This is the fourth in a series of blogs looking at the effectiveness of online education generally, and Internet based alcohol awareness programs specifically. Recent studies have shown that learning about alcohol, drug and even sex using the Internet as the medium, can be more effective than traditional classroom instruction.
Simple video- and animation-based interactive courses in these disciplines turn out to be good ways of teaching subjects you may have giggled through in health class. And they’re increasingly being used all over the world with success now confirmed by peer-reviewed, controlled research. The results are important as online education continues to expand faster than its impact and effectiveness can be fully measured. As reported in usnews.nbcnews.com.
A recent study performed by the University of Toronto concluded that we are seeing significant and large effects on attitudes, knowledge, and also behaviors from online courses in nontraditional subjects.
A few of my students have taken both online and in-class alcohol classes. All three were in their early 20s and all three were female. Would it surprise you to learn that all three preferred the online alcohol class to my classroom version?
In the next blog in this series we will look at studies into the effectiveness of the Internet as a medium for alcohol classes.