Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy and Completing College
Faculty Guide
Table of Contents
Overview
Rationale: Why Use These Lessons?
For More Information: The National Campaign Research Publications
What More Can You and Your College Do?
General Description
Features of the Lessons
Student time commitment
Web-based resources
Interactive learning activities and ungraded self-checks
Student assessment for credit or grade: lesson quizzes
Study Guides
Action Plan
How to Access the Lessons
Technical Information
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Lesson Objectives and Topic Outline
Lesson One: Why Should You Care About Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy?
Lesson Two: How Much Do You Know About Sex and Birth Control?
Lesson Three: Make a Plan and Take Action
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Preparing to Teach the Lessons: Instructor’s Checklist
Decide How You Will Use the Lessons: Graded or Ungraded
Decide How You Will Use the Study Guides
Provide Information about Campus-based Healthcare
Verify Local Birth Control/Healthcare Provider Information
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Support Materials
Student Guide
Student Study Guides and Action Plan
Resource List
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Implementation and Assignment Suggestions
Implementation Suggestions
Assignment Suggestions
Pair or small group activities
Reaction papers
Scheduling activity
Discussion topics
Guest speakers
Student research/presentations
Alternatives for LGBT students
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About the Lessons
Authors
Acknowledgements
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Overview
Rationale: Why Use These Lessons?
Unplanned pregnancy affects the retention, completion, and success of a large number of college students.
 More than one million unplanned pregnancies occur to single women in their 20s. These
unplanned pregnancies result in a large number of single parents who struggle with finances,
unstable relationships, and interrupted or indefinitely postponed education.
 In fact, unplanned pregnancy dramatically increases the risk of a student dropping out or stopping
out of college: 61% of women who have children after enrolling in community college fail to
finish their degrees, which is 65% higher than the rate for those who didn’t have children.
Students need this information.
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Did you know that most unmarried young adults feel strongly that pregnancy should be planned
and think it is important to avoid unplanned pregnancy—at least right now?
Yet…
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About one in five unmarried young adults says it is likely they will have sex in the next three
months without using any birth control.
Most young adults underestimate their chances of getting pregnant if they don’t use
contraception. Among couples who have sex regularly, 85% will experience a pregnancy within
one year if they do not use contraception. Six in 10 young adults (57% of both men and women)
underestimate this risk.
Almost all unmarried young adults say they have all the information they need to avoid
having/causing an unplanned pregnancy but many also admit they know little about some
commonly-used and effective methods of contraception.
Myths, misinformation, and magical thinking are common among young adults.
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Four in 10 unmarried young adults believe “it doesn’t matter whether you use contraception or
not; when it is your time to get pregnant, it will happen.”
One out of five guys thinks that having sex standing up prevents pregnancy.
Furthermore, many unmarried young adults incorrectly believe they are infertile.
Sources: The Fog Zone: How Misperceptions, Magical Thinking, and Ambivalence Put Young Adults at
Risk for Unplanned Pregnancy, The Target Speaks: What Young Adults Think about Unplanned
Pregnancy, and Magical Thinking: Young Adults’ Attitudes and Beliefs About Sex, Contraception, and
Unplanned Pregnancy—Results from a Public Opinion Survey.
Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy and Completing College can help students address these contradictory
beliefs and take action to prevent unplanned pregnancy. The 18 faculty who reviewed or piloted these
lessons in the spring of 2012 were uniformly positive in their feedback, as were the responses from the
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students who took part in the pilot. These faculty members believe that unplanned pregnancy is an
important issue for their students.
For More Information: The National Campaign Research Publications
The National Campaign has conducted extensive research about the attitudes of young adults
regarding sex, contraception, and relationships. If you would like to know more, click on the
links to download the reports:
 The Fog Zone: How Misperceptions, Magical Thinking, and Ambivalence Put Young Adults
at Risk for Unplanned Pregnancy (2009) reports the results of a nationally representative
survey of 1,800 unmarried young adults aged 18-29. It is the first of its kind to focus in depth
on the attitudes and behavior of unmarried young adults―men and women―regarding
pregnancy planning, contraception, and related issues.
