A New, Improved Learning Management System

This new LMS, developed by the company ExpertusONE, is tightly integrated with SWOG’s membership directory. This allows for, among other benefits, role-driven training catalogs, an improved learner interface, system-generated training certificates, and a vastly improved ability to deliver content and track the completion and uptake of web-based training programs. 

We actually have two portals into the new LMS. 

1. The first is a members-only portal for SWOG members and staff. This requires login using your CTEP credentials (the same credentials you already use to log in to the website). Content here includes all SWOG member training, such as the Clinical Trials Training Course. You can access this member-only content from the “Training for SWOG Members” item on the “Member Resources” menu.
    
2. The second portal is a community access portal offering continuing education units (CEU) programs that are sponsored and managed by The Hope Foundation, at https://thehopefoundation.exphosted.com. Anyone can log into this portal, though they first need to set up an account on the system (a simple process). Examples of continuing medical education content accessible here include the Advanced Practice Provider Clinical Research Workshop that was first offered at the group meeting last fall. (Note that all CEU content is also available to SWOG members via the member portal, which will conveniently track your CEU credits.)

For study-specific training content and other training resources that need to be available to members of allNCTN groups, visit the CLASS learning management system managed by CTSU.

The new LMS is much more full-featured than the one we used previously. Here are just a few of the features we’ve gained:

• Reporting abilities are much improved, which should make it easier for us to document in grant progress reports how our training content is used 
• Zoom and WebEx are fully integrated, so that instructors planning an online webinar can schedule it as a Zoom or WebEx meeting and send the invite to recipients directly from the LMS
• CEU management functionality is built in, with native course validity expiration dates and re-certification capabilities necessary for CEU programs
• Users can easily view and print certificates for training they have completed (certificates are available for up to one year after completing a course)
• Instructors can easily send email communications to all learners enrolled in a class 
• Directory integration allows us to deliver training based on any category tracked in the SWOG directory – to members of a specific committee or to all clinical research associates or just to SWOG staff based out of our Operations Office
• Multilingual support is built into in the system, so our members in Latin America, for example, can readily switch the interface language to Spanish (we do have a number of our training modules available in Spanish, with more in development all the time)
• Learners can seamlessly move between desktop and mobile devices, eliminating a small problem in our previous LMS
• Downloading the ExpertusONE app to your phone lets you launch a class or training video and then take it fully offline – no need to always be tethered to the internet

Our training manager, Cara Laubach, is continuously adding and updating training content, and I thank her for working tirelessly to get this new LMS up and integrated.

While the new system is home to our formal training courses and modules, there’s also a rich library of other educational content on our website to help you learn and develop professionally, such as our clearinghouse of clinical research resources and our extensive set of FAQs (both of these are linked from the “Clinical Trials” main menu). There’s always more to learn, and we’ll keep working to make it easier for you to find, organize, and . . . learn.