Friday, 2 October 2015

Week 3 - Preliminary Research a.k.a. Digging through UW Websites

As I was feeling stuck regarding whom to contact to potentially supervise my thesis, I decided to get some advice from my course instructor, Katie, at the beginning of this week. Since I want to look at how mental wellness information is currently being communicated by the university and how it can be improved, Katie recommended that I first get in touch with Counselling Services, or perhaps the Student Success Office, and find out who is involved in that particular job. That way, they can tell me what is being done and whether they’re looking for any improvements, and I can propose to them how I may be able to help. Then, I can contact a potential supervisor once I’ve narrowed down my aims for the project.

She also suggested that I take a closer look at what these services’ websites have to offer; this would give me a better idea of the areas that may need improvement. One thing that I found during this investigation was that the Counselling Services website can inform students of a lot of resources available to them; however, there are so many different links to look through and students may not be able to quickly find what they need. More importantly, students may not know what they need in the first place. The website has two main “categories” of resources – the services provided by Counselling Services itself (“Our Services”) and resources of other services (“Resources”). Under “Resources” is a list of links to “Campus Resources”, “Community Resources”, “Emergency Contacts”, “Student Groups and Other Resources”, and “President’s Office”. “Student Groups and Other Resources” links to self-help information, including help for individuals with mental health disorders as well as other students. What concerns me is how a student to (a) know to go to the Counselling Services website for information about self-help when they don’t believe they are experiencing serious mental health challenges, (b) find this information, and (c) decide that the advice is worthy of exploring.

I sent an email to Counselling Services on Wednesday, and I hope to hear from them soon. If not, I may have to go directly to them, as time is running out before I have to submit advisor information to Katie. A week from today, October 9, is the due date. I’ll have to consider also contacting the SSO, though I do think their website is generally much better organized than CS’s is. What I would likely target then is students’ attitudes towards the information the SSO shares and whether they are incorporating it. Do students use the tips they provide, or do they end up just going with the flow? Lots of possible research questions to consider…

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