Alcoholedu Partner Guide
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AlcoholEdu Partner Guide William DeJong, PhD Boston University School of Public Health; Consultant, EverFi Elaine Albers, BS Robert Buelow, MS Helen Stubbs, MS Kimberley Timpf, MEd AlcoholEdu Partner Guide Table of Contents Preface 3 Introduction 4 An Orientation to the Guide Understanding AlcoholEdu 6 The Course’s Prevention Philosophy and Key Messages Revisiting AlcoholEdu 11 Recommendations for Additional Prevention Programming Part 1 Module 1: Getting Started 12 Module 2: Standard Drink 13 Survey 1: Pre-Intervention Survey 14 Module 3: Where Do You Stand? 14 Module 4: Goal Setting 18 Module 5: Drinking and Motivation 19 Module 6: Brain and Body 22 Module 7: My Action Plan 27 Module 8: Laws and Policies 28 Module 9: Helping Friends 29 Survey 2: Course Evaluation 32 Part 2 Module 1: Getting Started 32 Module 2: Standard Drink 33 Beyond AlcoholEdu 36 Implementing a Comprehensive Prevention Program APPENDIX 1: AlcoholEdu Learning Objectives 42 APPENDIX 2: AlcoholEdu Course Map 52 APPENDIX 3: AlcoholEdu Evidence Base 57 APPENDIX 4: The Rape of Mr. Smith 62 APPENDIX 5: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test 63 APPENDIX 6: Campus Alcohol Policy Survey 64 2 Preface College administrators have long recognized that students’ misuse of alcohol is a major problem on campuses, not only because of the consequences experienced by students who choose to drink heavily, but also because of the impact on the majority of students who abstain from alcohol or do not drink abusively. While the threat to students’ health and safety is a continual worry, there is also growing awareness that student alcohol use can compromise an institution’s ability to fulfill its educational mission. First, high-risk drinking and its consequences can tarnish a college’s reputation for academic excellence, which in turn can make it harder to recruit and retain gifted students, damage graduates’ employability in a competitive job market, and demoralize alumni who are supporting the school financially. When a college is named a top “party school” by noted publications and websites, administrators immediately take steps to protect the institution’s “brand” and avoid being singled out in future reports. Second, several studies have shown that students who drink heavily have lower grade- point averages and more often report missing classes or assignments, attending class unprepared, and having difficulty concentrating. It is unsurprising, then, that high- risk drinking is associated with an increased probability of academic failure and early departure from college. Lower graduation rates hurt an institution’s prestige. Third, alcohol problems on campus also drive up an institution’s operational costs due to the additional personnel needed for counseling services, judicial affairs, public safety, and buildings and grounds maintenance; non-billable property damage; and lost tuition and recruitment costs related to student attrition. Another concern is potential legal liability. Recent case law has established that campus officials must take reasonable protective measures to guard against foreseeable hazards and risks in the campus environment, meaning, in part, that they need to deal with dangerous situations on campus. Years of litigation over the concept of “reasonable care” in higher education law have shown that the courts will typically protect an institution that shows good faith by seeking to apply evidence-based prevention programs. AlcoholEdu for College, with rigorous evaluation studies demonstrating its effectiveness in reducing student drinking and negative alcohol-related consequences among first- year students, is one of those evidence-based programs. This online course provides students with both the information and motivation they need to protect their health and safety, while also helping set the stage for environmental management strategies that should be part of every college’s efforts to reduce alcohol problems on campus. From all of us on the EverFi team, we thank you for making AlcoholEdu the cornerstone of your institution’s alcohol prevention efforts. You have taken an important step to protect the health and safety of your students. Regards, The EverFi Team 3 Introduction Educating and motivating AN ORIENTATION TO THE GUIDE students to The purpose of this guide is to support campuses that are implementing AlcoholEdu for continue College as part of a comprehensive alcohol prevention program. The course is designed primarily for first-year students, but other students who complete the course will also abstaining - or to benefit. Intervention prior to matriculation or shortly thereafter is critical, as the first use alcohol safely term in college often sets the stage for alcohol abuse patterns that persist throughout if they choose the college years. It is true that many students begin college with an established pattern to drink - must of high-risk drinking, but many others initiate excessive alcohol consumption shortly be supported after arriving on campus. by a campus AlcoholEdu’s development was guided by a theory-based intervention planning system environment that called Intervention Mapping, which has been used to design health communications campaigns, education programs, and other public health interventions. Moreover, reinforces and the course incorporates key elements found in successful intervention programs, as builds on the identified by recent reviews of the research literature. foundation of the It is important to remember, however, that an online education program is just one course. part of a comprehensive approach to addressing alcohol-related problems on campus. This guide is intended to provide a deeper understanding of the underlying framework and the student learning experience in AlcoholEdu so that campus practitioners can reinforce and build upon the course through ongoing programming during the academic year and thereby sustain its positive impact on student knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. ORGANIZATION The AlcoholEdu Partner Guide is organized into three main sections: Understanding AlcoholEdu: introduction to the course’s prevention philosophy and key messages Revisiting AlcoholEdu: overview of course content and recommendations for additional prevention programming Beyond AlcoholEdu: a comprehensive approach to reduce alcohol and other drug problems among first-year students Assisted by this guide, campus practitioners will be able to develop continuing prevention efforts that build upon the course’s fundamental learning objectives, including both additional educational programming and environmental management strategies designed to change the environment in which students make decisions about their alcohol use. Effective prevention requires continuous effort.AlcoholEdu moves first-year students in the right direction—the research evidence on this point is definitive. Ultimately, however, AlcoholEdu’s success in educating and motivating students to continue abstaining—or to use alcohol safely, if they choose to drink—must be supported by a campus environment that reinforces and then builds on the foundation the course provides. WHO SHOULD USE THIS GUIDE? This guide will be useful to anyone wanting to learn more about AlcoholEdu and how it fits into a comprehensive approach to campus alcohol prevention. It is important, however, for prevention programs to be developed and implemented by trained 4 professionals, and for that reason it would be inappropriate for the guide to be used by an untrained facilitator to develop a new or supplemental educational program. First-year students arrive on campus believing that they already know a lot about alcohol. Many of them have used alcohol previously, and they very often have firmly held beliefs and attitudes about student drinking, some of which are based on misinformation. As a result, talking about these issues with students can be challenging, and poorly delivered programs run the risk of building, rather than overcoming, student resistance to the college’s prevention messaging. Thus, the development of programs and workshops that build on AlcoholEdu is best done by trained professionals who have in-depth knowledge of the subject, understand student-centered approaches to learning, and therefore are best equipped to meet this challenge. HOW SHOULD THE GUIDE BE USED? This guide was developed to provide practitioners with information they can use to build upon AlcoholEdu to create additional prevention programming for their students. Appendix 1 lists the course’s many learning objectives, plus a few that are not covered, all of which can be reinforced through subsequent workshops, seminars, courses, educational events, and public communication campaigns, as well as through campus policy and other environmental management strategies. On many campuses, there are limited opportunities to access all incoming students. This is an important concern for two reasons. Most importantly, new incoming students are at greatest risk for high-risk drinking and its negative consequences during their first six weeks on campus. In addition, with students having just recently taken AlcoholEdu, it is important to take advantage of immediate opportunities to reinforce the course’s key messages. One of the best ways to reach incoming students after they have completed AlcoholEdu, particularly at colleges that implement the course prior to matriculation, is in orientation programs and first-year seminars. Another option is a public communications campaign that uses posters, flyers, newspaper