Investigating the Effect of Traditional Education and E-Learning on Community Health Workers in Noor City Regarding Waste Management Based on Kirk Patrick Model

Evaluating the effectiveness of various in-service training methods is essential in order to achieve the desired goals and reduce costs in any organization. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of traditional education and e-learning (distance learning) on health workers in Noor city regarding waste management in 1999 based on the Kirk Patrick model. 

The present study was performed by quasi-experimental method in 80 health centers of Noor city. 100 participants in the study were randomly divided into two groups of traditional education and distance education on waste management education. Outcome assessment was performed using the first two levels of the Kirk Patrick model using a questionnaire and test. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-test, independent t-test and linear regression by SPSS software.  

The results of the paird t-test showed the effect of both methods on improving the learning rate (Pvalue≤0.05) of the respondents regarding rural waste management. The findings of the independent samples t test showed that there was no statistically significant difference (Pvalue≥0.05) between the satisfaction score with a mean difference of 0.1 and the learning rate of health workers with a mean difference of 0.02 in the two groups. The results of linear regression test showed that the level of literacy had a statistically significant relationship (Pvalue≤0.05 = β = 0.30) but about the age, there was no statistically significant relationship (Pvalue≥0.05) with the amount of learning. 

 Traditional and e-learning methods had a similar effect on health workers' learning in the field of waste management. Therefore, it is necessary that in-service training programs for community health workers, use e-learning methods in combination with other methods for their professional improvement.