Tag Archives: NASPA

Achieve a 90% Response Rate to Your Alcohol & Drug Survey

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The typical response rate for college alcohol and drug surveys is somewhere between 25 and 35%. But at Stetson University, more than 90% of the freshman class completes the MyStudentBody Essentials course—even though it’s not mandatory. What strategy produces those results?

The answer is: lots of strategies – and the key is to use more than one.

Working with Stetson’s Director of Health Education and Wellness, Lynn Stadelman, MyStudentBody product coordinator Tyler Achilles determined four elements that, used together, encourage the best possible response rate. “Most of these strategies are things prevention professionals are already doing. We found that what was most important was to do all of these things,” Achilles explained. “But we also found some small tweaks that could really improve a strategy’s effectiveness.” Some examples:

1) Advance notification: Sending advance notification by [snail] mail is especially useful in getting students to take Web-based surveys. It literally gives more weight to the request. Achilles notes it’s also an opportunity to send an incentive.

2) Incentives: Surprisingly, offering a guaranteed low-cost incentive—such as a free soda at the college café—to everyone who takes your survey raises response rates more effectively than offering a chance at a higher-value prize that only a few will win.

3) Reminders: The magic number for emailed reminders turns out to be three. After that, reminders don’t generate much further response, and may start to seem intrusive.

4) Sharing the results: Students want to know how their responses contribute to shaping policy; they also want to see how their answers compare to those of their peers. Knowing they’ll see group results increases student participation.

To see more of Achilles and Stadelman’s advice, view the poster they presented in January at NASPA’s Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention and Intervention Conference in Atlanta.

What I Learned About Personal Branding at #NASPA12

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At the NASPA Annual Conference 2012 a lot of the sessions got me thinking about personal brand and professional networking. Conferences are always great for professional development and growing your skill set, meeting new people, and creating connections (personal and work-related) – all things that can help you in your career.

There are, however, some things to keep in mind as you jump into the social sphere and put yourself – including your personality, opinions, and online demeanor – on public display. It’s important to be careful about what you post and how you interact with others on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks. I’ll get into some of my tips for both students and administrators and what I learned at one particular session below.

Before I get into that, let me tell you about two things that got me really excited about the conference in general. What I found most interesting (and different from previous NASPA conferences that I’ve attended) was the amount of networking and professional development done through sharing on social platforms during the conference. At prior annual conferences, connections were mainly made face-to-face or through email after the conference with maybe a little social networking thrown in.

In 2012, there was an explosion of social networking, especially through Twitter on which attendees or people around the country could follow the #naspa12 hashtag and “listen in” on sessions they couldn’t attend and contribute thoughtfully to the ideas being presented. This sort of thing blows my mind and makes me appreciate the recent advances in technology and the ubiquity of social platforms.

Additionally, I was delightfully surprised at the amount of sessions dedicated to talking about social networks and how that can affect administrators and students. I say delightfully surprised because as the social media coordinator of MyStudentBody and a strong believer in social and professional networking, I believe we should be talking about this and it makes me happy that others do, too.

One session in particular caught my attention because of its interactive setup. It was called “Influencing Student Behavior Through the Idea of Personal Brand” and it talked particularly about a program designed to get high-risk groups on campus, mainly athletes and Greeks, to think about their actions and how it effects them both personally and as a group. The session went through a series of slides depicting brands and talking about how they got to where they are and about setbacks incurred by seemingly small things. They connected those large brands like Apple, Coca-Cola, and Disney to the idea of personal brand.

Ultimately, the message here was that so much goes into creating a positive image for your personal brand that it’s not worth letting one excessive night of drinking and partying or other not-so-positive activities destroy your reputation. It puts things into perspective.

This idea of personal brand can also be applied to social networking and professional development for both students and administrators. You should be careful about the “brand” you’re portraying online through your tweets and status updates. Most of the time, it’s public, unless you’ve locked down your profiles so that only certain people can view your interactions. With that in mind, here are three tips for maintaining a positive personal brand:

  1. Only tweet or post things you’d say to someone or about something face-to-face. Many times people believe that they can’t get in trouble or tarnish their reputation with things they say online because, well, it’s online. So not true. People are watching what you say and how you interact. Always keep in mind the messages you’re putting out to the world because, whether you like it or not, you’re being judged for it and there could be consequences.
  2. But don’t be afraid to show some personality. It’s okay to let your personality shine. We all want to know who you are and what you’re passionate about. That’s how you make connections online. People will be more likely to interact with you if you show some human traits. Don’t just post news articles or retweet everything. Put something personal up every now and then to showcase your interests.
  3. Remember that you are connected to your organization or school. Not only does what you post on Twitter and Facebook have an effect on your personal brand, it can negatively affect the brand of your institution or organization. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, “Is what I’m about to tweet or post thoughtfully contributing to the conversation?” Try to avoid posting about negative feelings or venting. This usually will come back to bite you, or at least gradually decrease the value of your personal brand.

You may not quite understand it all yet. No one does. But I would definitely recommend getting out there and letting yourself be known on social platforms. Work your way up to it. You don’t have to dive in completely, but you could definitely learn a lot from others and make great connections.

