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Jie Li1, Nancy L. Atkinson, PhD2, Robert Gold, PhD3, Rajnikanth Ravula, MPH2, Barbara Pearlman4, Russell Henke5, and Carrie M. Murray, MS6. (1) Public & Community Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Suite 2387 Valley Drive, College Park, MD 20742-2611, 301-980-2385, jie@wam.umd.edu, (2) Public Health Informatics Research Laboratory, University of Maryland, Department of Public and Community Health, Suite 2387 Valley Drive, College Park, MD 20742-2611, (3) Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, Suite 2387 Valley Drive, College Park, MD 20742-2611, (4) Montgomery County Public Schools, Tobacco Prevention Specialist, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, (5) Montgomery County Public Schools, Coordinator of Health Education, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, (6) Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, University of Maryland, HHP Building Valley Drive, College Park, MD, MD 20742-2611
The purpose of this paper is to present an online survey effort conducted to evaluate two middle school tobacco curricula used in a school system in Maryland. Project Towards No Tobacco Use (Project TNT) and Project ALERT both are comprehensive, classroom-based curricula that are being used with sixth to eight grade students to prevent tobacco and substance use in public middle schools in Maryland.
In the initial phase of the effectiveness evaluation, students answered paper-pen instruments before and after exposure to the curricula in middle schools. For several practical reasons, we converted the evaluation into an online survey and asked students to submit responses via the Internet-based instruments in computer labs in schools. We monitored the databases for both curricula as online questionnaires were completed, generated knowledge scores by student on post-test questionnaires, and analyzed post-test results on quarterly basis.
The paper emphasizes the development of the online questionnaires and the data management of the online surveys. We will explain the technical issues about how to post the instruments online, how to monitor the database as online questionnaires are completed, and trouble-shooting and website maintenance in the data collection. We will discuss the reasons an online survey was used in this evaluation program and the advantages and disadvantages of this use. We will explore the challenges and opportunities for conducting online surveys in public school systems by presenting some practical problems we confronted during the research implementation. Strategies for assessing school health education are summarized at the end.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: School Health, Internet
Related Web page: www.phi.umd.edu/alert/
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.