Icon-Based Courseware for Alcoholism Assessment Training

NIAAA has identified the need for education materials which facilitate the training of health professionals and paraprofessionals in the use of various alcoholism assessment techniques and instruments. In response to this need, we will develop a icon-based courseware for alcoholism appraisal training and instruction. Specific aims of the research include selection of alcoholism assessment methodologies which are practical screening instruments in medical settings, development of effective presentation strategies for a diverse target audience, integration of the presentation strategies with an icon-based graphical user interface, implementation of a database management system and expert system director for system control, and formative evaluation of system effectiveness. Successful completion of these research aims will result in a user-friendly alcoholism screening training tool for physicians, nurses and psychologists. The significance of this effort is the innovative use of computer-assisted instruction techniques for development of an alcoholism appraisal learning environment. Since computer-based training has been shown to be more effective than other media of instruction (human interaction, text, audio- visual), we will demonstrate a proof-of-concept system for alcoholism assessment education which is superior to present methods.