Meeting the online educational needs of international health promoters: an evaluation of a comprehensive,multilingual global training program in tobacco control

Abstract

Introduction:

An evaluation of a global online training program in tobacco control offered in multiple languages was conducted to identify ways in which the varied online educational needs of its international participants could be more effectively met.

Methods:

An online survey was administered to a sample of training participants to solicit feedback regarding course content and delivery. In addition, participants’ training site usage patterns were examined.

Results:

Findings showed high levels of satisfaction with training content and delivery, as well as of knowledge acquisition and utilization. Respondents indicated that it was important that course content be current and relevant to their practice.

Conclusions:

Although findings are consistent with best practices for online continuing education, in practice it is challenging to keep material updated, incorporate examples and case studies from the participants’ countries, and integrate adequate opportunities for interactivity when a course has geographically and linguistically diverse participants. Low-cost, technologically appropriate solutions should be developed to maximize the effectiveness of similar continuing education programs for health promoters worldwide.

Keywords

capacity building education evaluation health promotion tobacco

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

World Health Organization, Tobacco Fact Sheet, Fact sheet N°339 [internet]. WHO, May 2012. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/index.html (accessed December 14, 2012).

World Health Organization, Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Available from: http://www.who.int/fctc/signatories_parties/en/index.html (accessed November 9, 2013).

World Health Organization, Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), Strengthening national capacity for tobacco control [internet]. Available from: http://www.who.int/tobacco/training/en/ (accessed December 18, 2012).

Bollinger

McKenzie-White

Gupta

. Building a global health education network for clinical care and research. The benefits and challenges of distance learning tools. Lessons learned from the Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education. Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2011; 25: 385–398.

Sigulem

Morais

Cuppari

Franceschini

Priore

Camargo

Gimenez

Bernardo

Sigulem

. A Web-based distance education course in nutrition in public health: case study. J Med Internet Research. 2001; 3: E16.

Thukral

Sasi

Chawla

Datta

Wahid

Rao

Kannan

Veeragandam

Murki

Deorari

. Online Neonatal Training and Orientation Programme in India (ONTOP-IN)–the way forward for distance education in developing countries. J Trop Pediatr. 2012; 58: 486–490.

Ramanathan

Aldis

Gupta

Desai

Bollinger

Jr Reed

. Mixed methods evaluation of an international internet-based continuing medical education course for pediatric HIV providers in Pune, India. Educ Health (Abingdon). 201; 24: 540.

Dodani

Songer

Ahmed

Laporte

. Building research capacity in developing countries: cost-effectiveness of an epidemiology course taught by traditional and video-teleconferencing methods in Pakistan. Telemed J E Health. 2012; 18: 621–628.

Kirkpatrick

. Techniques for evaluating training programs. J Am Soc Training Direct. 1959; 13: 21–26.

10.

Bartley

Golek

. Evaluating the cost effectiveness of online and face-to-face instruction. Educ Techn Soc. 2004; 7: 167–175.

11.

Neuhauser

. Learning style and effectiveness of online and face-to-face instruction. Am J Dist Educ. 2002; 16: 99–113.

12.

US Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development. Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies [internet]. Sept. 2010. Available from: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf (accessed December 9, 2013).

13.

Webster

Hackley

. Teaching effectiveness in technology-mediated distance learning. Acad Manag J. 1997; 40: 1282–1309.

14.

Atack

Rankin

. A descriptive study of registered nurses’ experiences with web-based learning. J Adv Nurs. 2002; 40: 457–465.

15.

Wilson

Rice

Jones

Joiner

LaBorde

McCall

Jester

Carter

Boone

Onwuzuligbo

Koneru

. Enhancing research capacity for global health: evaluation of a distance-based program for international study coordinators. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2013; 33: 67–75.

16.

Thierry

Lord

. Critical success factors in online education. Int J Educ Manag. 2000; 14: 216–223.

17.

Daft

Lengel

. Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Manag Sci. 1986; 32: 554–571.

18.

McIntyre

Wolff

. An experiment with WWW interactive learning in university education. Comput Educ. 1998; 31: 255–264.

19.

Association for Learning Technology, Online Newsletter. Developing and reviewing online courses: Items for consideration [internet]. 07 Nov 2011. Available from: http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/2011/11/developing-and-reviewing-online-courses-items-for-consideration/ (accessed December 9, 2013).