Date of Award

Spring 8-1-2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

College of Technology

First Advisor

David Beach

Second Advisor

Anthony Gilberti

Third Advisor

David Kreiner

Abstract

Due to the numerous advantages of electronic media, many companies have begun to incorporate online courses as a means of delivering corporate training, including corporate safety training. Consequently, researchers are beginning to investigate the effectiveness of online training over traditional face-to-face training methods. Many studies have indicated that results of training programs conducted over the Internet are equivalent to those results obtained from traditional face-to-face training. At the same time, other literature indicates that face-to-face training is better than Internet training due to the level of interaction between students and instructor. Some investigations on this subject have been conducted within academia, with minimal focus on industry. In spite of the increasing number of companies that offer essential safety training over the Internet, studies to date have yet to examine the effectiveness of these online safety training programs. The purpose of this study was to identify the effectiveness of three safety training delivery methods and the corresponding levels of knowledge gained for a safety program specific to workplace violence. Three safety training methods were compared experimentally using several companies in the United States as a sample. Traditional face-to-face (FTF), self-study online (SSO), and interactive online (IAO) training are the three deliverable methods or treatments used in this investigation. Each participant (of two hundred twenty-four total participants) was randomly assigned to take one of the three training methods. The level IV of knowledge gained for each participant from each training method was analyzed. The findings indicated that both online training methods are good predictors of the mean achievement scores of an OSHA-based training assessment. Furthermore, the outcome of this investigation indicated that participants in both online training methods scored higher on their mean achievement scores of an OSHA-based workplace violence posttest compared to participants in the traditional method.

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