Distributed teams may become the new normal—with workers at remote locations, providing highly immersive learning experiences can be expensive and logistically challenging. PeaceHealth decided to embrace real-time, “live” instructor-led learning (VILL) for their geographically disbursed employees. They believe virtual learning can increase opportunities for their employees to attend special classes while reducing travel time and costs for educators and learners.
PeaceHealth asked for a solution that would:
- Serve as a Virtual Instructor Certification program.
- Be implemented across the PeaceHealth system.
- Teach trainers and clinical staff to design and deliver highly-interactive virtual classroom experiences (especially for technical content).
This project took about 6 weeks. During that time, we needed to figure out a way for learners to confidently and consistently apply virtual learning best practices (think keeping learners engaged). We observed some of their current virtual and in-person sessions and conducted interviews to define the educators’ learning needs. Turns out PeaceHealth trainers and clinical staff are skilled facilitators, they just “don’t know what they don’t know” when facilitating learning in a virtual environment. We created a five-part virtual learning program using their tool (Skype for Business) with evaluation and assessment activities. 10 employees participated in the initial Virtual Instructor Certification Program; over time, that number should increase to between 50 and 100.
PeaceHealth is a not-for-profit Catholic health system based in Vancouver, Washington. PeaceHealth hospitals and clinics offer care to communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska through approximately 16,000 caregivers, a multi-specialty medical group practice with more than 800 physicians and providers, a comprehensive laboratory system, and 10 medical centers serving both urban and rural communities throughout the Northwest.