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Module 5 Book: Support Services Across Campus

Site: TRU Open Courses
Course: Inclusive Digital Design Course (Enrolment Key: IDD)
Book: Module 5 Book: Support Services Across Campus
Printed by: Guest user
Date: Saturday, 12 April 2025, 12:55 AM

Table of contents

Support Services Across Campus Overview

Please note: This module was designed around TRU support services but we invite you to consider the concepts discussed from the perspective of your institution.


Learning Outcomes

  By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • Identify on-campus support services that are applicable to one’s field

  • Explain how integrating student support information within a Moodle course is beneficial for students


Topics

This module will cover the following topics:

  • Topic 1: Why supports should be integrated.

  • Topic 2: Know what supports are available.

  • Topic 3: How best to integrate supports into your Moodle shell.

  • Topic 4: How to talk to students about supports.


Introduction

  At TRU, we are so lucky to be supported by an exceptional collection of programs and services geared towards the needs of students. We can support these supportive spaces in turn by normalizing the idea of asking for help and making the use of supports a common part of our conversations about university life. When students hear about support services from a number of different places, they are more likely to know what resources are available when it most matters.

In this module, you will learn about the various services available to students at TRU. You will also learn about why integrating information about those services is an important practice.

Note

What supports are available to OL students versus campus students is not always clear. This resource has been written with on-campus faculty in mind. While OLFMs will find Topics 1, 3, and 4 useful, they should consult with OL’s Learning Strategist to confirm available supports for OL students.

Topic 1: Why supports should be integrated.

  It’s important to never assume that students already know what resources are available to them and how to ask for those resources. For many reasons, things that might seem obvious to those of us acclimated to the university – like going to the Writing Centre for help with an essay – may not even be on a student’s radar. You may be the only voice the student meets who can connect them to help.

Furthermore, students can have a perception that support resources are only for students who are in trouble, and they may feel stigma about reaching out for help. By presenting learning supports alongside our course materials, we can normalize asking for help as part of the teaching and learning process and an expected component of their learning.

A Moment to Reflect

  What are your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to helping students access resources? Perhaps you struggle to set boundaries, and you want to know what resources are available so you can connect learners to experts. Perhaps you find students don't reach out to you for support, and you're curious about why. Maybe you're just looking for ways to be more proactive in sharing resources with your learners.

Do students often come to you for support? Why do think this is the case?
Have you referred students to support services in the past? Why do think this is the case?

In thinking this through, it can help to reflect on your positionality in the classroom. Consider sharing your thinking with students as you build a connection.


Resource 1: Reading: “Helping Students Ask for Help” by Jaqueline von Spiegel

  Please read this article about supporting help-seeking behaviours. Note especially the conclusion: “While college faculty and staff interact with many students every day, it is important to remember that one interaction with a student reaching out for help can have lasting effects on their use of help-seeking as a life-long skill. With clear guidance and empathetic support, students may become more confident in themselves and their ability to reach out to others. The development of adaptive help-seeking skills in college students not only will improve students’ engagement and success but will strengthen relationships with student affairs professionals.”

Activity 1: Forum Post

  Please share in the Module 5 Learning Activity (Optional): Discussion Forum an experience where you assisted a student to develop help-seeking behaviours as described in the article above. Try to be as concrete and specific as you can be while respecting your student’s privacy. After you share your experience in the forum, come back to reply to one or two of your colleagues.

Example: I like to start the term by talking about my struggles the first time I took this class. I realize after reading the article that what I’m doing is “Share struggles with students to create mutual vulnerability and trust.” I can think of one example where this was really powerful for a student, who came to me before the midterm to disclose that she didn’t believe she could pass. She said she came to talk to me because she knew I had struggled with the same concepts and wondered how I dealt with it. We talked about some resources I used and I discovered that they are now available online. I gave her a one-week extension on the midterm and encouraged her to connect with a Peer Academic Coach.

Topic 2: Know what supports are available.

  TRU’s support offerings for students are extensive, and range from cultural supports like Cplul’kw’ten and International Student Advisors, learning supports like the Writing Centre and Supplemental Learning, and health and wellness supports like the Wellness Centre, the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy, and Counselling Services. Familiarizing yourself with these resources can help you know how best to direct students for support. 

Explore the resources your institution offers for Indigenous learners. 

Resources for Indigenous Learners

  TRU offers specific supports for Indigenous learners. Consider sharing these in your course spaces.

What resources does your institution offer for Indigenous learners?


Activity 2: Available Resources

  Please take a moment to review TRU’s currently available student supports. When you are finished, please try the following H5P activity.





Resource 2: Early Alert

  Sometimes, it’s hard to know where to send a student who is struggling. Early Alert can be a first referral for any student, and you can contact them directly to reach out to a learner in trouble. Early Alert identifies the following behaviours as indications that an Early Alert referral may be appropriate.

  • habitual tardiness

  • unexplained absences

  • difficulty completing work on time

  • low quiz or assignment grades

  • excessive in-class sleepiness

  • homesickness

  • social isolation

  • changes in behaviour

Note

Early Alert is not an emergency service. If you have any reason to believe a student is in immediate risk of harm, please contact emergency services.

Watch this video to learn more about Early Alert.

