Talance Blog

Help for Navigating Health Insurance

Talance — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:01:50 +0000

WOBURN, Mass., May 20, 2013 – Making a smart decision about health insurance is a hair-pulling experience even for medical industry insiders. The most informed people can find sorting through terminology and types of plans confounding, never mind understanding new programs and requirements stemming from health care reform. That process can be nearly impossible for underprivileged communities whose native language might not be English.

Thanks to a new online course aimed at community health workers and patient navigators—the people whose job is to increase health knowledge and support to marginalized communities—that process is much clearer.

Navigating Health Insurance is a facilitated online course that covers the principles behind insurance, the types of insurance available and how costs are structured. Participants learn why health insurance matters in the U.S., including health care reform, the importance of preventative care and the problem of rising healthcare costs. By the end of the 2-week course, participants will be armed to help patients compare plans, set up appointments and interact with insurance company representatives.

The course will begin on July 15 and finish July 28.

More than half of the people in the United States believe that they have not received adequate information to understand the way in which they will be impacted by the changes in the health care system, according to a study from Kaiser Family Foundation. A Kaiser Health Tracking Poll says “Six Months Before Open Enrollment Begins, Many Americans Remain Unaware Of, Or Confused About, The ACA.”

“Despite the fact that health care reform and insurance coverage is in the papers every day, it’s still a terribly confusing issue,” says Monique Cuvelier, president of Talance, Inc., the e-learning company offering Navigating Health Insurance. “We aim to make it easier for people to understand insurance.”

Course instructor Marilyn Gardner is a registered nurse and works with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as a Public Health Nurse Adviser and Clinical Liaison. She is a Master Trainer for the Stanford University Chronic Disease Self-Management Program and has taught community health workers and patient navigators across the country and internationally.

For more information or to register for the course, please visit http://chwtraining.org/insurance.

About Talance, Inc: Talance, Inc., is a Boston-area e-learning company founded in 2000. It has offered courses and programs for some of the nation’s biggest health and human services organizations and has helped adult learners reach their career advancement and personal enrichment goals. Learn more at www.chwtraining.org.

CONTACT: Monique Cuvelier, info@chwtraining.org

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Hoarding Saves Time on Discussion Boards

Talance — Fri, 03 May 2013 09:00:47 +0000

The second or third time you facilitate an online course, you’ll notice that you start to repeat yourself. There are only so many ways to illicit more feedback or reply to the same questions. You’ll see combinations of words appearing over and over again and notice which trigger the liveliest discussions. For example:

“Make sure to respond to a couple other people before moving on.”

“What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?”

Make your job easier by saving your responses for the next time you facilitate that course. It’s a big time-saver, because with a couple small changes, you’re set to respond to future sections with less typing and thinking. You’ll be glad you have good responses at your fingertips that save time in the future.

[Photo credit: sean dreilinger on Flickr]

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Post tags: discussion board, elearning, tips

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Free Webinar: Developing a Community Health Worker Training Program with Mariuca Tuxbury, March 26

Talance — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:00:29 +0000

Mariuca Tuxbury, Trainer and Patient Navigator

Join Mariuca Tuxbury and me for a free webinar next Tuesday, March 26.

Mariuca is a trainer for the patient navigator/community health worker e-learning program developed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and is extremely knowledgeable about training up a group of health workers.

Together we’re going to talk about the fundamentals of putting together an online program that can help health agencies and service providers provide professional development.

Program administrators can count on learning practical, in-the-trenches tips that you can put to use in structuring your program. We’ll give a brief history of the program, lessons learned from programs around the country and a technical tour of the online training platform.

The details:

Date: Tuesday, March 26
Time: 2-3 PM ET
Cost: Free
Register: Sign up here

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Post tags: chw, patient navigator, webinar

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A Vibrant and Engaging Government Website – Really!

Talance — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:00:09 +0000

How Talance built a website that’s sophisticated, friendly and worth exploring for the Patient Navigator Program in Boston, MA.

Government websites have a bad reputation. Sadly, it’s a reputation that’s justified. Just click through a few official templates and you’ll see far too many are stodgy, rife with outdated information and a decade behind design trends.

When the team behind the Patient Navigator Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health decided to embark on a website, they knew they wanted to break stereotype.

Marilyn Gardner, lead of the Women’s Health Network /Men’s Health Partnership at the Care Coordination Program, which commissioned the website from Talance, said she wanted something different. “Something you’d want to spend time playing around with and investigating.”

So we set about creating a website that was “clean, sophisticated and fresh”—in other words, something completely different from the run-of-the-mill government website.

Read the whole case study, including each major phase of the project from building identity to building the site on Drupal, over at our website.

