| | Internet-based
College Alcohol Education
Principal
Investigator: Melodie Fearnow-Kenney, Ph.D.
Tanglewood Research, Inc.
Co-Principal
Investigator: M.J. Paschall, Ph.D.
Alcohol
abuse prevention on college campuses remains an important
national goal that requires additional programmatic resources
to be effective. The extent and seriousness of the problem
have been validated by the passage of the 1989 Drug-Free Schools
and Communities Act, which requires federally funded colleges
and universities to implement alcohol and other drug prevention
efforts. The U.S. Department of Education also responded by
creating the Network of Colleges and Universities Committed
to the Elimination of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. The Network
serves to assist colleges and universities in developing alcohol
and other drug prevention efforts in four main areas: policy,
education, enforcement, and assessment.
It
is the second area of emphasis, education, that provides the
approach for this project. The broad aim of this project is
to develop an effective, research-based, alcohol education
course in a format that is nearly universal for all colleges
and universities, the distance learning curriculum. Offering
the course to institutions through the medium of distance
learning will give colleges and universities the freedom and
independence to use the course to meet their educational and
prevention needs and at the same time limit the cost and difficulty
of initiating the development of a new course. We intend to
develop a course based on sound theory and data with the goal
of modifying specific mediators associated with college-age
alcohol abuse. Moreover, we expect to create a course that
will have good potential for widespread dissemination.
The
goal of this Phase II SBIR project is to demonstrate the effectiveness
of an online alcohol education course at changing mediating
variables associated with high-risk drinking among college
students. The specific aims of this project are:
- To
refine the curriculum and Internet program based on the
results of Phase I to insure (a) that the potential of
the course to change mediating variables is maximized
and (b) that the technology can be accessed by typical
college students and professors.
- To
create an instruction manual for college and university
faculty who may be teaching the course.
- To
collect and edit chapters for a book of readings (online
and hard-copy versions) that will (a) reflect the research
of experts in the field of college alcohol abuse and (b)
supplement the course curriculum and unit activities.
- To
complete a usability study during which the complete course
will be reviewed and evaluated by approximately 30 college
students.
- To
conduct a randomized field trial to examine course effects
on students' alcohol-related expectancies, management
skills, intentions, consumption, and problems.
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