We are so pleased to have our friend and colleague, Joe Kim, MD, MPH, join us for our free monthly webinar on June 2, 2016 (REGISTER TODAY). Dr. Kim will speak about "Evolving Trends in CME: From Online Social Learning to Team-Based Collaborative Education and Quality Improvement" and the webinar will be moderated by Jeremy C. Lundberg, MSSW, CEO of EthosCE Learning Management System and DLC Solutions, LLC.

Key Learning Objectives will include: common barriers to effective continuing medical education (CME), impact of the changing vision of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Certification and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) programs, different CME learning modalities, and the role of Quality Improvement in CME going forward.

Please register today for this free webinar!

About Joe Kim, MD, MPH,  President of Qsynthesis

Joe is the President of Qsynthesis, a healthcare quality improvement consultancy. Prior to this role, he spent nearly 10 years at MCM Education and worked in joint-providership with accredited providers of CME/CE. Joe has been involvement in the development and implementation of interactive educational initiatives and systems-level quality improvement projects. Joe is an active member of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions (ACEhp) where he previously served as the Chair of the Technology Committee and a member of the Education Committee. Recognized for his contributions to the CEhp community, Joe also received the President’s, Rising Star, and Distinguished Member awards. He has also served as president and a board member of the National Association of Medical Education Companies (NAMEC). Joe has a BS in engineering from MIT, an MD from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine, and an MPH from the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health.

The Drupal!

Our team geeking out during a session.

All work and no play makes Ezra a dull CTO.

"You say it's your birthday?  It's our birthday too!"  2016 marks our 15th year in business.  DLC Solutions, LLC [the parent company of EthosCE LMS] was founded in 2001 by Joel DeGrands and myself over some Coronas on his patio.  At the time, Joel was developing 1st generation conference webcasting technologies and I had just left clinical practice in psychosocial oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  We operated DLC from our townhouses in Reston, VA and began building websites and elearning applications for healthcare non-profits, medical specialty associations and bio-pharmaceutical companies (e.g., Sanofi, Cancer Support Community, American Academy of Physician Assistants).  Soon, we were joined by our friend and now partner, Ezra Wolfe.

Over the years, we have expanded our portfolio of global healthcare organizations, watched the healthcare sector go through many radical changes, moved from Washington DC to Philadelphia, PA, survived a massive economic recession, and launched multiple successful software platforms including our award-winning EthosCE Learning Management System.

Today, we are so fortunate to have an incredibly talented team of programmers, project managers, and quality assurance experts working with us at our headquarters in downtown Philadelphia.

Thank you to all of our friends, colleagues, and clients for 15 wonderful years of success and support.  Looking forward to many more!!!  Contact us today!

TOPIC: A Pecha Kucha (translation: "Get to the Point") Approach to CME Project Management

Location:  http://cmepalooza.com/spring-2016/

Spend about 7 minutes to hear from "GEICO Gecko" when he tries to solve the mystery of delivering CME projects by breaking down the ocean of project management processes to 6 key tips and techniques that can be applied to any CME project delivery.

Using an outcomes based approach, the gold dust day "GEICO" will walk the audience through the core philosophy and framework behind these principles and demonstrate how these can be applied in the CME context to deliver stellar business results for your departmental and leadership teams!

This "GEICO" could save you time, $$$ and WORRY!

• The future of e-learning technology in continuing education in the health professions.
• Case studies by our clients on how they are using EthosCE within their organizations.
• EthosCE Best Practices and "Tips and Tricks."
• Recommendations for the EthosCE Product Roadmap.
• And much, much more!

Dr. Joseph Kim shared his vision for the future
of elearning in the health professions.

Kevin Grolton from The Endocrine Society led a group discussion on best EthosCE practices and "tips and tricks."

Ezra Wolfe, EthosCE Chief Technology Officer, solicited input and shared our EthosCE Product Roadmap.

Teresa Dombach of Drug Store News described how her organization leveraged EthosCE to change from a paper-based to an online destination for continuing pharmacy education.

Given the overwhelming success of the conference and the feedback, we are advancing our plans to further support our EthosCE community and already planning our next event!  Thank you to all of our attendees, contributors, and sponsors.

Topics include:

• Lymphoma Overview
• Disease-Specific Sessions
• Treatment  Options
• Understanding Clinical Trials

Editor's Note:  We would like to thank our friend and client,  Kevin Grolton, Education Technology Specialist at the Endocrine Society, for contributing this article.  

