Assessing knowledge of health education competencies:

A distance learning approach

Amar Kanekar, PhD, MPH, MB,BS, MCHES, CPHAssistant Professor, Health EducationUniversity of Arkansas at Little RockArkansas SOPHE 2015

DisclosureI have no financial relationships

to disclose with any ‘ commercial interest’ related to this presentation.

Presentation OutlineIntroductionObjectiveMethodsDiscussion and ConclusionsLimitationsChallengesDiscussion questions.

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Warm-Up Question

What’s your favorite television channel?

A. ESPNB. SyFyC. BravoD. HGTVE. Other

Presentation question

How many of you teach/taught:

A. Face to Face coursesB. Hybrid coursesC. 100% online coursesD. Do not teach

Presentation questionHow many of you are ?:

A. Health Education Specialists (Practicing)B. StudentsC. Nursing ProfessionalsD. Prevention specialistsE. Academics (Faculty, etc.)

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Points of interestAcademiaPracticing health education

specialistsCommunity Health WorkersPublic Health ProfessionalsOthers

IntroductionHealth Education Program

Planning and Evaluation- 100% online course

Designed for undergraduate seniors attending 4-year institution.

Includes course objectives which align with National Commission for Health Education Credentialing Areas of Responsibilities1 .

IntroductionLearning objectives:

Assess student learning of competency-based health education principles

Identify diverse areas of responsibilities for emerging health education specialists as outlined by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing.

Explain the process of conducting online assessment of health education competencies in an academic environment.

 

Introduction The mission of National Commission for Health

Education Credentialing (NCHEC) is to enhance the professional practice of Health Education by promoting and sustaining a credentialed body of Health Education Specialists.

The Seven Areas of responsibilities set forth by the (NCHEC) assesses competencies and sub competencies defining the role of health education specialists. These competencies were verified by 2010 Health Educator Job analysis report and are the basis of conducting the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) examination (National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, 2010).

Health Educator Job Analysis 2010 Model: Overview of Areas of Responsibility (NCHEC, 2010)

Area 1 : Assess Needs, Assets and Capacity for Health Education

Area 11 Plan Health EducationArea 111: Implement Health EducationArea 1V: Conduct Evaluation and Research

related to Health EducationArea V: Administer and Manage Health

EducationArea VI :Serve as a Health Education

Resource personArea VII : Communicate and Advocate for

Health and Health Education

ObjectiveThe purpose of the current study was

to assess mastery of the competencies based on Area 1, Area 11, Area 111 and Area 1V of responsibility using a distance learning (100 %) online course over two semesters among a sample of undergraduate college students at a Southern University in the United States.

MethodologyAn Institutional Review Board approval was

obtained in Summer of 2013

A cross-sectional short survey was deployed in an online environment among a self-selected sample (n=70) of undergraduate college students at a Southern University in the Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 academic semesters. 

The survey questions (10 questions) were pulled from the NCHEC sample exam questions.

Methodology

A pre test-post test single group design was used for this study with a senior level health education students participating in a planning and evaluation online course, the course was as an intervention itself.

Students were provided extra credit in terms of additional points towards the final course grade. This extra credit points were no more than 3% of the total course grade

Results—Fall SemesterAreas of responsibilities –knowledge assessed among undergraduate students-correct responses (n=31)

Results-Spring Semester 2014-Areas of responsibilities-knowledge assessed among undergraduate students-correct responses (n=33)

Discussion & Conclusions This study as far as the literature on enhancing

certified health education specialist competencies in a fully (100%) distance online course is the first one.

Literature in designing distance learning health education programs is limited (Ball et al., 2013; Chaney, Chaney, Stellefson & Eddy, 2008; Escoffery et al., 2005) and doesn’t address the measurement of NCHEC competencies.

Discussion & ConclusionsIt was an interesting and quite inexplicable

finding that students actually showed a 4.9% loss in knowledge related to Area 11 : Program Planning responsibility from pretest to post-test.

The gain in the Areas of Responsibilities 1, 11, 111, 1V can’t be fully attributed to the course as students enrolled in this course could have been simultaneously enrolled in other health education courses which offered knowledge and skills related to gaining competency related to the Areas of Responsibilities mentioned above

Discussion and Conclusions

The other challenges and limitations of this study was limited number of questions addressing various areas of responsibilities (the total questionnaire had ten questions).

Additionally areas of responsibilities V, VI, and VII were not assessed. Although this doesn’t indicate that these areas are of any lesser importance, the investigator thought that since the course content didn’t address these areas substantially, they were not assessed

Discussion & Conclusions Its also important to note that they scored 94.6%

at the beginning of the course which clearly shows that they had developed knowledge and skills related to ‘ Program Planning’ in their earlier semesters as a health education student

Finally, this study could be considered a pilot study and hopefully investigators will design comprehensive survey instruments and use more classic evaluation designs for evaluating knowledge and skills gained by health education students related to various Areas of responsibilities and competencies for health education specialists as outlined by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC)

LimitationsSelf-selected populationSubjectivity in question selectionNot a large sample sizeNot a cohort modelSelf-report bias

ChallengesDeveloping competency based

questionnaireTime-commitmentSelf-report biasParticipant identityIncentives for survey completionComparison with practicing

health educators

Discussion questionsAssessing competency

knowledge among academia vs practicing health education specialists..??

Translating content knowledge and skills to health education practice..?

Better and effective assessment techniques for practitioner based skills assessment..?

References Ball, J., Ogletree, R., Jurkowski, E., Fetro, J., Asunda, P., & Miller,

K. (2013). The development of a tool to measure the adoption of distance education in health. American Journal Of Health Studies, 28(4), 183-189 .

Chaney, J., Chaney, E. H., Stellefson, M. L., & Eddy, J. M. (2008). Strategies for Designing a Distance Education Course/Program. Health Education Monograph Series, 25(1), 18-22.

Escoffery, C., Leppke, A.M., Robinson, K.B., Mettler, E.P., Miner, K.R., & Smith, I. (2005). Planning and implementing a public health professional distance learning program. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 8(1).

National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc, Society for Public Health Education, & American Association for Health Education (2010). A Competency-based framework for health education specialists-2010.

Thanks!Questions…..??

Contact InformationDr. Amar Kanekar

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

E-mail: axkanekar@ualr.edu