Higher Ed Campuses

Thank you for choosing SOS Signs of Suicide for Higher Ed to teach your campus about suicide prevention. Please note that the instructions for this program apply to both the Student and Faculty & Staff trainings.

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Access Instructions
Educate Your Campus
Reporting
Best Practices
Group Facilitation Option
Advanced Delivery

Accessing the Course

Standard Delivery

If your campus is accessing SOS for Higher Ed through our learning management platform, you’ll need to send your students and/or faculty and staff the redemption code that was emailed to you upon purchase. We suggest sharing this with them through the following instructions:

Login Instructions for New Students or Faculty & Staff: 

  • Set up an account by visiting learn.sossignsofsuicide.org and clicking “Create Account”.
  • When prompted, enter the redemption code provided in your activation email.
  • View the dashboard and select the SOS for Higher Ed training.

Login Instructions for Anyone who Completed the Training Last Year: 

  • Login to your account by visiting learn.sossignsofsuicide.org.
  • View the dashboard and select the SOS for Higher Ed training.
  • If needed, use the “Reset your password” feature.

Advanced Delivery

If users are accessing SOS for Higher Ed through your campus LMS, no redemption code is required. Learn more about technical setup and support for this delivery option. 

Educate Your Campus

Use the resources below to help you communicate the program’s value to your students, faculty, and staff.

Messaging:

Graphics:

Reporting

Please note that there is no back-end administrative access for this training. Standard Delivery implementers are registered to receive an email report of all training users and course completions once a week in a .csv file. If you prefer to receive these reports less frequently, please email sostech@riversidecc.org and we’ll update your settings. 

Best Practices

Encouraging your campus community to engage in suicide prevention training requires a creative approach. To support your efforts, we’ve compiled the following best practices for integrating SOS for Higher Ed into existing initiatives and championing suicide prevention across campus.

  • Leverage existing communication channels: Share the training with faculty and staff through onboarding materials, monthly wellness newsletters, staff listservs, or department meetings. Framing it as part of your campus’s commitment to student well-being and safety can help increase comfort with the material and drive engagement. 
  • Build on current initiatives: Already have a campaign for Suicide Prevention Month? Add a link to SOS for Higher Ed in related posts or emails. Are student groups hosting mental wellness events? Encourage them to use the Group Facilitation Guide and lead an in-person workshop as part of their programming. 
  • Make the most of tabling events: Use events like health fairs, welcome weeks, or resource expos to promote the course. Share printed materials, pass out campus swag, and start conversations about how this training helps build a more caring and responsive community. 
  • Launch a campus training challenge: Create a friendly competition among student clubs, dorms, academic departments, or student-facing departments. Track completion rates and offer small prizes or public recognition to the highest-participating groups. 
  • Let students lead the way: Enlist student government and leaders from vocal student groups. Student voices are powerful in promoting peer participation and in advocating for broader adoption—such as making training part of orientation, athletics, Greek life, or new club member onboarding. 
  • Engage key departments: While counseling centers are often well-versed in suicide prevention, staff across residence life, orientation, academic advising, and student activities are eager for additional training. Share the staff training with them and invite their support in promoting the student training. 
  • Involve faculty: Professors may assign the student training as homework or for extra credit (learners receive a certificate of completion). Social science or public health instructors might choose to run a group workshop in class. Faculty can model their commitment to student mental health by completing the faculty training and displaying their certificate of completion. 
  • Partner with existing organizations: Many campuses already have active suicide prevention or mental health committees. Partner with these groups to integrate SOS into ongoing efforts and highlight it alongside other campus resources. 
  • Look to the helping professions: Students studying counseling, social work, psychology, nursing, ministry, and human services can benefit greatly from SOS as part of their coursework. Faculty might also assign students to lead peer workshops or design campus-wide initiatives as part of internships or practicums. 
  • Tap into marketing and public health departments: Suicide prevention is a public health priority. Collaborate with faculty and students in public health, marketing, or communications to help promote the training. Consider working with campus influencers—online or in person—to increase visibility. 
  • Use your weekly training report: Identify students and staff who’ve completed the course and invite them to become peer ambassadors. Encourage them to get 5–10 friends to complete the training or take the next step and lead a group session. 
  • Follow up with learners: After someone completes the training, follow up with tailored resources based on their role—whether they’re a student, staff, or faculty member—to ensure they know where to turn if they or someone else needs help. 

Group Facilitation Option

These courses are designed to be completed independently or as part of a group facilitated suicide prevention training. 

To use SOS for Higher Ed in a group setting, review the below Facilitation Guides and Extension Activities (also available under the Resources tab within the course). An editable certificate of completion is also available below for distribution after group training sessions.

Advanced Delivery

Implementing the Advanced Delivery version of an SOS course on your Learning Management System (LMS) is a safe and simple way to ensure courses are easily accessible to your learners.

How it Works

We will provide you with a SCORM “stub” (as a .ZIP file). SCORM stands for Shareable Content Object Reference Model and Scorm.com defines it as a set of technical standards for eLearning software products. Unlike a typical SCORM package, this “stub” does not contain our training content; rather, it retrieves that content seamlessly from our LMS whenever your learners need it. These dispatch files delivered as .ZIP files provide a direct connection from your LMS to the content housed in our LMS. This allows your learners access to our suicide prevention modules and gives us the ability to monitor usage, track licenses, and ensure your LMS has immediate access to any course updates. You will need someone on your team with access to and familiarity with setting up courses in your LMS, who can create a course and add the “stub” as a learning package. In most systems, this can be done in just a few clicks.

Receiving Course Files

  • File Type: The course file will be emailed to your campus implementor as a .ZIP file that includes the SOS course’s SCORM stub. 
  • File Upload: When you receive the ZIP file, your LMS administrator will upload the .ZIP file (do not unzip) to your LMS as a learning package and set up the course just like any other SCORM element. 
  • Sample Instructions for Common LMS Platforms: Canvas, Schoology, D2L Brightspace
  • File Type: The course file will be emailed to your campus implementor as a .ZIP file that includes the SOS course’s SCORM stub. 
  • File Upload: When you receive the ZIP file, your LMS administrator will upload the .ZIP file (do not unzip) to your LMS as a learning package and set up the course just like any other SCORM element. 
  • Sample Instructions for Common LMS Platforms: Canvas, Schoology, D2L Brightspace

Setting Up the Course in Your LMS

  • Recommended Setup: We recommend a simple course setup such as our training module followed by a certificate of completion; however, anything outside of our suicide prevention training module can be customized to the extent possible in your LMS. 
  • Enrollment: Once the course has been created in your LMS, you can provision the content to your audience in the same way you share other trainings and courses. For example, auto-enroll all your first-year students, customize access, and more. Please note that your learners will not need to login to any additional platforms or systems.
  • Learner Registrations: Each time a learner in your LMS begins our training module it counts as one registration. Additional registration blocks are available for purchase as needed.
  • Time Limits: We recommend setting up our courses without time requirements as there is variation in how long it takes for learners to complete our courses.

Data & Reporting

  • What Data is Shared with SOS: In addition to learner name, time spent in the module, and completion status, SOS also collects IP addresses in aggregate. The IP addresses are not matched to specific learner data but rather are used to populate a heat map displaying where users are accessing our content, thus allowing us to monitor for unauthorized use.
  • What Data You Can Collect: As this module will be accessed within your school’s LMS, you can collect any data you would like, e.g. major, graduating year, or familiarity with suicide prevention.