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.