The COVID-19 pandemic presented unique challenges to Northwestern Medicine’s robust research program. Not only did they need to maintain operations on their large portfolio of government & industry-sponsored studies, they also needed to rapidly train a new workforce operating nationwide COVID-19 studies. Existing training programs relied on long-form classroom training, text-heavy handbooks, and a complex ecosystem of repository-style websites.
I led the strategic development and implementation of an extensive content overhaul to make the large volume of training material clear, concise, and accessible for the wide range of stakeholders who needed it. This included streamlining instructor-led content to clarify critical themes and key actions, translating live content into engaging eLearning modules, and converting old manuals to on-demand, bite-sized guides hosted on an intuitive, easy-to-navigate website.
Enrollment for live offerings increased by 30%, including improved opt-in enrollment from partner institutions. Employee engagement in eLearning offerings increased by 20% while stakeholders reported significantly improved participant engagement for hybrid offerings. Traffic to static resources continually increased and I was awarded an Employee Excellence Award for the implementation of the content overhaul. With my demonstrated results, my team grew to include a Content Manager that expanded our capacity to create & maintain educational content. Despite the unprecedented challenges, Northwestern Medicine surpassed its research growth goals in 2020-2021 (based on funding and study volume) and became a national leader for COVID-19 studies.