Back-to-School = Back to Work!

Dear MyHealthEd Supporters,

We hope you're staying cool! It's back-to-school season and the two of us are getting ready to start classes again – Liz at UNC and Vichi at Yale! We thank John Oliver for a well-timed spotlight on sexuality education in our country.

 

Human sexuality education is more important than calculus! This fall, Liz will continue to work on MyHealthEd as part of her course work in her second year of doctoral training. In particular, she will be analyzing the student focus group transcripts from our spring pilot test in Clare Barrington's Advanced Qualitative Research Methods course. We set out to answer the following questions:

• What did students like/dislike about our online adaption of Reducing the Risk?
• What online features (e.g. animated instructional videos, chat simulator, text-to-speech) do students like/dislike? Why?
• Would students prefer to receive sex education online or in a traditional classroom setting? Why or why not?

Then, Vichi will start business school and build our team's skill set in business management and strategic planning. She is particularly interested in exploring innovative business models in social enterprise and seeking mentorship from faculty at the university who have overlapping interests.

In the coming weeks, we are also planning to establish our MyHealthEd advisory board. See below for our current solicitation:

Board Member Commitments

In order to ensure successful implementation of our proposed roadmap, and the most efficient and effective allocation of our grant funds towards the goals aligned above, MyHealthEd is seeking an advisory board of experts from across the education, health, and technology sectors to provide regular guidance, feedback, and oversight. Each board member commits to:

• Serve a one-year term ending August 2016 with the option for an additional year of renewal
• Participate in (at most) monthly one-hour online meetings to discuss current status and upcoming new items
• Complete 1-2 hours of prep work each month in advance of the online meeting
• Remain available by email to provide guidance on domain-specific decisions, and feedback on relevant new deliverables. Examples include:
  • Advice on choice of software platform
  • Feedback on teacher professional development plan
  • Considerations and recommendations for future scale, growth, distribution
  • Identification/avoidance of regulatory hurdles
  • Best practices in online learning
  • Identifying and filling needs within our team
• Connect Liz and Vichi with other stakeholders in your network who may be able to assist in MyHealthEd's progress. Examples include:
  • Helping to assemble a review team for new content
  • Identifying potential new partner schools for pilot
  • Recommending sources or candidates for contract work (software development, content creation, video production)

Are you interested in serving on our board? Do you know someone who may be a good fit? Let us know!

Cheers,

Liz & Vichi