 The Target Speaks: What Young Adults Think about Unplanned Pregnancy (2012) is a
nationally-representative survey of 18-29-year-olds that offers interesting insights about sex
and unplanned pregnancy, contraception, and the attitudes and behavior of young adults
regarding pregnancy planning, contraception, and related issues.
 Magical Thinking: Young Adults’ Attitudes and Beliefs About Sex, Contraception, and
Unplanned Pregnancy—Results from a Public Opinion Survey (2008) reports the results of a
public opinion survey conducted by The National Campaign and Self magazine of over 2,000
young adults (ages 18-29) on relationships, sex, fertility, contraception, and unplanned
pregnancy.
What More Can You and Your College Do?
If you would like more low- or no-cost ideas about how to address this important issue, you can
consult The National Campaign publication, Briefly: Unplanned Pregnancy Among College
Students and Strategies to Address It. Although much of the data refers to students at community
colleges, the ideas and strategies presented are relevant to both community and four-year
colleges.
General Description
The three lessons in Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy and Completing College are designed to
help students understand the impact of unplanned pregnancy on their educational goals, their
social lives, their significant relationships, and their finances. Students learn about various birth
control methods; select the most appropriate method(s) for their values, lifestyles, and
relationships; and, finally, create an Action Plan to decrease their chances of unplanned
pregnancy.
In the lessons, students hear from real people who describe their experiences related to
relationships, sex, birth control, and parenthood. Additionally, students are directed to websites
for information that help them assess their birth control choices and make plans to avoid
unplanned pregnancy.
While they are especially appropriate for First Year Experience and other college success courses,
they can also be integrated into a variety of disciplines such as health, sociology, human
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sexuality, nursing, among others. They can also be used as part of a college’s orientation
program or as an activity in residence hall, wellness centers, or student health centers.
Features of the Lessons
Student time commitment
Each of the three lessons may be completed in approximately 30 minutes.
Web-based resources
The lessons are based on web resources—videos and websites—so that they stand-alone without
the need for additional texts and so that they may be completed entirely online, ideally each
lesson in one sitting.
Interactive learning activities and ungraded self-checks
Each lesson includes interactive learning activities. Ungraded self-checks not only help students
assess their knowledge but provide a learning experience by giving them information as part of
the feedback system.
Student assessment for credit or grade: lesson quizzes
The easiest way to grade students is to load the quizzes into your gradebook and instruct students
to complete the quizzes through the college’s learning management system. To download the zip
files as well as instructions for how to upload them to your LMS, go to the Supporting Materials
section of the Faculty Page at http://thenationalcampaign.org/resource/online-lessons-facultypage.
If you prefer to provide students with a hard copy of the quizzes or upload the quizzes to your
LMS manually, a Word document of the completed quizzes with correct answers is available. To
request it, contact Chelsey Connolly, Manager of College Initiatives, at cconnolly@thenc.org.
Study Guides
Each lesson includes a Study Guide to help focus student attention on the relevant points.
Completing these guides as they work through the lessons helps students prepare for the scored
quizzes at the end of each lesson.
***Assign the Study Guides for credit or a grade
As a way to assure that students complete the activities in the lessons and as practice in
note-taking, you may wish to assign the Lesson One Study Guide and Lesson Two Study
Guide to be completed and turned in for credit or a grade (because it includes personal
information, we do not recommend collecting the Lesson Three Study Guide). Additional
uses of the Study Guides are described in the Implementation and Assignment
Suggestions section on page 9 of this guide.
Action Plan
Lesson Three includes an Action Plan to help students get organized and to follow through on
their plans to prevent unplanned pregnancy. Because the Action Plan contains information about
personal choices related to birth control, healthcare, and personal relationships, we recommend
that you NOT collect it.
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How to Access the Lessons
Students will need to access content from The National Campaign’s website at
www.TheNationalCampaign.org/resource/online-lessons. A link to the lessons will be available
on the faculty page at www.TheNationalCampaign.org/resource/online-lessons-faculty-page, but
we strongly recommend that you send students directly to the lessons so they do not visit the
faculty page.
If you have a course website in a learning management system such as Blackboard, Moodle,
Sakai, or others, you may wish to create an assignment in the LMS with a link to the URL above.
