Multimedia training in the pig industry

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a multimedia training program des igned specifically for stockpeople in the pig industry. The information was presented in either multimedia or printed manual format with and without t he presence or a trainer. Care was taken to ensure that layout and content was the same for both formats. The study comprised two pilot studies to ass ess the validity of the instruments, followed by a main study in which 92 s tockpeople participated in one of four training conditions. Immediately fol lowing training, stockpeople completed a Knowledge and a Satisfaction Quest ionnaire and 6 weeks posttraining repeated the Knowledge Questionnaire. Res ults did not support the hypothesis that participants in the multimedia gro up would perform and retain content better than participants in the manual group. The trainer had an overall deleterious effect on recall of the infor mation in both groups. There was support for the hypothesis that participan ts in the multimedia group would be more satisfied with their media than th e manual group. Novelty effects did not appear to account for the observed differences between media groups. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.