By Dr. Bruce Linder, Psychologist, Vice-President
May 4, 2010
Safe Management Group Inc. with the assistance of McMaster University students has completed an evaluation of the effectiveness of its new online training program. Thirty-two individuals including 18 SMG trainers and 14 never-trained individuals from different organizations completed the 25-unit online training program during February and March of this year. Knowledge was tested using a 30-item multiple-choice test of the course content given before and after taking the course. A 10-item satisfaction survey was also completed for each of the 4 sections of the course – Risk Management, Relationship Management, Behaviour Profiling, and Managing Aggression. The SMG Knowledge Test was found to be reliable (Chronbach alpha = .78) and results areshown in the Figure #1, which shows the means and 95% confidence intervals for trainers and non-trainers on the pre- and post-test.
As expected, SMG trainers were more knowledgeable than non-trainers who had never taken the course before on the pre-test (83% vs 59% correct, p < .0001, two-tailed t-test). But online training was highly successful in teaching course content with a statistically significant increase in knowledge to a score of 79% correct, no different statistically from trainers on the post-test (p = .202, two-tailed t-test). In addition, the participants were highly satisfied with the online course as can be seen in Figure #2. Ninety-seven percent rated the course overall as “good”/”very good”/”excellent”. Two-thirds rated it as “very good” or “excellent”. And, 88% rated the online course as “good”, “very good”, or “excellent” in comparison to classroom training.
SMG is proud to offer you a highly effective and satisfying online course as an alternative to more time-consuming and expensive
classroom training.