Evaluation of Virtual Course to Increase Knowledge in Sexual Harassment,Prevention and Sanction Policies of a University
Condition: Sexual Harassment
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Sexual harassment is the behavior of sexual or sexist connotation unwanted by the affected
      person. Despite being considered as gender-based violence, victims of sexual harassment can
      be of both sexes. The university is the most frequent place where university students suffer
      sexual harassment. Law No. 27942 - "Ley de Prevención y Sanción del Hostigamiento Sexual" and
      its amendments, includes training and prevention in sexual harassment. The Universidad
      Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) has a regulation for the prevention and punishment of sexual
      harassment. Education through the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) is
      presented as an alternative to face-to-face classes, optimizing resources and achieving
      greater scope. The early, mandatory and massive dissemination at the university of a training
      in sexual harassment could be achieved through a virtual course. However, there is little
      research on the evaluation of the effectiveness of prevention programs in sexual violence in
      university students. The objective is to prove that taking a virtual course about sexual
      harassment, prevention and sanction policies of the UPCH can achieve a greater or same
      knowledge of the subject in the students of the UPCH, compared to a face-to-face course. The
      study design is a randomized controlled trial to assess the level of knowledge in this
      subject, whose control group is provided classes in face-to-face mode. Also, both modalities
      of the course will include a survey with Likert scale to measure the degree of satisfaction
      with the course taken. And finally, it includes a qualitative study through focus groups with
      the university students of the classroom and virtual classes to know their appreciations of
      both modalities of the course.
    

Detailed description: 
      Main Objective:

      Compare the improvement of knowledge about sexual harassment, prevention and sanction
      policies of the UPCH of the asynchronous virtual course with the face-to-face course in
      students of the UPCH.

      Study Design:

      A randomized control trial will compare the improvement of knowledge among who received
      asynchronous virtual classes and those who received face-to-face classes by applying a
      pre-test and 2 post-test. The pre-test and the first post-test will be taken the day of the
      intervention and the second post-test will be taken after a month to measure knowledge
      retention.

      To measure the degree of satisfaction with the course modality, the intervention's day the
      students will take a survey with Likert scale. And separately, some students of the
      intervention and control group will be interview in focus groups to know their appreciations
      about the satisfaction perceived with the modality of the course taken.

      Population:

      Undergraduate university students enrolled in the 2019-II period of the Faculty of Public
      Health and Administration (FASPA).

      Sample:

      For the randomized control trial, a sample of 67 participants per group was calculated with a
      significance of 95%, a power of 80% and a loss of follow-up rate of 6%, to show a difference
      of 7% in the scores of knowledge of sexual harassment between the two groups.

      For the qualitative analysis of the focus groups, for each course modality, there will be two
      sessions of 6 people who completed the course. However, focus groups will continue to be
      carried out until the sample becomes saturated, that is, until the information obtained from
      these meetings is redundant or the objectives of the study are clarified.

      Group assignment:

      Students of FASPA will be invited to participate by flyers and invitations in classrooms.
      Also, by e-mail they will receive an invitation with the informational consent form and a
      link to fill out a registration form for the ones who are interested in participating. If
      inclusion and exclusion criteria are met, students will be accepted to participate in the
      study and they will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups. Finally they will receive
      an e-mail confirming their participation and the available schedules for the classes.

      Ethical considerations:

      Students who are registered and want to participate but do not meet the inclusion and
      exclusion criteria of the study, will be offered the virtual course restricting the access to
      the evaluations.

      Every participant will receive the informational consent form. Data confidentiality will be
      maintained. Personal identifiers will be stored in a separate database, which will be
      password protected and accessible only to the research team. At the end of this project, UPCH
      will be able to dispose of the virtual course developed in this study for the purposes that
      may be appropriate.
    

Intervention name(s): Face-to-face Class; Asynchronous Virtual Class
Intervention type(s): Other; Other
Intervention description(s): The principal investigator will dictate a course about Sexual Harassment, Prevention and Sanction Policies of Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University using PowerPoint Presentation; Every student will have the access to a platform with an Asynchronous Virtual Class that will use the same PowerPoint Presentation of the intervention with an audio recorded by the principal investigator
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Students will be randomly assigned to one of two groups until a total of 134 participants are recruited: 67 in the intervention group and 67 in the control group.
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Other
Keywords: Sexual Harassment; Virtual Course; Training