Students Learn How to ‘Take Responsibility’ and ‘Increase Awareness’ Through MyStudentBody Student Conduct Course

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Ty Achilles

Sometimes students don’t make the best decisions. Hey, we’re all human, right? Unfortunately, students still need to face the consequences of their actions if they violate certain campus policies, especially those involving alcohol and drugs. No, we can’t just let this one slide, Johnny. How else are you going to learn something from your experiences?

MyStudentBody Student Conduct course modules

To that end, MyStudentBody has officially launched the new MyStudentBody Student Conduct Course. Specifically designed for students who violate an institution’s alcohol policy, students will examine the themes of self-awareness, learning from their mistakes, and taking responsibility in this course. We’re confident it will help students realize and learn from their mistakes without making it feel punitive (can we get out of timeout now?). Here’s what you need to know:

For existing MyStudentBody administrators

The MyStudentBody Student Conduct Course will automatically show up on your student site’s MyStuff page. Students can take the course by clicking “Take Now” under the Student Conduct Course heading. As a campus administrator, you can easily customize the passing score, number of attempts, and follow-up assessment settings in MyStudentBody Admin, or disable this course by contacting Implementation Specialist Amy Cavender.

With this release, we’ve also added two other features including, Drinking Profile and Rate Myself data prior to 12/15/10, and a parent guide in an email-friendly, easy-to-share format. For more information or to check them out for yourself, log in with your account.

To student affairs professionals that currently do not use MyStudentBody

If you’re struggling to find the right balance between sanction, intervention, and education, try out the MyStudentBody Student Conduct Course with a guest pass. You’ll be able to preview the course and decide if it’s right for your students. This course can be purchased separately from the rest of the MyStudentBody comprehensive program.

For more information on the MyStudentBody Student Conduct Course, contact us at (800) 848-3895 x3. Current customers can call (800) 848-3895 x205.

Announcement: Fashion Institute of Technology uses MyStudentBody to support “dry campus” policy

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Ty Achilles

Contributed by Donna Wentworth

Located on Seventh Avenue in the heart of New York City, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a leading-edge fashion institute that aims to prepare students for professional excellence in design, fashion, and business through an educational experience that fosters “creativity, career focus, and a global perspective.”

Recognizing the connection between students’ health and academic performance, FIT has adopted a strong drug and alcohol abuse prevention policy. As part of the policy, the Institute has chosen to make its campus in downtown Manhattan a “dry campus.”

The Challenge

Of the 11,000 full- and part-time students enrolled at FIT, approximately 2,300 live on campus. FIT works to educate every student about the risks of alcohol and drug abuse, and requires those living on campus to agree to the dry campus policy and complete an alcohol education course. “That includes first-year students, summer students, and any returning upperclassmen who want to live on campus,” says Gabrielle Arthurton-Crumb, Assistant Director of Judicial Affairs at FIT.

In addition to the challenge of reaching every student with consistent health education, FIT strives to deliver information in a way that makes sense to students. “In the 21st century, communication is technology-based, and young adults are used to instant responses,” explains Arthurton-Crumb.

While it may be quick and easy for students to find health information on the Internet, not all of the information is trustworthy. To protect students, FIT works to provide them with easy access to accurate health information, including information about emerging health risks, such as misuse or abuse of prescription stimulants and painkillers.

The Solution

After investigating several online prevention programs, FIT chose to implement MyStudentBody. The program integrates student courses on drugs and alcohol, a 24/7 online student wellness resource, a parent-based intervention, and a set of specially developed tools and resources for campus health administrators. Every school that subscribes to MyStudentBody has access to each component of the program at no extra charge.

According to Arthurton-Crumb, FIT chose MyStudentBody because it is “user-friendly.” Through brief motivational self-assessments in six topic areas, the program helps FIT deliver comprehensive health education that is tailored to individual students.

“MyStudentBody allows us to provide students with essential health information that is both accurate and presented in an interesting way. They can get answers to questions they might not otherwise ask, for various reasons – they’re embarrassed, they think they should already know the answer, etc. The program also allows them to ‘personalize’ the website to reflect their interests and needs,” she explains.

