using webinars for the education of health professionals and people affected by cancer: processes and evaluation

Technology provides an opportunity to engage with a variety of audiences to provide cancer education, information and support. webinars are one such format that allow live presentations by experts that can be accessed online, from people’s homes or other convenient locations. in 2015, cancer council victoria (ccv) undertook a program of work to design and evaluate the effectiveness of a suite of webinars: four designed for people affected by cancer and two for health professionals. webinars included a series of expert presentations, a panel discussion and an interactive component where participants posed questions to the panel. evaluation included analysis of online metrics and a post-event survey covering experience and satisfaction with the webinar, self-reported changes in knowledge of key webinar concepts and confidence to discuss concepts with health professionals or patients. a total of 438 people participated in the webinars (41.5% of 1056 registrations), and 207 post-event surveys were completed by participants (47.3%). overall, 90.1% indicated that webinar content was relevant to their interests and needs. self-ratings of knowledge, awareness of resources and confidence to discuss webinar topics increased after the webinar. the majority (63.9%) had not participated in a webinar before, and 92.6% were interested in participating in future webinars. over half of respondents (52.8%) had not accessed ccv resources before. this work provided a new opportunity to consolidate consistency of delivery and evaluation of webinars, demonstrating they are an effective, acceptable, accessible and sustainable vehicle for delivering information and support to health professionals and people affected by cancer.