The Impact of Online Learning on Emergency Response: An Evaluation of

an Online Course

Thomas Chandler, PhD, Yoon Soo Park, MS, Karen L. Levin, RN, MPH, CHES, David M. Abramson, PhD MPH

and Stephen S. Morse, PhD

Disclosures

• I have no relationships to disclose

http://www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.edu/bep

Online certification courses-blended learning method

Research Question

• Did this online course impact participants' response(s) during recent emergencies and disasters?

Online SurveyDistributed to 4,000 previous course participants via email

Before taking this course, I was able to:

After taking this course, I was able to:

Findings

• Survey URL emailed to 4,000 previous course participants.

• Response rate: 13% (Many email bounce-backs)

• Significant increase for all pre / post competency ratings

• Reliability of the Online Measures: 0.9 (Nunnally (1978) has indicated 0.7 to be an acceptable reliability coefficient)

Competency Ratings:Before and After the BEP course

4

5

6

7

8

9

Competency

Ra

ting

RecognizeDisaster

Identify Chainof Command

Identify myrole

Usecommunication

equipment

Identify myfunctional

role

Communicatewith themedia

Communicatewith other

departments

Communicatewith myfamily

Identify limits Identify keysystem

resources

Applycreativeproblemsolving

Top 5 disasters

1) H1N1

2) Water / food-borne pathogen

3) Hurricane

4) Flood

5) Fire

Geocoded Locations of Respondents

Competency/Disaster Matrix

Note:

(1) “+” indicates a significant positive improvement; “++” indicates a significant positive improvement over 1 point in the rating scale; “+++” indicates a significant positive improvement over 2 points.

(2) “-” indicates an insignificant improvement; “--” indicates a decrease in score.

Comparison of Respondents that took Part II

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Competency

Ch

an

ge

Sco

re

Did not take Part II

Took Park II

RecognizeDisaster

Identify Chainof Command**

Identify myrole*

Identify myfunctional role

Use communication equipment*

Communicatewith the media

Communicatewith other

departments

Communicate withmy family

Identify limits*

Identify key systemresources

Apply creativeproblemsolving*

*: p<0.05; **: p<0.01

• Which competencies from the online course served you well for your role(s) during the emergency response(s)?

-> Communication competencies

Qualitative Data

• “The communication part and how we connected with all support systems. The different command centers and how they performed in an emergency.”

• Anthrax Hoax: “Our local health department fit into the Operations Section as we were assisting in getting samples to the Florida Department of Health Laboratory. We served in the Liaison Section communicating with the hospital. We also served in a Public Information role as we provided a PIO for the Unified Command. “

• Which competencies did not serve you well for your role(s) during the emergency response(s)?

-> Communication competencies

Qualitative Data

• “Methods of communication: people would do better texting several people vs calling”

• “How to use a smart phone”• “Using social networking tools like Twitter and

Facebook to send out the right message”• “I am not high in the chain of command, so

making any final decisions about notifying media of an event etc is not a part of something I would focus on.”

• CDC & HRSA: Have encouraged the development of online, competency based courses.

• More research is needed to determine their effectiveness during disaster response.

• How can new online courses better address the core competencies? For eg, risk communication

• Too what extent does the type of disaster impact workers’ perceptions of their performance? Eg, terrorism, explosions vs H1N1

Implications:

• www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.edu/bep

• tec11@columbia.edu