The Effect of Online Seminar on Knowledge in Preparing The General Public For Facing The New Normal Era

Abstract

WHO has declared COVID-19 as a pandemic since March 2020. The possibility oftransmission of COVID-19 increases if people gather together, but humans need tobe active and work so that their economic needs are met. Therefore, the governmentis exploring a new normal, which is an order of adaptation to new habits in whichpeople can continue to live productively by changing their life habits. The key to thesuccess of the new normal is community discipline in running it, where knowledge isneeded about the health protocol policies established during the new normal. Onlineseminars are one of the most important health promotion methods and can be donein the new normal era in order to increase public health knowledge. This study aimedto determine the effect of online seminars on public knowledge. This study used aquasi experimental pre and post test design. The sample in this study were allparticipants who attended online seminars and filled out the pretest and posttestquestionnaires. Univariate data analysis showed that the majority of respondentshad a mean age of 31.69 years, most of them were female (80.4%), last educationwas tertiary education (61.8%), unemployed (46.4%), and the good initial knowledgelevel of the health protocol policy at the new normal (83, 5%) before attending onlineseminar. The bivariate data analysis showed that there was a significant increase inknowledge about the new normal health protocol policy before and after attendingan online seminar with a p value = 0.000 (p value <0.05). Online seminars are theright way to promote health in increasing knowledge to prepare the general public forfacing the new normal era.