Writing instructors frequently encounter evidence of students' mental health issues. In online learning environments—where, as Scott Warnock suggests in Teaching Writing Online, course "talk" effectively increases the volume of writing students produce—what additional training should instructors have to identify and respond to students' mental health needs?
Writing instructors frequently encounter evidence of students' mental health issues. In online learning environments—where, as Scott Warnock suggests in Teaching Writing Online, course "talk" effectively increases the volume of writing students produce—what additional training should instructors have to identify and respond to students' mental health needs? Online writing courses (including composition and creative writing) will be the focus of this conversation.
To address this topic, I propose the following sample discussion questions:
- The online writing classroom, according to Scott Warnock, "[offers] opportunities to teach beyond the normal constraints of geographic and temporal borders." By extension, given the various and diverse needs of students with mental health issues, in what other ways might the online writing classroom provide opportunities to "teach beyond the normal"?
- In The Creating Brain, Dr. Nancy C. Andreasen studies the connection between creativity, genius, and mental health. Andreasen notes: "Many personality characteristics of creative people … make them more vulnerable, including openness to new experiences, a tolerance for ambiguity, and an approach to life and the world that is relatively free of preconceptions. This flexibility permits them to perceive things in a fresh and novel way, which is an important basis for creativity. But it also means that their inner world is complex, ambiguous, and filled with shades of gray rather than black and white. It is a world filled with many questions and few easy answers." Given that assessment in the online learning environment runs the risk of favoring the sort of "black and white" thinking Andreasen highlights as limiting for creative writers, how might grading practices adapt to accommodate students who possess the personalities Andreasen describes? How might "many questions" open the doors for greater success in the online writing classroom? What potential pitfalls might an instructor encounter by encouraging "few easy answers" and how might that instructor negotiate the outcomes?
- It's not uncommon for the creative writing instructor to receive "disturbing creative writing," work that suggests or points to the author's mental illness. In face-to-face or blended environments, an instructor's first line of intervention might be a casual conversation. The same intervention, however, might not be possible in an online writing classroom. By what process should online instructors approach student writers whose work raises mental health red flags? How does the online instructor preserve artistic integrity? When is the intervention of administration or student support services necessary?