202875 Traveling down the pathway of competency-based online trainings: Helping learners navigate to meet targeted training needs

Monday, November 9, 2009

Lorraine K. Alexander, DrPH, MPH , UNC Center for Public Health Preparedness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Rachel A. Wilfert, MD, MPH, CPH , UNC Center for Public Health Preparedness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Kristen B. Van Dole, MSPH , Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
John W. Wallace, BS , North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness & Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
  
With increased demand for competency-based trainings and decreased travel budgets, more public health professionals are looking at online sources to meet their training needs. To meet this demand, the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness (NCCPHP) in the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health has updated its Training Web Site to more clearly identify competencies addressed by the site's 164 short online training modules. NCCPHP developed a methodology for assigning competencies from three competency sets covering essential public health services, bioterrorism and emergency readiness, and applied epidemiology. NCCPHP reviewed trainings and assigned competencies using a multi-step process, then developed an organizational scheme to clearly identify individual competencies and competency sets so prospective learners can quickly identify specific competency-based trainings that will address their needs. In addition, the learning objectives for each training were reviewed and updated with suitable learning objective verbs for the appropriate learning level as defined by Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain. These updated learning objectives will more precisely indicate to potential learners what they will be able to do as a result of completing a particular training. NCCPHP has also initiated a navigation upgrade to the Training Web Site to enable potential learners to search for a training based on specific competencies.

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the challenges in modifying an established online distance learning system to better meet learner needs for competency-based trainings. 2. List the key steps in ensuring appropriate competency assignment to a catalog of online training modules.

Keywords: Competency, Training

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Dr. Rachel A. Wilfert is a research associate for training and education with the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness. She is responsible for helping plan, implement and coordinate NCCPHP’s training and educational programs. Dr. Wilfert’s responsibilities include oversight of several projects with state partners including the Public Health Workforce Development System (an online learning management system for North Carolina public health workers) and a contract with the NC Division of Public Health to train public health employees on the NC Electronic Disease Surveillance System, a new online communicable disease reporting system that is being implemented in all local health departments in North Carolina. She supervises professional staff working on curriculum development, training implementation, and marketing as well as graduate research assistants working on continued development of NCCPHP’s Training Web Site. She also develops relevant trainings for both face-to-face and online delivery. Dr. Wilfert received her MD from the Duke University School of Medicine and completed an internship in Duke’s Internal Medicine Residency Training Program. She received an MPH from the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the UNC School of Public Health and is certified in public health. Prior to joining NCCPHP, she worked for the NC AHEC Program on a statewide digital library for health professionals where she developed the Disaster Preparedness and Response Special Collection.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Academic Public Health Caucus Poster Session I
See more of: Academic Public Health Caucus