UW Violence Prevention Program Receives Technology Grant

A $5,000 technology grant will help purchase updated software for Green Dot -- the University of Wyoming’s bystander intervention program.

Michelle DiPasquale, violence prevention coordinator in the Dean of Students Office, submitted a successful grant to Turning, an education technology company, for new software that will help the program’s educators and trainers develop engaging practices to improve participant outcomes.

Green Dot is committed to reducing and preventing power-based personal violence such as sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking.

The grant was awarded to UW based on three proposal areas:

-- Equity/fairness: All learners are afforded equal access and opportunity to engage and excel regardless of environment.

-- Evidence/facts: the commitment and ability to measure engagement, progress and outcomes empirically.

-- Engagement/fun: recognizing that everyone learns better when it is engaging, interactive and fun.

“Receiving this grant from Turning will allow us to provide additional Green Dot trainings across campus to all of our community members,” DiPasquale says. “Green Dot is a research-based program -- it is proven to lower rates of victimization, and having this additional technology will allow us to reach more people more quickly, leading to a safer campus community for everyone.”

DiPasquale and other Green Dot instructors currently use clickers -- that resemble small television remotes -- from Turning. The clickers are hand-held devices that people use to choose an answer to a question. Questions are posed in a PowerPoint presentation, and those participating in the Green Dot training session then have their answers posted anonymously, which allows them to answer honestly.

“The PowerPoint slide shows just a question. Then, after everyone selects a response, the response percentages from participants will be displayed live on the screen,” DiPasquale says. “The clickers allow participants to engage in anonymous and real-time polling with their peers as they learn about ways to reduce sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking in our community.”

Green Dot currently has 50 clickers, which caps the participation group numbers to that size. With additional updated clickers purchased through the grant, DiPasquale says the program’s 35 instructors can now provide training to larger groups or hold multiple sessions in different rooms and increase assessment to better measure learning outcomes.

Green Dot training sessions -- for faculty and staff -- are about 90 minutes in length. Five sessions are scheduled this semester.

To learn more, and for a list of training sessions, go to www.uwyo.edu/greendot.