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Isidore’s Green Dot: Creative ways to make a difference through technology

At the University of Dayton, if you were to ask a passing student to finish this sentence: “What’s your green _______?”, they would immediately say, “dot.” 

Only on campuses where The Green Dot program has a prolific presence does this sentence make any kind of sense. Founded in a college setting, the Green Dot program aims to reduce sexual violence by creating awareness and providing training to students, faculty, and staff. When a student walks a friend home after a night out, that’s a green dot. When a faculty member notices a student is continuously avoiding another student and checks in with them, that’s a green dot. Even breaking into song to disrupt a tense situation that could lead to violence or harassment is a green dot. In essence, a green dot is anything someone can do to make the campus community safer. 

The green dot message is promoted in many ways on campus, with most students receiving a Green Dot introduction at some point during their first year. There are posters, training opportunities, “green dot cookies,” and even a Green Dot mascot, but the Division of Student Development is always looking for more ways to remind the community of potential green dots that anyone can do at any time.

UD’s “Spot the Dot” mascot and Green Dot cookies. 

The Division of Student Development works tirelessly to make the Green Dot message ubiquitous throughout our campus - but there was one non-traditional spot not yet canvased: UD’s Learning Management System, Isidore. The fact that Isidore is self-hosted open source software means that local UD developers can build in new functionality and customize the environment to best-fit campus needs. 

Given that most faculty and students log in daily to Isidore, the Office of eLearning partnered with the Division of Student Development to capitalize on this captive audience. Together, they devised a simple plan: Build an interactive “Green Dot” widget that would be placed front and center on the Isidore landing page during “Green Dot Week” (March 25-31, 2019). 

Everyone logging in to Isidore during Green Dot week was shown a “How can I green dot?” button right on the front page. Once clicked, a campus-specific suggestion of how the recipient could champion green dot ideals would be displayed, accompanied by a pleasant “whooshing” sound. Users could then click the “I can do this!” thumbs-up below the message to demonstrate their commitment to upholding the green dot message. 

During its one-week run on Isidore, the Green Dot widget was clicked on by 1,043 unique users more than 4,400 times. Even better, 273 unique users clicked the “I can do this!” thumbs-up. Because of this partnership, our campus now has at least 273 more manifestations of green dots to prevent sexual violence. \

“When we were approached by the Office of eLearning with interest in incorporating Green Dot into Isidore, we were ecstatic.  Having the opportunity to partner with eLearning to spread the important messages of sexual violence prevention opened a new format through which we could reach the campus community and a new creative approach to delivering educational content.  Students were discussing the Green Dot Widget all week, using it as a conversation starter with the staff and with one another. We are so appreciative of this opportunity, and hope to collaborate again in the future!" -- Kristen Altenau Keen, Assistant Dean of Students for Education, Support, and Student Empowerment

The open-source mindset fosters this constant pursuit of “what’s next,” “what’s new,” “how can we help.” Most other projects the Office of eLearning has undertaken have been academic in focus. This partnership with the Division of Student Development opened our doors to the world of social justice and the common good. It is only because of our unique positioning at this Marianist campus that is so dedicated to service and aid that we are able to spend time on projects like the Green Dot widget. 

Visit https://go.udayton.edu/greendot to learn more about the Green Dot Program.
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