Promoting Evaluation/Teaching/Research on AIDS (PETRA)

The proposed project will develop a set of three interrelated research- based : (1) an archive of exemplary behavioral and social research data an HIV/AIDS, (2) HIV/AIDS teaching modules for the university classroom, and (3) a Web-based learning center for promoting best practices in HIV/AIDS prevention. These resources should facilitate progress toward the HIV/AIDS-related prevention and control objectives of Healthy People 2010 by: (1) fostering efficient dissemination of high- quality research data and conclusions on behavioral and social factors related to HIV/AIDS; (2) empowering students and educators from a variety of disciplines at the undergraduate and graduate levels to understand, communicate, and utilize research data an social aspects of HIV/AIDS; and (3) enabling prevention practitioners to perform program development as well as process and outcome evaluation tasks critical to achieving best practices , thus helping to bridge the gap between research and practice. In the development of all products, special emphasis will be placed on identifying and utilizing research focusing on racial and ethnic minority populations disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. The three research-based products are interrelated, allowing them to be developed more efficiently and cost-effectively through combined project work. Because each product has a different target audience, the overall impact of this project will be felt across a broad range of fields. Input from a Scientist Expert Panel and from professors in a variety of disciplines will help ensure the scientific merit and substantive utility of the data archive and teaching modules. Input from practitioners, local government officials, and staff members of community-based organizations will help ensure that the Web-based learning center is relevant to the needs of prevention practitioners. Phase I will investigate the feasibility of the proposed products by creating product prototypes and conducting comprehensive needs assessment, feasibility, and usability studies to assure the products' user-friendliness and commercial appeal. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Data sets from the data archive and teaching modules will be sold to researchers, professors, and students interested in studying behavioral aspects of HIV/AIDS prevention. Services, tools, and publications comprising the Web-based learning center will be sold to practitioners, local government officials, mid staff members of community-based HIV/AIDS prevention organizations. Income will be derived in several ways: (1) miles of individual publications and products (shipped; online downloads with credit card provision); (2) subscription fees to the data archive and teaching modules (as stand alone products and as part of the Sociometrics Social Science Electronic Data Library); and (3) subscription fees to the Web-based learning center, which will be re- directed, in pact, to improving, refining, and updating this resource.