The APIH, Academic Partnership to Improve Health interactive video-based public health training simulation was designed, produced, and developed by DDA Medical and MVP in 2018. APIH is a partnership of four large medical educational associations including; APTR - Association for Prevention Teaching and Research, ASSPH - Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, AAMC - Association of American Medical Colleges, AACN - American Association of Colleges of Nursing and worked in cooperation with the CDC, U.S. Centers of Disease Control, on the initiative.
The four organizations collectively represent medical schools and colleges with enrollment consisting of the vast majority of the medical and nursing students in North America. AAMC, took the lead in conceiving the platform and developing the scripts and raw materials from which the eLearning platform would be created. MVP organized received scripts and reference materials to plan how these would be coordinated in the eLearning experience. MVP also provided its casting services, selecting an ethnically diverse array of eight actors for the various roles and thus ensuring that the eLearning would be well received by the diverse audience using the eLearning platform.
After casting and organizing the final scripts by chapter and scene, MVP designed four sets to represent various settings portrayed, including an exam room, a doctor’s exam room, an outpatient office for patient intake, an office at the public health department, and a conference room where ground rounds are held. Multiple angles and cuts keep viewers engaged and focused on the important parts of the script while enhancing the narrative flow. Additional post-production included incorporating large informative graphics within the videos as well as splicing together line deliveries from multiple video takes to optimize the script delivery. Over an hour of original medical training video was produced for the platform in total. The custom navigation system divided the video-based eLearning content into chapters, scenes, and clips, allowing users to select from the menu and move through the clips to access previously viewed content. All eLearning content is gated, so users must view all materials linearly before they can advance through the entire eLearning module. Additional reference materials are presented below the video presentation in the eLearning content to add depth to the training. Users can save these materials to a personal library for quick access later, and also take their notes periodically, with notes saved in the user’s personal library according to the chapter and scene being viewed.
The platform includes pre- and post-module assessments of public health knowledge, with an administrative area reporting on the percentage of correct responses to each. The test questions are coordinated so that, although different, they cover the same topics, and thus pre- and post-module assessment scores on any given question can be compared to give insight as to which topics users gained the most comprehension on through their experience on the medical eLearning platform. A module evaluation is required so that APIH can gain further insight into user experience. After the post-module assessment has been passed and evaluation is submitted, users are awarded a custom-designed personalized certificate of completion which they can save, print, or access again upon later login.