Internet Program Development Leading to Certification in Substance Abuse Prevention

The purpose of this project was to develop a multidisciplinary educational program that would provide information needed to work more efficiently in substance abuse prevention and prepare the learner for certification examination. Because prevention service providers are scattered throughout the state, country, and global community, an educational program had to be easily accessible. The solution was to develop a web-based curriculum that could be accessed anywhere in the world. One that would meet not only state requirements, but also would conform to international certification criteria. Qualitative analysis was used to categorize broad content areas of university course offerings, core functions considered vital by the state, and various educational programs in substance abuse throughout the country. As themes and subthemes emerged, clusters of essential components were retrieved and divided into four groupings. These groupings later translated into four distinct modules, each containing four to six components of study. A pilot group of 17 people were recruited throughout the state. These service providers took the web-based program over a period of 3 months and then participated in a special administration of an international certification exam. Results showed a 94% pass rate for the pilot group as compared with a national 32%.