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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Carole Kacius, PhD¹, Donna Allen, MS², James M. Ignaut, MA, MPH, CHES³, Elizabeth Hibler, MPH², Lynette Tucker, BA³, and Kathy Weaver, JD, MPA, RN². (1) Department of Public Health, Indiana University School of Medicine, 1050 Wishard Blvd., Room 4173, Indianapolis, IN 46202, 317-274-3847, kacius@iupui.edu, (2) Indiana State Department of Health, 2 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202, (3) Indiana Public Health Association, 3838 N. Rural Street, Indianapolis, IN 46205

A team of public health professionals, in partnership with the state's public health agency, conducted a pilot project to measure the effectiveness of using screensavers for the provision of continuing education. With increasing demands on local and state health department resources (personnel, budgets, time) there is a need to explore alternative approaches to the delivery of continuing education for the public health workforce. The team proposed that installation of screensavers on desktop computers at work would be a cost-effective, efficient educational tool. Employees of the state's department of health who volunteered to participate in this pilot study were placed in either an experimental or control group. Participation in the experimental group included completion of a pretest, a one-week installation of a screensaver containing educational slides, and completion of a posttest to measure knowledge gained. Participation in the control group included completion of the pretest and posttest without the one-week installation of the screensaver slides. Aggregate scores reflecting the total number of correct answers by the participants of each group indicated an increase of 28 percentage points between the pretest (43%) and posttest (71%) for the experimental group. By comparison, the control group showed a difference of four percentage points between pretest (54%) and posttest (58%). Furthermore, qualitative analysis suggested that the screensaver was a cost-effective, convenient method of providing educational content to public health professionals. This project was completed by a team of fellows enrolled in the Mid-America Regional Public Health Leadership Institute (MARPHLI).

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the learner will be able to

• Describe the process of utilizing screensavers to provide educational content to multiple learners.
• List three benefits of using screensavers for education and training purposes.
• Articulate several venues in which screensavers can be utilized to disseminate educational content.

Keywords: Training, Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No