Discuss the below:
Case Study 1 - Learning Portal for Teachers
Desertville is a rural school district in northern Arizona with 36 schools , 180 teachers and about 10,000 students. While on a recent trip, the Desertville School District Superintendent was very impressed with many teaching tips and tricks she heard and saw from many of the district's teachers. As she toured the schools, she realized that it would be extremely valuable if she could find a way for teachers to share these tips and ideas to enhance their teaching.
Because of the distances involved, it's impossible for all of these teachers to meet on a regular basis to discuss these tips and tricks. So, based on articles she's read, the Superintendent thinks this could all be done "online". Thanks to a recently received grant from a wealthy private donor and an exhaustive search for the right training and development technologist, you have been selected as the school district's newest professional. Your first mission is to put together a proposal for this "Learning Portal".
Some questions for you to think about:
- What technology will you use? Will it a simple website or more?
- How will you get teachers to contribute? What if they're not familiar with the technology?
- How will you manage all this information
- Will you allow teachers to upload video, pictures and other media?
Other requirements:
Your presentation should include not just the technology (software and hardware) but also how you plan to get teachers, parents and other community members to use the system and upload information to it. Also, what will your data retention policy be? Will you moderate this space? How will you keep teachers motivated to use this system once the novelty wears off?
What are your longer-term, more strategic thoughts for this project? Could the portal be used for other purposes?
You will be presenting a high-level plan to the school board executive members. Your presentation should include an overall set of objectives, the technology you plan to implement, the timeline for execution and also how you will engage the community, especially teachers. You should also outline the cost estimate for this project, not only for the initial setup but also for the ongoing maintenance that will need to be put in place.
Also - you will need to clearly state what your CSIs (Critical Success Indicators) will be and what metrics you aim to reach.
Case Study 2- Nuclear Worries
A recent emergency preparedness audit at the Alto Verde nuclear power plant revealed a workforce very poorly prepared for an emergency, especially a terrorist attack. Copies of this audit were sent to the Dept. of Homeland Security and plant management was instructed to get training put in place immediately to avoid fines and even a forced shutdown.
Apparently, there are several other nuclear power plants in the region facing this same problem so a federal grant (amount not disclosed) has been made available to create the training required to bring up the level of employee preparedness.
The emergency scenarios that this training should include are:
- Terrorist attacks (all possibilities need to be considered)
- Equipment malfunction scenarios including meltdown prevention
- Radioactive material leakage
- Theft and vandalism prevention
Workers at most of these power plants are unaware of the audit results and most of them believe that they are 100% competent in their skill area. Previous, classroom-based training has not been well received and there has been a lot of resistance to courses that have any testing (level 2) associated with them. Because most of the workers at these plants deal with computerized systems, their computer knowledge and skills are good.
After an extensive search, you have been selected as the leading specialist in high impact training programs and you have been commissioned with the task of designing a training program for these workers that will bring these power plants back into compliance with safety guidelines.
You have not been given an assigned budget yet as the management committee wants to hear your proposal first and decide based on that. Your proposal should include:
- Details on the technology requirements you need
- The people you will need to help you with this project, such as Instructional Designers, SMEs, etc.
- An estimate of how long you think it will take to get this project off the ground and people trained.
- How you will overcome the testing reluctance problem described above
- Total estimated cost for the program
- Success indicators
- Program maintenance
You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for this program.
Case Study 3 The Sav-A-Life Hospital Story
Sav-A-Life Hospital is a local, internationally renowned, 650-bed, not-for-profit, level 1 Trauma Center known for clinical excellence. Sav-A-Life is just one hospital belonging to a national company containing 40 Acute Care Facilities, employing over 40,000 Employees, and 7500 Active Physicians. Sav-A-Life Hospital (SALH) is seeking a cost effective training solution to make training easily available 24/7 for its 4,000 employees that would equip them with the skills needed to effectively perform their job functions. The parent company is looking for SALH to be the flagship in determining how to train its employees. SALH's employees speak a multitude of languages, range in age from 18 to 95, and have a wide variety of education levels.
The current education or training programs include:
1. Medical/surgical residency program
2. Graduate medical education company with research facility
3. On site School of nursing preparing baccalaureate prepared nurses.
4. New employee orientation with varying education needs per department
5. Ongoing Staff development
6. Greater community education and training (car seats, patient education)
7. Students from a wide variety of nursing and non-nursing programs rotating through clinical areas over the summer
A majority of the training consists of one 8-hour day filled with paper and pencil tests, hands on training, and traditional lectures. Employees are required to take courses, complete exams monthly or annually, and become certified or recertified regularly. Many departments manage their own training and tracking systems with a paper file system. At present, SALH's tracking of coursework and exams are inconsistent, and employees' transcripts often lag behind their latest certification.
Due to a severe nurse and physician shortage in the greater Phoenix area, SALH is in need of a consistent training program for physicians, nurses, and other support staff. SALH is looking for an education and training solution that is cost effective, efficient, and able to keep up with the development of new technologies in the future. In addition to being cost effective the training solution must be flexible enough to not disrupt employees' current workloads and schedules. (Most staff works 12 hr days or nights) And finally, it must be highly effective with the end result being a higher quality of care given to patients and families.
In addition to internal criteria set by local leadership; Federal and state accrediting agencies have mandated continuing education requirements, competency based certification training, patient safety training, and current licensure tracking to be completed and documented in each employee file. Upon course completion, the employee's file needs to be readily available for any unannounced visit from the accrediting agencies. The employee and manager must be able to verbalize how they maintain competency at any given moment. An electronic report must be available 24/7 incase of surprise visits.
The education solution should also include some of SALH's local creations:
1. Integration of SALH's clinical ladder: A system that calculates what education, committees, and special projects the employee has participated in over the past 12 months and they get compensation for it at the end of the year.
2. Training program for managers and supervisors with competency assessment and evaluation.
3. A staffing program that reflects patient acuity that can be accessed from home. Preferably the program will be smart enough to allow the qualified candidates to sign up for shifts while blocking the unqualified staff.
Management has received approval to hire a training and development specialist to solve this problem. After a long and thorough job search, you have been selected as the new campus staff Training and Employee Development Manager, reporting directly to senior management. Your marching orders are:
1. Create, implement, oversee and manage the hospital wide learning management system that supports the performance improvement process and decreases paperwork.
2. Create, implement, and oversee a tracking system able to handle instructor-led, webbased, and blended learning opportunites.
3. Create a program that interfaces with a staffing and acuity program with the training. (Example, If I take a charge nurse class, once the date is tracked I should be able to sign up for any open charge nurse shifts)
You also have a small budget of $150K to get started. Management wants to see your strategy presented in three to four weeks and have you begin putting your program in place immediately after that.
Ideas to consider:
• What will be the first steps you take to get this project moving?
• What technology will you use to get this project off the ground?
• What kind of training will you provide (blended, web-based, hands-on etc.)
• What will you spend your budget on?
• What strategy will you use to roll out the training?
• What does your project timeline look like?
• How will you set up the license and certification tracking process?
• What vendor/model makes sense for the SALH organization? LMS? Corporate University, or Simple education program.?
• How will you know you've been successful?
• How will you know when your job is done?
Remember, some of these employees have never used a computer for work. Many have computers at home but only use them casually for Internet surfing or e-mail and some employees have no computer skills.
You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.