Skip to main content

Table 5 Pre-Post MOOC Attitudes Toward Death (n = 208)a

From: The contribution of a MOOC to community discussions around death and dying

 

Post-MOOC

Pre-MOOC

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Not Sure

Agree

Strongly Agree

Total

 

n,%

n,%

n, %

n, %

n, %

N, %

1. Death is a normal part of life

 Strongly Disagree

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

10 (4.8%)

10 (4.8%)

 Disagree

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

1 (0.5%)

 Not Sure

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

2 (1%)

2 (1%)

 Agree

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

14 (6.7%)

21 (10.1%)

35 (16.8%)

 Strongly Agree

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

0 (0%)

14 (6.7%)

145 (69.7%)

160 (76.9%)

 n and % of Total

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

0 (0%)

28 (13.5%)

179 (86.1%)

208 (100%)

 Positive Differences

     

34

 Negative Differences

     

15

 Ties

     

159

 Wilcoxon-Signed Rank Test Z Statistic b c

     

3.36***

2. I am comfortable talking about death/dying

 Strongly Disagree

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

2 (1%)

7 (3.4%)

10 (4.8%)

 Disagree

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

0 (0%)

2 (1%)

1 (0.5%)

4 (1.9%)

 Not Sure

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

2 (1%)

8 (3.8%)

1 (0.5%)

11 (5.3%)

 Agree

0 (0%)

2 (1%)

2 (1%)

43 (20.7%)

34 (16.3%)

81 (38.9%)

 Strongly Agree

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

21 (10.1%)

80 (38.5%)

102 (49%)

 n and % of Total

0 (0%)

3 (1.4%)

6 (2.9%)

76 (36.5%)

123 (59.1%)

208 (100%)

 Positive Differences

     

56

 Negative Differences

     

26

 Ties

     

126

 Wilcoxon-Signed Rank Test Z Statistic b c

     

3.63***

3. Most people do NOT feel comfortable talking about death/dying

 Strongly Disagree

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

1 (0.5%)

 Disagree

0 (0%)

3 (1.4%)

2 (1%)

1 (0.5%)

0 (0%)

6 (2.9%)

 Not Sure

1 (0.5%)

1 (0.5%)

7 (3.4%)

10 (4.8%)

0 (0%)

19 (9.1%)

 Agree

0 (0%)

10 (4.8%)

8 (3.8%)

106 (51%)

26 (12.5%)

150 (72.1%)

 Strongly Agree

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

0 (0%)

11 (5.3%)

20 (9.6%)

32 (15.4%)

 n and % of Total

1 (0.5%)

15 (7.2%)

17 (8.2%)

128 (61.5%)

47 (22.6%)

208 (100%)

 Positive Differences

     

40

 Negative Differences

     

32

 Ties

     

136

 Wilcoxon-Signed Rank Test Z Statistic b c

     

−0.34ns

4. Death/dying is presented as a normal part of life in the mainstream media

 Strongly Disagree

9 (4.3%)

6 (2.9%)

1 (0.5%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

16 (7.7%)

 Disagree

13 (6.3%)

85 (40.9%)

9 (4.3%)

11 (5.3%)

2 (1.0%)

120 (57.7%)

 Not Sure

0 (0%)

21 (10.1%)

13 (6.3%)

5 (2.4%)

2 (1.0%)

41 (19.7%)

 Agree

1 (0.5%)

4 (1.9%)

9 (4.3%)

10 (4.8%)

5 (2.4%)

29 (13.9%)

 Strongly Agree

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

0 (0%)

1 (0.5%)

0 (0%)

2 (1.0%)

 n and % of Total

23 (11.1%)

117 (56.3%)

32 (15.4%)

27 (13%)

9 (4.3%)

208 (100%)

 Positive Differences

     

41

 Negative Differences

     

50

 Ties

     

117

 Wilcoxon-Signed Rank Test Z Statisticb c

     

0.25 ns

5. Social media provides different perspectives to mainstream media on death/dying

 Strongly Disagree

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

 Disagree

1 (0.6%)

3 (1.7%)

3 (1.7%)

8 (4.5%)

2 (1.1%)

17 (9.5%)

 Not Sure

1 (0.6%)

4 (2.2%)

28 (15.6%)

43 (24.0%)

3 (1.7%)

79 (44.1%)

 Agree

0 (0%)

2 (1.1%)

10 (5.6%)

55 (30.7%)

9 (5.0%)

76 (42.5%)

 Strongly Agree

0 (0%)

1 (0.6%)

0 (0%)

2 (1.1%)

4 (2.2%)

7 (3.9%)

 n and % of Total

2 (1.1%)

10 (5.6%)

41 (22.9%)

108 (60.3%)

18 (10.1%)

179 (100%)

 Positive Differences

     

68

 Negative Differences

     

21

 Ties

     

90

 Wilcoxon-Signed Rank Test Z Statisticb c

     

4.63***

  1. aEach analysis was based on n = 208 participants who had complete data for the death attitude questions at both enrolment and at the conclusion of the MOOC, with the exception of the question about social media, which was based on 179 participants who answered this question at both time points
  2. bThe non-parametric Wilcoxon-Signed rank test was chosen to analyse repeated measures change over time due to the ordinal nature of the death attitude questions, and their skewed distributions. The highly skewed distributions violated the normal distribution data assumption for a parametric paired-samples t-test. Nonetheless, the conclusions from the paired-samples t-tests and Wilcoxon-Signed rank tests were the same
  3. cns not statistically significant; *** p < .001