Mental Health Course Content Creation
Features: Film/Motion, Social Media, Promotion, Web Course Structuring
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Blackboard Educational Technology, Tech Smith Relay/Yuja
Timeline: September 2020 - September 2021
Background:
Out of all of the projects in this portfolio, this one by far is the one I am most proud of.
My freshman year of college was in 2020 – the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I got involved with the Quinnipiac Student Government Association, which is a group of voted in students that work on initiatives alongside the administration to improve the Quinnipiac campus and the student body’s experience.
An initiative I decided to take on and spearhead was creating a mental health training course that would be available to all 7,000+ Quinnipiac undergraduate students.
Process:
To begin this process, I conducted research and gathered content and resources alongside the administration in Counseling Services, Student Health Services, and the CARE program. We began talking about how we would ideally like the course to be structured.
We decided to include 2 different presentations, a video addressing mental health stigmas in our community, and a document with all of the contact information for mental health resources on and off campus. At the end, students get a certification for completing the course.
Once all the content was created, I worked with the Integrated Marketing Communications department (IMC) to create a promotion plan to ensure that the course gets advertised effectively to the student body.
Video:
I talked to the School of Communications about an idea for a video to address mental health stigmas and spread awareness. I got students across a bunch of departments and organizations to participate, and staff members helped me in the studio as we filmed. For the first half of the video, I gathered audio files from the student body that answer questions regarding their mental health.
I presented my ideas, content, and progress on my video to IMC, and they provided me with b-roll footage for the first half of the video. Then I took all of the content that I generated and edited it all together. I decided to record an overlay of me writing different stigmas. I did this by creating an artboard in Illustrator and screen recording as I used tools to illustrate.
The result was a vulnerable and eye-opening video where students opened up about their experience with mental health, and in turn, it made others more comfortable reaching out to Counseling Services and asking for support.
Presentations:
The mental health training course has two presentations: 1) One covering the resources Counseling Services and Health Services have and a step-by-step guide on how to make a counseling appointment, and 2) The other covering the CARE Program and the process of making a referral if you are concerned about a student or staff member.
This process involved me and the departments organizing pages of content into a slide template given to us by IMC, so that both presentations had a cohesive look. I then had the different departments record their portions of the presentations so we could edit them together and add them to the Blackboard course.
Resource Document:
Using information gathered by Counseling Services and Student Health Services, I designed a 3-page interactive document with all of the on-campus and off-campus mental health resources that students are able to access in time of need. In the training course, all of the links go directly to the websites of the resources.
Results:
The mental health training course was released in the summer of 2021 to all of the first-year students, and then to the rest of the undergraduate student body in September of 2021.
It was promoted through Quinnipiac Today, university media outlets, professors, multiple social media accounts, and students, and each post had lots of engagement.
I received so many direct messages and emails thanking me for creating this training course. Overall, I would say I accomplished my mission of helping others feel comfortable getting the support they need.
Credits
A huge thank you to these Quinnipiac Departments:
Counseling Services, Student Health Services, CARE Program - for working with me throughout the whole entire process of this initiative and for gathering all of the content for us to use in the course.
Integrated Marketing & Communications - for advice and guidance during the creation of the video and advertising the training course and the story behind it on QU Today and other platforms
Information and Technology - for helping me structure the course on Blackboard and enrolling 7,000+ students into the course through 2 releases
School of Communications - for allowing me to use the McMahon Studio and the assistance in the control room the day of filming
Campus Life - for promoting this initiative through the Orientation program and for guidance throughout the initiative process
Another huge thank you to:
Student Government Association - for all of your input and support on this initiative throughout the entire year I worked on it
Orientation Staff, Residential Assistants, and Student Organizations - For participating in the video and for promoting this initiative to all of your peers