In January, 2013, I started working with a KM expert, two instructional designers, and an extremely gifted intern to develop an in-house blended learning program (eLearning combined with other methods) for IntraHealth International staff. Named the Global Health Workforce Leaders course, the pilot program was designed to “encourage HRH pioneers and advocates for a present, ready, connected and safe health workforce.” It was a 12-week program, including the introductory week and a wrap-up week, and it launched in mid-March.

The 30 participants in the course came from Ethiopia, India, Namibia, and Zambia. The course content was delivered through Articulate presentations hosted on a Moodle-based learning management system (LMS), monthly webinars, and face-to-face country team meetings. The course also linked to three eLearning lessons (hosted elsewhere) that had already been developed, to avoid duplicating effort. My role involved making sure the LMS worked the way we wanted (with occasional IT support), uploading and integrating content with the LMS, facilitating most of the webinars, and providing technical support to the students and instructors.

The students seemed to respond well to many parts of the blended learning experience. During our final webinar the instructors polled the students about the course. All of the webinar participants said they found the experience “positive” or “very positive”. While about 50% of respondents listed “technological problems” as a challenge to taking the course, 100% of the respondents said they’d be interested in participating in another blended learning course.

Top Five Lessons Learned

1. If you build it, they might not come. Each course week included three evaluations, with 7-8 questions each. Each week fewer participants filled out evaluations. As this was a pilot course, the instructors really wanted the feedback, but 36 evaluations probably seemed like overkill to the students. The course also had forums where students could discuss their lessons online, and they went largely unused. Many of the students worked near one another and had scheduled team meetings, so it seems they found the forums unnecessary. We’re reconsidering our evaluation methods and do not plan to use the forums for anything but general announcements in future versions of the course.
2. Plan B is a good idea. If you don’t control a site you have no say in when it’s available. Three course lessons were hosted on external sites. One site went down for maintenance the week we’d scheduled that lesson. While it’s generally a good idea not to recreate the wheel, it’s also good to be sure the wheel’s available before you plan a road trip that requires it. We adjusted the course schedule accordingly.
3. Organization matters! This was the first time I’d supported the LMS for an on-going, blended learning course. When I saw the course outline I thought, “OK, that’s 10 lessons, 3 of which are on someone else’s site. So I’ll need to allow for, what, 14 course files? Maybe 20?” I didn’t think it was worth working out an extensive, folder-based file structure on the back end. Fourteen (maybe 20) files turned out to be 122 files, many with very similar names. The lessons were divided into 2-4 parts (for easier download) and the instructors provided a rich trove of supplemental and reference materials. This all made the course much better for the students, which is the most important thing. But finding specific materials on the back end was more challenging than it needed to be. Frustration is an excellent teacher—when I put something like this together again, I will definitely organize the files more logically.
4. Timing Matters! Wrapping up a course during an organization’s fiscal year-end isn’t kind to anyone. It’s already the busiest time of year for both the students and the instructors, without adding final projects and post-tests. The course launched in mid-March, so it should have wrapped up the first week of June. However, the previously mentioned off-line course pushed things back. I expect that future courses will be launched at a time that allows for more of a cushion between course-end and year-end.
5. Students want online and off-line access. Motivated students appreciated all the eLearning content provided. Our students requested (and received) downloadable pdfs of the course lessons so they could study the material off-line, as well as access the online version, and several of them said they used all the supplemental materials provided by the instructors. We will plan on including supplemental materials in future course iterations.

Next steps

We’ve recruited another intern to help us review the data developed through the course—quiz scores, evaluation results, etc. Once we have the information, we’ll improve the course and offer it to another group of students.

And by that point, the back-end file structure will be flawless.