDI topics, fostering a more inclusive community. Some of the workshops and related blog post were produced in collaboration with Oasis student ambassadors and associations.

The EDI workshops indicated the need for internal collaboration. After the pilot period we have collaborated with Making Waves and other universities, in order to provide the community with opportunities to learn more. 

The ambassadors played a crucial role in delivering the message from students to the staff. As they helped in promoting wellbeing and providing support to the Aalto students, their role as facilitators of this dialogue was at least as important. They served as resources for students and staff, offering guidance and organizing activities that contribute to the overall wellbeing of the community.

The wellbeing ambassadors produced and implemented more than 30 student-initiated sub-projects to promote study wellbeing. They also provided staff with information about students' needs and ways to reach them.  

Social media projects included the creation of @aaltowellbeing on Instagram, with over 300 posts spreading wellbeing information, and a TikTok channel, where the best posts reached over 100,000 viewers. They also produced blogs offering a student perspective on our community's activities. 

The ambassadors worked closely with the orientation workgroup and produced content and hosted new student orientation events. They developed overalls patches which still are in high demand at Aalto events. The wellbeing competition opened and expanded the understanding of wellbeing.  

The wellbeing ambassadors were involved in planning and implementing regular EDI sessions. They worked closely with the Starting Point of Wellbeing and participated in open-door events, co-study sessions, and the Beat the Blues event. They conducted and went through self-study materials implemented by educational psychologists and provided feedback for their development, as well as marketed courses to students. They organized an art exhibition on the theme of wellbeing. They compiled information to support students with neuropsychiatric challenges and collected interview data on students' needs.​ 

With AYY, the ambassadors prepared harassment contact person training. Together with art students they implemented safer space comic strip material, still widely distributed at Aalto University.​ 

Altogether, recruiting ambassadors proved beneficial in two-way dialogue between students and Aalto staff. The ambassadros received a pay for their work, and their work required careful and dedicated supervision. Students’ participation, in systemic work when resourced well, is highly recommended 

The Wellebeing Desk’s activities increased collaboration and understanding among Aalto’s wellbeing support service providers network. This has also been beneficial in everyday work outside the Desk.

Pop up events in schools and especially solution-focused coaching, "Ratkes" proved to be successful. People seem to seek possibilities for face-to-face sparring and time for discussions about more than just the core work. Ratkes-coaching will continue as part of Aalto’s wellbeing support.

Positive feedback and a large amount of enrolments to compassion mentoring for doctoral researchers shows need for this kind of support

Good feedback was also received from the EDI thematic sessions where topics such as LGBTQ+ at Aalto, religions at Aalto and inclusive teaching were discussed.

The Desk concept was praised but awareness of the physical Desk remained quite low. A more central location could have brought passers-by to the Desk. 

During Autumn 2024, the Wellbeing Chat, was launched. The flow of customers stayed quite low. Maintaining such a service and network on a volunteer basis was challenging.

One way to get closer to customers in the future could be a “mobile wellbeing desk”. This would require a resource responsible to coordinate and operate the actions. Discussions and cooperation with student SPW operators should also continue.

The Compassion mentoring pilot for doctoral students was organized by Oasis in autumn 2023 as part of the Wellbeing Desk’s services. Nyyti ry’s model of compassion mentoring aims to strengthen compassion capabilities in higher education while providing a positive group experience. 

Compassion mentoring is peer group activity, and at Aalto the groups were facilitated by Aalto’s doctoral students who were trained to the task in three orientation sessions.  

The compassion mentoring pilot raised interest among doctoral students: 25 mentor applications were received and 23 doctoral students signed up for groups. It was possible to take only six mentors to this pilot.  

The pilot received very positive feedback from the participants. Compassion mentoring had given e.g. strengthened wellbeing and help in managing the pressures of working life. Group members valued support, meaningful connections and sharing in a safe space. For mentors the experience provided new tools to meet challenges in life, and strengthened compassion and reflection skills, among other things. 

There are not many targeted wellbeing services available for doctoral students at Aalto. Positive feedback and the amount of registrations showed a need for peer support activities in doctoral studies.

