REThinkACADEMY

The REThinkACADEMY project aims to integrate cutting edge ecological with game based assessment and prevention tools into an innovative online platform, and test its efficacy in the prevention of emotional disorders in college student population. The project will make use of the following tools: the mobile MoodWheel and the PsyPills apps (David & David, 2019), and the REThink therapeutic online game (David & Fodor, 2022), in conducting assessment and offering mental health support to college students.

The project is based on the Grant PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2021-3882 Experimental Demonstrative Projects, called REThink ACADEMY: Helping universities to effectively care for the mental health of college students in the digital age, UEFISCDI (548.000 RON; director professor Oana David).
This project will provide a viable, accessible and evidence-based preventive digital solution to support the mental health of college students, scalable to other universities.


UBB STUDENT LIVING LAB

UBB STUDENT LIVING LAB is an ecosystem created by Babes-Bolyai University, through the DATA laboratory and the REThink Academy project. It aims to evaluate the emotional well-being of students on the campuses, by monitoring the mental health of first-year students. The REThink Academy project, together with other international projects, such as World Mental Health - International Student Initiative coordinated by Harvard University, will allow a deeper understanding of the affective component of UBB student life.


Update December 2022

This stage of the project the focus was on refining the apps that will be used in later stages of the project. We developed and released the StudentMood app that includes the mood wheel tool, physiological parameters and self-report questionnaires. Also, we started the process of adapting the REThink Game to the student population using latest digital technologies.

In this stage we started the first study, the evaluation of the student`s mood through the current semester using ecological momentary assessment system. Over 500 students enrolled in this study and we perform actions in order to maintain their engagement.

Future activities in the project will focus on developing the REThink Game for student population and its assessment system to be validated later on.

 

Update December 2023

This stage of the project was focused on developing the REThink Life Game, creating and testing the usability of the Virtual Clinic and testing the efficacy of the platform in the prevention of emotional problems in student population.

The REThink Life Game was developed and is comprised of four levels, each training a specific emotion regulation ability such as: emotion recognition, mindfulness and relaxation, cognitive change and positive bias training. The game also has an embedded assessment system which was validated in this stage. In this phase of the project, three research studies were conducted.

The first was started last year and was continued at the beginning of the year, represented by the ecological evaluation of the emotional health of the first year students.

The second was focused on validating the evaluation system of the game and the third one was started during this stage and will continue on the last stage of the project and is focused on testing the efficacy of the integrated platform

Publications based on this project: http://rethinkplatform.ro/wpcontent/uploads/2023/03/retacademy.pdf