An Examination of Clickers in an Informal Educational Setting: Quantitative Improvements in Knowledge Gain for North Carolina Cooperative Extension Pesticide Applicator Training
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2014
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Denlea, Gregory. Masters of Environmental Assessment. An Examination of Clickers in an
Informal Educational Setting: Quantitative Improvements in Knowledge Gain for North Carolina
Cooperative Extension Pesticide Applicator Training
In 2012, the Extension Toxicology program at North Carolina State University (NCSU) received
an award for pilot funds from the University of Kentucky’s Southeast Center for Agricultural
Health and Injury Prevention to examine the effectiveness of audience response systems (ARS,
“clickers”) in enhancing pesticide applicator safety and health training programs. Data was
collected on pesticide applicator audiences’ learning and receptiveness to the technology. The
pilot project assessed the impact of ARS on pesticide applicators’ learning and the potential for
statewide expansion of ARS implementation in pesticide applicator programs. This paper
contains the quantitative analyses of pre-intervention (without clickers) and post-intervention
(with clickers) knowledge gains for pesticide applicators located in the 5 North Carolina (NC)
Cooperative Extension Districts who participated in this pilot project. A questionnaire (see
Appendix 1) was administered both before and after pesticide applicator required training to
assess content knowledge, with each pesticide applicator serving as his/her own control. The
quantitative results show that more pesticide applicators gave correct answers to the multiple
choice questions after the sessions conducted using clickers (post-intervention) than provided
correct answers after sessions without clickers (pre-intervention). Data collected for this pilot
also suggests that the use of clickers has a positive impact on learning outcomes regardless of the
education level, age, or experience of the pesticide applicator. Some implications are identified
and recommendations are suggested regarding the on-going use of clicker technology for
pesticide applicator training sessions.