See the Implementation and Assignment Suggestions section on page 9 of this guide.
For more information or if you are experiencing difficulty accessing the lessons, contact Chelsey
Connolly, Manager of College Initiatives at The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and
Unplanned Pregnancy, (202) 478-8519, cconnolly@thenc.org.
Technical Information
Disable Pop-up Blockers—Be sure pop-up blockers are disabled in your browser.
Flash and QuickTime—You and your students will need the latest versions of Flash and
QuickTime on your computers.
Flash: Flash version 10.3 or higher needed.
 Check your version of Flash.
 Install the latest version of Flash.
QuickTime: Version 7.7 or higher needed.
 Download and install the latest version of QuickTime.
Note: Once you have downloaded QuickTime, you must install it. Start the install process by
clicking "Run." Detailed instructions for installing are at the bottom of the QuickTime download
page.
Lesson Objectives and Topic Outline
Lesson One: Why Should You Care About Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy?
Lesson Two: How Much Do You Know about Sex and Birth Control?
Lesson Three: Make a Plan and Take Action
General Objectives—What do we want students to do as a result of these lessons?
 Examine their attitudes about sex and birth control.
 Evaluate their knowledge about sex and birth control.
 Identify changes (behavioral and other) needed to decrease their risk of unplanned pregnancy.
 Identify ways to communicate about sex and birth control with partners/potential partners and
healthcare providers.
 Choose the method or methods of birth control that are right for them.
 Make an “action plan” to prevent unplanned pregnancy.
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Lesson One: Why Should You Care About Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy?
Lesson One Objectives: At the completion of this lesson, students will be able to understand the
impact of unplanned pregnancy on their:
 Educational goals,
 Social life,
 Work,
 Significant relationships, and
 Finances.
Lesson One Description: In this lesson, real students―both men and women―tell their stories
about what happened to them as a result of unplanned pregnancies. Students also learn some of
the facts about unplanned pregnancy among college students, as well as about the financial
impact of unplanned pregnancy.
Lesson videos include the following:
Student Perspectives—Interviews with students, many of whom are also parents,
detailing some of the key facts about unplanned pregnancy and the impact of unplanned
pregnancy on student academic success.
What it takes to be a parent—In this video, student parents describe the impact of
parenthood on their social lives. This video is part of the p.a.p.a. (Parenting and
Parenting Awareness) series and was used with the permission of the Office of the
Attorney General of Texas.
9 Months—In this video, created by students at Georgia Perimeter College, students
discuss the impact of unplanned pregnancy on romantic relationships. This video was
used with the permission of Professor Tamra Ortgies-Young, Georgia Perimeter College
and was edited (with permission) by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and
Unplanned Pregnancy.
What is a parent?—Student parents describe how becoming pregnant affected their
relationships with family. This video is part of the p.a.p.a. (Parenting and Parenting
Awareness) series and was used with the permission of the Office of the Attorney
General of Texas.
Other resources include presentations on the costs of raising a child and the effect of dropping out
of college on potential future income.
Lesson Two: How Much Do You Know About Sex and Birth Control?
Lesson Two Objectives: At the completion of this lesson, students will be able to:
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Identify common birth control myths,
Evaluate their knowledge about birth control, sex, and STIs,
Identify the effectiveness and costs of each birth control method,
Identify a number of birth control methods, and
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Identify the birth control method or methods that are right for them.
Lesson Two Description: This lesson focuses on two major topics, asking students “What do
you know about sex and birth control?” and “Which birth control method is right for you?”
Using the Bedsider website as a resource, students learn about birth control methods and view
videos of young men and women discussing their birth control choices and their relationships.
Additionally, Bedsider addresses major myths and “magical thinking” about sex and birth control
that put students in danger of having an unplanned pregnancy.
Learning activities include interactive self-checks that include immediate feedback and, therefore,
serve as learning devices. Students are asked to compare various methods in order to identify
which are most effective.
Lesson Three: Make a Plan and Take Action
Lesson Three Objectives: At the completion of this lesson, students will be able to:
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Identify how students can obtain various types of birth control,
Identify the birth control method or methods that are right for them,
Find healthcare providers and resources near where they live,
Talk to their healthcare provider and their sexual partner(s) about birth control,
Create an “action plan” to prevent unplanned pregnancy, and
Find additional resources.
