Webinars can educate childcare center administrators about integrated pest management

Pest management is important at childcare centers because young children are particularly susceptible to pests and pesticides. This greater vulnerability is because young children spend more time on the ground, put objects and their hands in their mouths, and a have lower physical tolerance to pests and pesticides during early stages of physical development. Integrated pest management (IPM) is a pest management technique that reduces the need for pesticide use by controlling pest access to resources (for example, keeping food crumbs off the floor and keeping food packaged) and entry into buildings (for example, sealing doors and windows, filling holes, etc.). IPM can be especially useful in childcare centers serving young children because pest management systems are not as standardized as in school districts for older children. However, childcare centers often lack the resources to attend conferences where they might learn about these pest prevention techniques. The author explored whether webinars might be an effective way for childcare center administrators could learn about IPM.

The author hosted two identical webinar sessions on different dates. The presentations used previous research from the EPA to provide information about pest and pesticide risks to children, IPM implementation in a childcare center, a virtual example of implementing IPM in a mock childcare center, and an opportunity for questions. The participants were offered a survey following the presentation to evaluate the efficacy of the webinar. A total of 1,241 childcare center administrators from 45 states plus Puerto Rico and Canada attended one of the two identical webinar sessions and 566 surveys were completed. The author used the survey results to determine efficacy and calculate economic and environmental savings from attending the webinar.

The study found that the webinar was highly effective (93.5%) in reaching desired learning outcomes as measured by the post-presentation survey. The author calculated this efficacy based on using the average proportion of correct answers to questions in the survey that measured whether or not the participants understood key concepts from the presentation.

The author believed that economic costs were greatly reduced through a webinar as there was no need to pay for transportation or venue. In addition, the author stated that the webinars saved over 540 metric tons of carbon by removing the need for travel to the presentation. However, both environmental and economic savings are based on an assumption that all participants would have traveled to an in-person conference which was unlikely. Only 12% of the participants stated that they would have attended an in-person conference which indicates that the webinar format was essential in reaching 88% of the participants.

The study was limited by a lack of ability to verify online responses were answered honestly and without assistance, and the fact that respondents didn't have to answer all of the questions. In addition, the economic and environmental savings may have been inflated given that not all of the participants realistically would have gone to a conference that required travel. The efficacy did not control to measure whether the administrators already knew the key concepts prior to participation in the webinar and there was no follow-up to determine whether the webinar resulted in behavior changes and less pesticide use.

The author recommends using educational webinars to help childcare centers and other institutions learn essential information about IPM in order to reduce exposure to pests and pesticides.