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Supporting Students guidance (includes links to relevant services already available at LSE and to external resources)
1. Communicating with students effectively
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The second survey, which is focused on assessing needs for exams, is accessible here.
Drop-in academic mentoring:
A way of remaining accessible, while still maintaining boundaries and work-life balance, which has been trialled in Accounting, is through setting up one hour of drop-in academic mentoring via Zoom once or several times a week. This can alleviate pressure on students to book a meeting directly. For the drop-in element to be effective, when you create the meeting on Zoom, in the “Meeting Options” section, tick the “Enable waiting room” option (see screenshot below). This will create a waiting room for students to be held while you talk with another.
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Reaching out to students who aren’t responding:
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Many students are feeling isolated and enjoy audio-visual communication from the School, their department, and/or programme director. In the Department of Law, the LLB programme director made and shared a video explaining clearly assessment methods, rationale, and expectations to reassure students. The Department of Government’s Head of Department has also released a video message, which was well received by the community.
2. Contingency planning
Amidst the current Covid-19 outbreak, it is important to have a contingency plan in place in case you are ill or have to care for someone who is ill, to ensure a smooth mentoring process for you and your mentees. Stay in touch with other academic mentors in your department and share experiences of mentoring online with them. You should also keep your departmental manager or head of department updated on any major issues relating to your mentees. This ensures that your team can take the necessary steps to support you and your students if you do fall ill.
We recommend that you designate in advance a departmental colleague who would take up your mentoring duties if you are ill or have to care for someone. If this does happen, you should set up an automatic reply in which you clearly identify them with their email as the person students should contact while you are ill. We also advise that you do not work through your illness.
3. Staying well and managing expectations
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MIND’s resource on “Coronavirus and your wellbeing”
UMO UK infographic
Mental Health Foundation guidance
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