Lesson Three Description: This lesson helps students identify the best birth control method(s)
that fit their individual values, relationships, and lifestyles. Students do a zip-code-based search
to identify sources for birth control in their communities. Students also learn strategies for
talking about sex and birth control with their partner or potential partners, as well as with their
healthcare providers. Additionally, the lesson prompts students to use the Bedsider appointment
and birth control reminder features, which can be delivered to students’ email or sent as texts to
their mobile devices.
An Action Plan worksheet provides students with steps to help them prevent unplanned
pregnancy, including identifying where and how to get their preferred birth control methods in
their communities. Note: Due to the personal nature of information on the Action Plan, you
should not collect the Action Plan.
Finally, Lesson Three provides students with links to social media to help them stay connected
with the issue and a Resource List that lists resources used in the lesson, as well as other related
resources.
Preparing to Teach the Lessons: Instructor’s Checklist
Before you implement the lessons, you will need to make a few decisions about how you will use
the lessons and if and how you will grade your students. Additionally, you may wish to provide
information related to birth control support services on your campus. We recommend that you
verify birth control healthcare provider information in your local area by using the zip-code-based
search feature on Bedsider. See below for more details.
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Decide How You Will Use the Lessons: Graded or Ungraded
Lessons may be used in a variety of ways: as an ungraded assignment for credit, as a graded
assignment, as an extra credit assignment, or as an independent study, among other uses. Lessons
may be part of a class-based activity or may be completed without taking up class time. See the
Implementation and Assignment Suggestions section on page 9 of this guide for more ideas.
Decide How You Will Use the Study Guides
Let students know if you want them to hand in the Study Guides as evidence of completion of
lesson activities or as graded assignments. Note: Because of the personal nature of the Lesson
Three Study Guide and Action Plan, do not collect them.
Provide Information about Campus-based Healthcare
As preparation for Lesson Three, you will need to provide your students with information about
any campus-based birth control services. If your campus does not have a healthcare center or
wellness center, Lesson Three will direct students to do a zip-code-based search for local birth
control/healthcare provider information.
Here is some information about what students may find most helpful:
If there is a health center:
 What methods of birth control do they provide?
 Do students need health insurance to be seen by the clinic?
 What are the eligibility requirements to be seen by the health clinic? For example, they may
need to be full-time students receive an examination at the clinic, but they still may be able to
obtain condoms.
 What are the costs involved?
 If the health center does not offer the full range of birth control methods, to where do they
refer students?
If there is not a health center:
 Is there a wellness center or other service that provides free condoms and/or information
about community resources?
Verify Local Birth Control/Healthcare Provider Information
As part of the Action Plan in Lesson Three, students are asked to do a zip-code-based search on
www.Bedsider.org to find birth control and healthcare provider resources in their local
communities.
Bedsider.org (Bedsider) is an online birth control support network operated by The National
Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a private non-profit organization.
Bedsider is not funded by pharmaceutical companies or the government. Bedsider is independent
and the information on it is honest, accurate, and unbiased. Its goal is to help people find the
method of birth control that’s right for them and learn how to use it consistently and effectively,
and that's it.
While The National Campaign makes every effort to maintain up-to-date information about local
providers on Bedsider, information can change frequently. For this reason, we recommend that
you make sure that these local resources/healthcare providers are in operation. We also
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encourage you to alert them that they may be contacted by students, especially if you expect to
reach a significant number of students. Click on this Bedsider link now to find local resources
and their contact information. These providers can be good resources if you need guest speakers.
Supporting Materials
Student Guide
This handout is in Rich Text Format so that you may modify it to suit your lesson assignment.
Student Study Guides and Action Plan
The Study Guides and Action Plan are in Rich Text Format so that students may fill them out
electronically. These documents are also available for download within the lessons. To
encourage use of the Study Guides, you may wish to provide them to your students (hardcopy or
electronically) ahead of time.
Resource List
The Resource List includes all the resources used in the lesson, as well as other related resources.
