At Upstairs Solutions, we take great pride in our courses.  To maximize the effectiveness of online training, you need more than simple text being read to the user, with a few static pictures.

Our modules are developed in a collaborative process between professional instructional designers, subject matter experts, and talented multimedia artists.  The result is a library of courses that is truly best-in-class!

COURSE HIGHLIGHTS

NOT JUST A READ-BACK

If you’re listening to a instructor giving a lecture, you don’t expect him to just read from the text book.  You want a synthesis of the information with key points written on the blackboard.  What's true in the classroom is also true online.  

• Studies show that simply reading back a paragraph of text from the screen is sometimes more distracting than not having audio at all. 

• People generally don’t read at the same rate that they process audio information.

• Learners can actually miss important points, because they may be reading something while hearing a different part of the paragraph. 

The best practice for retention is the use of visual images and limited text  -- complementary to the script -- to form memory tags in the learner's mind, and highlight areas to which they need to pay attention. 

• Upstairs Solutions training isn't just reading or hearing a manual or a training guide.

• Only key points and pictures are presented on the screen, timed precisely to the audio narration. 

• No new information appears without corresponding audio.  

• The right amount of animation is used, helping the learner visualize the material, and maintaining interest.

REAL LIFE CASE STUDIES AND SCENARIOS

If a learner thinks that you don’t understand their world, they will tune out.  If we talk about restraint reduction but don’t talk about family resistance to their removal, the response of a CNA would be “you don’t get why I can’t do it this way.” 

• Upstairs Solutions gives “real-world” examples of what we are trying to train them on. 

• We show real pictures of our subject matter, photographed in senior care facilities. 

• In the cases where we can’t show a real person (for exampler, catheter care), we have created extensive original illustrations.

• Giving instructions without examples and visuals limits retention.

• The content from our modules is taken not only from scholarly and government sources but also from real senior care workers -- people who are “in the trenches” and know the learners’ world.

NOT JUST A CLICK-THRU

From our perspective as senior care providers, and from our experience in our pilot projects, we saw the need to prevent learners from simply skipping to the end of a module saying they were done.

• We have customized programing so that our screens will not advance until they have been presented in their entirety.

• Learners may still reverse and review anything they’ve seen, and advance back to the last screen viewed.

• Learners have to click a button, answer a question, or play a review game every few minutes -- they cannot walk away and let the course complete.

• If a learner has to leave in the middle of a sesion, our bookmarking feature allows them to pick up where they left off.

If an administrator (or surveyor) wants staff to get trained on a specific topic, how else can you ensure they have actually completed the entire module without just skipping through to the end?