Online Public Health Preparedness Training Programs: An Evaluation of User Experience with the Technological Environment

Objectives: Several public health education programs and government agencies across the country have started offering virtual or online training programs in emergency preparedness for people who are likely to be involved in managing or responding to different types of emergency situations such as natural disasters, epidemics, bioterrorism, etc. While such online training programs are more convenient and cost-effective than traditional classroom-based programs, their success depends to a great extent on the underlying technological environment. Specifically, in an online technological environment, different types of user experiences come in to play—users ’ utilitarian or pragmatic experience, their fun or hedonic experience, their social experience, and most importantly, their usability experience—and these different user experiences critically shape the program outcomes, including course completion rates. This study adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and draws on theories in human computer interaction, distance learning theories, usability research, and online consumer behavior to evaluate users ’ experience with the technological environment of an online emergency preparedness training program and discusses its implications for the design of effective online training programs.