The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a shift away from in-person classroom delivery of training and education, towards synchronous online learning formats. Training in occupational health and safety (OHS) has been included in that shift. As society plans for a post-COVID world, the question arises of whether there should be a complete return to the training modalities used pre-COVID, or whether newly adopted formats should be continued.
To help provide the research evidence on this question for OHS training, the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) undertook two related rapid reviews of the research literature covering the period from 2010 to 2020. The scope of the reviews included training and education of an occupational (or career preparation) nature. Both reviews were guided by the question: What is the effectiveness of synchronous online learning for occupational purposes, compared to face-to-face learning or other e-learning?