Evaluation of eLearning of Quality Improvement Methods

Quality improvement (QI) is an increasingly important element of delivering health care. Learning and feeling confident in using QI methods is an essential part of healthcare practice. eLearning is a cost effective way of capacity building to a large cohort of health care professionals and service users. National Institute of Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Health Research and Care Northwest London has developed a suite of eLearning modules (QI4U) to support an introductory understanding of technical aspects of QI. This protocol describes a trial to evaluate the experience of learning, knowledge gained, change in behaviour, and impact of eLearning of QI methods.

Participants will belong to one of three Groups of learners over the course of 12 months: learners using only QI4U (group 1); people using only facilitated learning (Group 2); and learners using a combination of QI4U and facilitated learning (Group 3). The Kirkpatrick model will be used to evaluate the learning. The primary outcome of interest will be transfer of knowledge gained from learning into clinical practice for service improvement by individuals (level 3). Secondary outcomes will include reaction or experience of QI4U, knowledge gained, and the results or impact of learning through QI4U on service improvement (levels 1, 2 and 4).

Transfer of knowledge into clinical practice will be assessed by interviews with individual learners. Experience of eLearning and knowledge gained will be assessed using feedback forms, questionnaires, time spent doing QI4U and reflective logs. Impact will be assessed by interviews with organisational leads with a high prevalence of QI4U learners.

This study will provide evidence on the effectiveness of using eLearning as a means for learning QI. It will serve to evaluate learners' experience of using eLearning and the impact of various training methods within the context of learning QI.