Strategies for Online College Faculty as Psychological Support A.G.E.N.T.s

Online faculty have witnessed the effects of an increase in student mental health needs lowering incoming students' psychological capital. To increase retention, professors should adopt strategies for psychological support within their teaching methods. Faculty can be A.G.E.N.T.s of psychological support by being 1. Anxiety aware 2. Growth mindset mentors 3. Emotionally intelligent engagers 4. Nuanced scaffolders and 5. Thoughtful advocates. Teachers should foster students' transition from secondary to post-secondary with active teaching like scaffolding, a flipped classroom, and differentiated instruction. Presence-based approaches, such as teaching, social, and cognitive methods, should also be explored by facilitators to develop a safe space community of inquiry, social constructivism, and self-determination. With such a framework, there are many ways faculty can ease students' mental health-based difficulties with empathy, without intensive psychology training, while still maintaining course rigor. Institutions should support all of these endeavors through leadership.