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E-Learning: ensuring that your content is relevant and flexible
The document discusses the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' (RCOG) approach to e-learning, highlighting the adaptation of content to meet curriculum changes and the needs for blended learning. It covers changes in their business model, transitioning from a commercial product to a membership benefit, and the importance of technology in delivering their educational resources. The RCOG is focusing on making their website more mobile-friendly and exploring the development of a complementary app.
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E-Learning: ensuring that your content is relevant and flexible
- 1. HOST SPONSOR #ACTech15 ORGANISED BY eLearningmanager Blending video with other parts of your e-learning strategy Helen Munn Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
- 2. eLearning: ensuring thatyour content is relevant and flexible Helen Munn eLearning Manager © Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
- 3. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Curriculum/programme requirements Business model Technical solutions Adapting content (e.g. videos)
- 4. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Background to StratOG Includes: •160+ tutorials •8000+ webpages •5000+ assessments stratog.rcog.org.uk
- 5. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists An average month Website statistics from Google Analytics No. sessions 36 300 No. unique users 14 500 No. page views 565 000 Average session duration 30 minutes ~25 pages per session Audience 40% UK 13% India 9% Saudi Arabia 6% UAE 5% Pakistan
- 6. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Externally imposed changes to curriculum/programme requirements
- 7. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Curriculum/programme requirements • Why will people do your course? –Mandatory –Supports professional development –Exam preparation • What do you do if anything changes?
- 8. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Example from the RCOG Core Training tutorials support our core curriculum and help trainees prepare for our membership exam
- 9. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Example from the RCOG Core Training tutorials support our core curriculum and help trainees prepare for our membership exam Actively contribute to Monitor
- 10. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Exam format changed in March 2015 Needed to add SBA questions
- 11. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Changes to the business model
- 12. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Business model • Should match your organisation’s strategic aims – Commercial vs non-commercial? – Membership benefit? – Are you expected to make a surplus or cover your costs? • Is this always going to stay the same?
- 13. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Example from the RCOG • StratOG was originally a commercial product – Held at ‘arms length’ from core College business – Separate identity/branding – Expected to run at a surplus • In 2012 it became a membership benefit
- 14. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Our brand evolution (2007–2011) (2011–2015) (2015 – )
- 15. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Changes to technology (both available and used)
- 16. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Technical solution • RCOG’s philosophy is that the educational need should determine the technical solution We have a bespoke website
- 17. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Bespoke solutions Advantages – Meets all of our needs – Tailored to our content and audience – Integration with other systems – Can add functionality/grow with new projects Flexibility Control
- 18. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Bespoke solutions × Disadvantages – More expensive (at least initially) – Dependent on particular agency/developer – Ongoing support and maintenance Increased resources Specialist skills
- 19. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Our website evolution ?
- 20. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Mobile users
- 21. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists A challenge “StratOG is not, at present, mobile-friendly; the design is not adaptive, and much of the audio/video content requires Flash.”
- 22. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Mobile learning • What about the content? • Is this appropriate for mLearning?
- 23. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists The RCOG’s policy • New website will… – Be mobile optimised for the resources that lend themselves to mLearning – Work to an acceptable level for other content • We are considering… • Developing an app to complement the new website
- 24. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Adapting content for use in blended learning projects
- 25. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Adapting content • What else can you do with your content? • Consider role of blended learning
- 26. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Example 1 from the RCOG • Had some video clips on undermining behaviour • Decided we needed a more robust resource • Converted into a video scenario-based eLearning resource
- 27. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Example 2 from the RCOG • Virtual classroom programme • Needed more pre-course preparation + wanted to widen audience Blended package
- 28. © Royal Collegeof Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Thank you! hmunn@rcog.org.uk
- 29.
Editor's Notes
- #3 StratOG has been going since 2007 (distance learning since 2000) so we have had to adapt to change on multiple occasions. Technology User expectations Also react to change imposed on us by external bodies, e.g. changes to regulations Share some of our experiences with you hope relevant regardless of whether you are at the point where introducing eLearning is ‘the change’, or if you want to improve what you are currently doing
- #4 Talk about some of the challenges we have faces – Content (external demands) Business Technical Moving forward / new opportunities
- #5 Degree of inertia / resistance to change Contains: Traditional eLearning tutorials – focus on delivering theoretical knowledge (text, multimedia, assessments, interactive tasks) Reflective based learning Video based scenarios Blended learning (eLearning + simulation / eLearning + f-2-f course) **Depends on audience and educational objectives In-house team of 3 people; large clinical team (200+ authors, peer reviewers, Editorial Board)
- #6 Comparison with RCOG corporate site
- #7 How to react if the goalposts change
- #8 Need to make sure that your eLearning course integrates into a training/professional development programme i.e. meets a clearly defined educational need Know your audience – what they want, when, why Need to keep up with what people are doing, e.g. if your eLearning programme supports an exam, and the exam format changes, then you need to adapt and update ASAP
- #9 Our Core Training resource supports a curriculum that culminates in an exam
- #11 As soon as new format publicised, there was a user demand for these questions Links back to issue of user expectations Same effect seen for new guidelines That’s why we have a dedicated Editorial Board (lesson learnt from DIALOG)
- #12 External changes – should be infrequent but can have high impact Same for changes to the business case
- #13 So, you have all your business case and content aligned with educational need What happens if your organisation’s strategic priorities change?
- #14 Decision was made for educational/altruistic reasons – equity of education, enticement for new members Needed approval from multiple committees/groups Communication strategy for stakeholders Changes to our website’s infrastructure to cope with increased demand Now run at a loss Working on bringing it into the RCOG’s brand
- #15 Retain the heritage value of current name and links to O&G Incorporate the eLearning strapline into the logo Blue is a particularly good ‘fit’ with RCOG main brand
- #17 i.e. we make the technology fit the content/required mode of delivery, not the other way round This decision wasn’t made lightly and hasn’t been without consequence Have twice tried to use open source platform but it wasn’t successful
- #18 Better solution for us and our learners Functionality we want – front and back end Custom features Integration with corporate site and membership database (and our CPD ePortfolio)
- #19 Essential that the developer understands you, your business and your audience You need to trust each other If the relationship breaks down, you can be in trouble
- #21 One focus of redevelopment will be mobile accessibility Mobile = tablet and phone
- #22 Mobile learning is the biggest change in user behaviour that we have had to deal with We don’t cope very well! A quote from our website redevelopment tender document
- #23 Redevelopment will address technical issues, but what about the content? Smartphones have the high number of user interactions but the lowest average time spent per interaction mLearning = looking for a brief answer to a specific question / quick bursts of activity Does this fit with our content? 8000+ pages / session time 30 mins Length of the content Bandwidth required Format (e.g. Flash vs. html5) Don’t look to make everything available for the phone
- #24 We are in the process of converting our Flash-based content to html5 Online presentations – done Animations – working on a solution App would contain different content (a ‘mobile version’ of the content-heavy tutorials Wait to see if this strategy is successful
- #25 Last thing I am going to cover is adapting your eLearning content
- #27 Cases, e.g. on culture Reflective tasks