I've been an organizer with GoToTraining for 3+ years, and have requested several times in the past, on this forum, that the recorded webinars are formatted in the same manner as live events.
If this were to take place, I would be able to:
- receive email notifications of registration for both live and on-demand/pre-recorded webinars (currently I receive email notifications of registrations for live events only).
- provide evaluation tools to attendees of the live events as well as on-demand/pre-recorded webinars (currently I can provide electronic evaluation tools to attendees of live events only).
I am a registered nurse offering a cutting-edge topic in my specialty in the health sciences. Due to the nature of inpatient work in hospital settings, employees cannot leave their patients during the employee's shift to attend training sessions, so those in the health sciences complete the greatest portion of their required continuing education courses online, and do so on their days' off from work, rather than during the workday. A requirement of my credentialing body is to provide a test at the end of the training, and to obtain an evaluation tool. I also must maintain these training records for a six-year period in the event of an audit by my credentialing body.
From the attendee's point of view for the live events, the training, test, and evaluation tool are a straightforward process. Because my attendees are in the health sciences and cannot attend the training during their work hours while providing patient care, my on-demand/pre-recorded trainings are far more popular than my live events. I would like to offer a straightforward process for the on-demand webinars as I do for the live events, which reflects how I am portrayed as an organizer in regard to my level of professionalism.
In the past three years of being an organizer with GoToTraining, my work-around has been to send the evaluation tool via email to registrants, with an explanation that the evaluation tool must be submitted in order for the attendee to receive a Certificate of Attendance with accompanying continuing education credits. The evaluation tool (as well as the test and proof of attendance) is a requirement of my certifying body in my health care specialty, which is a facet of medical compliance for educators who provide approved continuing education hours/credits.
Lastly, is it possible to engineer the test, evaluation tool, and certificate of attendance in this way:
- the test is administered
- the evaluation tool is then administered, as is the case in the live events
- then, and only then, is the Certificate of Attendance sent to the attendee
Currently, it's possible for me to send the Certificate of Attendance in the follow-up email from LogMeIn/GoToTraining, although I cannot do so for this reason: I must have the completed test and the completed evaluation tool first, before sending out the Certificate of Attendance to the attendee, which provides the hours of continuing education earned by attending/viewing the training.
If the Certificate of Attendance is sent to the attendee before the attendee has completed the test and/or the evaluation tool, it is highly unlikely that the attendee will then be motivated to go back and complete the test and/or evaluation tool. On various continuing education websites in the health sciences, such as Nurse.com, RN.com, and Medscape (among many others in various health care specialties), online training is routinely structured in such a way: view the training, take the test, complete the evaluation tool, and then and only then can the attendee access the Certificate of Attendance containing their continuing education hours.
I am grateful for the ability to present my topic via your webinar hosting platform, and I'm also grateful for the level of support provided by your staff.
With kind regards,
Debra Swank
Ocala, Florida USA