We tested the role of a school-specific guidance counsellor in the School of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS). The counsellor had about three regular student appointments a week. These slots were usually fully booked. During appointments, students discussed typical guidance topics such as balancing studies and personal life, study techniques, theses, decision-making, and personal values and strengths. This service has been necessary and addressed some of the students' guidance needs, especially since the school's learning services focus more on Personal Study Plan (HOPS) and administrative matters, while academic advising emphasizes field-specific and career content.

We developed the 3 ECTS "Becoming a Creative Professional" course as an elective in the ARTS curriculum, in collaboration with a study psychologist and a career specialist. The course helps students reflect on their career paths and has received positive feedback. It will continue to be offered in the future.

We found that it is not ideal for the guidance counsellor to be placed within the university's joint learning services instead of the school's learning services. While the counsellor do meet students in Väre and interacts with the staff, they are still not permanently visible present in the school’s daily life. This lack of presence in the workspaces and irregular meeting attendance distanced the counsellor from other advisors in ARTS. As a result, not everyone remembered that the counsellor was available for students and also for staff for consultation. 

Therefore, it is important to consider the future tasks and role of the school's own guidance counsellor and how they can be complemented by the guidance counsellors of the university's joint services.

At the request of the Department of Film, we organized safer space workshops for new bachelor's students as part of their orientation process for two consecutive years. Students often work in groups during their studies, and a functional and psychologically safe community is crucial for effective learning. Teachers participated in the workshops: they are a vital part of the learning community and play a key role in ensuring that safer space principles are incorporated into teaching. The workshops were highly successful. After the workshops the collaboratively designed and discussed principles were sent to the head of the bachelor's programme. The goal is to regularly revisit these principles, discuss their implementation, and decide if any changes are needed.

To inspire workshop discussions, we used materials from a comic project on safer spaces led by wellbeing ambassadors. These comics are displayed around the Otaniemi campus and have been shared in a national student wellbeing project's material bank for other higher education institutions.

It's important for support or training requests to come from the programmes themselves. This ensures genuine participation and commitment to the collaborative work. The goal is to scale the workshops to other ARTS programmes. Representatives from the school’s learning services attended the most recent workshop in order to learn how to facilitate similar workshops in the future. It is important to note that, in addition to already available material, they might need additional coaching and support.

At the university, study guidance is a collective responsibility shared by many, not just professional counsellors. Providing support and training for those involved is essential, as it enhances advisors' well-being by ensuring they are well-prepared for their roles and confident they will receive support when needed.

To support the skills and well-being of academic advisors, we piloted a pedagogical course titled "Supporting Students as an Academic Advisor." Essays from the course provided valuable insights into advisors’ thoughts, effective advising practices, and the challenges within advising processes. We can use this information to further develop the training programs, as there remains a significant need for guidance training.

The pilot course was conducted in person, but our next goal is to create an online version accessible to all advisors. This online course will be designed for flexible completion according to individual schedules and will be open not only to academic staff but also to learning services staff and course assistants.

The Oasis Media Hub focuses on disseminating knowledge about wellbeing. This includes the production of the Oasis web page, short films for reflection, podcasts and event management. Furthermore, Oasis provides an extensive package of mindfulness practices for personal use, offering tools for individuals to enhance their wellbeing and resilience. Hands-on production with clarified messages was the Media hub’s main operating principle. 

Among media hub efforts were:

• Best thing today podcast, and its Finnish counterpart Paras hetki päivässä (40 episodes) 
• Future Led Lerning podcast series (16 episodes) 
• Green Minds Healthy Hearts social sustainability symposium 2023 with material for further use
• Art of Living MOOC in collabroration with Frank Martela
• Calming practices for you – a mindfulness podcast series (~20 episodes in English/Finnish) 
• @aaltowellbeing Instagram, especially for international and underrepresented students 
• Support in the Orientation process in form of material, production help and consultation 
• The Keys to your wellbeing series 

• The Compassion short film series, including "Sonja"
   

  (see separate entries of media hub subproject underneath) 

An essential aim was to observe systems of wellbeing media production and dissemination at Aalto. The results of this approach imply the fact that there is an ever-growing need for professional story design and media production at Aalto at least in the field.

Many of the results of the Oasis have been implemented into every-day practices. Tacit knowledge made explicit by Oasis has been consolidated and will remain for further exploitation on the Oasis of radical wellbeing page in aalto.fi as a static knowledge base.

