Student technostress in undergraduate distance education: A navigation toolkit for wellness

This aim of this project was designed to test the effects of Technostress and Academic Motivation on students' psychological health.

Researchers

Research background

The HE sector was and continues to be severely impacted by the pandemic. There was a rapid transition from a face-to-face model to an online only model for teaching and meetings. The transition to purely digital has, by its very nature, an intrinsic expectation that staff and students were tech-ready. We know the number of university students with a serious mental illness has risen globally over the past few years. During the COVID-19 pandemic there are growing rates of stress and difficulties in concentrating, declining levels of motivation and difficulties in self-regulation, anxiety and depression. Taken together the poor levels of mental health in students and the lockdown and switch to online learning has caused added stress for students.

This aim of this project was designed to test the effects of Technostress (i.e., Technological-Overload, Work-Home Conflict, Pace of Change, Techno-Ease, Techno-Reliability, Techno-Sociality) and Academic Motivation (i.e., Amotivation; Intrinsic Motivation, Accomplishment, Experience Stimulation; and Extrinsic Motivation) on students’ psychological health (anxiety and depression).

The findings were used to recommend interventions for students and staff to ease the impact of technostress.

Research aims

The project has a number of objectives:

• Analysis report in the form of a systematic review of technology factors influencing HE students’ mental health, academic motivation, and social inclusion. The systematic review would inform us of how strong the current literature review is on technostress and what recommendations can we make.
• Empirical research, designed to test the effects of Technostress (i.e., Technological-Overload, Work-Home Conflict, Pace of Change, Techno-Ease, Techno-Reliability, Techno-Sociality) and Academic Motivation (i.e., Amotivation; Intrinsic Motivation, Accomplishment, Experience Stimulation; and Extrinsic Motivation) on students’ psychological health (anxiety and depression).
• Development of 4 interactive toolkits: Focused on wellbeing and motivation, designed around the 6 techno-stress factors and based on user input, and tailored self-help and support resource for students and staff. 

Countries/companies involved

• Birmingham City University
• University of South Bohemia České Budějovice
• University of Crete
• University of Naples Federico II
• Western Balkans Institute

Research outcomes

The project has resulted in:

1. A paper being published: Vallone, F., Galvin, J., Cattaneo Della Volta, M.F., Akhtar, A.4, Chua, S. 4, Ghio, E. 4, Giovazolias, T.5, Kazakou, Z.4, Kritikou, M. 5, Koutra, K. 5, Kovacevic, S.6, Lee-Treweek, G.4, Mašková, I. 7, Mavritsaki, E. 4, Nastic J. 6, Plassova, M.7, Stuchlíková, I. 7, and Zurlo, M.C. 1, 2* Technostress and academic motivation: direct and indirect effects on university students' psychological health in being. Front. Psychol., 30 June 2023, Sec. Health Psychology Volume 14 - 2023. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1211134
2. A second paper based on the systematic review has been written up which is titled: A rapid systematic review of technology factors influencing higher education students’ mental health, academic motivation, and social inclusion since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Four interactive toolkits have been developed, please click on each to work your way through them. 

Technostress Student Support Toolkit

This interactive Toolkit provides students with videos, audio, texts and documentary resources, including links to research on stress, technostress, academic motivation and wellbeing among university students.

The following topics have been covered:

1. Students’ experience of the COVID-19 pandemic (pre-pandemic life, during the pandemic, currently);
2. Students’ experience of Distance Learning: Lights and Shadows;
3. Risks and Resources linked to the use of technology;
4. Academic Motivation;
5. Psychological Health Conditions of University Students: Risk Factors, Resources, and role of Support Services.

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Evidence and Practice for increasing student motivation during distance education – A toolkit aimed for HEI staff

This toolkit is primarily intended for higher education staff and management. This toolkit summarises the evidence on how technologies affect university students’ motivation and provides practical tools and recommendations to foster academic motivation during online learning. 

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Evidence and Practice in Student Motivation and Wellbeing: Social Inclusion, Diversity and identity

The toolkit is aimed at HEI staff has been devised bearing in mind the following goals:

• For HE staff to explore the disadvantaged students´ well-being and motivation
• To highlight best practices and innovations in HEI support to improve disadvantaged students' motivation and wellbeing
• To create opportunities for improving the online learning community through activities aimed at increasing student engagement and empowerment in potentially disadvantaged students such as Black and Minority Ethnic groups (BAME), low socio-economic groups, migrants, caregivers, students with disabilities, students with diverse gender identities and those who have a diagnosed mental health condition
• To provide a detailed explanation of the key issues in wellbeing and motivation for potentially disadvantaged groups

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Overall, the results from the empirical research have shown:

• Techno-Overload and Work-Home Conflict were significantly positively related to Anxiety and Depression
• Techno-Ease, Techno-Reliability, and Techno-Sociality were significantly negatively related to Anxiety and Depression
• Techno-Overload and Work-Home Conflict were significantly positively related to lack of motivation and self determination
• Work-Home Conflict was significantly positively related to Extrinsic Motivation-Introjected
• Techno-Ease, Techno-Reliability, and Techno-Sociality were significantly negatively related to Amotivation and they were also significantly positively related to all Intrinsic Motivation dimensions
• Amotivation was significantly positively related to Anxiety and Depression
• Intrinsic Motivation dimensions were significantly negatively related to Anxiety and Depression
• Extrinsic Motivation-Identified was significantly negatively related to Depression while Extrinsic Motivation-Introjected was significantly positively related to Anxiety.