CLICKER RESEARCH

Using Clickers for Small-Group Social Norming
with Athletes and First-Year Students

Virginia Commonwealth University Office of Health Promotion was awarded a Model Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education. One of the goals of the grant was to develop, implement and evaluate interventions utilizing audience response systems (aka “clickers”) to reduce alcohol use misperceptions and increase healthy alcohol use perceptions, attitudes and behaviors in athletic teams and first-year orientation classes.  For athletes, a clicker presentation  called "Team Success" was administered and evaluated during spring 2006. In fall 2006, we conducted and evaluated a clicker presentation with freshmen orientation classes called UNIV 101.

A variety of companies make clickers.  The clicker technology we used was Classroom Performance System (CPS) by e-Instruction. Some materials for these projects are available here.  Health educators are encouraged to download these free materials and adapt them for use with their campus or community.

Getting Started with Audience Response Systems

• List of Campus Clicker (Audience Response) Systems [PDF 20KB]
• Instructor’s Guide to the Classroom Performance System

Team Success

• Presentation: Team Success [PowerPoint slides with notes, 10.5 MG] Note: If you have trouble seeing the PowerPoint notes, it may help to "save" the document.
• Athlete Informed Consent  [MS Word document]
• Athlete Surveys, Pretest (January) and Posttest (April)  [MS Word document]

UNIV 101

• Presentation: First-Year Students [PowerPoint slides with notes, 8.5 MG]
• First-Year Informed Consent  [MS Word document]
• First-Year Surveys, Pretest (September) and Posttest (November)   [MS Word document]

Evaluations

Team Success:  To evaluate the Team Success program, we chose a matched pretest posttest experimental design. In January 2006, 14 VCU athletic teams were randomized to either a 45-minute alcohol education session using clickers (intervention) or a nutrition educational session (control). Prior to beginning the educational session, a 5- to 10-minute pen/paper pretest survey was administered (n=149). Approximately 13 weeks later posttest surveys were administered at a team practice (n= 155). The surveys each include three questions that serve as unique anonymous identifiers to match pretests and posttests. These questions were not pretested with international athletes and caused some confusion. Only about a third of the post-test surveys could be matched. While all changes were in the predicted direction, the sample was small and failed to yield significant findings.  We recommend pretesting all unique anonymous identifiers with your study population.  For more details about this study, please see the American College Health Association Action Newsletter [Vatalaro Hill, K. "Team Success: Athletes, Clickers and Social Norms." College Health in Action. 46 (3).]

UNIV 101:  First Year Orientation Class Evaluation (pending): To evaluate small group social norming with first-year students, we used a matched pretest posttest experimental design. In fall 2006, 50 First Year Orientation classes were randomized into an alcohol educational session using clickers (intervention) or a stress-management session (control). The first two weeks of class pen/paper pretests were collected.  During week 3 to week 7 of the semester the 50-minute intervention or control sessions were taught. Posttests were collected during weeks 14 and 15. Unique anonymous identifiers were used to match pretest and posttest surveys. The unique anonymous identifiers were selected carefully and detailed instructions were provided during survey administration. Analysis is pending, however the sample size is large (pretest n=994; posttest n=881). We hope to publish findings in 2007.