Transforming Community health Education Via New media

Background/Significance:  Research has just begun to reveal the full power of multimedia technologies to enable individual learning. New concepts and skills are best remembered if learning is active and constructive, as well as motived by intrinsic curiosity, social interaction, extrinsic rewards and the joy of accomplishment.

Object/Purpose:   An Audience Response System (ARS) commonly used in schools and universities was studied for its benefit in community health education. Audience response systems or “clickers” are technological tools for promoting interactive learning.   

Method:    120 Chinese female immigrants attended a trilingual (English, Cantonese, Mandarin) community diabetes health education town hall session were asked to participate in this study. 90 of them agreed to try the ARS. The ARS allows presenter to ask questions through any presentation application, and audience will then answer the questions with a remote key pad, or “clickers”. Presenter displays results in real-time and the system will record the responses. All participants were instructed on the use of the ARS prior to the presentation. There were 29 questions embedded in the presentation.

esults:  Of the 90 participants, 32% were under 50 years old. Almost all participants (99%) were foreign-born and half the participants (52%) were in the U.S. less than 10 years. 98% reported speaking their native language at home and 42% had less than 9 years of education. Out of the 29 questions, 25 of them achieved 80% response rate. 91% reported that they liked the system and 87% found it easy to use. 87% liked to see the real-time results and 88% though that it enhanced their learning experience.

Discussion/Conclusion:  With the ARS, the knowledge and viewpoints of participants can be instantly graphed and displayed, and pertinent information can be provided in real-time.  The ARS creates interactivity between presenters and their audience.