The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- October 11, 1999

End Zone -- 'Alcohol 101' gives corrective measures through virtual means

BY KAY HAWES
STAFF WRITER

Student-athletes all across the country are benefitting from a different kind of college course this year. Known as "Alcohol 101," this interactive CD-ROM-based program uses high-end graphics, music and virtual scenarios to help educate students about drinking.

When students log into Alcohol 101, they enter a virtual party where they can make decisions for characters in social situations and then see the outcomes of those decisions. The program has a hip, video-game feel and participants can choose different types of music for their "party."

Students also can "drink" at a virtual bar where a blood-alcohol content estimator provides personalized information on the effects of the alcohol consumed. Participants provide their gender, height and weight, and learn about the effects of different drinks -- consumed at various rates -- on them and on their friends. Participants also can see how food, mood and other factors can affect their drinking as well as what effects the drinks -- sipped, drank or slammed -- have on their blood-alcohol content.

The program also prompts users to participate in several multiple-choice games hosted by a talking lava lamp named "Norm," and learn about real-life campus tragedies involving alcohol abuse.

"The fast-paced, sometimes humorous and irreverent format of Alcohol 101 appeals to students and allows them to explore issues related to alcohol misuse safely," said John C. Lawn, chairman of The Century Council and former administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "It's like a flight simulator for the college party scene."

The course, now used in more than 650 colleges and universities, was developed by the University of Illinois, Champaign, in collaboration with The Century Council, a national organization funded by leading distillers to fight alcohol abuse.

Research on students using Alcohol 101 showed that they reported significant learning about possible consequences of drinking -- such as alcohol overdose and unsafe sex -- as well as life skills -- how to keep themselves safe and react to behaviors that may put friends at risk -- as well as blood-alcohol content. Students who had used the program also were less likely to erroneously over-estimate how much college students drink.

The Century Council has made the program available at no cost to colleges and universities throughout the country. Several groups are assisting with distribution, including the NCAA, which is making the program available to student-athletes through the institutions' CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinators.

The National Interfraternity Conference, the National Panhellenic Conference and the Bacchus & Gamma Peer Education Network also are making the course available to Greek organizations on campuses, and the program also is supported by the American Council on Education and the American Counseling Association, to name just a few.

Administrators at the NCAA who work with the CHAMPS/Life Skills program report that athletics departments using Alcohol 101 are pleased with the results.

"Some institutions have taken extra steps to provide access to their student-athletes," said Lori A. Hendricks, NCAA education outreach coordinator. "One institution loads the program onto laptop computers and sends the computers with teams when they go on extended road trips."

Yet another institution has provided laptops with Alcohol 101 in its training room, where student-athletes who are receiving treatment for injuries have the opportunity to explore the program while they ice a knee or have an ultrasound treatment.

Everyone who has seen the program agrees that the unusual nature of it, the interactive element along with a certain level of irreverence, makes it unusually appealing to college students. And the ability to actually see the consequences of decisions makes a difference in real life, researchers say.

"Talk to freshmen about drinking," said William L. Riley, dean of students and associate vice-chancellor at Illinois, "and they will repeat back to you all the information you would hope they'd know about the dangers of binge drinking -- then tell you they're going to go out to get drunk Saturday night.

"Alcohol 101 is designed to let them make bad decisions about excessive drinking and 'experience' the unfavorable consequences without actually having to suffer them."

Alcohol 101 is the lesson without the hangover, the alcohol poisoning or the DUI conviction.

For more information on Alcohol 101, contact the administrators of the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills program at 317/917-6222 or The Century Council at 213/624-9898.