Online Institutes: Using Innovative Multi-Week, e-Learning Courses to Build HIV Prevention Capacity

Background: Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), and CDC’s emphasis on High-Impact HIV Prevention (HIP) represent significant opportunities and challenges for HIV prevention programs. Community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide HIV prevention and support services need assistance with understanding the implications of clinical treatment as a primary prevention strategy, developing relationships with health care providers, and thinking strategically about overall organizational sustainability.

Program background: As a CDC-funded capacity building assistance (CBA) provider, JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. developed a three-week, online “institute” to help CBO staff build skills and knowledge on high-impact HIV prevention, the emerging health care environment, and strategic planning.  CBO staff who provide HIV prevention services continue to need high quality, in-depth capacity building assistance to respond to increasingly sophisticated needs. This includes access to the expertise of clinical care providers, researchers, and other prevention science and organization development experts. In addition, they appreciate opportunities for peer exchange and interaction. As a CBA provider, JSI has successfully implemented multi-day, in-person institutes that bring together stakeholders for skills-building, networking, and professional development. However, given state and federal budget constraints, time and financial resources are scarce, especially to support travel for traditional multi-day trainings. To respond to these challenges, JSI developed an innovative, three-week online institute that eliminated travel costs, enabled participants from across the country to interact, and encouraged participation by providing opportunities to learn when it is most convenient.  The online institute utilized multi-channel communication tools to create distance learning opportunities, including background readings, interactive webinars with clinicians and other experts, videos, hands-on activities, and discussions with facilitators and peers. The institutes included synchronous and asynchronous options to enable individuals to participate actively in real time events (e.g., live webinars), and/or at a time when they were most convenient (e.g., recorded archives, readings, videos). 

Evaluation Methods and Results: JSI surveyed participants at multiple points throughout the institute to gather qualitative and quantitative feedback on the online delivery method. In this presentation, we will share insights and evaluation results from two institutes implemented in February and March 2013 to enable workshop participants to identify best practices and avoid common mistakes. 

Conclusions: The online institute model has the potential to utilize low-cost, web-based communication tools to provide essential training opportunities to a diverse audience with limited resources. Potential training participants may face barriers to attending in-person trainings, including limited time and travel budgets. Presenting training via an online institute allows for peer learning and interaction while reducing other barriers to participation.

Implications for research and/or practice:  This presentation has implications for further research and/or practice by helping to:

• Describe a successful model for using web-based tools to implement a multi-week, online training course
• Provide an overview of an online institute structure, format, content, technological infrastructure, and web-based tools
• Identify potential challenges and opportunities for using the online institute model