Reflecting on this project, I learnt lots about how to ethically and effectively conduct research. However, there are a few things I would do differently next time. The first thing would be to not make my survey questions as broad. I asked participants a lot of information in the survey which turned to be unused and irrelevant. This made it hard to link how participants health habits impacted their student experience. Next time, I would ask more in-depth questions about their sleeping, diet and exercise patterns to understand how each specifically effects their lives. I would then ask if it effects their student experience at all, rather than assuming it does. Asking ‘if’ health habits effect their student experience rather than ‘how’ would have provided a more concise outcome. Another thing I would consider next time is to interview a few participants for greater understanding of how their health habits affect them.
Understanding the ethical responsibilities of creating research surveys played a huge role in this experience. Without understanding how crucial consent is and the vital responsibilities of a researcher, this project would not have been as reliable or safe. By abiding to the ethical responsibilities, participants information remained staying anonymous and safe. Next time, at the end of the survey, I would ask for their email in case they wanted to withdraw their answers or in case something went wrong. The risk here is that they would no longer be anonymous, however it could of created a peace of mind for participants.
Risks outlined in the risk matrix that occurred include ‘being unmotivated and the research potentially being a ‘sensitive topic for participants’. Being unmotivated stemmed from the lack of concentration and motivation due to COVID19. I ended up not following the time planning in my Gantt chart which lead to extra stress. Furthermore, two participants did not answer the quantitative questions in this survey, which could be due to the fact it was a sensitive topic.
Another reflection is that my survey is not an accurate representation of the whole BCM212 population. As much as I tried to plug my survey through Twitter, only 29 people ended up filling it out. This makes it unfair to assume the results found in the survey account for all of BCM212.
Overall, this experience taught me great research skills in regard to ethics, how to effectively conduct a survey, risk management and time planning. I am excited to take these skills into future assessments and further improve them.
For this task, I am proposing to research ‘what do students do with their time outside of university to keep their student experience enjoyable?’. Students often have lots of free time in university and tend to fill it with things such as work, socialising, exercise, spending time in nature or rest. These factors create are what creates a ‘student lifestyle’. I am keen to explore how student’s lifestyles effect their overall student experience. A healthy lifestyle can be described as regular exercise, healthy diet and an organised sleeping pattern. Additional to keeping a healthy lifestyle, it is important for students to make time for what makes them happy (e.g. seeing friends or going to the beach).
I intend to research:
Common lifestyle habits for students
Why it is important for students to lead a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle
The positive implications of having a healthy lifestyle.
Questions I will be asking the BCM cohort include:
What activities they do for enjoyment outside of university
How much time they take to do these activities
If they maintain a healthy lifestyle during the university semester.
To kick start this research, I created a Twitter poll to discover what BCM students do with their free time for enjoyment. I chose these options as a balance of all four is what contributes to my personal life satisfaction.
I was then keen to know how much time they have for whatever option they chose in the above poll. Here are the answers.
Furthermore, when I asked the BCM cohort if they keep a healthy lifestyle during the university semester, this is what they said:
It is evident BCM students need further guidance on how to live a healthy lifestyle while balancing university demands. It is also evident students need to make more time for things they enjoy in order to live a fulfilling lifestyle. Thus, this research topic is relevant and can hopefully encourage BCM students to shift their life choices to create the best student experience possible. I intend to create a Survey Monkey to gather more information about BCM students lifestyle behaviours as this is a timely and simple way to retrieve data.
The following articles explore the unhealthy habits university students are susceptible of, and also the positive implications of a healthy lifestyle.
‘Students university healthy lifestyle practice: quantitative analysis’
This research explores why university students often fall into bad habits while studying and what the implications are.
The most crucial phase of life that may influence an individual is entering university. Transitioning to a new stage of life can interrupt usual habits and can break healthy life style patterns. This disruption can be caused by poor time organisation, stress of academic pressure, new peer relationships, irregular sleeping patterns and inability to accommodate new surroundings. This often leads to decreased exercise, increased consumption of unhealthy food- all factors of an unhealthy lifestyle.
