The Statewide Online Tobacco Prevention and Intervention Teacher Training Project created in the 2010-2011 school year was based on findings and recommendations from the School District’s course for Palm Beach County teachers. The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) stated, “As a leader in Florida with establishing online tobacco prevention teacher training, Palm Beach County has laid the foundation to create a statewide online component in support of the funding priorities.” Therefore, in June 2010, the FLDOE asked The School District of Palm Beach County to offer a “Statewide Online Tobacco Prevention and Intervention Teacher Training” course to all 67 school districts in the state of Florida. The 2013-2014 school year was the 4th year for the statewide program. After teachers complete the content portion of the course, they are provided grade appropriate lessons in three core topic areas: Health Effects, Refusal Skills, and Media Literacy. They are then required to teach six lessons, two under each of the core topic areas. They can receive up to 60 in-service points once they have completed the course, including teaching the lessons.

The mid-year report by W. William Chen, Ph.D., CHES, Department of Health Education and Behavior at the University of Florida, and his colleagues, concluded that for teachers who took the course, their students demonstrated statistically significant improvements. Teachers’ pre and post course surveys measured knowledge gained. The student assessments measured the impact that the teachers’ online training had on their students regarding changes in knowledge about tobacco hazards, media influences on tobacco use, and refusal skills in the 2010-2011 school year. In 2012-2013, 1,007 participants enrolled, and 426 participants completed the course. There were 18,650 students across the state that received tobacco prevention lessons. In the 2013-2014 school year over 900 more teachers registered, many of whom completed the program reaching another 9,000 students with tobacco prevention lessons. Over the past two years the program has had at least one participant from 63 of the 67 districts in Florida.

Each year the course is rebuilt to reflect the latest trends, updated research, and improved interactive sites. The course content section has fourteen chapters that include prevention/intervention, a look at tobacco companies, academic impact, athletic impact, the role of the teacher, the addiction process, chemical additives, diseases, alternative delivery systems, 2nd and 3rd-hand smoke, marketing recognition, refusal skills, cultural influences, and legal aspects. Each chapter has a quiz the participant must pass to move ahead. There are also five assignments and four forums in which participants must participate. The course is highly multimedia and interactively focused making it one of the most enjoyable high-level programs one can take for educational training points. Teachers will also create a lesson of their own to be included in the six they teach their students. The program is self-paced, providing participants the ability to work at their own pace and take the time they need to succeed. Since it is online, they can work on it from virtually anywhere that has an internet connection. The program meets or exceeds the state mandated one hour to one point ratio.

In the 2013-2014 school year, new topics included a focus on alternative nicotine delivery systems such as hookah and e-cigarettes. Innovative assignment formats have been created to allow teachers to create classroom assets such as animations, comic strips, videos and presentations.

An effort to reach more teachers while providing resources for those that have completed this course has resulted in a five-part solution: updated web site, blog, Facebook page, Twitter, and YouTube. The improvements will provide ongoing opportunities for all teachers across the state to use current information, web links, multimedia, and dialog to keep tobacco prevention alive in their classrooms. The Facebook page not only allows networking with other agencies and educators, but also provides an input arena for anyone involved in tobacco prevention. The blog was created to provoke stories about tobacco prevention today. This medium encourages discussion among our educators. Both of these are integrated with Twitter for micro-blogging and to integrate with other valuable resources. All of this is integrated for a very comprehensive marketing and support program.

"I am not one who is great with computers and sending things in attachments, but I felt this course made things simple and easy to complete."

"There were several new technologies that I learned during this course that I plan on using in my classroom again in the future."

"I thought this course was very informative and user friendly. I thought the assignments were relevant to the lessons and I really enjoyed taking the class. I have recommended it to many of my peers."

"The course content was great, it is appropriate to teach the students in our classes. Students seem to understand the consequences of smoking and using drugs which means the lessons are great."

"The course content met the needs of Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory and Read-Write Learners."

"I was very impressed at not only how organized the lessons were but with the plethora of vital and very interesting statistics, data, and information available. The links to PSA's, videos, and websites were all relevant and full of additional resources. This course was well worth the time and I learned more than I expected to. My students enjoyed the lessons I taught to them (and the fact that I had "school work" and "homework" to do, as well!) Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this course."

"I was surprised to see how much information is provided in this course. I truly enjoyed every section of it. My students were so engaged in learning from the lesson that every day this week they were asking more questions and even thought about the possibility of starting a tobacco prevention club at school which we do not have available right now."

"The content of the course was wonderful, disturbing, and incredibly thorough. Everything I could possibly have hoped to learn was available in an easy to track fashion. You've done an excellent job compiling so much information for those who take the course. Thank you!"

"This class was great. I really am glad I decided to take it. I thought I knew a lot about tobacco, but I feel that now I am completely informed with what is going on with this industry. I feel it is my responsibility as an educator to help students understand the dangers of tobacco use."

"I am very pleased with the material that was presented and how user friendly this was. I felt like this course was definitely manageable with all the other demands of my teaching career and I did not feel very overwhelmed with all that was required which is what I feel should occur when you are required to take professional development courses like this. I would love to see other course offered using this format. I would and will recommend to peers after taking this. I also feel I was able and will be able to use this information in a positive way and received many resources to refer to when need be. Thanks so much!"

"This course opened my eyes to many things. Being a mother or adolescents I feel so well informed about the pressures that the youth face in their day to day life. As a teacher, I feel that I can help my students become well informed, even at 5 years old. This course has truly changed my life. I am now very interested in helping those who smoke to quit and kids to never have to be faced with the peer pressure to start smoking. Eye opening experience for me. Thank you."

"I signed up for the course because I knew it would be interesting, but I didn't realize just how interesting and informative it was going to be! I am now committed to incorporating the "Anti-Tobacco" message in my classes every year for the remainder of my teaching career. Great course! I thoroughly enjoyed it."

"The workshop was very engaging and full of information. I will definitely be using this program and implementing the knowledge acquired."