Lessons Learned from an Online Sexual Health Education Program
Faculty Advisor Name
Dr. Cathy McKay
Department
Department of Kinesiology
Description
The purpose of this study was to seek to understand and describe the experiences of preservice physical and health education teacher education students taking part in the published Vision of You (VOY) sexual health education program in relation to enhancing confidence and shaping perceptions of teaching sexual health related content. The VOY program is an interactive, self-paced online sexuality education program that uses engaging videos, animation, and gamified learning modules to provide information and skills related to sexually transmitted infections, contraception, abstinence, healthy relationships, adolescent development, identity, communication, and consent, all under the umbrella of skills-based instruction and behavior change.
To explore how the participants made sense of their experiences with VOY, this qualitative study utilized a phenomenological approach. Participants were 18 undergraduate students enrolled in a health content course (Mage=20.88; 50% female, 100% Caucasian, 100% third year students) at a university in a Mid-Atlantic state. The health content course is required during the second semester of the physical and health education teacher education program. The VOY curriculum was embedded within the health content course, and took place during typical class meetings, as well as outside of class assignments. Data for this study were collected in the form of reflective writing responses. After data were collected, thematic development was undertaken inductively using a three-step analytic process: immersion in the data, bracketing the data, and determining emergent themes.
Analysis revealed four themes related to the participants’ experiences with the VOY program. In the first theme, “I feel better prepared to teach sexual health in my classroom”: Preservice teachers’ views on VOY as a training and instruction tool, participants described their shift in confidence in teaching sexual health content. The second theme, “It does not have to be some huge, awkward thing”: Preservice teachers’ getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, concerned participants’ newfound feelings of comfort with sexual health content. The third theme, “VOY changed a bias in my head I didn’t know I had”: Preservice teachers’ new knowledge and understanding of inclusive sexual health education, dealt with the participants’ new, more inclusive perceptions of sexual health content that rejected binary thinking. Finally, the fourth theme, “It shows that real people deal with this stuff all the time”: The benefits of interactive videos and games in the VOY platform, highlights participant reflections on the engaging and interactive VOY platform.
Based on these findings, the meaning of the VOY program to preservice teachers was evident in the data, which supports the value of VOY as a mechanism for learning and engagement, with clear implications for practice. Future research should examine the VOY program through the quantitative lens, should be conducted at a variety of PHETE programs across the US, and should extend to inservice teacher experiences with the content.
Lessons Learned from an Online Sexual Health Education Program
The purpose of this study was to seek to understand and describe the experiences of preservice physical and health education teacher education students taking part in the published Vision of You (VOY) sexual health education program in relation to enhancing confidence and shaping perceptions of teaching sexual health related content. The VOY program is an interactive, self-paced online sexuality education program that uses engaging videos, animation, and gamified learning modules to provide information and skills related to sexually transmitted infections, contraception, abstinence, healthy relationships, adolescent development, identity, communication, and consent, all under the umbrella of skills-based instruction and behavior change.
To explore how the participants made sense of their experiences with VOY, this qualitative study utilized a phenomenological approach. Participants were 18 undergraduate students enrolled in a health content course (Mage=20.88; 50% female, 100% Caucasian, 100% third year students) at a university in a Mid-Atlantic state. The health content course is required during the second semester of the physical and health education teacher education program. The VOY curriculum was embedded within the health content course, and took place during typical class meetings, as well as outside of class assignments. Data for this study were collected in the form of reflective writing responses. After data were collected, thematic development was undertaken inductively using a three-step analytic process: immersion in the data, bracketing the data, and determining emergent themes.
Analysis revealed four themes related to the participants’ experiences with the VOY program. In the first theme, “I feel better prepared to teach sexual health in my classroom”: Preservice teachers’ views on VOY as a training and instruction tool, participants described their shift in confidence in teaching sexual health content. The second theme, “It does not have to be some huge, awkward thing”: Preservice teachers’ getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, concerned participants’ newfound feelings of comfort with sexual health content. The third theme, “VOY changed a bias in my head I didn’t know I had”: Preservice teachers’ new knowledge and understanding of inclusive sexual health education, dealt with the participants’ new, more inclusive perceptions of sexual health content that rejected binary thinking. Finally, the fourth theme, “It shows that real people deal with this stuff all the time”: The benefits of interactive videos and games in the VOY platform, highlights participant reflections on the engaging and interactive VOY platform.
Based on these findings, the meaning of the VOY program to preservice teachers was evident in the data, which supports the value of VOY as a mechanism for learning and engagement, with clear implications for practice. Future research should examine the VOY program through the quantitative lens, should be conducted at a variety of PHETE programs across the US, and should extend to inservice teacher experiences with the content.