‘Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students: Further Validation of a Measure of Well-Being’
This study looks into student satisfaction with social aspects of university and how effects overall life satisfaction.
One of the hypotheses of this paper was ‘the greater students’ satisfaction with social aspects of college, the greater overall satisfaction with life’. The ‘bottom-up spill over theory’ backs this, and posits that life satisfaction is related to all other life’s domains such as social life, health, community. Thus, if one maintains life satisfaction by leading a healthy lifestyle, it is likely that they will be satisfied with all other domains of life. This can contribute to thriving academically.
‘Healthy lifestyle and Behaviours of Z Generation’
This study asked Slovakian and Hungarian students what the most important aspect of their university experience was. The top three most important things to these students were being with family, gaining professional knowledge and entertainment with friends. Some of the least important things to these students included exercise and healthy eating. While it is good these students prioritise friends and family, it is concerning health is low on their priority list. There is correlation here with the Twitter poll results- poor health lifestyle and socialising being of top priority to students.
‘Five lifestyle changes to enhance your mood and mental health’
Finally, this article looks at lifestyle factors which lead to a good mental and physical health.
Research suggests that improved diet and exercise makes your body feel better, which can help one feel better about life overall. Managing your alcohol consumption, substance misuse and smoking are related with better mood and reduced anxiety.
The article also suggests to prioritise rest and sleep. If you get enough sleep, you have more energy for leisure and rest which is good to regulate stress. Making time for hobbies is also important as it can enhance mental health. Furthermore, it is important to get a dose of nature every day. Sunshine helps levels of moods as it maintains serotonin and vitamin D helps our sleep cycle. Time in nature can help improve self-esteem and mood.
To conclude, these articles prove that there has been lots of research done in the ‘student experience and lifestyle’ and therefore this project is achievable. The answers given by the BCM cohort via Twitter proves this research is relevant for them to enhance their student experience. I am looking forward to further investigating this topic and to ultimately give clarity on the importance of living a healthy and enjoyable lifestyle.
Sources
Assaf, H., Balasumy, B., Brieteh, F., El-Baida, M., Kadry, S & Tfaily, M 2019, ‘Students university healthy lifestyle practice: quantitative analysis’, Springer Link, accessed on 21/03/20 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13755-019-0068-2
Bencsik, A., Csanadi, A., Horvarth-Csikos, G., Juhasz, T 2019 ‘Healthy lifestyle and Behaviours of Z Generation’, Journal of Eastern European and Central Asian Research, vol. 6, no.2, pp. 298-307
Canton, A., Claiborne, C.B., Ekici, A., El-Hasan, K., Lee, D., Grzeskowiak S., Johar J.S., Kangal, A., Krishen, A., Kuruuzum, A., Maggino, F., Rahtz, D., Sirgy, M., Swoboda, B., Vega, G., Webb, D., Yu, G 2010 ‘Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students: Further Validation of a Measure of Well-Being’, Social Indicators Research, vol. 99, no. 3, pp. 375-390
Time. Something we all have, and something that everyone uses differently.
University is such a unique era of life. Generally speaking, many students have lots of time outside of their study. So, what do you all do with this time? I am curious to investigate how students fill their time to keep their university experience enjoyable.
This is of interest to me as I have always been extremely intentional about how I use my time. I like to use my time by visiting to cafes, going to the beach, seeing my friends and family, going on hikes and relaxing with Netflix and a few lit candles. When I make time for these things throughout the week, my study and university experience is generally much more bearable. If I don’t make time for these things, I often feel burnt out and have less motivation. I believe there is so much more to life than study- so I am passionate about students using their time to live balanced lifestyle and prioritising things that make them happy.
I intend to survey BCM212 students to gather information about how they spend their time outside of university to maintain lifestyle satisfaction. What do you BCM students do to keep a happy lifestyle, if anything at all?
At this point, the factors I’ll measure include: exercise, socialising, spending time in nature, rest, hobbies, religion/other commitments.
Furthermore, I’ll need to research what a ‘healthy lifestyle’ actually is and the implications it has on university students.
Hopefully this project will shine a light on how important fun, rest and relationships are while we soak up the student experience!
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