DownloadPerformance review
Output 1.2 Education, communication and advocacy services
Output 1.2 Education, communication and advocacy services – Education and communication
National Anti-Doping Education program
ASADA’s 2005–06 National Anti-Doping Education Program was a core element in providing anti-doping information and services to Australian athletes, NSO’s and athlete support persons.
The 2005–06 Education program aimed to:
- deter the use of prohibited doping practices
- reduce inadvertent doping by raising awareness of the Prohibited List and therapeutic requirements
- advise athletes of the Doping Control Process
- ensure athletes are aware of their anti-doping Rights & Responsibilities
- inform athletes and support persons about the anti-doping rules of sport including ADRVs
- inform stakeholders about the establishment of ASADA and the new functions of the Authority.
ASADA’s Education Service Charter for 2005–06 detailed for NSOs the level of education service ASADA provides athletes. The Charter also outlined educational strategies that the NSO can implement.
Anti-Doping DVD
During 2005–06 ASADA produced and delivered the Anti-Doping DVD. The production of the DVD enables ASADA to be more flexible in the delivery of presentations and ensures ASADA is able to reach a larger stakeholder group as an ASADA representative is not required to be present when the DVD is screened.
In accordance with the Education Service Charter each Government Funded sport received copies of the DVD to show to athletes. The requirement on the sport is for elite level athletes included in the Registered Testing Pool to view the DVD. Many NSOs have also used the DVD to educate athletes of other levels, including junior level athletes. A number of educational institutions across Australia have purchased the DVD as a means of educating students on anti-doping issues.
Commonwealth Games
A targeted education strategy for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games included a dedicated Commonwealth Games section being added to the ASDA website. These pages ensured that athletes were aware of the Commonwealth Games Federations’ Anti-Doping Rules and Doping Control processes.
Direct mail was distributed to all members of the Australian team regarding the Commonwealth Games Federations’ Rules, to ensure they were aware of specific information regarding the TUE process for the Games.
As part of the delivery of services to the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation, 71 Commonwealth Games Associations (CGA) were provided with a suite of resources including:
- Powerpoint presentation for athletes
- presentations to CGA chief medical officers and chef de missions
- seven Anti-Doping Fact Sheets (also provided at athlete interviews and at Doping Control stations)
- copies of the Anti-Doping DVD
- individual athlete interviews.
Website
Significant improvements were made to the Authority’s website in 2005–06, which was completely redeveloped for the launch of ASADA with new branding and site architecture. Other improvements to the website included:
- all content completely reviewed and revised
- new web page layouts with clear and easy to use menus for easier site navigation
- provision of consistent user experience across the site using uniform web page templates
- use of web standards compliant code and techniques to improve site accessibility for users with disabilities
- enhanced site search functionality and new A-Z index to improve content discovery
- improved presentation and indexing of substance information pages.
The launch of the new ASADA website has already created a significant positive response from its audience in that there is now on average:
- 27.6 percent increase in visitor sessions per day (currently an average of 457.80 visitor sessions per day for the new ASADA website, up from 358.67 for the previous ASDA website)
- 31.7 percent increase in page views per visitor session (currently an average of 4.94 page views per visitor session for the new ASADA website, up from 3.75 for the previous ASDA website)
- 9.7 percent increase in viewing time per visitor session (currently an average duration of 5 minutes 4 seconds per visitor session for the new ASADA website, up from 4 minutes 37 seconds for the previous ASDA website).
Areas of the website where functionality improvements were not implemented in 2005–06 include the provision of an Online Medications Database and the ability for athletes to provide whereabouts information online.
In 2005–06 the specifications for the Online Medications Database were scoped. It is anticipated the Online Medications Database will become operational in 2006–07 making it much easier for athletes to check the status of medications in their sport.
The delivery of an online service for athletes to provide whereabouts information is inherently linked with the Athlete Whereabouts project as detailed on page 24.
The Athletes Whereabouts online application is expected to be launched in 2006–07.
“The information I have seen and heard keeps me from taking prohibited substances.”
Athlete comment, ASADA survey 2005–06