FEATURE

Continuing Education Office Unveils New User-Friendly Features

Over the past 2 years, Continuing Education has built an electronic infrastructure for their learning management system that benefits planners, instructors and participants alike. Planning and instructional activities have been incorporated into the system. And soon, the online learning center and the the electronic course catalog where users currently register for  live regional seminars and grand rounds will be integrated—health care professionals can go to one place, search by topic or speaker, and then choose to register for a live course or take a course immediately online.

Enhanced Online Learning Center Features

Continuing education participants will now be able to search online course offerings by keywords, profession and fee, then view information about the course such as, presenter credentials, learning objectives, course contents and bibliography. Upon completion of a course, participants can print out a certificate of completion and their transcript is automatically updated.

Top: Sample Course Information Screen Bottom: Sample My Online Courses Screen

Learners can look at their current schedule of courses and can sort by course status, i.e. Start, Review, Evaluation. They can also view a history of courses they've taken and the fee paid, a feature that is useful for tax purposes. Learners are now able to access online courses via smart phone or tablet.

Online courses are also open to non-employees. Starting in March, they will be charged fees that will be used to create more online courses.

Virtual Planning Tool Walks Planners Through Entire Process

The new VPT went live last month with improved layout and

functionality that provides planners with a continuing education tutorial, a means of documenting their planning process, and a venue to collaborate with other planners. It also helps planners tie their courses into quality improvement efforts and ACGME core competencies.

"The process might look daunting, but the tool breaks it into chunks and provides resources, such as links to needs assessment sources that help to identify practice gaps," according to Joanna Donahue, Director, Continuing Education.

VPT's Educational Needs Section Helps Planners Use Needs Assessment Data to Identify Practice Gaps

Other features of the VPT include:

• a Document Library that includes, a flyer template, mailing grid, and a commercial support tracking form

• Help Topics on adult learning basics, simple rules for writing learner objectives, and CME outcomes-based evaluation

• a section to upload files for review and revision by other planning committee members.

Training sessions for the new VPT are offered monthly. The Continuing Education Office welcomes user feedback. They are already implementing one suggestion—an automatic email to the CE coordinator when the course documentation is submitted.

Instructor Portal Facilitates Communication with Students

The IP allows registered continuing education instructors from within Baystate to view their teaching schedule, print attendance lists, and send email to students. Instructors can also view their past courses from 2010—a useful feature for physicians and nurses to document requirements for academic credentialing. Planned future capabilities include testing, logging test scores, keeping attendance, posting to a blog for course enrollees, and a peer review portal where course content from internal and external providers can be uploaded for review.

Ms. Donahue is grateful to those who made it happen, saying, "We've had great support from IS—application engineers Paranji Sridhar and Kathy Wysocki, and Information Management Team Leader, David Walto. Vincent Baker in Academic Affairs was integral to the project, especially the virtual planning tool."