The Green Minds, Healthy Hearts symposium, held at Aalto and live online in 2023 focused on the intersection of wellbeing, sustainability, and academia. Initiated and produced by Oasis, the symposium gathered a broad spectrum of participants, including students, faculty, as well as internal and external experts, to discuss and explore wellbeing and social sustainability within academic environments.

The keynote speakers underscored the importance of mental health support and preventive wellbeing. Workshops and interactive sessions covered topics such as community engagement and transformation, resilience, and community building. Participants engaged in hands-on activities that illustrated how to enhance mental and emotional health through embodiment.

The final panel discussed the challenges and opportunities related to implementing social sustainability practices in universities. They emphasized the need for institutional support, interdisciplinary collaboration, and inclusive policies to create a nurturing environment for students and employees.

The symposium's outcomes suggest that future events focused on these themes could further solidify Aalto's commitment to radical wellbeing and serve as a model for other universities globally.

@aaltowellbeing has shared research-based information about wellbeing and mental health in an academic context. Since its launch in 2022, it has promoted student wellbeing by sharing information about events and workshops aimed at supporting Aalto students, as well as concepts that help our followers learn more about the importance of wellbeing during their studies and work. It has also contributed to a better presence of support and services at Aalto University, such as the Starting Point of Wellbeing, counselling and the Aalto Chaplain. 

While it initially targeted students, Oasis expanded the audience to include all Aaltonians, including teachers and staff. In 2024, the visibility of @aaltowellbeing and its content on Instagram significantly increased. In summer 2024, it saw a notable increase in the number of accounts reached (+1,774%) and impressions (+617%) in one month. The Instagram content has had an international impact; in the summer of 2024, some overseas organizations, including a Japanese education start-up, found the Oasis of radical wellbeing project on Instagram and visited Aalto University.

TikTok and Facebook

During 2022 and 2023 Oasis and the wellbeing ambassadors also produced TikTok and Facebook content. Facebook was directed for employees, while TikTok and Instagram were for students. Controversies with the TikTok enterprise led to gradual disengagement of the Oasis TikTok account. In 2024 Oasis concentrated and put its social media efforts mainly to Instagram.

Findings: The initial notion of a need for social media for Aalto community members, especially one concentrating on wellbeing issues, is still valid. There seems to be a need for media efforts through a transmedial approach, with (wellbeing) events and training in wellbeing interwoven with a well-resourced social media effort. 

The creation of this series was driven by the need to provide science-based information on wellbeing to the entire academic community.  

The series gives us tools to develop emotional agency, which helps us process our emotions and understand their effects. This creates a good ground for successful collaboration. The series offers a science-based, comprehensive framework to enhance personal wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of teams and communities. 

Ways how engaging with this material can enhance the wellbeing of students, faculty, and staff in a higher education environment:

Self-awareness, Reflection and Compassion 

• The material encourages self-assessment and reflection, which can help individuals understand their current state of wellbeing and identify areas for improvement. 
• The material provides helpful tips for how to handle stressful events by dealing with own emotions and finding ways to take action or calm one´s mind 
• This is crucial in a higher education context, as students and staff often face a lot of stress and a high workload. Regular reflection can lead to more mindful, compassionate and intentional actions toward maintaining a good balance towards others. 

Building Individual and Community Resilience: 

• The resources can help individuals develop resilience by learning about self-care, coping strategies and the power of noticing their emotions.  
• They also help us build stronger relationships, which in turn enhances both individual and community resilience. 
• Resilience is essential for students managing academic pressures and for faculty and staff handling professional demands and for the community to thrive despite changes within the institution and in the world around us. 

Enhancing Social Connections: 

• Emphasis on the importance of social connections can encourage students and staff to build supportive networks, which are critical for both the individual´s mental health and the community’s resilience. 
• A psychologically safe network can provide emotional support, collaboration opportunities, and a sense of community, while reducing feelings of isolation. 

Promoting Healthy Habits: 

• The material provides guidance on promoting physical health, such as movement and exercise and other healthy habits, all of which are directly linked to mental wellbeing. 
• In a rigorous academic environment, maintaining physical health supports cognitive function and overall wellness. 

Creating a Positive Environment: 

• The principles of psychological safety and respectful engagement can help foster a positive and supportive learning and working environment. 
• When both students and staff are aware of and practice wellbeing strategies, it contributes to a healthier, more productive, and harmonious community. 