Implementation and Assignment Suggestions
Many of these implementation strategies and assignments were suggested by the 18 faculty who reviewed
or piloted the lessons during the spring 2012 semester. The majority of these faculty members teach First
Year Experience or Orientation courses. Their feedback helped shape the lessons in their current form.
Implementation Suggestions
●
If you have a course website in your college’s LMS (such as Blackboard, Canvas,
Desire2Learn, Moodle, Sakai, or other LMS), you can create an assignment with a link to the
lessons, a description of them, and instructions on how to complete them. You might also
add local data and a list of local resources.
●
In addition, you may wish to have students complete end-of-lesson quizzes through the
college’s LMS. For more information about end-of-lesson quizzes, see the Student
assessment for credit or grade: lesson quizzes section on page 4.
●
As part of the assignment, you can post student handouts—lesson descriptions, the Study
Guides, and the Action Plan—so students can go over these before they access the lessons.
(Note that the Study Guides and Action Plan are also downloadable from within the lessons.)
●
Do the first lesson in class as a way to familiarize students with the lessons and how to
navigate through the lessons. Doing the first lesson in class would also provide an
opportunity for an initial discussion of the issue.
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If conducted in a computer lab setting, you may wish to have students take the quiz in class as
a way to familiarize them with how to access their assignment. For more information about
end-of-lesson quizzes, see the Student assessment for credit or grade: lesson quizzes
section on page 4.
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Additionally, if you ask students to do one or all of the lessons in lab, but you want students
to work individually, you will need to have students use headsets.
●
Have students turn in the Lesson One Study Guide and Lesson Two Study Guide for credit or
a grade. One reviewer pointed out that she intends to have students turn in completed guides
so that students would be held accountable for gathering information while practicing notetaking skills. Note: the Lesson Three Study Guide and the Action Plan both contain personal
information, so we do not recommend collecting either of these as an assignment.
●
Require that students achieve a minimum score on the quizzes to receive credit or for a
passing grade or to receive credit for completing the lessons.
Practical advice:
 You will need to let students know if and how you will be grading them on their
performance.
● Do not collect the Lesson Three Study Guide or Action Plan because they contain
students’ personal information.
Assignment Suggestions
Pair or small group activities
 Have students work together to complete the worksheets or other lesson activities, such as the
baby cost calculator in Lesson One.
 One reviewer suggested the following: Have students complete a chart of pros and cons of an
unplanned pregnancy while going to college (in anticipation that it would be much easier to
complete the "cons" list than the "pros" list). Students could do this anonymously, but
identify if they were male or female. Then they could compare the male/female responses.
This would result in an interesting class discussion.
Reaction papers
 Some reviewers proposed that students write reflection papers on the topics of the lessons,
including the following: birth control, abstinence, why it is hard to have a conversation about
birth control and how to deal with it, the relationship between self-respect and using birth
control. Note that a number of faculty have embedded discussion of unplanned pregnancy in
a variety of courses and have found that the topic is ideal for reflective writing and
discussion. To learn more about these efforts, go to www.aacc.nche.edu/mipcc, and to watch
a video of some of the participating faculty talk about their projects, go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkpHt1u5QoU.
Scheduling activity
 As a way to emphasize to students how difficult it can be to juggle caring for a baby and
going to school at the same time (and, in some cases, also working), you can create an
assignment that requires students to schedule a typical day or a typical week for a parent
student. Make a list of all of the activities/tasks a parent student needs to complete in a given
day/week, including the approximate amount of time to complete each activity/task. Provide
students with a blank calendar (daily/weekly) which has areas for each 30-minute time frame
and ask students to figure out how to schedule every required activity/task in 30-minute
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increments. For example, a parent student may need to wake up and get ready for school
from 6:30am-7:30am, get the baby diapered, dressed, and fed from 7:30am-8:00am, and drive
to day care from 8:00am-8:30am in order to attend a 9:00am class. Be sure to remind
students of the number of hours they will need to schedule for studying!
Discussion topics
 Provide or have students provide various social/romantic/sexual scenarios and have students
discuss what types of birth control would be best options. See the Bedsider “Method
Explorer” at http://bedsider.org/methods (most effective, party ready, STI prevention, easy to
hide, do me now) for prompts for this activity. This might be a single-sex group discussion.
