Challenge
The Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg serves nearly a quarter million parishioners in 15 counties and 89 parishes in Central Pennsylvania. The Diocesan Office of Youth Protection needed a training solution to teach over 12,000 clergy, teachers and volunteers how to create a safe environment for children and protect them from abuse. The training needed to be efficiently distributed to a diverse and geographically-dispersed audience. The learning content had to be consistent and the training for each learner had to be documented with the Diocese and reported to local church officials.
Insight
Working closely with the Diocese, JPL’s instructional designer evaluated the existing video program, analyzed the audience and defined the learning objectives. JPL’s technology consultant worked with the Diocesan staff to determine a compatible approach for program delivery, security and tracking. Since the audience varied in age and technical skills, JPL focused on easy-to-use and highly compatible approaches.
Strategy
JPL designed and developed an easily accessible e-Learning program and web-based tracking application. The program delivered the sensitive material in a variety of engaging and appropriate ways using audio, video, photos and interactive graphics. The web-based tracking application captured the learner’s name, parish, role and e-mail address, tied it to the training application and reported it to the Diocesan database.
Solution
From home computers or computers at their local parish, the clergy, teachers and volunteers log-in to the training application from the Diocesan website. The log-in information is carried into the web-based, multimedia training program that features an introduction from the Bishop and presentations from a variety of spiritual, social and legal experts. Learners are taught how to recognize signs of abuse, prevent opportunities for abuse and how to report suspected abuse. After completing the training, the learner must successfully complete an on-line assessment. When the learner passes the assessment, a record is created within the Diocesan database and an e-mail certificate is sent to the learner. The learner uses the e-mail certificate to show the local church official that they have completed the course.
Results
Since its completion in the summer of 2008, thousands of learners have successfully completed the on-line program. The Diocese and local church officials are now assured that individuals interacting with children have completed a comprehensive training program on creating a safe environment and preventing child abuse. The program is also now available in Spanish and future refresher programs are planned to keep the material current. The web-based approach meets all of the goals of the Diocese and makes it easy to quickly train new staff and volunteers.