New resource, myPlaybook, provides online drug education

Online drug-education program created specifically for student-athletes

Hand a student-athlete information about drugs and drug testing and he or she at best may give it a cursory glance. But reformat the information so the individual must deal with it one-on-one in a computer environment and learning is more likely to take place. A new tool will soon be available to do exactly that: To assist college athletics departments with the somewhat daunting task of getting a detailed list of banned substances and a dense compilation of drug-testing policies and procedures in the hands of the athletes in a way that is effective in preventing drug use and subsequently reducing the number of positive drug tests.

The tool, titled myPlaybook, is a Web-based program to be completed individually, which allows the information to be presented to each student-athlete one-on-one at a pace suitable to his or her learning style. Because the student must complete a lesson and pass a quiz before proceeding to the next section, the athletics department has a means of assessing what its student-athletes have learned.

myPlaybook was developed by Dr. David Wyrick at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, with funding from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Wyrick and his research team had focused on alcohol abuse prevention among the general college student population and noticed a difference in use and abuse between student-athletes and college students generally.

“The trends for using drugs and alcohol and the reasons for use differed significantly between the two groups,” Dr. Wyrick said. “We thought colleges needed an intervention specifically for alcohol and drug use for student-athletes.”

Drug Free Sport also was discussing ways to provide better education for student-athletes to reduce the incidents of positive drug tests based on misconceptions or misunderstandings about substances and related rules.

“Education about drugs and drug testing go hand in hand,” said Frank Uryasz, president of Drug Free Sport. “Educating student-athletes about drugs and their proper use is important to reducing misuse and the resulting positive drug tests.”

Prevention Strategies, which produces myPlaybook, piloted the program in NCAA Division II schools in 2008 with strong results. A marked difference in the student-athletes’ attitudes about drug and alcohol use was demonstrated, as well as improved, knowledge about banned substances and drug-testing procedures. The frequency and prevalence of binge drinking also was significantly reduced among athletes after completion of the program, Wyrick said.

After seeing the positive results from the Division II pilot, Drug Free Sport decided to partner with Prevention Strategies rather than develop its own program.

“We thought it made sense to work with Prevention Strategies to expand its program rather than develop our own,” Uryasz said.

Drug Free Sport believes strongly in the program and as such will be the exclusive marketer among colleges and universities of myPlaybook beginning in January.

“We want to make sure our clients to whom we are providing testing also have this opportunity for the education component,” Uryasz said.

The athletic department at each NCAA school holds a compliance meeting at the beginning of every school year when each student-athlete must sign a NCAA drug-testing consent form in order to participate in sports. The NCAA also requires that students be given a list of banned drug classes and the NCAA recommends that student-athletes watch the drug-testing video. myPlaybook can simplify the process.

“They can get all of that through myPlaybook and the athletic department has a record that they have completed those lessons,” Wyrick said. “Generally, if you hand a student-athlete information, it is unlikely they will read it. But if they are doing it through myPlaybook, they will have to cover these and be tested at the end of that lesson.”

Student-athletes can be asked to complete myPlaybook lessons on their own time, or the program can be incorporated into existing orientations or drug education efforts, he said.

The program includes tools to track student-athlete progress and to track dissemination of the NCAA materials.

“We are developing something that will not only benefit the student-athletes, but will benefit the college athletics departments, as well. Whoever an athletics department identifies to have administrative rights, we will set up the program to allow them to create real-time reports to see how their student-athletes are doing, what lessons they have completed, etc,” Wyrick said.

Athletics departments also will have the option of having Prevention Strategies provide the reports for the school, he said. The company provides pre- and post-test reports so a school can see the progress of its student-athletes.

myPlaybook involves learning exercises that provide immediate feedback to the student. The program has a look and feel specific for student-athletes, Wyrick said. The content is unique to them, as well, including the data that is fed back to them in the lessons.

“The data we present show how these drugs are detrimental to their athletic performance, how the drugs or alcohol affect the athletes in-season and out-of-season,” he said. “We provide information on general well-being but also on athletic performance, training and injury recovery.”

Ideally, an athletics department would have every incoming freshman student-athlete take this core program at the beginning of the fall semester. Then every semester after that, the student-athletes would receive a booster lesson that would take only about 30 minutes to complete and would reinforce one of the core topics, a topic that has come up in the news recently, or one in a question-and-answer format, Wyrick said.

The Division II pilot version of myPlaybook included three lessons – banned substances, alcohol and marijuana. At the request of Drug Free Sport, Wyrick added two lessons – one on performance- enhancing drugs and one on dietary supplements.

A subsequent pilot of the program this summer and fall in the Division I Southern Conference included a lesson on nutritional and dietary supplements and one on tobacco use, Wyrick said. When myPlaybook goes on sale in January, it also will include lessons on performance-enhancing drugs, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and street drugs.

Part of the philosophy behind the program is that it can be a tool for athletics departments in ways besides the initial training, Wyrick said. For example, if a student-athlete asked an athletic trainer a question about a performance-enhancing drug, the athletic trainer could refer the student to that lesson in myPlaybook to get a refresher on the information, he said.

“We built the training module within myPlaybook so the athletic trainer can send the student-athlete to the lesson where they can learn for themselves,” Wyrick said.

myPlaybook can reinforce what the athletic trainer or compliance director may already have stated to the student-athlete.

Drug Free Sport also is interested in providing this program to high schools and has asked Prevention Strategies to develop a curriculum tailored to their needs. Wyrick said the company is working on that now and expects to have a pilot under way in the spring with a completed version ready in the summer.

High school clients have clearly indicated a desire for this type of educational component, Uryasz said.

“We felt with modifications to the content, myPlaybook would also be good for high school athletes,” he said.

If you would like to learn more about how myPlaybook can be an effective education tool for your student-athletes, contact Dan Regan at dregan@drugfreesport.com or call 816-474-8655, ext. 123.