- Nearly ½ struggled w balancing family expectations w their educational commitments
- ⅔ of participants had comorbid health conditions
- Over ½ said they lacked proper support from their parents
- Nearly ½ had some sort of financial troubles

Davidson College

- Introduction
- Methods
- Results - impact of impairment
- Results - personal and situational circumstance
- Results - learning environment
- Discussion

Barriers to learning online experienced by students with a mental health disability: Summary

Dean McManus, Rachel Dryer & Marcus Henning (2017): Barriers to
learning online experienced by students with a mental health disability, Distance Education, DOI: 10.1080/01587919.2017.1369348
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2017.1369348

Barriers to learning online experienced by
students with a mental health disability

- The prevalence of mental health disabilities in students has been rising over the years 
- They defined a mental health disability as “having a diagnosed mental health condition that impedes effective learning and/or elicits unnecessary personal, social or environmental barriers that create actual or perceived disablement”
- Students with these disabilities have higher dropout rates and lower completion rates
- While online learning can have benefits for students with mental health disabilities, it can also introduce new barriers
- Central research question: “How do students with a mental health disability describe their learning barriers when studying through online education?”

Barriers to learning online experienced by students with a mental health disability: Introduction

- Participants were university students enrolled online at an Australian university with who were registered with the University Disability Services Unit primarily for a mental health disability
- 12 students: 8 female and 4 male, aged 28-61
- Conducted interviews over the phone with semi-guided questions to guide interviewer, open-ended but consistent across the participants


Barriers to learning online experienced by students with a mental health disability: Methods

- Most found it difficult to manage study time and complete assignments by the due date, overwhelming test anxiety (not enough time, memory and concentration difficulties, ¼ said they worried the school wasn’t providing adequate accommodations)
- ¼ said severe test anxiety resulted in increased mental health episodes and a higher dependency on their medications
- Increased negative self-talk and lower self-esteem
- ⅓ problems w memory and concentration caused slower processing of information
- Over ½ need medication for their disabilities, and the side effects further impaired their concentration and memory - can cause a vicious cycle

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