ABSTRACT: Background/Objective People with spinal cord injury (SCI) access educational resources during their inpatient rehabilitation, but they can be overwhelmed by the amount of information they need to assimilate during ever-shorter stays. This project created e-learning courses to fill the knowledge needs of SCI consumers and evaluated user satisfaction and knowledge transfer. Methods/Overview A needs assessment of 83 consumers and 99 staff identified information needs for people with SCI (Toronto Rehabilitation Institute – UHN and CPAO, 2008). Key topics were selected for the creation of 10 online patient education courses, collectively called Spinal Cord Injury – University (SCI-U), and housed on the Spinal Cord Connections website (www.spinalcordconnections.ca/sci-u). Course content was developed collaboratively by over 100 consumers and professionals, from healthcare and community service organizations across Canada. Each course uses adult learning principles and presents key information on healthy living with SCI, in an accessible and engaging way. A team of professionals created multimedia courses using Articulate software, incorporating video, animation and interactivity. The courses show the positive faces of SCI, each one featuring 3 video presenters (all people with SCI), and video testimonials where consumers talk about their experience living with SCI and managing their health. Users are encouraged to complete course quizzes to reinforce their learning. A pilot study enrolled consumers and clinicians (n = 25) and evaluated knowledge acquisition and retention, as well as perceived utility and satisfaction with the first 3 courses in the series: SCI and You, Bladder and Bowel. Results Knowledge acquisition and retention: across-group mean pre-course, post-course and 1-month post-course scores were “SCI & You” (score/14) 8.19, 10.67, 10.75; “Bladder” (score/13) 5.73, 8.69, 7.09; and “Bowel” (score/12) 6.68, 9.23, 9.00. Perceived utility and satisfaction: across-group mean global satisfaction scores (/5) were “SCI & You” 4.25, “Bladder” 3.89, and “Bowel” 3.94. Across-group mean global effectiveness scores (/5) were “SCI & You”? 4.16, “Bladder” 4.36, and “Bowel” 4.28. Visits to the SCI-U home page were 773 (2010), 2084 (2011) and 803 (as of March 2012). Conclusions SCI-U is an effective tool for patient education, and integrating e-learning into SCI rehabilitation programs has the potential to improve the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. Acknowledgements Rick Hansen Institute Grant Number: 2010-77.
