Breaking Down the Skills: Designing and Pilot-Testing a Video-Based Microskills^® Training for Sexual Health Educators

Abstract

Effective sexual health education plays a critical role in adolescent pregnancy and HIV and STI prevention. This article describes the formative research conducted to design, and then pilot-test, SkillFlix^®, a streaming video training created to improve educators’ skills in delivering sexual health education to youth by modeling Microskills^®. Results from pilot testing of the SkillFlix training exceeded expectations, with educators demonstrating significant improvement in integrating and successfully using two prototype Microskills: (1) correct implementation of LGBTQ inclusivity; and (2) answering of sensitive questions. Educators’ perceived skill levels also increased significantly after using SkillFlix. Skill acquisition occurred even though the educators employed content (vs. skills acquisition) focus when using the resource.

Keywords:

• Sexual health education
• video modeling
• training
• online learning
• inclusivity
• SkillFlix^®
• Microskills^®

Acknowledgements

National training and SRH experts who advised on the project included Karin Coyle, PhD, Deborah Christopher, MSM, Jutta Dotterwiech, MPH, Lori A. Rolleri, MSW, MPH. We also thank the many teachers, sexual health educators and trainers who participated in the formative research and pilot evaluation. A special thanks to the actors and video production company, SecondPeak that brought the videos to life, as well as Katy Casselman for prop work and Erica Marsh for content management.

Notes

1 California Prevention Training Center. Sexual Health Educator Training Program. [Online]. https://californiaptc.com/sexual-health-educator-training-program/

2 https://www.etr.org/blog/new-professional-learning-standards-for-sex-education-plsse/

3 https://siecus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/National-Sexuality-Education-Standards.pdf

4 https://siecus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/PLSSE-FINAL.pdf

5 Expert advisors for this project were as follows: Jutta Dotterweich, Director of Training and Teaching Assistant, Cornell University ACT Center for Youth Excellence; Deborah Christopher, Director of Professional and Organizational Development, ETR; Lori Rolleri, Principle of Rolleri Consulting; and Karin Coyle, Chief Science Officer, ETR).

6 Drupal is content management software used for creating websites and other integrated digital frameworks. See: https://www.drupal.org/about

7 While having the developer pilot the product in a Phase I grant is customary given the scope and size of Phase I pilots, for our continued research with Phase II funding, we will have independent evaluators conduct the formal RCT, removing any potential conflict of interest.

8 We recently concluded a federally funded project in which pharmacy staff participated in SkillFlix video training with Microskills designed to improve their customer service and compliance with regulations when participating in non-prescription syringe sales. In a real-world evaluation of skills demonstrated during interaction with customers before and after the SkillFlix training, pharmacy staff significantly improved their total skill score (p = .001) and improved in nearly all individual skills.