Online Alcohol Education Course Reduces Problem Drinking Temporarily
According to current statistics, nearly three-quarters of all college students drink, while 25 percent of these students are ingesting four or more drinks within a few hour time span. If these binges did not impact any other aspects of campus life, then we might be able to chalk it up to some college students blowing off steam. Unfortunately, studies are showing excessive drinking by college students impacts their academic performance, relationships with family and friends and lead to dangerous sexual situations. When so many facets of an individual’s life are being affected, this type of drinking can no longer be considered college kids just having a little harmless fun.
Steps Being Taken By University Administrations to Curb Problem Drinking
For many years, campuses around the country have attempted to combat this issue of problem drinking by instituting different types of alcohol awareness programs. However, one of the most recent incarnations of alcohol education is in the form of an online course. This online program known as AlcoholEdu is given to incoming freshman.
The AlcoholEdu program consists of 5 sections in total, with 4 parts given before the freshmen arrive on campus and the fifth and final one is taken during the first semester. These different components include:
- Explanation of a typical size drink
- Education on the biological repercussions of drinking
- Social pressures affecting alcohol consumption
- Addressing misconceptions about alcohol use on college campuses
- Strategies for limiting the impacts of alcohol
Study Evaluates Effectiveness of Online Alcohol Misuse Prevention Program
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), conducted its own independent study on the usefulness of the AlcoholEdu online program at 30 universities around the US. Students at half the universities participated in the AlcoholEdu program and students at the rest of the schools took whatever programs happened to be offered on their campus. By surveying these students throughout the course of their freshman year, the researchers found how the AlcoholEdu program stacked up against typical alcohol education programs.
The study found that the AlcoholEdu online course has increased benefits early in the year, but by the spring all advantages from the program were no longer evident. Experts say these findings suggest the program could be one valuable component of a multi-pronged campus alcohol abuse prevention plan, but used alone is not enough.
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