American Academy of Pediatrics
The Challenge
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is an organization of 60,000 pediatricians committed to the attainment of optimal physical, mental, social health and well-being of all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. Their division of eLearning is a leader in the specialty medical industry and recognized for using technology and the internet to deliver sophisticated Continuing Medical Education (CME) tools and online course offerings via PediaLink.org, AAP’s online center for lifelong learning.
Prior to deploying iAPPS, AAP used a legacy system that consisted of several disparate applications created by different vendors. With each system utilizing a different development approach, ongoing technical maintenance was difficult. Furthermore, content updates were both slow and costly as content was often embedded within an applications code, requiring programmers to make even the simplest content changes. Adding to the pain, AAP’s workflow used manual version control and required the emailing of MS Word documents among project managers, subject matter experts, and reviewing medical experts, thus increasing the time-to-market for new courses.
The Objectives
The use of several systems to provide the eLearning experience was costing AAP time and money. They required a centralized business solution that would meet all of their course development and delivery needs while decreasing costs and reducing the time-to-market.
AAP identified the following objectives when planning the deployment of a new system:
- Abandon the legacy system approach of multiple, disparate applications and deploy a single content management solution with centrally-managed user authentication;
- Make it easy for non-technical users to create, edit, and manage content without requiring the assistance of programmers;
- Deploy a solution with consistent, uncomplicated user interfaces and an intuitive information architecture;
- Implement powerful analytics to provide detailed insight and answers to important questions around in-course user behavior;
- Streamline the course development and delivery process to enable faster production of new courses at lower cost;
- Deploy a solution with automated workflow capability to replace existing manual processes;
- Employ a solution that provides flexible rich media support;
- Provide courseware hooks into the enterprise course management system.
The Solution
With a history of developing many successful applications for AAP, Bridgeline was selected to implement iAPPS to address their eLearning needs. Bridgeline’s extensive experience developing interactive websites and applications was pivotal to the success of the AAP project.
Bridgeline began by reviewing AAP’s legacy courseware, processes, and overall system with their Division of E-Learning and Information Technology. At the close of this Discovery process, Bridgeline recommended building a solid foundation and methodology for deploying future courses.
The redesign of the course system began with the deployment of iAPPS Content Manager. With Content Manager in place, the redefined Course Model simplifies the types of course offerings by reclassifying all of them into one of three groups – with each group having a defined interface in to the enterprise course management system.
The next step for Bridgeline developers was implementing iAPPS Analytics. Because Analytics is deeply integrated with Content Manager, user data collection begins the moment a course is launched. Granular data is being gathered on all course users from the moment they launch a course, which can then be used to gain a better understanding of their in-course behavior.
The Results
The Course Model system has enabled deep and rich integration between course creators and courseware users. Medical experts are able to focus on content instead of technology issues and the course takers benefit through a more engaging and seamless learning experience.
By moving off of their legacy business system and onto iAPPS, the AAP was able to immediately recognize numerous benefits. On the course development side non-technical staff is now empowered to handle course setup, creation, workflow, permissions, and launch of courses. Course architectures consisting of predefined templates make the deployment of similarly structured courses much quicker. These predefined templates provide course developers with the flexibility of selecting different color schemes and course branding graphics.
Course takers now enjoy a better overall experience with consistent user interfaces and intuitive navigation. The multisite, permission-based management of courses provides a dropdown menu to select a different course so there are no more extra logins or logouts to deal with; the focus is kept on learning.
The rich media management of Content Manager provides categorization and control of all images, video, and Flash components, allowing for more engaging courseware. Robust personalization features including course status, bookmarking, answer retention, and personal hooks into the enterprise course system are also built-in to courses. Course material can now be dynamically presented and change based on a learner’s background, status, permissions, the path they took, or the feedback they provide.
iAPPS Analytics is now providing AAP with an accurate understanding of course taker behavior. The AAP team can easily determine if course takers are:
- Taking the expected course path;
- Viewing all course content pages or jumping ahead to the assessments;
- Getting stuck on particular course material.
These questions are just the beginning. Going forward, the AAP plans to apply the user behavior analytical data, supplied by iAPPS Analytics, to develop best practices around course material presentation and structure.