Options for Course Adaptations
While this course is ready to use at your institution and does not need to be edited, you have the option to make edits and adapt the course to suit the needs of your institution. The section includes suggestions for adapting and customizing the course.
You should strive to make any adaptations reflect the six key principles outlined in the Framework for Evaluating Mental Health and Wellness Education and Training Resources to ensure all material is accessible, adaptable, culturally located, evidence-informed, inclusive, and trauma informed.
If adding new interactive elements, please review the Accessibility Considerations. If you’re including new graphics or images, ensure they have alt-text available for anyone using a screen reader.
Once you have finished changing or adding course content, review the course objectives, knowledge checks, and quizzes to ensure all the material works together. You may also need to adjust the time required to complete the course.
Different Options for Obtaining, Editing, and Using the Course
You can access and use Starting a Conversation About Mental Health in a few different ways. The section Editing and Sharing the Course takes you through the different options.
- If you would like to use the course as created, with no modifications or changes, send a request to BCcampus Mental Health and Wellness. You will then receive SCORM files that can be uploaded to your LMS.
- If you would like to make changes to the course, your institution must have a subscription to Articulate Rise (also called Articulate 360). It is a web application and does not require any software downloads. It runs on any device through a browser. To access Articulate Rise, you will purchase a licence to Articulate 360, which includes the subscription to Articulate Rise. Academic pricing is available for post-secondary institutions. Detailed information about accessing, editing, and using the course in Articulate Rise can be found in Editing and Sharing the Course.
- If you want to build your own course based on the texts, images, graphics, or videos found in Starting a Conversation About Mental Health, visit BCcampus Mental Health and Wellness to access and download these materials.
Land Acknowledgement (Introduction)
Land acknowledgements are designed as a first step to reconciliation and an important way to begin the course so learners can think about next steps for reconciliation. If your institution has an approved territory acknowledgement, you are welcome to use it in this section.
The land acknowledgement section is preceded by a Welcome video in which learners are introduced to the course concepts and also invited to consider their relationship to Indigenous people across B.C. The video and the land acknowledgement ideally work together to introduce Indigenous ways of knowing and being, particularly related to mental health.
Mental Health and Mental Illness (Module 1)
In this section, students learn about a mental health continuum model, which moves from no distress on the left side of the model to mental illness on the right side of the model. They will also explore Corey Keyes dual continuum model that illustrates the intersections of mental health and mental illness. Your institution may use other models to explain mental health and mental illness, and this section can be edited to include these models. If you remove information or change the models, you will want to review the Module 1 quiz questions to ensure they still align with the new content.
Mental Health Statistics (Module 1)
This section provides a few key statistics about post-secondary students and mental health and illness. You are free to add in additional statistics that speak to realities of mental health at your institution. If you remove information from this section, please review the Module 1 quiz questions as they draw on this material.
List of Support Services (Module 3)
The table of support services has a column showing services often found on campus such as counselling services, Indigenous services, international student services, etc. This column can be edited to reflect the specific services available at your institution and relevant contact information.
The table of provincial supports includes contact information. You could also add additional provincial services to these columns.
You can also add an additional column or a separate table to list specific support services available in the community. These community services might include food banks, housing supports, LGBTQ2S+ services, substance use/addiction groups, or low-cost counselling. Sometimes students may need to refer a peer who needs support in many different areas, so a comprehensive list will be helpful.
If You Are Concerned for a Student’s Immediate Safety (Module 3)
This call-out text box outlines the general steps to take if students are concerned that a peer may be a danger to themselves or others. Your institution may have specific policies or protocols for students to follow if they are employees of the institution (for example, some institutions require students to complete a notification form). You can edit this section to include information on the steps students should take at your institution.
Practice Scenarios (Module 3)
The practice scenarios, which were written by post-secondary students, are an important tool to help learners consider and put into practice what they have learned. This course includes six scenarios featuring students from diverse backgrounds facing different challenges. You can edit these existing scenarios, create new ones to better suit your campus context, or change the images.
Resources
The Resource section includes links to the following PDFs:
- A handout of the Wellness Wheel, which includes descriptions and examples of the nine dimensions of wellness
- A handout on how to respond to students who are overwhelmed or in distress
- A handout with the course scenarios and feedback to serve as a reference
- A handout with key learning points and reflection questions found in the course
You can add additional resources (handouts or other documents) to this list. If you remove one of the handouts, you will need to review the course carefully as there are several references to handouts through the modules. As well, a list of these resources is also provided in the Introduction and in the Resources section, and these lists will need to be modified if handouts are changed.
Changing or Adding Quizzes
The course includes ungraded knowledge checks (quizzes) at the end of each module, which learners can use to assess their understanding of the material. These quizzes are not required; learners can skip over them if they choose. If you would like learners to complete the quizzes for tracking progress or completion, you can adjust the settings in Articulate Rise. As well, if you would like to add a final assessment to the course, you can develop that in Articulate Rise. See the section Making Edits to the Course in Articulate Rise for information on how to add or change a quiz.
Changing Colours and Adding Logos
If you want to align the course more closely with your institution’s graphic style, you can change the colour palette used in the course. See the section Making Edits to the Course in Articulate Rise for more detailed instructions. You can also add in your institution’s logo or use photos or images from your institution or the local community. You will want to ensure all images are also openly licensed and contain alt-text descriptions.
Reusing Course Components
Under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence, institutions are free to use the course texts, images, videos, graphics, and handouts in other ways, including to build a new course or to add into an existing course.