Healthy People 2020 Elearning Lessons, Events, and Conversations. Lessons Learned From Developing An Interactive, Multi-Platform, Elearning Resource

Background: Healthy People provides a comprehensive set of national 10-year objectives that serve as a framework for public health activities at all levels and across the public health community. Often called a “roadmap” for nationwide health promotion and disease prevention, Healthy People helps us understand where we are now, and to take informed action to make progress throughout the decade.

Program background:  Healthy People eLearning was designed for students and health professionals to earn continuing education for learning how to achieve Healthy People 2020 targets. This online resource was designed to create opportunities for peer-to-peer learning around complex health issues like the Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators. To this end, eLearning links multiple platforms including online lessons, live events, and online discussions to look at the complexity of both the issue and a featured community’s approach. The online lesson combines adult learning principles and a real-life case study of a featured community that includes voices from the community via audio and video, learning activities, and resources. The lesson outlines the complexity of the health topic, the community’s approach, and the challenges and lessons learned. Live events, including webinars and conference sessions, provide an opportunity to delve deeper into subjects touched on in the lesson. These events present the latest research and practice of federal and local initiatives working on the same topic or issue. Finally, online discussions link both lessons and live events to provide users an opportunity to problem-solve and collaborate together around what they have learned. In March 2013, Healthy People eLearning launched both the first lesson of the series and online discussions. In July 2013, Healthy People eLearning will host a webinar that builds on the case-study community featured in the lesson. Both events leverage the online discussions to encourage peer learning and problem-solving.

Evaluation Methods and Results: Evaluation of eLearning includes metrics from the lesson website, learning management system, webinar, and online discussions. Preliminary pilot-testing feedback reported in a 32-item evaluation was positive. Testers strongly agreed or agreed the lesson met their needs in categories such as content and learning materials, learning environment, etc. These measures will continue to be tracked as well as users who receive continuing education, online visitors to the lesson, webinar attendees, as well as members, discussions, and comments within the LinkedIn group.

Conclusions: Online learning featuring case studies may play an important role in helping health professionals and students learn from one another. Testers indicated the lesson helped demonstrate the complexity of childhood obesity among other health issues and reported feeling empowered in learning how a systems approach may affect change.

Implications for research and/or practice: This session will explore the lessons learned in planning, implementing, evaluating, and communicating about an integrated multi-platform eLearning series. It will improve practice by highlighting opportunities to integrate multiple channels and provide useful strategies that practitioners can employ to overcome potential challenges.