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Increasing Informal Student Interactions to Support Mental Health and Increase Class Engagement during the COVID pandemic

During the COVID pandemic, increased isolation was one of the factors that caused many university students to experience increased stress, anxiety, and depression. This negative impact on the mental health of students also contributed to decreased engagement in the classroom and learning overall. The benefit of connections between students and the university community has been well-established in literature. Therefore, for students in the chemical engineering thermodynamics course at the University of Arkansas during 2020, an attempt was made to increase student-student and student-faculty connections through a variety of means. The primary goal was to support the mental health of vulnerable students and increase classroom engagement and learning.