Online Foster Parent Training

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to develop an online system to augment current foster parent training programs. The system will assist in teaching parenting skills to individuals who want to begin foster parenting and those who want to improve their existing skills. Additionally, the system will decrease social workers' work loads by improving the efficiency of training over current practices, and increase social workers' ability to monitor training effectiveness. The system will contain three components: 1) interactive learning modules to teach parenting skills, 2) a dynamic graphing system allowing parents to track their own parenting behaviors, and 3) an online system for foster parents to discuss issues with other parents and social workers. Phase I of this project will include the development and formative evaluation of the proposed system's feasibility. After initial development, formative evaluation will occur in three stages: 1) users will interact with the system one-on-one with the designers to determine obvious design and mechanical flaws in the system; 2) small groups of users will interact with the system with little or no immediate interaction with the designers; and 3) users will interact with the system in their homes and offices. After each stage, the system will be revised to correct design and/or mechanical flaws.