Within each of the four areas below, we have compiled strategies and recommendations that historically have been the most effective for our partners. Please click on each heading to view our recommendations.
• Communicate what Game Plan is, how it will be used, and how to login to student-athletes, coaches and staff prior to their first use via your preferred communication method (i.e. email, messaging platform, in-person meetings such as team, staff, or SAAC meetings)
• Assign an activity to complete upon the users' first login so they can familiarize themselves with the platform (i.e. Welcome to Game Plan, Profile Survey, or other desired course)
• Plan your Game Plan curriculum ahead of the academic year to determine desired topics, assignment timeframes, and assignment approach (all athletes, by grade level, special groups, and coach/staff assignments) - Don't know where to start? Connect with your CSM
• Include "Required" in the assignment title along with the academic year associated with the assignment (ie. 23-24 Required Sexual Violence Prevention Education)
• Inform coaches of assignment start and end dates, share completion progress reports, and request their assistance in encouraging assignment completion
• Most partners issue required education for all athletes early in the fall semester while fewer teams are competing to ensure completions prior to winter break
• Plan your Game Plan curriculum ahead of the academic year to determine desired topics, timeframes, and approach for communicating the availability of these activities
• Include "Optional" or "Pick #" in the assignment title along with the academic year associated with the assignment (ie. 23-24 Optional Financial Education - Pick Two)
• Set due dates for the end of the semester or end of the academic year based on your approach
• To generate a completion report, type "completed" into the assignee search bar on the Assignment Details page then select Export Report to download completed activities only
Athlete Rosters
• Send your CSM a full active athlete roster at the beginning of each academic year in this template to add new athletes, update returners, and roll off athletes no longer on a roster
• For minor roster adjustments, you have the ability to manually add, edit, and remove users - learn how by visiting the "Managing Users" section on the Administrator page
• For larger updates throughout the academic year and at the mid-year mark, send your CSM another full active athlete roster for a bulk update
Staff Rosters
• Send your CSM a list of coaches and staff that includes names, email, and desired user role
• If utilizing the "Coach" role for coaching staffs, please include their respective sport(s) on the staff list
• For minor staff updates, you have the ability to manually add, edit, remove, and adjust the roles of staff users
• For larger updates, please connect with your CSM
We have put together the following course recommendations within our most common eLearning topic areas to provide guidance when navigating the extensive library and assist with course selection.
Please click on a heading to see the list of courses within each topic area or download this PDF containing all four curriculums.
• NIL 101 NIL Primer: Intro to Name Image and Likeness
• Determining Your Market Value: Understanding the opportunities presented through NIL and if it is right for you with post graduate opportunities in mind as well.
• Good Money Behavior: How to have good financial management and make good financial decisions to impact future financial success.
• Employment, Income & Taxes: How NIL impacts your employment status as you start making financial gains from NIL deals either through direct employment or self-employment
• Understanding Your Personal Brand: Understanding your brand and how it is shown through your social media presence. This course is designed to show a positive presence through social media.
• Online Networking: This module helps student athletes understand the importance of a positive digital presence and the impact online networking can have.
• Building Your Resume: Tips and tricks to make your resume stand out.
• Crafting an Elevator Pitch: Be prepared with a great elevator pitch.
• Networking 101: Basics of Networking and its impact on your future career.
• Steps to Getting a Job: Steps to take while currently a student athlete to best prepare you for life after college.
• Teamwork & Collaboration: Understanding your impact on your team and how it will relate to the workforce as you transition to life after sports.
• Next Play Pro (NPP): Assessment designed to help student athletes understand their true athletic identity in order to make a healthy transition into life after sports.
• Your Athletic Identity in the Workplace: Post Assessment Course that relates to the categories presented in the NPP.
• What Employers Look for While Reviewing Your Social Media Accounts: Your social media and its impact of your future career.
• Getting Started You and $: Tools and Resources to help you get to where you want to be financially.
• Spending Smart Have a Plan: Plan ahead and learn how to manage your money well.
