0373 Developing an Online Sleep Education Training- Lessons Learned & Future Directions

Abstract

IntroductionSystems of higher education are increasingly offering online education, with the most recent expansion of e-learning surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. As the e-learning industry grows, it provides the opporunity to expand a burgeoning body of research focusing on the development of online training to promote health across disciplines. This presentation describes the development of an interdisciplinary online training to educate social work students on sleep health and shares feedback recieved from the student experience. We describe the steps taken to develop the instructional method, content management, and the delivery of the training.MethodsThis training involved 25 collaborators across seven universities. The Center for Online and Continuing Education (COCE) at the ‘home’ institution partnered with faculty to recommend best practices in online learning and provide technical assistance. Based on formative research conducted with the target population, the training included 5 ‘modules’: introduction to sleep health, sleep hygiene, fatigue and fatigue countermeasures, sleep disorders, and sleep health among special populations. The content included mixed media, humor, and props to bolster student engagement. The COCE team created a digital ‘Sleep Health Badge’ and certificate of completion that students would earn after completing the training. The training was offered to social work students at a public university in the southeastern United States.Results90 students participated in the training. Students increased their sleep health knowledge, and reported being very satisfied with the structure and curriculum of the training(96.7%). Of note, while the training was only 2 hours long and asynchronous, the the most frequent recommended change given by participants was to shorten the length of the videos (20.8% of responses).ConclusionOverall, the training was well-received and is in the process of being adapted for professional social workers. For future development of online trainings, we will share reflections and recommendations as they relate to each of the major components of e-learning: content development, instructional method, content management, and content delivery/presentation. We center these reflections around both student feedback on the online training, and our own experiences in developing this training.Support (If Any)American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation