Health Literacy - Are You On Target? The Basics of Audience Research and Field Testing Health Materials

Knowing what your intended reader needs and wants is essential for the development of easy-to-read materials. The best way to find this out is to ask them! This module explains why audience research is important, what and whom we are testing, recruiting participants, how to do the testing, examples of tools to use when testing, and using the results to refine our materials.

This module will explain what audience research and field testing are all about and why it is important.  You will learn how this research can be used to learn about your audience before writing the materials so you will consider the specific characteristics of the group and their needs before development begins. Field testing helps you to determine how well the material is received by your target audience.  Various approaches on how to collect information about your audience, and how to use that data to test whether the information was understood by your audience are discussed in this module.

Objectives:

Participants who complete this module will be able to:

1. Describe why audience research is important when developing materials.
2. Describe what you can learn from audience research.
3. Explain the different types of audience testing.
4. Identify different field-testing techniques to determine if the audience understood the information.
5. Describe how to formulate a goal, determine methods, and develop questions for audience research.
6. Explain how to plan, facilitate, and analyze an audience research session.

Note: If you need assistance accessing this course, have a disability that requires digitally accessible accommodations, or would like to request a digitally accessible course completion certificate, please email ScarletCanvasMedEd@osumc.edu or call 614-366-0943. We will respond to your request within two business days.