CAPC and PT case study

Challenges

In 2015, CAPC started looking for a partner to develop an online curriculum of courses that would help alleviate a nationwide shortage of specialty-trained palliative care teams. This curriculum had to balance high-quality content with engaging design and interactivity so the courses didn’t lose their learners’ attention.

After extensive talks, CAPC partnered with the team at Principled Technologies (PT).

“Principled Technologies is just such a one-stop shop. We wanted our courses to be mobile and responsive at a time when having a custom layout and custom course build was not a given with other vendors or other potential partners.”

–Brynn Bowman

Solutions

CAPC and the team at PT collaborate on accessible and relatable courses that help CAPC members understand the experiences of people living with serious illness, what’s important to them, and what they and their loved ones find challenging during this vulnerable point in their lives.

“At every turn, the Principled Technologies team is as interested in pushing the envelope and finding new and ever more interesting ways to create engaging mobile and responsive courses as we are.”

–Brynn Bowman

The CAPC curriculum incorporates adult learning techniques to convey information—such as sharing knowledge through character narratives in graphic novel format and chunking information into easy-to-find categories. CAPC learners click and interact with up-to-date material instead of reading a stream of bullet points or passively watching a video.

CAPC courses balance high-quality content with eye-catching design and interactivity—making it easier for learners to relate to an issue and remember the information.

Drag-and-drop interactions keep learners engaged and help us gauge their prior knowledge on a topic.

Healthcare professionals—like most learners—are inundated with data, so we use periodic quizzes to aid retention, consolidate ideas, and summarize information.

Chunking information into bite-sized pieces means healthcare professionals can quickly find and use just-in-time information between appointments.

This interactive slider invites learners to explore the effects of Alzheimer's on the brain.

Simple diagrams prevent information overload and introduce information in a step-by-step format for guided implementation.

Access to additional resources for a deeper dive into palliative care.

When healthcare professionals need conversation guides, fill-in-the-blank interactions move them along the continuum from novice to expert. In these instances, we ask learners to consider a situation, craft a response, and then compare it to what an expert would say.

In this example, healthcare professionals use problem-solving skills to evaluate complex, real-world scenarios—an active way to consolidate learning.

Listing takeaways makes it easy for practicing clinicians to immediately apply the content with patients.

Results

50,000+

learners

~400,000

courses completed

7.5

average courses taken per learner

93%

membership renewal rate

The CAPC curriculum allows busy clinicians to access bite-sized learning modules on any device. It also enables healthcare organizations to hire passionate but untrained workers who use the courses to fill knowledge gaps—making it easier for specialty-trained palliative care teams to care for the patients whose needs are most complex.

This program includes an award-winning seven-course unit on dementia, covering best practices for care, goal communication, and pain management. Dementia care is a particularly tricky subject because no medicine or procedure can reverse or slow the progress. These just-in-time courses help clinicians from any specialty or discipline better support patients living with dementia and their caregivers.

2019 MarCom Awards Platinum winner: E-learning
“Best Practices in Dementia Care and Caregiver Support”

2016 Brandon Hall Group Silver Excellence in Learning winner
“Best Use of Mobile Learning: CAPC Online Curriculum”

“Very educational delivery of a very difficult topic. Makes me glad I work in psychiatry—however I'm sure I will need to use these skills during my current work as a social worker in the hospital.”

-Prognosis learner

"The courses have better prepared me to make the most effective use of pain medications for my patients. The information presented is invaluable."

-Pain Management designee

“This has been an eye-opening, informative and life-impacting going forward series of studies. I am glad to have had this exposure. Thanks for the effort put into the formulation of this website.”

-Pain 2 Course learner

“Another great module. I have now done all the dementia ones, and as a palliative who used to be a geriatrician, they are extremely validating and had a surprisingly large amount of new info or newly articulated thought. Terrific. Please keep up the great work.”

-Critical Decisions in Advanced Dementia learner

“I had never been introduced to the symptom details of this illness. I always thought especially, people with the death rattle were almost dead and some held on longer than others. I now know that there is treatment for breathlessness but it varies from person to person. This course, along with others, is a helpful tool for my toolkit.”

-Dyspnea Symptom Management learner

Work with PT

CAPC and PT work together to create culture change inside health organizations

Challenges

Solutions

Results