Name: Boas Krøgh Nielsen
Position: E-learning Coordinator
Company Name: Akershus University Hospital
Company background:
Over 4600 employees work at Akershus University Hospital, located just outside the Norwegian capital of Oslo. On 1st October we moved into a new building. The new University Hospital is not a traditional, institutional building; it is a friendly, informal place with open surroundings oriented towards the patients and their relatives. Not surprisingly, it is also filled with new technology, making it one of the most modern hospitals in Europe.
1. How many people in your organisation are typically involved in e-learning course creation?
For each course we set a team of 3–5 people, making sure that we cover the important competences of pedagogy, technology and knowledge of the organisation, in addition to subject matter experts. So in total a lot of people have been and are involved in e-learning course creation.
2. What processes do you use to enable them to work together effectively?
We design each course as a project with milestones and a timetable. In addition, we are careful when we choose the people for each project. We want to have the feeling before we start that ‘this team can really deliver this course’.
3. How long have you been creating courses using Mohive?
We started out testing Mohive about three years ago and have used it since then.
4. What software did you use before Mohive?
Before Mohive there was no e-learning at our hospital. We tested Mohive along with other rapid e-learning solutions.
5. What type of courses do you develop?
We mainly create courses covering introduction to medical areas and medical procedures. But we also have more general courses like fire protection and information security. In addition, we have recently started to look at the combination of e-learning and medical simulation.
6. And how long are the courses you develop?
From 5 to 50 minutes.
7. How much time does an average course take to create from when you start work to uploading into the LMS?
The projects are normally going on for a couple of months, but we also have good experience with more rapid, intensive development. The big challenge often is medical experts being very busy. And of course, patients come first!
8. How long does each stage in the development process take to complete?
For many courses the first stage of choosing the outline or framework takes a lot of time. With the right outline, the rest often comes easily.
9. What aspect of the Mohive system do you find most helpful?
In general we very much appreciate the ease of use. Also, being a Coordinator, I like the fact that the design and templates automatically give us a graphic profile that is presentable.
10. Which Mohive templates do you find particularly effective for the type of courses you create and what features make them your preferred choice?
I don’t have a favourite template. My favourite message to the authors is to vary the use of templates.
11. What tip have you discovered that you would like to share with other Mohive users?
Our users have told us that they appreciate simple, informative and practically useful courses. And... they actually like to be tested. So get to the point and don’t be afraid to put in lots of exercises.
12. Is there any other feedback you would like to include?
A broad meta-analysis in JAMA (Cook, Levinson and Garside et al.) recently concluded that Internet-based learning in health professional education is associated with large positive effects. Inspiring!