Many education providers turn to a pre-built learning management system with the hope that it will support all their needs without any customization.  However, every provider has some business practices which require adaptations to support their CME initiatives. Partnering with the right technology team and an open-source platform can allow you to create almost any customizations you can imagine. But is it always the right choice to customize each time?

When the Endocrine Society implemented a new learning management system with EthosCE, we began a thorough discovery process to document our business requirements and identify the appropriate solutions for each. Many times, we would encounter a difference in the independent, product-by-product business rules we were accustomed to, and the larger interconnected system we were implementing. We realized quickly that a product or event-centric approach to documenting and addressing requirements wouldn’t work in a new system where everything would come together. We took a closer look at our business requirements to transition them from single-product thinking to be more flexible and holistic:

• Is our current method the best way to approach this function?
• This approach may have worked before (when it was a stand-alone program on a dedicated system), but does it still work now in the context of other programs and events all in the same system?
• Would changing our method to better fit the new system negatively impact the program or our users?
• Is there a less-drastic customization that would help preserve the learning design and method, but cause less technical disruption in the new system?

Together with the DLC team, we were able to answer these questions and identify solutions which moved us toward our development goals to support our core educational formats; allow for future new educational formats to be developed without impacting existing functions; create new features which have multiple uses which might support future, undeveloped activities; and develop customizations in the simplest way possible, reducing future unforeseen issues (and costs).

Building a learning management system with EthosCE, you can add on new functions and customize existing ones to make it fit you perfectly. But making too many changes or building overly-complicated additions can make a jumbled mess when your customizations interact with each other. It’s critical for the education provider and technology partner to have a clear and focused conversation about customizations, and identify when it’s appropriate for a customization to be made, and when it’s better for the business requirement to be modified (or removed). It can be difficult, in a traditional client-services relationship, to say “no” to a client, or resist saying “yes, we can do that.” An honest, frank discussion about feasibility, with recommendations of best practices and alternative solutions from both parties, benefits both in the long-run and results in a more stable, more usable, and more easily-upgraded system for the future. Anything is possible in technology, with enough time and resources.

After many months of work, we are excited to announce the release of EthosCE 7.4.3, the latest update to our learning management system designed for continuing education.

EthosCE 7.4.3 provides new features as well as incremental improvements to existing features. This release is available to be scheduled for new and existing customers beginning December 2015.
New Features!

GoToWebinar

Support for GoToWebinar is now native to EthosCE! All customers with a GoToWebinar account are now able to create webinars, automatically enroll learners, and evaluate the amount of time spent in the webinar as a requirement for completion of the course.

Course Waitlisting

Waitlisting is available on all courses. When a course enrollment reaches the enrollment limit, learners are now able to add themselves to a waitlist. Administrators can manage the waitlist to add, remove and enroll learners as well as set a status such as “not interested” or “ready to enroll.”

Administrators may send an email to an individual on the waitlist or to the entire list to announce newly available spaces or the availability of another course.

Webform Templates

EthosCE has long supported Webforms, a powerful tool for collecting information from learners in a course or the public at large. However, for EthosCE customers with many administrators, keeping track of which webform to use as a “template” has been a challenge. Templates could accidentally be edited or used in the wrong place. With EthosCE 7.4.3, Webform templates allow for a locked, permission-restricted template that can be easily copied into a new template when creating a course object.

Administrative Credit Awarding, Editing and Deleting

EthosCE’s powerful credit awarding module provides robust features for credit eligibility, certificate mapping, credit types and credit claiming, and now it extends those features for administrators to use on an ad hoc basis. Administrators can now visit any course report and award any type and amount of credit to any learner, either individually or in bulk. Learners who have already earned credit can have their credit type or amount changed. Administrators can also delete credit.

This feature also comes with audit capabilities so that any awarded credit can be traced back to who awarded or edited it. Deleted credits are also logged in a deleted credit log.

Report Viewer Role

Users with the report viewer role may log in and view any system report. The report viewer role does not have any course or site editing permissions. This new role allows you to grant access to reports without being concerned about unwanted access to administrative functionality.

Quiz question import

All question types can now be imported via a CSV file. Imported questions can be added to a quiz and if necessary, updated be reimporting.

New Homepage Promo Style Block

We have introduced a new homepage block that consists of a full-width, all-image promo. This allows the site admin to have full control of typographic design and layout within the block. The block also supports a series of all-image promos that are displayed as part of a slideshow and can be linked to a course or other page.

• RESTful XML/JSON Web Service - A RESTful web service is now available as an add-on module.

  Web service functions include retrieving and creating users, retrieving course enrollments and completions, and e-commerce. Web service documentation is available online.

  Improvements!

