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Tag: Web-based Program

Designing Characters for a Middle School Anti-Bullying Program

Designing Characters for a Middle School Anti-Bullying Program

The use of avatars in video games and apps is creative and popular. “As both a visual representation of the gamer as well as a means of facilitating manipulation of a virtual world, an avatar can be seen as a means through which an individual is able to project their physical world self into a game world” (1). Avatars can help draw the user into the scenario (or virtual world) by making it seem more personal, relatable, and engaging.

Klein Buendel investigators, collaborators, and designers are employing human-depicted avatars in the development of STAC-T. STAC-T is a brief, web-based bystander anti-bullying intervention for middle school students. The training teaches students four distinct behavioral strategies: “Stealing the Show,” “Turning it Over,” “Accompanying Others,” and “Coaching Compassion.”   

The design of 72 characters for anti-bullying scenarios by Klein Buendel developer and illustrator, Peter Fu, was guided by a matrix to provide multiple choices for middle school students representing light, medium, and dark skin tones, races, and ethnicities. In addition, the characters depict varied hair styles in short, medium, and long lengths for student self-identification, and yet similar clothing to de-emphasize comparison, peer pressure, and stigmatization.  

Examples of STAC-T Avatars

© 2024 Klein Buendel

STAC-T was developed and assessed by a research team from Boise State University, the University of Arkansas, and Klein Buendel. The STAC-T project is funded by an STTR grant to Klein Buendel from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health (MD014943; Dr. Aida Midgett, Principal Investigator from Boise State University). Mary Buller from Klein Buendel is a Co-Investigator on the project. STAC-T programming, graphic design, and illustration were done by Klein Buendel’s Creative Team.

References

  1. Ducheneaut, N., Wen, M. H., Yee, N., & Wadley, G. (2009). Body and mind: A study of avatar personalization in three virtual worlds. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1151–1160). New York, NY: ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/1518701.1518877
Usability Evaluation of the ezParent Administrative Dashboard

Usability Evaluation of the ezParent Administrative Dashboard

A team from Ohio State University and Klein Buendel has published results from the usability testing of the ezParent administrative dashboard in JMIR Formative Research. ezParent is a web-based training program for parents of children ages 2-6 years. It provides behavioral training through brief videos, interactivity, reflection questions, and assessments to parents of young children. 

Web-based parent training programs can strengthen parent-child relationships. They can help equip caregivers with knowledge and evidence-based strategies to manage behavior. They also can help surmount some logistical and personal barriers of in-person parent training. Web-based administrative dashboards provide administrators, facilitators, researchers, and others with detailed information about their participants’ usage, which can strengthen delivery of the intervention. Despite the utility of administrative dashboards, the authors know of no other research studies that have explored the perspectives and insights of dashboard users.

The study described in JMIR Formative Research used a descriptive, single-group survey design with four administrators who were overseeing implementation of the ezParent program and 19 trained facilitators for hybrid ezParent delivery. Participants were instructed to spend 30 minutes reviewing and assessing the ezParent dashboard and then prompted to complete a survey of their interaction with it. The survey included the validated 10-item System Usability Scale (SUS) and some open-ended questions.

Fifteen respondents indicated high usability of the ezParent dashboard, with a total mean SUS score of 83.5. Most participants (87%) rated the user-friendliness of the dashboard as good (20%), excellent (60%), or best imaginable (7%). Open-ended questions revealed the dashboard would be useful to monitor parent progress (40%), communicate with parents (13%), to review topics for discussion (20%), and to identify trends in parent participation (13%). ezParent administrators identified real-time data for ezParent users helps overall management of program uptake. Suggestions for features to add to the dashboard included the ability to track partial progress of program modules (29%), total time spent per module (14%), and exportable reports (7%). Other ideas for improvement included direct messaging capabilities, video-conferencing platform integration, and the ability to modify participant account and contact information.

Results indicate that the dashboard is easy to use and provides functional information to facilitators and administrators in delivering ezParent. Providing resources to aid in facilitation of the hybrid intervention may foster improved parent uptake and outcomes. Integrating suggested features into the dashboard may help provide a smoother experience for facilitators, administrators, and parents using the program.

This research was sponsored by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD104072; Dr. Susan Breitenstein, Principal Investigator, Ohio State University). Collaborating authors include Ms. Julia Berteletti and Mr. Charlie Barger from Klein Buendel; and Shea Smoske, Kyrie Tipps, and Nathan P. Helsabeck from The Ohio State University. The ezParent web-based program and administrative dashboard were programmed by the Creative Team at Klein Buendel.