Development Projects

How the physical environment can promote student health and learning

What aspects of the physical environment make students feel comfortable on campus? That was what the SHAPE project aimed to find out. The project was also supposed to lead to concrete, physical measures that promote student health and learning.

The SHAPE project was carried out in 2025 by researchers and students at the Faculty of Social Sciences. It was funded by government grants.

The project focused on how students experience the premises on campus where they spend their time. The project was based on previous research that had shown that the design of physical learning environments is important for students' well-being, sense of belonging, and wellbeing. The basic idea is that positive physical learning environments where students feel comfortable also increase the likelihood that students will stay and complete their education. The faculty wanted to increase its knowledge by taking note of students' views on the environments at Annedalsseminariet, Studietorget/Campus Haga and the old reception at the Department of Psychology.

An important part of the project was that the students themselves were involved in creating their new learning environment. They did so by, among other things, photographing places they find particularly pleasant or unpleasant, and by analysing and discussing the photographs with other students.

A final report was published in early 2026.

Final Report (in Swedish): 

Project group:

Carolina Lunde – Project manager, professor, Department of Psychology

Christel Backman – Excellent teacher, deputy head of department, associate professor, Department of Sociology and Work Science

Agnes Nurbo / Anna Elvö – Quality Coordinators

Jakob Sandin – Local Administrator

Franz James – Senior Lecturer, Department of Design and Crafts

Linn Farsbo – Student Representative 

How does AI affect teaching?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is developing rapidly - but how does it affect teaching and learning at the university? This project investigates how both students and teachers in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Gothenburg use AI tools such as ChatGPT, and how they are regulated in teaching.

The project team maps what strategies are in place to deal with these new technologies, and what effects this has on learning and teaching quality. Through a combination of surveys, interviews and document analysis, a picture of the current situation - but also of future possibilities - will be obtained.

The project is expected to provide concrete examples of how AI tools can be used in a way that enhances student learning, without compromising academic integrity. It will also show which approaches work best - and in which contexts - for both students and teaching staff.

The results will be disseminated via seminars, blog posts and a scientific article, and the project team also plans to contribute to the development of guidance documents and training programmes for both teachers and students at the university.

Read more about resultats from the project in news

Project Period: 2024 - 2025

Final Report: 

Project Group: 

Arne F Wackenhut, 
School of Global Studies

Maris Gillette
School of Global Studies

Elizabeth Olsson 
Unit for Academic Language

Students learning from each other 

- a new way of developing psychology teaching

How can students become more active in their own learning - and help each other develop? That was the core of this project, which tested the collaborative assessment method. This method allows students to practice both giving and receiving feedback on each other's work, thus becoming participants in the assessment process themselves.

The aim was to increase engagement and understanding of the course content, while at the same time practising important skills such as giving constructive criticism and reflecting on their own learning. An important element was to offer formative feedback - that is, feedback during the course, while still having the opportunity to improve their work.

The project was carried out in an advanced methods course within an international master's programme in psychology, and is evaluated using surveys, interviews and study results. The project team hoped that the approach could become a natural part of teaching in the future - and eventually inspire more programmes to try similar methods.

Project Period: 2024 - 2025

Final Report (in Swedish): 

Project Group:

Pernilla Larsman

Magnus Lindwall

Timothy Luke

Carl-Christian Trönnberg

All at the Department of Psychology

Sustainable and accessible learning environments

During the period 2021-2023, the project Sustainable and Accessible Learning Environments (HTL) has been implemented at the Faculty of Social Sciences. The background to the project is the large number of young people reporting poor mental health in various surveys. In particular, students in higher education have reported feeling unwell, anxious, stressed and depressed. The purpose of the HTL has been to investigate whether, and if so how, the Faculty can work at a structural level to promote mental health among students with a focus on improving the conditions for student learning, understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic affected teaching and increasing access to higher education for students of various circumstances. The project has consisted of five sub-projects (see below).