 Discuss the common reasons why people decide not to use birth control and suggestions for
how to change that attitude.
 Discuss the relationship between drinking and unprotected sex. What can be done to counter
this problem?
 Discuss the relationship between values and birth control choices. This would be a good
opportunity to discuss cultural issues and recognize that different cultures/religions may view
these issues differently. For example, as one reviewer commented: “I work with Latino
students who have cultural values that differ from Anglo students such as emphasis on family
and children. For some students, children are considered a blessing from God and parental
approval is important.”
 Use some of the videos for in-class discussion.
 Use Bedsider’s “Fact or Fiction” videos about sex and birth control myths as discussion
prompts.
 Have a discussion related to Lesson Three about where in your community to get birth
control.
 Discuss the tips given in the article “How to talk to a partner about birth control and sex.”
(Example discussion question: What would be a good way to discuss the use of a condom
with a potential partner? As one reviewer pointed out, this kind of discussion might be a
good way to get guys to contribute ideas.) Do practice dialogues or role playing, probably in
single-sex groups.
 Discuss the “how to talk to a healthcare provider” tips. Do practice dialogues or role-playing.
Guest speakers
 City or County Health Departments, other local clinics, or the college’s Wellness Center
often have outreach or education staff who can discuss types of services available. They also
have medical doctors and nurses who could speak to the class, answer questions, and possibly
bring samples of birth control methods.
 Student guest speakers who would be willing to discuss their experiences in ways that would
enforce and affirm the lessons. As one faculty who piloted the lessons in her First Year
Experience course wrote: “I have a student who has twin four-year-olds, one girl and one
boy. She talked about how that had changed her life and other students were fascinated. I
invited all of us who were parents to share what changed most about our lives when we had
kids. I enjoyed that! I also have a couple of students who had their first child in their teens
and their second in their 30s. They also shared a lot about how different those experiences
were, even though they love both of the children!”
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Student research/presentations
 Interview healthcare providers about what individuals need to ask when they have an
appointment for an exam and when they want to learn more about what method of birth
control might be best for them. Write a report of findings or report to class.
 Interview someone they may know (anonymous and should give permission for their story to
be shared) who has had a pregnancy—planned or unplanned—while going to college.
Present to the class the experiences of the person who was interviewed.
 Research cultural differences in attitudes toward unplanned pregnancy.
 Create a video (see Georgia Perimeter College videos on YouTube) on a subject related to
unplanned pregnancy and college completion. Since these videos have potential to reach
many other students, it is important that they contain accurate and up to date information.
Instructors are welcome to contact Chelsey Connolly at The National Campaign with
questions or fact-checking: (202) 478-8519, cconnolly@thenc.org.
Alternatives for LGBT students
 Provide resources such as http://www.studentsexlife.org/ or
http://www.itsyoursexlife.com/resources/. As one reviewer wrote: “I told my students that I
don’t assume that all my students are straight, so I gathered some LGBT materials and made
them available right below the link to the modules (in the college’s LMS) so students could
access them on their own if they needed to.”
About the Lessons
Authors
The three lessons in Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy and Completing College were designed
and authored by Bobbi Dubins, instructional designer and First Year Experience faculty at
Allegany College of Maryland, and Virginia Kirk, Professor Emeritus and former Director of
Distance Learning at Howard Community College (MD).
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the following faculty for their valuable feedback: Dr. Jana Flowers, Richland
College; Dr. Jennifer Jones, Richland College; Melinda Andrews, Richland College; Karen
Cuttill, Richland College; Allison Michael, Richland College; Sean Brumfield, Georgia Perimeter
College; Dr. June Bracken, Allegany College of Maryland; Suzanne Wright, Allegany College of
Maryland; Jennifer Allen, Davidson County Community College; Christine Johns, Davidson
County Community College; Dr. Margaret Garroway, Howard Community College; Joyce Blight,
Howard Community College; Lois Clark, Howard Community College; Jeanette Jeffrey, Howard
Community College; Fatina LaMar-Taylor, Prince George’s Community College; Yolanda
Reyna, Palo Alto College; Julie McLaughlin, Cincinnati State; Kamaka Gunderson, Hawaii
Community College.
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