  Transcript/Enrollment Importer

  The transcript importer now gives administrators the option to enroll existing users immediately or to enroll them upon login. Enrollment records for nonexistent users are saved and awarded when the learner creates an account.

  Conditional Access to Course Object by Grade Range

  Course objects before 7.4.3 provided conditional access based on a single grade, for example, higher than 70%. In 7.4.3, administrators can now specify a range that allows access. This allows for remediation course objects. For example, if a learner scores between 0% and 69% a course object can be presented to them but not learners who scored 70% or higher.
  

  Conditional Requirements of Course Object by Grade Range

  In addition to conditionally allowing access to course objects, administrators can now make an object optional based on a grade range. In this way administrators can allow a learner to “test out” of a required course object by showing mastery of a subject in quiz and scoring higher than a specified percentage.

  Quiz feedback

  We’ve added additional options to the quiz feedback settings. Administrators can now restrict feedback to only be shown after the learner passes the quiz or exhausts their attempts.

  Reports

  The following reports are new!

  • Quiz Download Report: A download of all users’ responses to all quiz questions including full user profile data.
  • Course content usage report: A system-wide list of all course objects and the courses that contain them.
  • Reported Credit Failure Report: This report shows all credits records that were not accepted by a third-party, such as an AMS, CRM, or credentialing organizations such as CPE Monitor.
  • Deleted Credit Log: A log of all credit records deleted by administrators.
  • Course Credit Log: A log of all credit records for a learner including a history of administrative edits.

  PARS Date Periods

  The site administrator can now set the start date of the 365 day range to be used by PARS reports.

  Webform Improvements

  The Webform module has been updated and includes several new features including the ability to allow conditionals to act on more than one component in the same rule. This great feature allows for complex conditional to be created more quickly.

  

  Grid questions have also been improved to include support for semantic differential survey questions. This is a grid with opposite values on the left and right of the scale.

  Exclude from search

  Course and Site Administrator roles may now configure content to be excluded from search on a per-content item basis. For example, a single course or webform can be excluded from search.

  Fully Responsive Calendar

  The EthosCE calendar has been updated to improve display on smaller screens.

  Configurable Display of Price Per Role

  Role based pricing can now be configured to display all roles and the associated price, or only the price that the user is eligible to receive. In addition, either $0.00 or no price can be displayed for free courses.

  Question Numbering

  Quiz now numbers all quiz questions.

  Reference by Name or Node ID

  When referencing a course or content object, administrators can either continue to enter the name or use the node ID. This is useful when EthosCE contains many courses or objects with similar titles.

  Custom Subject for Reminder Emails

  Administrators may set a custom subject line per reminder.

Presentation Abstract

Debating Three Pathways to LMS and Educational Technology Nirvana: Build Your Own, Open Source and off the Shelf
Session Description Swimming in a sea of endless options and choices when it comes to selecting a learning management system (LMS)? Confounded by the array of choices when it comes to selecting other technologies to support your continuing medical education? In this point/counterpoint session, three panelists will debate and discuss the pros and cons of three potential solutions: Build Your Own, Open Source, and Off the Shelf. The right solution for you may involve one of these approaches, or a mix of these approaches...so tune in and learn the advantages and disadvantages of each from three different perspectives. Target Audience Description Educators and technologists of all levels interested in learning more about technological solutions for their organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• List three advantages and disadvantages to using off the shelf software to meet educational technology and learning management system (LMS) needs.
• List three advantages and disadvantages to using open source to meet educational technology and LMS needs.
• List three advantages and disadvantages to using a 'build it yourself' solution to meet educational technology and LMS needs.

Speakers:
Scott Bradbury, MS, American Academy of Pediatrics
Jeremy Lundberg, MSSW, EthosCE Learning Management System | DLC Solutions
Olivier Petinaux, MS, American College of Surgeons

EthosCE 7.4.3 provides new features as well as improvements to existing features. This release will be available to new and existing customers beginning December 2015.

New Features

GoToWebinar

EthosCE has full integration with GoToWebinar.

Support for GoToWebinar is now native to EthosCE! All customers with a GoToWebinar account are now able to create webinars, automatically enroll learners, and evaluate the amount of time spent in the webinar as a requirement for completion of the course.

Course Waitlisting

Users can add themselves to a waitlist for full courses. Administrators can tag, sort, enroll and email people on the waitlist.

Waitlisting is available on all courses. When a course enrollment reaches the enrollment limit, learners are now able to add themselves to a waitlist. Administrators can manage the waitlist to add, remove and enroll learners as well as set a status such as “not interested” or “ready to enroll.”

Administrators may send an email to an individual on the waitlist or to the entire list to announce newly available spaces or the availability of another course.

