Assessing the impact of Virtual Learning Environments in higher education on student and staff mental well-being

数字技术作为教学和学习工具在高等教育中的使用迅速增长，所有大学都使用称为虚拟学习环境的在线平台。在线平台通常提供资源，阅读列表，活动，聊天论坛和讲座录音。大学正在努力增加对这些平台的使用。两个关键假设支持这一点i）学生和工作人员在数字环境中感到舒适，ii）学生欣赏这种类型的教育提供24/7教育的灵活性。这些假设还没有经过检验。数字化教育的增加可能非但没有好处，反而有害。例如，有新的证据表明，工作人员和学生的数字技能水平低于原来认为，这可能意味着他们在数字环境中工作的舒适度被低估了（例如Beetham和白色，2013）。对虚拟学习环境的日益依赖可能会导致学生更加孤独，24/7的供应可能会让学生觉得他们应该工作更长的时间，增加他们的压力。这两种影响都可能损害心理健康。这些影响也可能在学术人员中发现。学生和工作人员的心理健康问题正在增加。学生的心理健康已被确定为主要利益相关者之间的重大关切。最近的一项大规模国际研究发现，在过去的一年里，31%的学生至少有一种常见的心理健康障碍（奥尔巴赫等人，2018年）。学生服务提供者报告说，对咨询服务的需求大幅增加（威廉姆斯等人，2015）。经常有来自学生的孤独报告（理查森埃塔尔，2015，Byrom，2014）和在压力下做得很好的学术（Piper和Byrom，2017; Thorley，2017）。尽管研究较少，但有证据表明学术人员的心理健康问题越来越多，许多人被报道有倦怠的风险（Watts和Robertson，2010）。最近的一项调查发现，43%的学术人员表现出至少轻度精神障碍的症状;这几乎是普通人群的两倍（Gorczynski等人，2017年）。

The use of digital technologies as teaching and learning toolshas grown rapidly in Higher Education with all universitiesusing online platforms called Virtual Learning Environments.Online platforms typically provide resources, reading lists,activities, chat forums and lectures recordings. Universitiesare striving to increase use of such platforms. Two keyassumptions underpin this i) students and staff arecomfortable in digital environments, and ii) studentsappreciate the flexibility of this type of education which gives24/7 educational provision. These assumptions are untested.It is possible that rather than being beneficial, increaseddigital education is detrimental. For example, there isemerging evidence that both staff and students have lowerlevels of digital skills than original believed, which may meantheir comfort in working within digital environments has beenoverestimated (e.g. Beetham and White, 2013). Increasedreliance on Virtual Learning Environments may contribute toa greater loneliness among students and the 24/7 provisionmay leave students feeling that they should be workinglonger hours, adding pressure for them. Both effects couldbe damaging to mental health. These effects may also befound in academic staff.Student and staff mental health difficulties are increasing.Student mental health has been identified as a significantconcern amongst key stakeholders. A recent large scaleinternational study, identified that 31% of students screenedpositive for at least one common mental health disorder inthe past year (Auerbach et al., 2018). Student serviceproviders are reporting a substantive increase in demand forcounselling services (Williams et al., 2015). There arefrequent reports from students of loneliness (Richardson etal., 2015, Byrom, 2014) and feeling under pressure to do wellacademically (Piper and Byrom, 2017; Thorley, 2017).Although less researched, there is evidence of increasingmental health problems in academic staff, with manyreported as being at risk of burnout (Watts and Robertson,2010). A recent survey found that 43% of academic staffexhibited symptoms of at least a mild mental disorder; this isalmost twice the figure for the general population(Gorczynski et al., 2017).