Before beginning Day 1, please read this page to learn the answers to the following frequently asked questions about online learning:

• Why Do You Offer This Training online?
• What Will I Learn from This Event?
• How Is This Web Site Organized?
• How Much Time Is Required Each Day?
• Can I Print These Materials?
• Where Can I Go for Help?

Why Do You Offer This Training online?

Conducting training online has numerous benefits! online or distance learning allows professionals working in different locations within a district, throughout a state, or even across the country to come together around a topic of interest and form a community of practitioners.

Specifically, online learning offers these advantages:

• It saves time and money for participants who would otherwise have to travel to a training.

• It provides access to information for participants who live and work in places where resources may be unavailable or difficult to locate.

• It increases participants' familiarity and comfort with technology.

• It provides flexibility, allowing participants to access information at the time and pace most convenient for them.

• It gives participants an opportunity to engage thoughtfully in a topic of interest by allowing them time to reflect before responding.

• It provides materials that participants can print for future reference or share with colleagues and community members.

What Will I Learn from This Event?

Reducing Underage Drinking: A School-based Approach is a five-part workshop designed to be completed over five days. This workshop takes a tiered approach to learning, presenting multiple levels of information, actual examples of the application of this information, and extensive additional resources. It is divided into the following sections:

Day 1 - What's the Problem with Underage Drinking?
This session explores the scope of the problem and takes a look at several assessment tools and fact sheets.

Day 2 - Contributing Factors and Consequences: Why Do Kids Drink?
This session provides an overview of the biological, psychological, social, economic, and other factors that may contribute to whether or not an individual uses or abuses alcohol or other drugs.

Day 3 - Approaches to the Prevention of Underage Drinking
This session looks at what makes an effective prevention program.

Day 4 - Is Your School Ready to Implement an Effective Program to Reduce Underage Drinking?
This session provides an overview of the five stages of effective planning: assessment, capacity building, strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation. You'll also find links to summaries of the laws and regulations on underage drinking, and other law enforcement issues.

Day 5 - An In-Depth Look
This session presents additional resources that might further inform underage drinking initiatives in your school and community.

How Is This Web Site Organized?

This site is composed of the following sections:

Home

This is the page you see when you first access the site. It includes a welcome to all participants, the event’s learning objectives, and information about the steps you should have completed prior to beginning this event.

Getting Started

You are currently viewing this section, which provides a detailed introduction to and overview of the event.

Daily Materials

This is the heart of the event; you will acquire a basic understanding of the event topic from the daily materials. Materials appear in a variety of formats and can be printed for future reference. Each day, you will also be asked to answer two or three discussion questions that will help you reflect on and apply the information that you are learning.

Resources & Links

This section houses three types of resources: session, general, and additional. Session resources supplement the main text for each day of the event; examples are tip sheets and practical tools. General resources help you participate in this online training. Additional resources include links to other organizations and publications with information about the event topic.

Event Support

This section includes an online form you can submit for technical assistance. If you have any problems during this event, please do not hesitate to use this form. National Center staff will promptly address all requests for assistance.

Discussion Area

This area houses the online discussion among participants. In addition to sharing your responses to the discussion questions found at the end of each session, you may also post questions or comments about event content. The National Center's director of continuing education will facilitate this discussion.

How Much Time Is Required Each Day?

Week 1: We expect that it will take you approximately one hour per day to review materials, complete activities, and contribute to the event discussion. We ask that you visit the Discussion Area at least once each day to share your ideas and experiences, as well as to review and respond to the messages posted by your fellow participants and National Center staff. If possible, it is beneficial to visit the Discussion Area more than once each day; participants in previous online workshops have found that more frequent visits allowed them to better monitor and contribute to the online discussion.

You will have a more accurate sense of how much time you will need to set aside for this event after you complete the first session. Please make sure to allow enough time each day to complete all event tasks; your full participation is the key to the success of this training.

Week 2: During the second week of this event, we encourage you to continue your exploration of event materials as well as your online discussion with fellow event participants. National Center staff will periodically monitor your discussion during this week, and any critical questions left unanswered by your peers will be forwarded to gang experts at two points: on Tuesday and Thursday. You will receive a response to those questions as soon as National Center staff hear back from the experts.

Can I Print These Materials?

All event materials can be printed for future reference. However, we strongly suggest that you review the materials online before you print them, so that you can see how the various sections fit together and participate more readily in the online discussion among event participants and National Center staff.

There are two ways to print event materials. The easiest way is to look for this box at the end of each day's materials and follow the instructions:

While the PDF files include all of the main text and supporting materials for each day of the event, the formatting will be a bit off. If you prefer to maintain the formatting that you see online, please try the second printing method (described below).

You can also print the event materials directly from your Internet browser. To print a specific page, go to that page, place your cursor on File (at the top of the page), go to Print, and then press OK. Everything on the screen in front of you will print. Please note that, if you select this option, you will need to choose the "Landscape" orientation under Page Setup in order to fit all the text on the page. To print only the text (minus the title and navigation bars at the top and side of the screen), place your cursor on the page you want to print, right-click your mouse, select Print, and choose OK.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to print the entire site with a single click of the mouse.

Where Can I Go for Help?

This event has concluded. You may find answers to your questions in the Resources & Links section.