TRU Student Life (2021, October 21). Early Alert - Thompson Rivers University [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g33jTRdGwfY

You can refer a student to Early Alert by emailing earlyalert@tru.ca. From there, the process is straightforward:

  1. A staff or faculty member notices a student experiencing academic difficulty and contacts the Early Alert office.

  2. Early Alert communicates with the student to offer optional, confidential support.

  3. Early Alert meets with the student to assess the student's needs and connects them to TRU resources or support services.

  4. Early Alert may check in with the student at a later date to ensure they are still getting the support they need to be academically successful.

Participation in the Early Alert program is voluntary and students may opt out at any time.

Topic 3: How best to integrate supports into your Moodle shell?

  We recommend that you share supports in a clear, obvious part of your Moodle shell, where it becomes a normal part of the resources and references students consult in preparation for class. Becoming habituated to the presence of resources is a great way for students to get familiar with what is available and also to understand that learning supports are a normal part of post-secondary education. Strategies for including this component in your Moodle shell include:

  • Within your General Information area, use Add an Activity or Resource to create a “Page.” This Page can be a list of links and descriptions to different resources.

  • In your Block Drawer (small arrow at the top right), use Add a Block to create a “Text” block. This text block can be a list of links to various resources.

  • Add a specific section to your shell, and contain the resources within it. We recommend making it visible by placing it at the top of your course, or use the OneTopic (“tabs”) format and give it a different colour.

Activity 3a: Create a “Supports” Section

  Choose one of the methods above and implement a “Supports” section in the Moodle shells you currently have in development. Reflect on how you decide which supports to include and how you plan to discuss this section with students when you orient them to your Moodle shell.

Activity 3b: Create a Support Statement

  Consider how you might include a 2-3 sentence statement of support for help-seeking behaviours on your course outline or in your Moodle shell. This can have the effect of helping students understand that learning resources and supports are for all students, not only struggling students looking for remediation.

Example: Successful students seek out the supports offered by the university to promote their learning. As a student in this course, you are strongly encouraged to seek out such resources. Please look to my Supports Section for more details about available supports.

Topic 4: How to talk to students about supports.

  It is critical that we all work together to normalize the idea of asking for and receiving support at university. Too often, students believe that seeking help makes them seem weak; this can especially be true of students who are new to university and don’t have family models to explain how supports are a normal and necessary part of the process of learning.

Identifying the discipline-specific learning supports available that can help with success in your course is a great place to start. Some instructors, for example, offer a bonus point or other enticement for students who consult with learning supports in their area (please consult with the specific learning support you are considering to ensure they have enough resources available for you to do this). This helps students see learning supports as co-curricular initiatives that are open for everyone, rather than as remedial supports to be sought out once they are struggling.

For other support services, it can be helpful to share experiences or examples of how you have been helped by seeking supports. Many students can’t imagine that the person in the front of the classroom has ever needed to seek help, and disclosing (to the degree that you are comfortable and that feels professional and appropriate) can be a meaningful step in helping students to see where supports fit in their own learning journey.

Activity 4: Reflection

  Consider your own academic history. Is there a time when you wish you had known about a support service or wish one existed where it didn’t? Is there a time you have sought help? Reflect on the difference that this made in your life. Script a small vignette that you can consider sharing with students when you discuss supports.

Example: When I was a graduate student nearing the end of my degree, I was applying for a lot of jobs and fellowships and submitting a lot of things for publication, and as a result of all that hard work, I was getting rejected. A lot! After a few months of this I realized that I didn’t have the tools to process this volume of rejection and it was really starting to impact my mental health. At the time, I struggled to tell the difference between my own frustrations with my experiences and my feelings about my field. Luckily, we had excellent mental health counsellors at my university. I met regularly with one and learned some exceptionally useful tools for managing my anxiety, including some strategies – like taking stock of my daily accomplishments, no matter how small – that I still use to this day. I really believe that seeking mental health care at that stage of my life made it possible for me to find success later on.

Support Services Across Campus Assessment

To complete this Module as a component towards earning the certificate, please choose one of the assessment options below and submit your response to the Assignment Dropbox. We recommend writing your response in the word processor of your choice and then cutting and pasting your response into the Assignment Drop Box submission area.


Assessment Option 1

Scavenger Hunt! Find 3 student support resources on your institution's website that you would share with students and include the URL where you found it. Describe the importance of sharing those support resources with students.

Here are some ideas for what kinds of student support resources you might try to find:

  • Student Life (information about new student orientations, the student union, financial advising, mentorship opportunities, etc.)
  • Academic Supports (information about academic advising, assessment centre, accessibility services, writing centre, Library, etc.)
  • Health & Wellness (information about wellness, counselling, safety, medical access, multi-faith chaplaincy, sexualized violence prevention, etc.)
  • Diversity & Equity (information about international student advisors, intercultural learning, LGBTQ2S+, inclusive spaces, accessible spaces, etc.)
  • Career & Experiential Learning (information about work study, job fairs, co-operative education, student employment opportunities, etc.)

Assessment Option 2

Describe an on-campus student support service at your institution that you now want to share with your students.

  • Describe how the support service applies to your setting;

  • Describe how you intend to share this information with students; and

  • Explain why you want to share this information about this support service and how it will benefit learners in your class.