By integrating the principles from "Keys to Your Wellbeing: Six Parts," individuals in higher education can significantly enhance their mental, emotional, and physical health, leading to better academic and professional outcomes. Additionally, institutions that promote such wellbeing initiatives can foster a more supportive and thriving educational atmosphere. 

Each Keys to your wellbeing package features one article written by Ilona Suojanen, based on sources and background material compiled by Merita Petäjä. Arja Sahlberg has complemented the articles and added some further content and exercises to the package, all grounded in Positive Psychology research. Content related to pedagogical wellbeing and physical activity were made by Tiina Pylkkönen, and the entire Oasis team has participated in content development. The series was produced and executed by Sakari Heiskanen.

The aim of this MOOC was to bring Frank Martela's popular course normally held in Finnish available for a wider audience; to strengthen participants' understanding of the fundamental questions of good life and how to make reasoned life choices.

The course lays ground to wellbeing work at Aalto. The purpose is to deepen the participant’s understanding of oneself, life, and what being a human entails, while strengthening the ability to live a life that is volitional, self-chosen and good according to one’s own standards.

This course consists of video sessions of the content and three kinds of assignments: reflection tasks, activities and quizes. The content is divided into parts and every part has in addition to several videos one or more of the assignments within it.

The success of the implied a need for further MOOCs in this field. The use of Aalto Studios' Self-Service Studio in a creative manner proved to raise the production value of the material. The finding here is that creative specialist use of Aalto facilities can prove beneficial. 

In 2024, a shared web hub in aalto.fi was built together with Oasis, Aalto EDI experts, the organization development team and the student and employees wellbeing teams. Aaltogether aims to support students, employees and teams in building sense of belonging and community spirit.   

The Aaltogether hub is a platform for everyone. Knowledge and training help people forward, events and networks are for encounters, and stories inspire. "Learning for you" contains interesting basic information and deeper insights into how to develop the community and yourself as a part of it. "Developing as a team" offers services and tools for teams and supervisors to develop and support teams in different phases and needs of the teams' life cycle. 

The Aaltogether hub now hosts the Keys to your wellbeing series produced by Oasis, and serves as the "Aaltogether basics” knowledge base. In general, the Aaltogether hub provides a window to the Aalto community as a whole, and encourages community development from perspectives of both students and employees.

Aaltogether is a continuation of many wellbeing efforts around Aalto. The Oasis of radical wellbeing team has served as one of the developers of the Aaltogether project. The initial from of the hub has been a collaborative subproject and it has been produced by an Oasis team.  

A student’s sense of belonging is strongly correlated with the wellbeing and ability to learn. Oasis team collaborated with an EDI officer and the pedagogical development team to advance inclusive teaching practices. Together with an academic team, they constructed web pages to provide teachers with tips on how to foster inclusive teaching class environment: Supporting students' sense of community and belonging | Aalto University and Agreeing on guidelines for inclusive interaction in the course | Aalto University) 

In addition, there was a master thesis student employed to work with course feedback to observe how students experience inclusiveness in course communications and interaction. The findings of this effort are ready to share at the beginning of 2025.  

A question about inclusion was added to all course feedback surveys at Aalto in autumn 2022. The EDI officer and the Oasis team took up summarizing the results for everyone in the community to learn from good practices. Effective pedagogical practices include transparent expectations, clear structures, participatory methods and group work, engagement and flexibility through digital tools, diverse assignments, accessible materials, and teacher and teaching assistant support (Inclusive teaching practices at Aalto – highlights from course feedback | Aalto University) 

Best practices have been shared as part of pedagogical trainings, in Teachers' Coffees at the schools, and as integrated parts in the Teachers’ Handbook. The feedback process and best practices have also been shared at national level in the Pedaforum conference together with a Teachers’ Services team. 

The AllWell? student survey was renewed for spring 2024. The Oasis team together with EDI and student wellbeing specialists helped in developing questions concerning measures and tips for the cultural environment and a safe environment. 

The results were shared e.g. in @aaltowellbeing (Instagram), and have been utilized in describing the current state of affairs in the EDI plan for 2025-2028. (Areas of the AllWell? student survey as support for students | Aalto University)