Students Get Online Lesson on Drinking Dangers January 6, 2003
News Summary
In 2002, more than 100,000 college students at 350 colleges and universities used AlcoholEdu, an online, interactive course that educates college students about the risks of drinking, the New York Times reported Dec. 25.Developed by Outside the Classroom, AlcoholEdu begins with a short quiz that asks, "In the past two weeks, if you were drinking, how many times have any of the following happened to you?" The possibilities include Missed a class? Attended class drunk? Completely forgotten what happened to you? Injured yourself? Had sexual intercourse when you ordinarily would not?
AlcoholEdu also enables students to enter their weight, sex, and number of drinks consumed over a certain period. The program then calculates a blood-alcohol level over a period of 24-hour period.
Jack H. Turco, director of health services at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., said the online course helps the school reach incoming freshmen. "Having some sort of basic way of educating students about alcohol makes a lot of sense," he said. "It's next to impossible to get individual classes and enough people to teach them."
Schools pay about $10 per student for the online course. The cost includes a statistical analysis of the results.
In November, Mothers Against Drunk Driving announced a partnership with Outside the Classroom to develop a version of the online course for high-school students applying for learner's permits.
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