Get Ready for Fall! Add Student Health and Wellness Resources to Your Courses

By Jill Giacomini and Lynee Sanute

Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash 

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over and it’s time to get our courses ready for fall.  To help you out, we are spotlighting a resource we recently created to make it as easy as possible for students taking online or hybrid courses to access the many health and wellness resources that are available to them. Focusing on our mental and physical health is something we should try to do every day--with the events of the past year and a half it is now more important than ever. To make it easy for you we’ve pulled together some selected resources for students to download and include in your course as you are making your updates in preparation for the new term. 

Why Should I Include Student Wellness Resources in My Course?

We include resources for students in our courses, such as links to the library and tutoring services, to help them with their studies. Students tend to have a great deal of stress in their lives--the unique challenges of the past year and a half have only amplified these pressures. If we stop for a moment to take a more holistic view of our students, we see that many would likely benefit from additional support to help balance the inevitable academic pressures with other responsibilities and roles. 

Fortunately there are many resources available to provide this support, though students are probably not aware of what is available. Including a module or page with these targeted resources in your course, where students spend so much of their time, raises the visibility of the help that is available and makes it easier for students to see these valuable supports as another option to help them manage the complexities of their lives. 

I’ll Do It! Where Do I Start?

Great! There are two options to choose from: 

1. a comprehensive dedicated module with resources organized into four different categories with descriptions. This module also includes a direct link to the comprehensive CU Denver Student Health and Wellness Guide

2. a streamlined, single page composed primarily of links and contact information that includes many of the same resources included in the module described above 

Both options can be easily imported into your course from Canvas Commons, similar to the process you may have used to download the full Course Template. Each resource includes campus-specific support, as well as resources accessible to the community beyond CU, related to caring for mental health, finding help with food insecurity, connecting with others on campus and general wellness. 

How Do I Add Either the Module or the Page Resource to My Course?

1. Locate the Student Wellness Resources in Canvas Commons

To find the Student Wellness resources from anywhere in Canvas, visit the Canvas Commons by clicking on the Commons button on the far left navigation.

2. Search for the Wellness Resources

Once you are in Commons, search for the resources by entering "CU Denver Anschutz Student Health and Wellness" into the search bar and selecting enter. Your search should return two results which look like the image below, the single page resource listed first and the comprehensive module resource listed second.

3. Decide Which Resource You Would Like to Add to Your Course and Select Import/Download

You can preview the content of each resource by selecting the title and then browsing within the Preview tab.

When you're ready to import one of the resources to your course (this can be either a Sandbox or existing SIS course), click on the blue Import/Download button on the right-hand side of your screen.

When you click on Import/Download, a sidebar with your own courses will appear. This gives you the option to choose which course(s) to add the selected resource. Please note: Importing either the page or module resource will not override any existing content in your course(s). 

After you've selected the course(s), click on the blue "Import into Course" button at the bottom.

That’s it! It may take a few minutes to see the resource you selected appear in your course.

We hope to improve and add to both resources over time, so please feel free to suggest additional resources by sending them to odetraining@cu.edu.