Results

The results of the project show that systematic preventive and promotional work at the structural level seems to have a good effect on students’ mental health and learning as well as contributing to creating a more accessible university. Teachers as well as students report that influence, participation, comprehensibility and inclusion are important in creating favourable conditions for sustainable student life that enables learning as well as health/well-being. The results of the project further highlight the possibility for the Faculty to involve students in more qualitative co-creation surveys in order to gain deeper insight into students' experiences and thus develop and implement appropriate measures.

The project had five sub-projects:

1. Student Life

This project was about monitoring, documenting, and drawing conclusions from how students experience their first five weeks as students. The students kept diaries about what they experienced and learned about student life over a period of five weeks. The aim of this project is to work with the students to draw conclusions from the data generated (the students’ diary entries) and on how the structure and organization of the Faculty and its departments – in a broad sense, the student’s learning environment – can be developed to support and promote the students’ mental health. 

This project was funded by the University of Gothenburg from the additional funding received from the Swedish Government in spring 2021 to work with students’ mental health in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the second phase of the project, the same students were invited to attend workshops in which their diary entries were analyzed in order to find solutions and develop concrete proposals for how the structure and organization of the Faculty and its departments – which in a broad sense, constitutes the students’ learning environment – can be developed so as to prevent the development of psychological symptoms, poor mental health and low self-esteem.

In phase three, the solutions identified was evaluated with a new group of students at a workshop. This project was funded by the University of Gothenburg from the additional funding received from the Swedish Government in spring 2021 to work with students’ mental health in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project results were presented during the spring semester 2022. 

2. Student-Centred Flexibility (HyFlex)

Student-centred flexibility was a development project which aimed to investigate the possibilities for giving students the opportunity to choose their own pathway of learning through a course. The idea is that the course is designed in such a way that the student can choose class activities based on their own situations and in relation to the intended learning outcomes. 

The aim of the project was to revise an existing course and develop a new course based on the HyFlex (hybrid and flexible) course model.  This project was being carried out in cooperation with the EUTOPIA European University (EEU) alliance.

Hyflex - final report (pdf 1,1 mb)

More about Eutopia on the networks page

3. Toolbox for Sustainable Student Life

An open online resource was developed in this project. This web-based resource can be used by any staff member and others who want to work with student mental health and sustainability, focusing in particular on the study environment and inclusion. The students’ union provided a sounding board in this project. This project has been carried out as part of the Sharing culture for education, recruitment and knowledge creation (DURK) project at the Pedagogical Development and Interactive Learning (PIL) unit at the University of Gothenburg. 

To the Toolbox for sustainable student life (only accessible via the university's intranet)

More about the DURK project on PIL's page (in Swedish only)

4. Literature Review

This project involved conducting a systematic review of the literature on efforts made in the higher education sector at a structural/organisational level to support and promote students’ mental health and/or prevent mental ill-health. The University Library was supporting this work. The project was financed by funding from Student and Education Support at the University of Gothenburg.

5. Teachers’ Experiences of Online Teaching

In order to explore teachers’ experiences and how they managed the transition from campus-based teaching to online teaching, the project group conducted focus group interviews with teaching staff. The interviews were conducted one year after online teaching became a must for all of Sweden’s higher education institutions.

The main purpose of the interviews was to capture the lessons learned and progress made in relation to online teaching. The interviews were based on questions about how digital types of instruction can be used to improve the quality of teaching and how students’ experience of relatedness and inclusion can be supported and promoted.

Project Group:

Therése Skoog (project manager)
Malin Broberg (then dean)
Sylva Frisk (then vice-dean responsible for educational issues)
Agnes Nurbo (quality coordinator at the faculty office)
Arne Wackenhut (teacher representative)
Arvid Danielsson (student representative appointed by the student union)

In collaboration with:

• Student Health Services, University of Gothenburg
• The Unit for Pedagogical Development and Interactive Learning (PIL)
• The Section for Student and Educational Support at the Education Unit, University of Gothenburg's joint administration
• University of Gothenburg Library