I know for sure that my involvement with social networking at this year’s NASPA annual conference helped me professionally and personally. I learned a TON. If you’d like to chat more about this concept of personal brand or anything social networking, tweet me @tyachilles.

Will We See You at #NASPA12?

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Chances are that if you’re attending this year’s NASPA annual conference in Phoenix, you’re either on your way there as you read this or will be heading there in the coming days. For higher education professionals, both those that have been in the industry a long time and others that are just starting out, it’s an exciting time of year. A time to learn new things, share your experiences, boast about your successes, and reflect on where your institution needs to improve. It’s also fun and thrilling to meet all kinds of new people, collaborate with colleagues, and catch up with old friends. We’re excited to do just that!

A few of us at MyStudentBody will be attending this year’s conference and we would love to connect with you. Tyler Achilles, our Product Coordinator, will be attending the conference to sit in on some sessions and talk with attendees about the trends in higher education. If you’ll let him pick your brain, then he’d love to buy you some Starbucks or lunch (he’s wicked nice, we promise – and yes, we said wicked, we’re from Boston). He’ll also be tweeting during all the sessions and keynotes (he loooooves Twitter), so look for him on the #naspa12 back channel or follow him, @tyachilles, or MyStudentBody, @MyStudentBody.

Amy Cavender, our Implementation Specialist, and Holly Lyng, our Account Executive, will also be there to help current clients with questions about any recent changes we’ve made to the MyStudentBody program and to talk about exciting things coming in June 2012. They’ll mostly be hanging around booth 708 in the exhibit hall, but they’ll also be attending sessions (and buying some of our favorites some Starbucks). Stop by to say hi to them and pick up more information about our course offerings, you may get a cool prize.

Wanna set up a time to go over the program? Email Holly at hlyng@mystudentbody.com.

Have questions about how you’re currently implementing the program? Email acavender@mystudentbody.com.

Wanna be first in line for some Starbucks? Email tachilles@mystudentbody.com. Just kidding you can email any one of us for that :)

Have a safe trip and we’ll see all of you hard-working, fun, and vibrant higher ed peeps at the conference!

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

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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

Conferences: Top 5 Takeaways from NASPA AOD 2010

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Last week members of the MyStudentBody team traveled to New Orleans for the NASPA AOD Prevention & Intervention Conference. According to the NASPA website, the conference aimed to bring together senior-level administrators, prevention and education staff and researchers from the alcohol and other drug arena to focus on advancing knowledge and information sharing about alcohol and other drug use on colleges and universities. Round-table discussions, educational workshops, and speaker sessions provided a forum for institutional teams to either begin or continue their work on alcohol abuse prevention for their college and university campuses. We definitely learned a lot at the conference and here are the top five takeaways:

1. Significant changes can only be made by garnering support from top administrators. We all know how hard it is to get vice presidents and presidents to see the value of prevention and intervention education, and it seems like we might need to take a different approach. Peter Lake, professor of law, Charles A. Dana chair and director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University College of Law, discussed in Saturday morning’s plenary panel that the presidents and leaders of higher education institutes are most interested in how issues affect academics and retention. In order to get attention from these key people, we need to find a way to communicate how AOD, mental health, and wellness issues relate to student success.

2. Involve faculty members in providing support for student AOD and mental health issues. In the opening plenary session, a panelist mentioned that past ACHA surveys showed students find faculty very credible sources of health and wellness information. Most faculty, however, don’t know what to say or where to direct students. Student affairs departments, student health services, and counseling services should all begin to create partnerships with the faculty to let them know how to identify students that may need help and how to refer students to the proper department on campus. Even a simple note in the syllabus about available resources could help.

3. Parents are the key to helping us find solutions. General Arthur T. Dean, chairman and CEO of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America emphasized the importance of parents in our efforts. Parents are a huge influence on students, but unfortunately parents often don’t know what to say or, even worse, perpetrate false social norms. General Dean reinforced the need to work closely with parents and families of students as we look to the future of mental health and alcohol and other drug issues on campus. By providing information to parents during orientation or within welcome packets sent to students over the summer, we can help them facilitate discussions and promote safe and healthy lifestyles.

4. Broad engagement provides the most lasting impact. Whether it’s community coalitions using a round table approach or engaging agents of change on your own campus, programs and policies that work the best and last through staff turnover are those that have been created and defined using input from many stakeholders. Take a look at the Bloomington Normal Community Campus Committee or the collaboration at Bradley University to see the results of much hard work.

5. Messages need to be relevant to the audience. We tend to quote research and results in a way that are most meaningful to us. If we want our message to be heard, and acted on, we must consider the needs of the stakeholders with whom we’re communicating. What information is going to move them the most? For presidents, it may be retention numbers; for abstainers, it may be the second-hand effects of drinking; or for local police, it may be how EUDL grants could provide overtime for their workforce. Whatever the case may be, in order to for us to be effective and persuasive as AOD and mental health professionals, we need to make sure our message is being heard. Be creative!

For more information about what we learned at the NASPA conference, contact anyone on the MyStudentBody Team. Our contact information can be found here.