Effective Multimedia Course With Interactive Scenarios

Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), based in Washington, DC, was conceived in 1972 in recognition of the need for an organized, systematic approach to the ‘control’ of infections acquired as a result of hospitalization. The Association’s more than 13,000 members have the primary responsibility for infection prevention, control and hospital epidemiology in healthcare settings around the globe. APIC’s members include nurses, epidemiologists, physicians, quality and patient safety professionals, healthcare executives, microbiologists, clinical pathologists, laboratory technologists, and public health practitioners.

APIC wanted to create a course which showcased the role that the healthcare workers needed to play in the prevention and transmission of infections in both inpatient and outpatient hemodialysis settings. The course was to enable learners to identify best practice strategies that assist the healthcare workers in the elimination of infections in hemodialysis settings and reduce the likelihood of developing healthcare-associated infections.

The target audience consisted of infection preventionists, dialysis technicians, dialysis nurses, and other medical professionals associated with dialysis. The learners are familiar with systems, procedures, and terminology associated with hemodialysis, and have an intermediate to expert level of familiarity with computers.

The course was divided into two main modes – ‘Learn’ and ‘Play’.

In the ‘Learn’ mode, the content was presented directly through text, graphics and images, along with supporting examples, with only basic controls like ‘Next and Back’ provided for course progression.

Upside Learning recommended that the ‘Learn’ mode be a non-audio course, since it was a direct presentation of content. The principles were presented as guidelines or ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ which eliminated the need of any audio-driven explanations or any conceptual animations.

The purpose of the ‘Play’ mode was to help the learners identify patients at the risk of infection in hemodialysis settings. Further, it was also to elaborate the steps and guidelines to be followed to reduce this risk. This activity was based on the content presented through the ‘Learn’ mode. Key principles covered in the content were identified and sorted into various categories. These were then used as the basis for developing the scenarios.

Scenarios were designed to create an environment that mimicked the actual surroundings that learners would be dealing with. This was brought about through characters and situations that reflected reality thereby giving context to what is being learnt.

Each scenario was broken into scenes or frames, with a description and a graphical representation. Interactivities were provided at various points in the scenarios to make the course truly engaging. These included click to reveal, pick and drop formats etc. Controls were provided to allow the learner to progress from one scene to another on his own. Further, each of these scenarios was timed and scored individually, and was designed to be equivalent of a mini-game. Facility was also provided for the learner to access any of the scenario categories from the main menu.

1. Course divided into two distinct modes – Learn and Play
2. Interactivities added throughout the course for high user engagement
3. Scenes created to mimic real-life environment
4. Graphically realistic characters and environment

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