Distance education for Inuit smoking counsellors in Canada: a case report

To describe a pilot program to implement and evaluate a part-time, community-based distance education course for Inuit smoking counsellors in Canada.

Case report.

The distance education course used mailed resources, e-mail correspondence, conference calls and individual telephone calls. Evaluation of participant satisfaction at the end of the pilot program used e-mail questionnaires.

Seventeen out of 21 (81%) students successfully graduated. Fourteen of 16 respondents would recommend the course, and all 16 respondents reported that they were ready to conduct both individual and group counselling for smokers who want to quit. Both learners and their supervisors reported very high levels of satisfaction with the course.

Using distance education with adult Inuit learners worked very well. The very high completion rate achieved in this pilot program proves that there is great potential for the use of culturally affirming, structured yet flexible, learner-supportive approaches to training and capacity development in the Arctic where distances are so vast, travel costs are prohibitive and extreme weather often prevents people from attending face-to-face workshops.