Tell us about your organisation and your responsibilities?

“I manage the IT Skills Pathway by delivering elearning and facilitated workshops across the workforce. There are approximately 2,600 employees within the Trust working across a wide geographical area in the North East Region of England. Learners have various IT needs, levels and abilities therefore the IT Skills Pathway is an essential tool to help improve IT skills and productivity in this digital age of new and emerging technologies and software.

I lead on developing and creating elearning materials by working with subject experts and stakeholders to publish online courses through the Trusts learning management systems (LMS) including the Content Management System (CMS) from NHS Digital.“

What have you used to produce elearning previously?

“I’ve used Adobe Captivate to create interactive elearning courses including a quiz to test learning. Courses produced to date include Business Continuity and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Although the final version is of high quality and available via our LMS for learners to complete it did take a lot of input from subject experts and a lot of time and effort on my part to complete.”

Content Creator Special

Case Study Pilot site reports on their

experiences using the new

software

Content Creator is an elearning software application designed and developed by the IT Skills Pathway team to produce interactive, engaging online learning and assessments. The North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust was one of two health and social care organisations that kindly volunteered to pilot the software to assess its suitability for producing online learning and also advise on any issues and suggest improvements. In this case study we catch up with Liam Marshall, the Trusts IT Education and Development Officer to find out more about the pilot and what he thinks of the software.

(Continued from page 1)

Why did you volunteer for the Content Creator pilot?

“We really like the existing IT skills courses and how effective they are for learning, therefore we were very interested in trialling Content Creator. I always like to try new technologies therefore any chance to upskill or test something new is really appealing to me. I’ve always found the IT skills elearning to be very interactive and hands on in comparison to other elearning. Typically the common theme for other elearning is that it is very much theory based.”

How was the pilot organised and managed?

“I expressed interest via an email to the IT Skills team. Once my interest was confirmed they promptly got in touch and gave me the technical information that was required for initial setup. I then liaised with our IT Department to ensure my PC was IT compatible before agreeing on a training method. We agreed on a face to face training session which allowed me to ask questions, identify best practice and lessons learnt from others.”

What elearning did you choose to produce and who was it for?

“I created a piece of elearning called “VPN for Remote Workers”. We have a large number of staff working remotely hence the title! Its aim is to educate those working with laptops away from normal work bases how to connect to our systems, services and data via a Virtual Private Network. As an organisation, we’re always looking at ways to improve our efficiency through more agile working.”

What did you like about Content Creator? What needs to be improved?

“I really like the simplicity and effectiveness of the Content Creator. It has all the features and functions you would expect from any current elearning authoring tool. Scripting is very useful and a massive time saver for streamlining the development of slides and automates a lot of manual work. The quiz section is really powerful and simple to use and also quick to develop. Like any new software it takes time to master it and the more you use it, the better and quicker you get. The new help documentation is a valuable resource which should be used whilst creating/supporting elearning developments. I found some minor bugs such as an arrow interaction not working and application not responding but these were resolved once I logged the issue with the support team.”

“We’re always looking at

ways to improve our

efficiency through more

agile working”

(Continued from page 2)

What support did you receive from the IT Skills team? “I received telephone support, WebEx and face to face meetings before and during the pilot. The Team made sure I was confident and ready to start using the product and get the most out of the application through the training delivered. Once I was using the application I started publishing content but I experienced a few technical issues. After logging a support call the team were always available and arranged suitable time to discuss my issues which were all resolved.”

What are the next steps for you and your organisation? “I am part of the Agile Working Group to make our workforce more IT savvy by delivering suitable training in support of introducing and using new technologies and systems. This means we have a large workforce and need to get effective training to them in a short timescale. Therefore I am

looking at producing online training using Content Creator to develop materials for Skype for Business and Microsoft Surface Hub.”

Any other comments? “Overall I find using Content Creator is easy to use and very intuitive. I would say it gives you everything you need to create process driven elearning content. It is very good at capturing how to use a system, service or application and the quiz section is very good and easy to create and configure.”

The IT Skills Pathway covers the full range of competencies for users of IT,

from basic through to advanced levels. It has been developed in partnership

with Health and Social Care organisations to provide an officially recognised

route of learning and certification for the whole workforce.

Its purpose is to encourage everyone working within Health and Social Care

to review their current IT skills and knowledge against the national

standards, determine what their skill gaps are and then identify their future

training requirements based on the products that are available.

For more information about the IT Skills Pathway, please visit our website at:

http://www.itskills.nhs.uk

Alternatively you can email us at: it.skills@nhs.net

“Content Creator is easy

to use and very intuitive”