D4 Published development or research report or study
Aktiivinen ja hyvinvoiva korkeakoulu -kyselyn tuloksia keväältä 2022 (2022)

Mietola, V., Hämylä, R., Launistola, H., Heimovaara-Kotonen, E., Kokko, S., & Bonsdorff, M. V. (2022). Aktiivinen ja hyvinvoiva korkeakoulu -kyselyn tuloksia keväältä 2022. Jyväskylän yliopisto. Julkaisuja - Terveyden edistämisen tutkimuskeskus, 8. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-9464-8

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Mietola, Vilma; Hämylä, Riikka; Launistola, Henna; Heimovaara-Kotonen, Essi; Kokko, Sami; Bonsdorff, Mikaela von

eISBN: 978-951-39-9464-8

Journal or series: Julkaisuja - Terveyden edistämisen tutkimuskeskus

ISSN: 1795-1011

Publication year: 2022

Number in series: 8

Number of pages in the book: 32

Publisher: Jyväskylän yliopisto

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: Finnish

Persistent website address: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-9464-8

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Abstract

Lately, higher education institutions have started to pay attention to the possibility of increasing student’s movement and activity during study days and lectures. This is necessary, because only half of the students meet the physical activity recommendations. Also, university students sit on average almost 11 hours per day, and a large part of that time accumulates during the study day. Reducing sitting and making study days more active can be beneficial for overall health, but increased activity and movement can also have a positive effect on students’ cognitive performance. These themes are also present in the Active University -project, which aims to modify the learning environments and studies to become more active. The project is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. As part of the project, a survey on these themes was carried out for students and teaching staf in the higher education institutions in Central Finland. In total, 654 students and 63 members from the teaching staff took part in the surveys. The results of both surveys for students and teachers showed that there is still a need for improvement when it comes to reducing the amount of sitting or the implementation of active breaks in higher education institutions. Half of the students answered that the teachers at their university do not pay attention to reducing sitting. Also, according to the students, the use of functional teaching methods seems to be limited, especially during online lectures. Therefore, in the future, it would also be important to consider ways of functionalizing teaching at the university level, as has already been done, for example, in secondary and primary education. Making study days and lectures more active is important as most of the students said that movement or activation during lectures or studying would increase their study performance. However, they hope that teachers would take responsibility for taking breaks. The response rate to the survey of the teaching staff was low, but still, the results are very similar with the students’ survey results. Teachers who responded to the survey agreed that it is the teacher’s duty to organize breaks to lectures. They also believed that taking breaks or allowing movement during lectures would increase students’ wellbeing and study performance. Ten again, it was concerning that most of the respondents reported that there are no general instructions at their own university on how and when to reduce sitting during teaching. Both the teaching staff and students agreed that there are very few tools and aids, such as standing desks, available in the study environments that allow them to reduce sitting. The results of both surveys show that activity and movement during teaching and studying is considered to be important by students and teaching staff. However, this cannot yet be seen in the actual teaching or in the physical facilities of the higher education institutions in Central Finland. In the future, attention should be especially paid to the functionalization of online teaching, which has increased in recent years due to Covid-19 pandemic. However, the results of both surveys provided important information for the development of the Active University -project. Solutions to the emerged problems are provided through the project’s activities. For example, there will be a targeted course for teachers on how to implement active breaks or movement during lectures. Trough the project’s activities the purpose is also to modify the physical environments of the universities to increase movement and support the reducing of sitting.

Keywords: institutions of higher education; students; teaching staff; physical activity; immobility; sitting; health effects; physical training; breaks; recommendations; health promotion

Contributing organizations

Related projects

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2022