• Good Money Behavior: How to have good financial management and make good financial decisions to impact future financial success.
• Credit Management: Learn about credit and how it can be beneficial when used in the right way.
• Debt Management: Learning how to manage any debt such as credit cards, student loans or general borrowing of money.
• Investing Basics: Learning more ways to manage your money outside of a savings account and invest in your future.
• Mental Recovery Techniques: Techniques, Practices, and Modalities to help with recovery best for the mind and body as it pertains to sport.
• Physical Recovery Techniques: Techniques, Practices, and Modalities to help with recovery to optimize physical health to maximize performance and recovery.
• Introduction to Stress: Learn about prominent sport and non-sport stressors and how to manage them in a positive way.
• Mental Health in Sports for Athletes: Learn about mental health aspects such as common disorders, signs to recognize, & what to do if you experiencing a mental health crisis.
• Balance: Learn how to find balance between the things you love to do and be a well rounded individual to celebrate your success in those things.
• Sleep: Learn about the importance of sleep as an athlete and tips and tricks to better your sleep for optimal recovery and increased performance.
• Pursuit of Excellence: Understanding what excellence means to you.
We've gathered best practices from our survey partners with the highest response rates. Read more below on how to optimize the survey experience.
The top 10 most surveyed areas in order are:
1. Head Coach
2. Team Culture
3. Athletic Training
4. Overall Experience
5. Practice
6. Mental Health
7. Facilities & Equipment
8. Travel
9. Strength & Conditioning
10. Time Demands
Average Survey Length
• 15 or fewer blocks is recommended - 20 maximum to avoid survey fatigue
Team Meetings vs. Asynchronous
• Getting a team together in a room to take the survey generates the highest response rates
• If doing asynchronously, we recommend sending out a launch email with login instructions as well as using the reminders feature within an assignment
Using a Survey Template
• Streamline your survey creation process by creating a template of your desired survey blocks in advance of the survey season to save time and allow for consistent survey deployment across sport administrators. Watch this video to learn more.
Team by Team Approach (recommended)
• Create assignments by team so they can be deployed at the end of each team's season (or when desired), which will garner higher response rates
• Easier to make adjustments to an assignment if you need to add or remove users or survey blocks
• Allows you to tailor survey blocks to each team (i.e. include or exclude blocks such as Assistant Coach, International Student, Concerning Behaviors, etc.)
• Easily generate completion reports per team from the Game Plan platform and the Learning Data page on Tableau
Season Approach (not recommended)
• Creating a survey for all teams within a season allows you to create one survey assignment to capture all student-athletes for that competition season
• Considerations: limited ability to edit survey blocks, reminder notifications, and due dates without impacting multiple teams; completion reports will be aggregate unless filtered by team prior to exporting; response rates tend to be lower when athletes are surveyed several weeks after the completion of their competition season
Survey Timing
• Launching the survey the last week of a team's regular season has historically garnered the highest response rates as students are still locked in and can be held accountable
• If surveying after the conclusion of a team's season, it is strongly recommended to host a team meeting for optimal response rates
If you only use Game Plan's Survey Solution, we encourage you to send team rosters by season. This ensure you are working with the most accurate team rosters when assigning surveys.
• We accept full rosters for Survey-only partners, however, you must verify your team rosters in Game Plan ahead of sending surveys to ensure accuracy of active rosters as they change throughout the year. Learn more about roster management by visiting the "Managing Users" section on the Administrator page.
If you use Game Plan's eLearning solution in addition to survey, please send a full active athlete roster at the beginning of every academic year and verify your rosters ahead of each team's survey season.
If you conduct a named review of Assistant Coaches, please send a complete list of all assistant coaches at the beginning of the academic year to have your survey and dashboard updated in a timely manner.
• For any changes throughout the year, please inform your CSM at the start of each competition season (fall, winter, spring)
The following tutorial videos walk through common actions within survey dashboards:
• Compiling Report by Team/Sport
• Compiling Report by Topic
• Using Comparison Filters
