March 28, 2025, Durham, NC – In a recent study, nearly 40% of community college students reported that they had not received school-based sex education since the ninth grade.1 Gaps in high-school sex education may put students at risk for negative sexual health outcomes as they enter adulthood. Colleges have the opportunity to fill these gaps and address students’ needs by providing high-quality sexual health resources to their students.
Media Aware is an online, evidence-based program that was designed to meet the need for sex education for young adults and to promote sexual and relationship health and prevent sexual violence. Media Aware provides college students with comprehensive information on a variety of important sexual health topics, and the program complies with sexual assault prevention mandates such as Title IX and the Campus SaVE Act.
In order to effectively reach young adults with information about sex and relationships, sexual health education programs like Media Aware must also be accessible, inclusive, and highly engaging. Media Aware was strategically developed to be engaging, usable, and relevant to students in order to maximize the positive impacts of the program on young adults. A recent evaluation found that Media Aware did effectively engage students and uncovered additional details on what students thought of the program.
How Media Aware engages students with information about sexual health.
Media Aware is the only evidence-based sexual health promotion program designed specifically for 18–19-year-olds and young adults. Media Aware employs several strategies in order to be uniquely engaging to this group of young people and to encourage learning. For example, Media Aware uses pop culture examples to teach students how to critically assess media messages about sexual and relationship health in ways that are relevant to them. To accommodate students’ busy schedules, the program is online and self-paced, so students can save their progress and continue the program at any time. Media Aware’s interactive design allows students to complete knowledge tests and receive immediate feedback. Students can also participate in simulations to practice important skills like how to talk with their doctors about their sexual health.
Students’ thoughts on the program.
iRT’s team of researchers collected feedback on the program from a national sample of 1,647 community college students from across the U.S. After taking Media Aware, students provided feedback by rating their agreement with statements about their experiences with the program (e.g., “I felt engaged while completing the program”). Students also answered free response questions about what they liked and disliked about the program and what they learned from the program.
88% of students surveyed said they felt engaged while completing the program and 90% reported that they liked the design of the program. One student said, “I like how interactive it was, easy to use, kind of fun too with different color designs and short paragraphs instead of long ones. I also loved how the program incorporated short videos and especially songs.”
In fact, 96% of students surveyed thought Media Aware was a good program for young adults to learn about sexual health. One student said, “[The program] provided me with information that was relevant to people of my age and generation.”
If you are interested in providing adolescents and young adults with comprehensive sexual health education in effective, engaging ways, consider using Media Aware. Find more information about this program at https://mediaawarecollegeprograms.com/.
To receive regular updates on iRT’s sexual health education research with community college students, sign up for the Community College Health Study newsletter at https://cchealthstudy.com/results/#newsletter-form.
- Scull, T. M., Stump, K. N., Evans-Paulson, R., Dodson, C. V., & Schoemann, A. M. (2025). Moving Toward a More Comprehensive Standard for Sex Education: A Latent Class Analysis and Examination of Young Adult Sexual Health. Journal of sex research, 1–14. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2025.2475549