Webform Templates

EthosCE has long supported Webforms, a powerful tool for collecting information from learners in a course or the public at large. However, for EthosCE customers with many administrators, keeping track of which webform to use as a “template” has been a challenge. Templates could accidentally be edited or used in the wrong place. With EthosCE 7.4.3, Webform templates allow for a locked, permission-restricted template that can be easily copied into a new template when creating a course object.

Administrative Credit Awarding, Editing and Deleting

Administrators can award, edit or delete credit in bulk.

EthosCE’s powerful credit awarding module provides robust features for credit eligibility, certificate mapping, credit types and credit claiming, and now it extends those features for administrators to use on an ad hoc basis. Administrators can now visit any course report and award any type and amount of credit to any learner, either individually or in bulk. Learners who have already earned credit can have their credit type or amount changed. Administrators can also delete credit.

This feature also comes with audit capabilities so that any awarded credit can be traced back to who awarded or edited it. Deleted credits are also logged in a deleted credit log.

Report Viewer Role

Users with the report viewer role may log in and view any system report. The report viewer role does not have any course or site editing permissions. This new role allows you to grant access to reports without being concerned about unwanted access to administrative functionality.
Quiz question import
All question types can now be imported via a CSV file. Imported questions can be added to a quiz and if necessary, updated be reimporting.

New Homepage Promo Style Block

Improved homepage slideshow options.

We have introduced a new homepage block that consists of a full-width, all-image promo. This allows the site admin to have full control of typographic design and layout within the block. The block also supports a series of all-image promos that are displayed as part of a slideshow and can be linked to a course or other page.

RESTful XML/JSON Web Service

A RESTful web service is now available for all customers. Web service functions include retrieving and creating users, retrieving course enrollments and completions, and e-commerce. Web service documentation is available online.

Improvements

Transcript/Enrollment Importer

The transcript importer now gives administrators the option to enroll existing users immediately or to enroll them upon login. Enrollment records for nonexistent users are saved and awarded when the learner creates an account.

Conditional Access to Course Object by Grade Range

Course objects before 7.4.3 provided conditional access based on a single grade, for example, higher than 70%. In 7.4.3, administrators can now specify a range that allows access. This allows for remediation course objects. For example, if a learner scores between 0% and 69% a course object can be presented to them but not learners who scored 70% or higher.

Conditional Requirements of Course Object by Grade Range

Administrators can allow access to or make a learning object optional based on a grade range.

In addition to conditionally allowing access to course objects, administrators can now make an object optional based on a grade range. In this way administrators can allow a learner to “test out” of a required course object by showing mastery of a subject in quiz and scoring higher than a specified percentage.

Quiz feedback

We’ve added additional options to the quiz feedback settings. Administrators can now restrict feedback to only be shown after the learner passes the quiz or exhausts their attempts.

Reports

The following reports are new!

• Quiz Download Report: A download of all users’ responses to all quiz questions including full user profile data.
• Course content usage report: A system-wide list of all course objects and the courses that contain them.
• Reported Credit Failure Report: This report shows all credits records that were not accepted by a third-party, such as an AMS, CRM, or credentialing organizations such as CPE Monitor.
• Deleted Credit Log: A log of all credit records deleted by administrators.
• Course Credit Log: A log of all credit records for a learner including a history of administrative edits..

PARS Date Periods

The site administrator can now set the start date of the 365 day range to be used by PARS reports.

Webform Improvements

The upgrade of the webform module include semantic differential survey questions.

The Webform module has been updated and includes several new features including the ability to allow conditionals to act on more than one component in the same rule. This great feature allows for complex conditional to be created more quickly.

Grid questions have also been improved to include support for semantic differential survey questions. This is a grid with opposite values on the left and right of the scale.

Exclude from search

Course and Site Administrator roles may now configure content to be excluded from search on a per-content item basis. For example, a single course or webform can be excluded from search.

Fully Responsive Calendar

The EthosCE calendar has been updated to improve display on smaller screens.

Configurable Display of Price Per Role

Role based pricing can now be configured to display all roles and the associated price, or only the price that the user is eligible to receive. In addition, either $0.00 or no price can be displayed for free courses.

Question Numbering

Quiz now numbers all quiz questions.

Reference by Name or Node ID

When referencing a course or content object, administrators can either continue to enter the name or use the node ID. This is useful when EthosCE contains many courses or objects with similar titles.

Custom Subject for Reminder Emails

Administrators may set a custom subject line per reminder.

The release also includes numerous other small changes and over 60 bug fixes. The full changelog is available online.