Presenter: Renee Ned-Sykes, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Atlanta, GA, [email protected]
Getting Better All the Time: Building Continuous
Improvement into Production of Training Resources
by CDC’s Division of Laboratory Systems
K. Winter, V. Johnson, A. McKnight, K. Clark, J. Rothschild, R. Ned-
Sykes and Y. Wilkins, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
To provide laboratory professionals with training about emerging
threats, evolving practices, and improvement of safety and quality
practices, CDC’s Division of Laboratory Systems (DLS) offers free
courses in a variety of formats — live, face-to-face seminars and
hands-on workshops as well as on-demand webinars and eLearning
courses — via www.cdc.gov/labtraining. Over the past three years,
DLS has developed, implemented, and refined a production process
that centers on continuous quality improvement, with the ultimate
goal of better serving its target audience. This 12-step lifecycle for
eLearning course development is guided by the ADDIE (Analysis,
Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) instructional
design model. The lifecycle is aligned with CDC’s Quality Training
Standards (QTS) and allows DLS staff to more accurately forecast
project timelines, communicate progress to stakeholders, and
ensure consistency across projects. Before developing a functional
prototype, an instructional designer creates a storyboard to
delineate screen-by-screen details — including multimedia
descriptions. This provides multimedia professionals with richer
context for how videos, images, and interactive graphics will be
integrated with other course content. Staff report that this leads to
more expedient creation of multimedia that fits well with the overall
course. Before a course is released, at least 3 functional iterations
(alpha, beta, and pilot) are created, and there are a minimum of
5 review points to gather feedback from subject matter experts
and members of the target audience. Each prototype is informed
by recommendations gathered during the previous review step,
supporting the goal of continuous improvement. Once courses
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are available to the public, knowledge assessment and evaluation
data are stored in the learning management system (LMS). DLS
periodically reviews these data for trends, using the information to
guide course improvements. Additionally, learners can reach out
directly to DLS through an email address posted within each course
([email protected]). Recently, DLS also has begun to explore the
extent to which new technologies such as virtual reality (VR) can
enhance knowledge gain and skill adoption. Because the eLearning
lifecycle has become such a useful tool for operationalizing and
standardizing course production, DLS will use it as a model to
create a new lifecycle for VR course production. VR and augmented
reality add an element of interactivity, technique-based learning,
and assessment that was previously limited to in-person, hands-on
training courses. By leveraging a continuous improvement process,
DLS hopes to better meet the needs of the target audience, expand
its reach into that audience, and incorporate more advanced
training into its portfolio of training resources.
Presenter: Yescenia Wilkins, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Atlanta, GA, [email protected]
Engaging Children in Science Activities to Build an Interest
in STEM Fields
J. Yeadon-Fagbohun, R. Gentry, J. Lovchik and M. Grazier, Indiana
State Department of Health Laboratories
Background: Celebrate Science Indiana is an annual event for
Indiana elementary and middle school students (and their parents)
to experience the excitement of science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (STEM) with hands-on activities designed to
encourage their future participation in STEM-related education,
research, and careers. The Indiana State Department of Health
Laboratories (ISDHL) is one of more than 50 groups that set up
activity booths for this event hosted by the Science Education
Foundation of Indiana. The event is held on the first Saturday of
October in Indianapolis.
Methods: Each year, a team of ISDHL volunteers meets to decide
what activities to offer at the booth for the year. It’s important
that the booth be interactive, engaging and instructional. ISDHL
strives to offer activities to showcase public health, so that in
addition to encouraging children to think science is fun, the adults
remember the key points of public health. Participants leave the
booth with knowledge that good handwashing is essential, and
that bacteria are all around us. ISDHL staff volunteer for two-hour
shifts throughout the day and have fun interacting with the parents
and children. Brochures and teaching pages are also offered at the
booth.
Results: At the 2018 booth, ISDHL offered several different activities
for the children. There was GloGerm to demonstrate handwashing
skills, fomites and bacteria on agar plates, awesome agar art,
uninoculated agar to touch, a pipetting skills station, and a section
all about polymers, such as slime and water orbs. The booth was
constantly busy throughout the day with families exploring and
asking questions. In addition to helping the children at the different
activity stations, ISDHL staff answered questions about different
bacteria and health concerns.
Conclusions: Participation in the annual Celebrate Science Indiana
event gives ISDHL a chance to ensure the public is aware of the
Indiana public health lab. It allows us to help cultivate a love for
science in children, which may one day help them to consider
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collected about the PHL and CL workforces. Of the 227 data sources
published 2000-2018 that were included in the literature review,
51% of PHL-related sources and 40% of CL-related sources profiled
the workforce (e.g., demographics, educational background, salary)
and employers, with the most robust studies focusing solely or
largely on workforce and employer profiling. There is large variability
in the existence and amount of data related to various other aspects
of workforce development, as well as variability between the PHL
and CL literature in terms of the workforce development questions
or challenges that have been investigated. Generally, though, few
sources examined aspects such as: career attractiveness, job
readiness of recent graduates, or the impact of certain kinds of
education or training on job performance or career progression.
Overall, although each workforce is characterized reasonably
well, there is a lack of actionable data in a number of areas. To fill
some of these gaps, CDC is planning to conduct interviews and
focus groups with laboratory professionals and leaders, in addition
to conducting secondary analyses of existing relevant data. The
strategies for primary data collection and secondary analyses will
also be presented. The WALC is expected to better position CDC
and its laboratory partners to coordinate, develop, and implement
effective, data-driven training programs and other workforce-
strengthening initiatives that shape and support a competent and
adaptable laboratory workforce.