THE HELP SCREENS*

The Help Screens(*) are designed for students. Each Help Screen contains skills and techniques for academic improvement. We believe these techniques are effective in helping students in their learning process. The Help Screens are tools that were created and reviewed by guidance and mental health counselors. They are meant to aid and enhance the academic process. As you will soon realize, many of these techniques are new techniques designed by the Help Screen team. However, some of these techniques have been redesigned and used because of their longstanding record of being successful in the academic arena.

Many people have used The Help Screens in the past. Some ISDs have included them in their web sites. In our previous home, SHSU, the Help Screens were among the most visited web pages at the university. Tables using total number of entries, totals by referrers, and totals by string search, presented below, illustrate the impact of the Screens. The Help Screens were among the most popular pages at the university, reaching 100,000 hits in the year 2000. The Help Screens for College Students, based on USF-Lakeland campus, receive an average of 500 visitors per month.

Table 1: Top 10 of 30707 Total Entry Pages in One Month*

#	Hits	Visits	URL
5	2695	2079	shortr.html
8	2449	1780	study_skills.html
10	1755	1398	roadrage.html

Table 2: Top 30 of 43308 Total Referrers in One Month*

#	Hits	Referrer
15	488	study_skills.html

Table 3: Top 20 of 41115 Total Search Strings in One Month*

#	Hits	Search String
1	1891	sam houston state university
2	728	relaxation techniques
3	590	relaxation
4	505	shsu
5	433	sam houston university
6	421	road rage

*adapted from: http://www.shsu.edu/stats

We have received many complementary comments and requests to share our information. Several of such comments can be seen in the Comments page. We have been always impressed with the wide use of our screens and look forward to continue offering them through our new home at the University of South Florida.

As creator of the Help Screens, I look forward to hearing from you. Your comments provide an invaluable help in improving and diversifying our screens.

I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the Help Screens for Middle and High School Students (HSMHS) program.

Carlos P. Zalaquett, Ph.D.

(*) All Help Screen materials are copyrighted. Prior written permission is required to reproduce all or parts of these screens. Please contact: Carlos P. Zalaquett, Ph.D., College of Education, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, EDU162. Tampa, FL 33620.

Zalaquett, C. and Sullivan, J. (1998). The Counseling Center Help Screens: Students' utilization and evaluation of an Internet-based program. Journal of College Student Development, 39 (5): 494-498.