An Evaluation of Cancer Education Webinars in Alaska

• Published in: Journal of cancer education 2021-06, Vol.36 (3), p.484-490
• Main Authors: Cueva, Katie, Cueva, Melany, Revels, Laura, Hensel, Michelle, Dignan, Mark
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cancer; Cancer Research; Distance learning; Education; Electronic Learning; Health promotion; Pharmacology/Toxicology
• ISSN: 0885-8195; 1543-0154
• DOI: 10.1007/s13187-019-01651-x

Culturally relevant health promotion is an opportunity to reduce health inequities in the cancer burden, and online learning is an emerging avenue for health promotion. To address a desire for synchronous online cancer education, a project team offered ten 1-hr cancer education webinars for Alaska’s rural tribal health workers. The project was guided by the framework of Community-Based Participatory Action Research, honored Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and was informed by Empowerment Theory. The evaluation of this community-based intervention included end-of-webinar surveys. Between February and April 2018, 41 surveys were completed by 11 unique participants. All participants reported that, as a result of the webinars, they planned both to change their own behavior to reduce cancer risk, and to talk with their patients more often about cancer prevention strategies such as screenings, physical activity, tobacco cessation, and eating healthy. While the webinars addressed desires for synchronous actions to support cancer learning, and led to intentions to positive change behaviors, the ten webinars engaged far fewer unique learners than the team’s asynchronous cancer education modules. This experience may inform other cancer educators’ efforts to develop, implement, and evaluate online learning opportunities. Despite the small numbers, these webinars resulted in increased learners’ intent to reduce cancer risk behaviors, share cancer information, and improved learners’ capacity to talk about cancer in their communities.