Nutrition Educators' Perceptions of an Online Nutrition Education eLearning Program for Low-Income Georgians

A Case Study of Nutrition Educators' Perspectives on the Delivery of Virtual Community Nutrition Programming

“…Research on the feasibility of online nutrition education has investigated the perceived interests and barriers to participants engaging and completing nutrition education through an online platform (Case et al, 2011;Haynes-Maslow et al, 2019;Jewkes et al, 2021;Krall et al, 2015;Stotz et al, 2015;Stotz et al, 2017;Stotz et al, 2019). A common limitation of many of these studies that looked at perceived interest and barriers has been that the samples lack racial and ethnic diversity and are comprised mostly of White female participants (Haynes-Maslow et al, 2019;Jewkes et al, 2021;Loehmer et al, 2018;Stotz et al, 2017).…”

“…One major potential barrier is access to the internet (Case et al, 2011;Loehmer et al, 2018;Neuenschwander et al, 2012;Stotz et al, 2015). Early in the research, when computers were the primary mode of accessing information online, access to technology was a potential barrier in reaching audiences with incomes below the federal poverty threshold (Case et al, 2011;Neuenschwander et al, 2012).…”

“…In a study that looked at educators' perspectives, they felt the participants engagement in the course increased when partnering with other organizations that have the training as a mandatory component to the services that they offer (Case et al, 2011). They also stated that online information needed to be engaging and entertaining (Stotz et al, 2015;Stotz et al, 2017). Although educators continue to feel engagement with participants in a virtual environment is one of the biggest challenges they face with program delivery (Hohlt, 2022).…”

“…Although use of technology increased amongst extension educators due to navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, research suggests that extension professionals would benefit from additional training in utilizing online tools for synchronous delivery (Eck et al, 2022). This training can help in addressing the need for virtual nutrition education to be engaging and entertaining (Stotz et al, 2015;Stotz et al, 2017).…”

“…Future research should investigate curricula developed in collaboration between extension and the universities e-learning centers as a way in facilitate building trust and engagement in virtual programming. Participants and educators agree that to be impactful, virtual nutrition curricula needs to be engaging and entertaining (Stotz et al, 2015;Stotz et al, 2017).…”