Content Terms

Appropriateness: A term used to describe a data collection method that is sensitive to the language, development, and culture of your target population.

Community: A group of individuals who share cultural and social experiences within a common geographic or political jurisdiction.

Data: Information collected using specific research methods and instruments.

Data analysis: The process of examining systematically collected information.

Generalizability: The extent to which program findings/principles/models can be applied to other settings and populations.

Human subject: A living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research obtains (1) data through an intervention or interaction with the individual or (2) identifiable private information.

Instrument: A device researchers use to collect data in an organized fashion, such as a standardized survey or interview protocol.

Methodology: A procedure for collecting data.

Mortality: Death.

Needs assessment: A systematic set of procedures undertaken for the purpose of setting priorities, making decisions, and allocating resources. The priorities are based on identified needs -- gaps between "what is" (i.e., the present state of affairs in regard to the group or population of interest) and "what should be," (i.e., the desired state of affairs).

Protection of human subjects: Refers to data collection that adheres to ethical principles, regulations, and policies to protect the welfare of individuals participating in research activities.

Protective factor: An attitude, behavior, belief, situation, or action that is associated with reduced potential for substance use or violence. Examples: parental monitoring, school attachment, prosocial peer behavior, or neighborhood cohesion.

Relevance: The extent to which an assessment instrument asks questions that are central to the issues you seek to understand.

Reliability:The extent to which an assessment instrument produces the same or very similar results when it is administered to an individual two or more times (at relatively short intervals).

Research: A systematic investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.

Resource assessment: A systematic assessment of the available supports (e.g., people, programs, services, organizations) existing in a population or community that are relevant to reducing or preventing a problem.

Risk factor: An attitude, behavior, belief, situation, or action that may put an individual, group, organization, or community at risk for substance use or violence. Examples: low level of school attachment, delinquent peer culture, ineffective administrative leadership, or a family member with a substance abuse problem.

Target group/population: The group of people whom a specific program or intervention is designed to reach.

Utility: The extent to which research findings can be used to improve programming, explain program effects, or guide future studies.

Validity: The extent to which an instrument captures the concept or outcome that it was intended to measure. For example, to what extent does a measure designed by a researcher to capture self-esteem actually assess self-esteem? "Predictive validity" assesses the degree to which a particular measure can predict a future outcome. For example, does the aforementioned self-esteem measure predict drug use one year later?

Well-designed questionnaire: An instrument that asks direct and focused questions; avoids questions that are obvious, redundant, and leading (i.e., that imply the desired response); is valid and reliable; and has been pilot-tested.

Adapted from: Glossary of Prevention Terms (draft). Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, NASADAD/NPN Annual Meeting, June 2000.

Technical Terms

Active participant: MSCs enrolled as active participants will be expected to log in at least once a day throughout the five-day duration of the event, review materials, participate in activities, contribute to the ongoing facilitated discussion with questions and comments, provide feedback on the event, and complete an online assessment.

Adobe Acrobat: A collection of programs developed by Adobe Systems, Inc., for creating and distributing electronic documents. These programs let you create and/or read a Portable Document Format (PDF) for your files, which preserves the document's layout. This is an advantage over other electronic formats, such as HTML, where the layout can vary depending on the software being used.

Asynchronous discussion: Two-way communication that occurs with a time delay, allowing participants to respond at their own convenience. An example of an asynchronous discussion is the Discussion Area used for these online events.

Auditor: MSCs enrolled as auditors will be expected to review materials, participate in activities, read through the facilitated discussion among Training Center staff and active participants, post questions to a designated Q&A Board, provide feedback on the event, and complete an online assessment.

Chat room: A "virtual" room where people have real-time (synchronous) communication with one another via computer. During a chat session, either user can enter text by typing on the keyboard; the entered text will then appear on the other user's monitor. Most networks and online services offer a chat feature.

Discussion Area: The section of this website where active participants can engage in asynchronous discussion.

Discussions: Online "conversations" that take place within central Discussion Areas of the WebBoard. Discussions appear on the left hand side of the screen. One or more discussion areas will be available to you during an event.

Internet access: One's ability to log on to the Internet. There are a variety of ways to do this. Most online services, such as America Online, offer access to some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access through a commercial Internet Service Provider.

Internet Service Provider (ISP): A company that provides direct Internet access via modem or high-speed connection. For a monthly fee, the ISP gives you a software package, user name, password, and access phone number. You can then log on to the Internet, browse the World Wide Web, and send and receive e-mail.

Link: In hypertext systems (i.e., the World Wide Web), a link provides a direct path from one document or Web page to another.

Logon: The steps you must take to gain access to a network. Most personal computers have no log-on procedure -- you just turn on the machine and begin working. For larger systems and networks, however, you usually need to enter a user name and password before the computer system will allow you to execute programs.

Modem: A device used to link computers via a phone line; "modem" is short for modulator-demodulator.

Online: An adjective meaning that you or your computer are connected to another computer via a modem. It can also mean that you have unspecified access to the Internet.

Online learning: The process of learning new skills and acquiring knowledge via the Internet, without needing to be physically present in the learning environment.

Online resource: Information that is located on the Internet.

Post: Sending a message to the Discussion Area of the WebBoard that begins or continues a thread of discussion. You must first select a Discussion before posting a new topic (or continuing an ongiong one).

Reply: A posting/message made in response to another posting/message, always threaded under an existing topic on the WebBoard. Replies appear indented beneath the messages to which they correspond.

Synchronous discussion: Interaction between two or more people that occurs at the same time, that is, with no appreciable delay between the end of one message and the beginning of another. Talking on the phone and participating in a chat session are examples of synchronous discussion.

Threaded discussion: In online discussions, threaded discussions include a series of messages that have been posted as replies to one another. A single forum or conference typically contains many threads covering different subjects. By reading each message in a thread, one after the other, you can see how the discussion evolved. You can also start a new thread by posting a message that is not a reply to an earlier message.

T1 communication: A high-speed network link that transmits data at 1.5 mbps (millions of bit per second). T1 lines transmit data almost 30 times faster than an ordinary phone line.

Topic: A specific thread of discussion within a Discussion Area of the WebBoard. Topics appear indented, under a Discussion.

URL: Short for "uniform resource locator," this is a website's specific Internet address.

Web: Short for the World Wide Web, this is a method of using the Internet to access information via a graphical user interface.

Web access: One's ability to log on to the Internet, an online service, or another network.

Web browser: A software application used to locate and display Web pages.

Web-based learning (workshop/training): The process of learning new skills and acquiring knowledge through the use of an educational site.

WebBoard: The brand of software we use for the MSC online events to help conduct both synchronous and asynchronous online discussions.

Web server: A computer that delivers (serves up) Web pages to your computer. Every Web server has an Internet Provider address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the address (http://www.edc.org/msc) into your computer, this sends a request to the server whose domain name is (edc.org). The server then fetches the page named in directories as "msc" (the general MSC website) and sends the requested page to your browser.

Web service provider: See Internet Service Provider.

Website: Any collection of pages that is accessible on the Web, usually referring to a constellation of separate pages accessed through a main title/menu or home page. You can access a website by instructing the computer to find and connect to the site's specific Internet address, known as its "uniform resource locator" (URL).