Learning through Neighbors: Integrating Health Education Efforts across Jurisdictions

Health education efforts need to consistently examine innovative approaches that reach the general public, public health professionals, and policy makers in an efficient and effective manner. During this era of constrained resources, budget cuts, and increasingly limited services, the opportunities available to utilize technology to maximize the value added by each educational program remain critical. Learning networks, where the strengths of each contributing health education professional and organization build upon one another, represent the future.

The key to developing a robust, collaborative network is compartmentalization. The network must be able to simultaneously share some resources across jurisdictional lines and hide other resources that may not be pertinent across a wider audience. Sometimes, the need is practical: learners from Oregon are unlikely to be able to attend an in-person course on Ebola taking place in Georgia. Other times, the need is relational: earthquake response is not as pertinent in Wisconsin as in California. In any case, there exists a need for learners to obtain the resources they need without wading through clutter. In essence, key materials and trainings must be easily accessible and reviewable.

In exploring the foundational need for learning resource coordination, this presentation will use TRAIN as a model. TRAIN is a web-based learning management network, led by 28 affiliates. The network allows agencies and organizations to share resources across jurisdictional lines when appropriate, while also allowing resources to be restricted to smaller populations. To date, nearly 4,000 providers have posted over 29,000 courses to a population of over 900,000 learners.

This presentation will illustrate how providing health professionals with access to shared resources and the tools to track learning is essential to understanding the cost-aware model of health education in the future. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated how a network model facilitates the development of resource sharing.