Have you heard about this? An exploration of instructor communication about campus resources to students in biology courses

Abstract

Campus resources provide valuable support for students navigating university, in particular historically excluded students. However, not all students may be aware of these resources or be actively encouraged to use them. As students regularly interface with their instructors for consecutive periods of time, instructor communication about campus resources regarding academic, community, wellness, and career and professional support may have positive motivational and psycho-social impacts for all students, especially historically excluded students. Therefore, we explored the types of campus resources that biology instructors communicate with students and whether they are positively correlated with students’ sense of belonging, motivation to use resources, and course performance in biology courses. We found that, all else equal, student sense of belonging derived from faculty and staff was positively correlated with the number of types of resources that instructors communicated about in their courses. From the students who reported that their instructors promoted campus resources, most students somewhat or strongly agreed that they were motivated to use career and professional development types of resources. Our results support that instructors have the capability to increase student’s cultural wealth by actively communicating various types of campus resources to their students. These results could provide guidance for biology faculty seeking to support students in the classroom and on campus as students are navigating institutions.

Persistence of STEM Majors in Higher Education

“…During the time frame of the study, the campus was actively engaged in building a community of support for their students through the institution's mission and values, as well as concerted campaigns to promote community and belonging on campus. Vega and Meaders (2023) found that communication campaigns play an important role in student's information networks on campus. Students with lower feelings of belonging on campus and are less likely to seek out resources or spaces to belong on their own.…”