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UX/Visual Designer
Graphic/Motion/Brand Designer
Director/Producer/Editor of Lecture Videos
A series of asynchronous, device responsive, online courses created to enhance the communication skills of health care providers.
Our team of two was given the task to create a series of easy to navigate, asynchronous courses using available, University of Texas-approved, tools: Canvas, H5P, and Panopto. Canvas is used by many institutions for online education, but can be confusing if the user is unfamiliar with its interface. As many of our learners aren’t in a school setting that would implement these tools regularly, I was tasked to create a navigation system that would make the experience of learning each course as seamless as possible. I also had to be mindful that the learners should not be able to advance in the course before completing each module in sequential order. The branding and aesthetics were my responsibility, as well.
The purpose of the Health Communication Training Series is to meet the demand of health communication training to healthcare professionals, that of which is very high. Our learners are incredibly busy, so the interface and content should make learning easy, enjoyable, and responsive. If they need to work on their phone or tablet during their lunch break, our courses should make that possible by implementing responsive design.
On the left you can see what a typical Canvas course looks like, and how students have to navigate through the course. It can feel a bit unpolished, and the flow is a bit cumbersome.
On the right you can see a typical HCTS course. I designed a clean, easy to navigate, and responsive interface that allows the user to work on the course without getting confused about their progress. I also created CSS and images that enhanced the look and feel of each course.
Our performance indicators are currently based on the qualtrics survey responses our learners submit after completing the course. Currently, our average satisfaction rating is 4.85 out of 5.
My solution for navigation was simple. I made sure the modules would not unlock until all of the module activities were completed. This prevents the students from trying to take the final course quizzes before they learned the materials. I also made sure as many of the elements of each module was included on their respective pages, so the learners wouldn’t have to bounce back and forth between a module list to see what they should expect to work on.
As noted before, our average satisfaction rating for our courses is 4.85 out of 5. We have also created a buzz within the patient-provider community, partnering with organizations such as the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute (TEPHI) and the Society for Health Communication (SHC). One of our courses has also been featured on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Website (CDC). We have recently assigned someone to market these courses on social media broaden our audience.
HCTS has three free courses that can be reviewed at no expense. If you’re interested in what HCTS is doing, please click on one of the courses below. You can also visit hcts.uthealthcommtraining.org if you’d like to see other subjects available in our series.
Welcome to the Mental Health, Stigma and Communication Course! This self-paced course is a part of the Health Communication Training Series and aims to highlight the importance of communicating effectively about mental health. It comprises video content and interactive activities to assess your understanding of the course content.
The Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute (TEPHI) Pandemic Preparedness Communication course will cover the fundamental aspects of pandemic preparedness at an organizational level. In this course, you will go over the preparedness plans to put in place before a pandemic, discuss best practices for communication during a pandemic and finally, discuss how to synthesize lessons learned after a pandemic. As the learner of this course, you will have the opportunity to analyze this information and reflect on how it applies to your unique situation.
Welcome to the Mental Health, Stigma and Communication Course! This self-paced course is a part of the Health Communication Training Series and aims to highlight the importance of communicating effectively about mental health. It comprises video content and interactive activities to assess your understanding of the course content.