In addition, says Arthurton-Crumb, MyStudentBody offers student courses on both alcohol and drugs, and FIT makes use of both courses.

“With the launch of the Essentials Course, we have the opportunity not only to offer freshmen information on alcohol and drugs, but also to offer our upperclassmen a different but equally valuable experience,” she explains. “The drugs module helps us to address not only the use of illegal drugs such as marijuana, but also the increased use of prescription drugs on college campuses.”

FIT administrators are able to monitor students’ progress in the course online and to access aggregate, anonymous data on students’ self-reported behaviors. These data allow administrators to identify the unique health challenges on their campus, and to track changes in behavior over time.

“The system is easy to use, and the reports allow for accurate tracking,” observes Arthurton-Crumb.

Finally, says Arthurton-Crumb, FIT administrators have found that MyStudentBody’s staff is responsive and strives to meet FIT’s evolving needs.

“There is a strong customer service, for both our students and staff,” she says. “The MyStudentBody staff is open and receptive to our suggestions and requests for features that we’d like to see so that the program reaches its full potential. And the website is always improving.”

For more information on how MyStudentBody can help your college reach its alcohol, drug, and sexual violence prevention goals, click here.

Announcement: Measure student behavior over time with the MyStudentBody follow-up assessment

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Ty Achilles

Contributed by Tyler Achilles, B.A.

New research suggests that problem drinking among college students is not a phase or one-time deal. Yet many colleges and universities don’t have a method of monitoring outcomes in the weeks and months following an alcohol education program that usually takes place during orientation or the first few weeks of the semester. If colleges aren’t monitoring these outcomes, then they are missing out on detecting prevailing trends in student behavior. Implementing a method for measuring student behavior over time will also help evaluate the alcohol and drug education program the colleges may have in place, for example, MyStudentBody.

One way to observe changes in drinking or drug use on your campus is to implement the follow-up assessment – an easy to use feature built into all MyStudentBody courses. If your college currently uses MyStudentBody, you know all students must complete the Rate Myself assessment in order to successfully pass the MyStudentBody Essentials Course (Alcohol, Drugs, and, if applicable, Sexual Violence). The follow-up assessment feature gives you the option to require that students retake that assessment after a designated period of time (30, 60, or 90 days following their completion of the Essentials Course).

The follow-up assessments can be a powerful data-gathering tool. Using the data you receive can help you answer questions such as:

Are students using more protective factors than they were before?
How did the patterns of drinking or non-medical use of prescription medications change?
Are students more likely to get consent or to report sexual violence?
Have students gained familiarity with campus alcohol and drug policies?

Remember, the more students who complete the follow-up assessments, the more accurate the results. So make sure that your college is setting the expectation that students have not completed the MyStudentBody program until they’ve completed the follow-up assessment. It’s also a good idea to send out email reminders to students about the process.

So how does it work?

It’s easy! At the selected interval (30, 60, or 90 days after completing the course) we send an email to the student instructing them to log in to MyStudentBody and select the Follow-Up Assessment option on the My Stuff page. Once they have completed the follow-up assessment, the status will change from “Take Now” to “Completed.” Administrators can verify successful completion using the Course Completion report by logging in to MyStudentBody-Admin. You may also modify your follow-up assessment settings in MyStudentBody-Admin by clicking “Customize” from the home page and then going to “Course Settings” in the sidebar. The default setting is to send out the follow-up assessment email 90 days after completion of the Essentials Course.

For more information about implementing a follow-up assessment or about tracking student behavior over time, contact Amy Cavender, implementation specialist, at acavender@mystudentbody.com or (800) 848-3895 x205.

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What other outcome monitoring systems do you use? Do you use something “home grown” or do you purchase a separate data-gathering program? Write a comment in the section below. Click here for more Announcements from MyStudentBody.

MyStudentBody for 2011 is now LIVE -> Check it out!

