DOI: 10.4018/IJEHMC.2018010104
International Journal of E-Health and Medical Communications
Volume 9 • Issue 1 • January-March 2018
Copyright © 2018, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
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Supporting Students’ Mental
Health and Academic Success
Through Mobile App and IoT
Karolina Baras, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI), University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
Luísa Soares, Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI), University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
Carla Vale Lucas, Psychological Counselling Service, University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
Filipa Oliveira, Psychological Counselling Service, University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
Norberto Pinto Paulo, University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
Regina Barros, University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
ABSTRACT
Smartphones have become devices of choice for running studies on health and well-being, especially
among young people. When entering college, students often face many challenges, such as adaptation
to new situations, establish new interpersonal relationships, heavier workload and shorter deadlines,
teamwork assignments and others. In this paper, the results of four studies examining students’ well-
being and mental health as well as student’s perception of challenges and obstacles they face during
their academic journey are presented. In addition, a mobile application that acts as a complement
to a successful tutoring project implemented at the authors’ University is proposed. The application
allows students to keep their schedules and deadlines in one place while incorporating virtual tutor
features. By using both, the events from the student’s calendar and his or her mood indicators, the
application sends notifications accordingly. These notifications encompass motivational phrases,
time management guidelines, as well as relaxation tips.
KEywoRdS
Field Studies, Higher Education, IoT, Mental Health, Mobile App, Well-Being
1. INTRodUCTIoN
Research points out that happy people produce more and have better results at work (Yano,
Lyubomirsky, & Chancellor, 2012). Based on this premise, one may assume that happy students will
also perform better along their academic path. Higher education students often face many challenges
such as, adaptation to new situations, establishing of new interpersonal relationships, managing heavy
workloads and short deadlines and working successfully in teams. Tutoring (or mentoring) projects
have shown to be a good way of helping students to be successful in their academic life. An example
of this is the tutoring program implemented at the University of Madeira since 2012/13 (Faria,
Oliveira, Lucas, Vasconcelos, & Soares, 2014). It aims to facilitate the integration of freshmen into