The Alliance is pleased to announce the launch of Alliance Learning Pathways for organ donation and transplantation professionals. These learning pathways provide a new mode of learning following the best practices of knowledge delivery. This offering is latest development in The Alliance’s mission-driven strategic pillar to provide enhanced learning experiences by cascading knowledge through improved access and a comprehensive learning experience for the donation and transplantation community. The pathways build upon proven best practices in the workplace education marketplace such as those identified in LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning report, which was released this month.
“Donation and transplantation professionals can benefit from learning pathways by developing their skills and knowledge for career and personal growth,” says Corey Bryant, Alliance senior director of communications and strategic initiatives. “These curated collections of educational content can be completed at a learner’s personal pace and scheduling needs – allowing learners to clearly measure their advancement.” Continuing Education credits, including CEPTC, CMEs and Nursing credits, are available for specific learning pathways based on the length and depth of the topics.
Key Component of The Alliance’s Learning Strategy
In March 2022, The Alliance debuted its updated learning program to provide greater outcomes for active healthcare professionals. The program provides highly contextualized, online learning programs that range from convenient, self-directed research resources to highly interactive mentorship programs. In October 2022, The Alliance launched its online Community Portal, providing a highly personalized way to manage learning opportunities and continuing education credits and was the first step in The Alliance’s strategic rollout of its improved learning programs.
The Alliance team recently implemented a custom learning management system that permits the creation of an online learning pathway based on curated content developed across the community. Individuals who have created an account in the Community Portal can identify and track their learning progress.
“Learning pathways are particularly relevant now given the challenges our industry is experiencing due to the pandemic,” says Karri Hobson-Pape, executive director of the Alliance. “We have curated our extensive collection of online webinars by experts and added journal articles and other resources to develop online journeys based on the topics of greatest demand in the community. These learning pathways provide direction for professionals who want to acquire new skills that align with their professional goals.”
The Alliance Learning Pathways are launching with prior in-person events for individuals that could not attend in person. Other key pathways, such as Donation Authorization Strategies consist of 12 webinars and journal articles sequenced together to build upon each other. Future on-demand learning pathways will be developed based on the requests of the community and may include transplant quality, donation after circulatory death (DCD), normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) and others. The Alliance’s online Foundational Perspectives of Organ Donation and OnboardingU offering will also be delivered through a learning pathway in the coming months.
Learning Pathways Benefit Learners
In recent years, many organizations have begun to develop learning pathways because of their benefits to learners. “Learning pathways that stitch together disparate educational resources into rich, diverse, cohesive and enlightening learning journeys can have a transformative impact on both our professional and personal lives,” write Marc Zao-Sander and Georgia Peake in the Harvard Business Review.
A blog post on My Learning Space outlines the benefits of learning paths for employees:
- Gives employees achievable goals to advance their career. Sequential, structured learning paths enable employees to focus on one particular goal at a time while working towards advancing their career without feeling overwhelmed. Dan Pink, in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, said science shows that mastery is an intrinsic motivational driver that leads to better performance and personal satisfaction. A learning pathway provides learners a sense of progress and mastery as they make their way through the curriculum.
- Puts them in control. Providing employees with well-curated learning programs incorporating short courses gives them the option to choose their own path and puts them in control of their learning and the direction of their career.
- Make employees feel more valued. An organization that is invested and committed to providing learning opportunities for their employees, makes employees feel valued and relevant, which brings higher satisfaction on the job.
Coursera, a leader in online learning, began offering Career Learning Paths in 2020. Each path shows a progression of job roles—from entry-level to experienced professional—for an in-demand field, details the skills necessary for career success, and maps the skills to the relevant learning programs on Coursera.
In a column on “The Importance of Learning Pathways” on chieflearningofficer.com, Maria Rodriquez, Ph.D. writes, “The accessibility of information throughout the digital age no longer demands the study and mastery of just one area of knowledge and skill for the rest of an individual’s career. Instead, it demands that individuals be multifaceted and agile in obtaining knowledge and skills, staying abreast of advancement and changes. … Companies, universities, and professional organizations have a responsibility to support lifelong learning journeys. … It is their responsibility to guide and equip their employees, students or organization members with transferable knowledge and skills for the future.”
