An Exploration Of How Health Professionals Create Ehealth And Mhealth Education Interventions

The purpose of this study was to explore how health education professionals create ehealth and mhealth education interventions. Three research questions led this qualitative study. The first research question focused on the use of learning theories, instructional models, and instructional design models. The second research question focused on the use of elearning and mlearning design principles. The third research question focused on the use of health behavior theories and models. Twelve health professionals selected for their involvement in the creation of ehealth and mhealth education interventions participated in this study. The themes emerging from the research questions showed a variability in how the participants used education theories and models, principles of elearning and mlearning design, and health behavior and health education theories and models to create ehealth and mhealth interventions. On education theories and models, the participants used elements of instructional design (i.e., analysis, design, evaluation) but did not use any specific instructional design model. Moreover, they invested efforts in creating instructional strategies that reflected instructional models of different learning theories but did not specify particular models or theories. Four themes emerged on the instructional strategies they used in the interventions: (1) connections to behaviorist approaches to learning, (2) connections to cognitivist approaches to learning, (3) connections to constructivist approaches to learning, and (4) unspecified learning theories. On the use of elearning design principles, seven patterns emerged: (1) interaction, (2) learner control, (3) provision of help, (4) use of multimedia, (5) engagement, (6) user friendliness, and (7) visual appeal. On the use of health behavior theories and models, three themes emerged (1) no use of health behavior theory or model, (2) use of a mix of health behavior theories or models, and (3) use of a particular health behavior theory or model. The variability of the findings and the resulting themes suggested implications for practice and further research. These implications concern all health professionals creating ehealth and mhealth interventions as well as scholars in the field of instructional design and health education and heath behavior. The implications and limitations of the study were also discussed. .