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Ty Achilles

For months we’ve been talking about the upcoming release of the new MyStudentBody. Well, the day has finally come – the new version of MyStudentBody and its flagship feature, the Essentials Course, has officially launched! If you’re a current student, faculty/staff, or administrative user, you can access the new site by simply logging in at www.mystudentbody.com. Here’s what to expect (if you’re not a current user, learn how to check it out down below):

Photo credit: MyStudentBody.com

Essentials Course – Students have an exciting new course at their fingertips, the Essentials Course, which will give them an educational experience regarding alcohol, drugs, and sexual violence. The new course is designed to provide a comprehensive approach to helping college students prevent and understand the risks associated with student health and campus life.

Sexual violence programming – Statistics from the Department of Justice indicate that 1 in 4 college-aged women will experience an act of sexual violence before they graduate. Many students are unsure what constitutes an act of sexual violence, and what to do if they happen to witness or be a victim of one. To address these issues, MyStudentBody developed the sexual violence component in consultation with Joan Tabachnick, author of Engaging Bystanders in Sexual Violence Prevention (National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2008). Schools that choose to implement the sexual violence component will help students learn how to identify an act of sexual violence, enhance bystander intervention, and provide resources for seeking help.

Enhanced self-assessments (Rate Myself) – Since MyStudentBody was initially launched in 2002, the self-assessments known as the Rate Myself and Drinking Profile, have been a cornerstone of the program. Based on BASICS (Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students), the self-assessments aim to encourage students to reflect on their reported behaviors and perceptions regarding alcohol, drugs, and now sexual violence. Students can see how they “stack up” against their peers in a visual format.

An engaging, interactive experience – We’ve incorporated videos, visual learning tools, and graphical assessment feedback within the free roam and course areas. The content and tone of the site is geared toward relating to college students and their daily lives. What’s important for students to know about being away from home for the first time? How do students balance academic and social lives? It’s all right there in the course or in the new Student Center.

Intuitive navigation – Need to find your certificate of completion? Required to take a course? Looking for the follow-up assessment? You can view/find them all right on the MyStuff page, a personalized home page for each student. Students will also be able to see upcoming campus events, watch videos, and get access to campus-specific resources.

**Be on the lookout for a post in the next couple weeks about an exciting way you’ll get to share your feedback about the Essentials Course and other parts of the new MyStudentBody. To make sure you get the details, subscribe to the blog by clicking “Subscribe” in the sidebar and entering your email address.

If you have questions about the new MyStudentBody, please contact Holly Lyng at hlyng@mystudentbody.com or (617) 614-0415. If you’re not a current user, get a guest pass today.

NASPA Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention & Intervention Conference 2011 – Miami here we come!

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Ty Achilles

Just around the corner January 13-15 (next week!) is the 2011 Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention & Intervention at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay. We always love going to this conference because we get to connect with talented and dedicated people working in the area of AOD prevention and health promotion. We’re especially excited this year because we’ll be publicly unveiling the newest version of MyStudentBody (preview here), which will feature our all new Essentials Course. Additionally, the MyStudentBody team will be participating in some of the sessions and panels – check them out below.

January 13 – 6:00-7:45 p.m. in the Bayview Junior Ballroom: Emil Chiauzzi, Ph.D., Vice President of Product Strategy and a well-known researcher and published principal investigator on alcohol prevention, and Elizabeth Donovan, Ph.D., Research Scientist will present a research poster titled, “A parent-based alcohol and other drug intervention for college students: Randomized controlled trial results”.

January 14 – 1:30-2:45 p.m.: Dr. Chiauzzi will participate in an afternoon plenary panel, “Choosing an online alcohol education program”.

January 14 – 5:30-6:30 p.m. Salon F: Dr. Chiauzzi and Dr. Donovan will host a program session, “Health prevention programming at community colleges: results of two health studies”.

For more information about our involvement with NASPA please contact Holly Lyng at (617) 614-0415. You can also request a guest pass to see a preview of the new Essentials Course by going -> HERE.

We hope to see you in Miami!

-Tyler

2011 Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention & Intervention Conference

MyStudentBloggy

Category Archives: Announcements