Building an E-learning design capacity within a health care facility

21 October 2005
The Children's Hospital at Westmead

This project was a finalist in the Baxter 2005 NSW Health Awards, Education and Training category, and was nominated for the Excellence Award.

Entries from the Baxter 2005 NSW Health Awards - full list

  Presentation from the NSW Health Excellence in Quality and Safety Forum, 21 Oct 2005 (pdf)

Authors

Heather Petrie, The Children's Hospital at Westmead
Chris Edwards, The Children's Hospital at Westmead
Jane MacPherson, The Children's Hospital at Westmead
Robert Tamas, The Children's Hospital at Westmead
Glenys Amey, The Children's Hospital at Westmead

Abstract

Hospital Education Departments are finding that it is increasingly challenging to train healthcare staff as they are often too busy to leave their place of work to complete training. There is increasing demands for mandatory training of staff. Flexible learning modes, suitable for individual learning, are needed and on-line learning is seen as a possible answer in some situations.

In April 2004 The Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW) established a working group to achieve a sustainable E-learning design team which could develop innovative in-house education for health professionals. A small team of enthusiastic trainers undertook training in authoring software ‘Authorware 7’ and instructional design for on-line education. The successful strategy has achieved the goal of a sustainable design capability. Guidelines, templates, a Steering Committee and an E-learning Design Team have been established to assist others in the ongoing implementation of E-learning.

The CHW E-learning portal launched in February 2005 allows access to four E-learning programs. More programs are planned for the future.

Aim

The aim of this project was to establish a sustainable design capability for E-learning within CHW that would assist in planning, promoting, developing and maintaining online learning. This system of E-learning needed to be accessible, current and relevant to the organisation and be able to be completed in short timeframes.

Background

In 2004 an organisational analysis suggested that CHW was ready to introduce E-learning. The organisation was looking for solutions to the increasing demand for education in a busy workplace. The information technology to allow online learning to be rolled out across the organisation was in place and we had a nucleus of motivated trainers. Our IT staff were skilled in a number of software packages, making us confident that they would also quickly learn new packages for E-learning. What we lacked was an understanding of the design process and authoring skills to make E-learning a reality.

Methodology

In 2004 CHW successfully applied for funding through the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, Learnscope initiative, to undertake the professional development required to start our E-learning initiative.

Authorware 7 was chosen as the E-learning authoring software and a professional consultant was engaged to train key staff in its use. The creation of a new online program for paediatric drug calculation was identified as a priority for patient safety and therefore was selected as the first program to be produced.

A search of the literature revealed that there was dissatisfaction with programs that transposed classroom teaching and text material to the online environment (Guerra & Heffernan, 2004). An E-learning instructional design consultant helped us understand the characteristics of good E-learning design.

To engage our staff effectively, a “constructivist learning approach” (www.coe.missouri.edu/~jonassen/courses/CLE/main.html) that included interactivity, minimal text and short units of work was chosen.

Planning and Implementation

To establish an E-learning design capacity we had to:

• Ensure we had the IT infrastructure that would allow delivery of online programs.
• Identify motivated educators willing to extend their instructional design knowledge to the online environment.
• Identify content experts who could provide content and test and evaluate the products for currency and accuracy.
• Ensure executive and managerial support was provided, allowing time to learn, create and develop quality products and give the project priority in the workplace.
• Create a product that was needed and would be used, thus highlighting the value of online learning.
• Keep to a short time frame for product development, ensuring the project was not over-ambitious or would stretch resources.

We recognise that to maintain the E-learning capacity we need to:

• Establish an ongoing E-learning unit
• Continue to develop the skills in a wider group of staff
• Strive to develop activity-based content which can be completed in short grabs
• Seek constant feedback through testing with those who use the system

Outcomes and Evaluations

CHW has developed an E-learning design capacity with support, guidance and evaluation for new and existing programs provided by a Steering Committee. An E-learning portal has been established so every staff member can access the E-learning programs. There are now four programs on our E-learning portal.

A database was built to capture results and progress of students and a process put in place to import results into our Learning Management System. This is the first time that mandatory training has tested for learning, not just completion of training. The data captured has assisted significantly in the evaluation of the programs.

Our evaluation of the data on completion rates has allowed us to determine the ideal length for modules. One of the programs we have available is a commercially produced program by the Department of Health. This program requires staff to spend at least 30 minutes at the computer in the one sitting to complete it. Our data shows only a one per cent completion rate for this program in comparison to 56 to 70 per cent for our modular based programs. This data supports the development of programs comprising of a number of short five to ten minute modules which staff can complete over a couple of sessions. The modules are described below.

‘Safe Administration of Medication – units of E-Leaning (SAM-ueL)’ was a collaborative effort across four Area Health Services and involved 20 professionals with IT, instructional design and content knowledge. The program has been well accepted by nursing staff. In the first four months 86 nurses completed the basic drug calculations assessment. The ability to easily update our programs has enabled us to include and regularly update current patient safety messages within SAMuel.

Major Incident and Disaster Awareness (MIDA) now replaces a previous 70 minute face-to-face lecture with five ten minute units available online around the clock. Before MIDA was introduced online, it was delivered on average to 73 people each year. Within the first month of MIDA being available online, 340 people accessed the E-learning program and 191 people completed it. This equates to nearly three years training being completed within one month, demonstrating the capacity of E-learning to reach more people than face-to-face learning.

Online fire safety training has reduced the time spent at training away from the ward or office. Staff can now attend a short practical session and then complete the theory online at a time that best suits them.

Our expertise has already been recognised by other health organisations who have requested our assistance, including Sydney West AHS (Disaster Awareness) and Central Coast AHS (Medical Terminology.)

Future Scope

The vision we have for the future is to build on the foundations we have established by:

• Creating design and program templates to assist in future program development.
• Continuing to train a wide range of staff in both basic and advanced instructional design and Authorware skills.
• Advocating and supporting online learning across the organisation.
• Providing expertise for the development of five medical education programs and further enhancement of SAMueL.

References

• Guerra T, Heffernan D 2004 The Guerra Scale www.learningcircuits.org/2004/mar2004/Guerra.htm
• Welcome to the Design of Constructivist Learning Environments (CLEs), www.coe.missouri.edu/~jonassen/courses/CLE/main.html