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An Easy Way To Learn Where Your Site Succeeds and Fails

Talance — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:20:00 +0000

If you’re not sure where to make improvements on your website, just ask. The people at HowTo.gov are wondering how to make their site better, so they put a little pop-up survey on their homepage.

A short survey is an easy way to show the people who visit your site that you actually care about their experience there, which spreads good will. Plus, this is one of the best ways to learn more about what you’re doing right and wrong.

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6 Ways To Market E-Learning

Talance — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:41:33 +0000

Every proud owner of an e-learning program needs a marketing push to succeed. Without support from key stakeholders, funders and learners, that program may fizzle.

Talance has hands-on experience developing marketing plans for e-learning, so here are six of our proven strategies for making a project grow.

1. Focus on the benefits

Before you start explaining what your program is, think about why it’s a great program, and then relay that information. Think who else would benefit from your training, and what problem it would solve. Put those into solid concepts, and then think about how you can tell them.

2. Motivate learners

The secret to enticing your learners to enroll and keep coming back is to make sure they’re properly motivated. Is it relevant to what they’re doing now? Do they need CEUs? Do they need new skills? Do they have to satisfy compliance? Find out what the best motivators are, and they’ll keep coming back.

3. Enlist supervisors

Supervisor support is critical, especially since they can influence (or require) staff to follow training. They are also more likely to mention it to their peers, who might see a need for the program.

4. Feature participants

Did a learner tell you about a valuable skill they learned through the trainer? Did a manager say something relevant to the subject matter? Include examples of real people directly involved in your marketing materials, and they’ll help promote for you.

5. Give it away

Make it easy for people to sample your e-learning program with small snippets. Give a demo, make the first module available to everyone and print examples as part of case studies.

6. Call reinforcements

Remember to look at other internal resources for help. Does your organization have a marketing department? Schedule a meeting so they can help you brainstorm and ask them if they can help with developing marketing resources.

Want more tips? Sign up for our newsletter, and receive tips and advice on starting your e-learning program.

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Free Download: Website Pre-Launch Checklist

Talance — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 08:00:18 +0000

Pre-Launch Checklist

Our Website Pre-Launch Checklist will guide you as you gear up for your website’s big launch day, whether you’re debuting a new site or some exciting updates. The55-point list allows you to plan your big day in advance, so you can implement your launch strategy step-by-step without forgetting anything.

Print out a copy and keep it next to your computer so you can track your progress.

This Website Pre-Launch Checklist covers:

Polishing your copy so everything is consistent and clean
Tips for fixing the formatting so the site looks attractive
The most important technical quality assurance points
Accessibility musts for an inclusive website
A marketing planner so you can brag about your hard work
Support preparation so you’re prepared for any circumstance

Get ready for launch, and request your copy now!

[Photo credit: Launch of Discovery by DLR_de]

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Thou Shalt Not Open Links in New Tabs

Talance — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:00:48 +0000

Thou Shalt Not Confuse Visitors

Some sins feel good, but I don’t understand why making hyperlinks open in new windows is so seductive.

This act leaves so many website visitors befuddled (“The back button doesn’t work!”), or mistaken (“Pesky pop-up ad!”) that it should be avoided. Yet I spend more time than you can imagine explaining this.

That’s why I was glad to read in “Small but significant usability sins that websites should never commit” that this no-no tops the list there too:

Don’t open links in new browser tabs. Tabbed browsing is for advanced users. If you open a page in a new tab, most users will get lost, start clicking the back button, and then not understand why they can’t get back to where they started. Remember that they’re not focused on the chrome when they click a link, they’re focused on where they’re clicking. So it’s very easy to miss the fact that a new tab has opened.

The article is worth a read if you aim to put your online project on a righteous path.

[Photo credit: Observe the Commandments by Lawrence OP, on Flickr]

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Guaranteed Way To Spark Learner Engagement

Talance — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:50:19 +0000

Snag learners early if you want them to be engaged in your online course. And by “early,” I mean before your course even launches. Start with a welcome letter, and you’ll find it much easier to make a lasting connection with students.

Engage students early with welcome letters

Welcome letters help you set expectations and highlight anything important when people are most attentive. Use your welcome letter to give students a quick preview of the course, give them contact information, state prerequisites, and give them major deadlines they can copy into their calendars.

Paper or e-mail is fine, although e-mail is cheaper. Just make sure to send it a week or two before launch.

Here are a few welcome letters from other organizations that can help you draft your e-learning missive:

Welcome to Linn-Benton Community College eLearning Courses – Clearly spells out expectations

Cascadia Online Classes Welcome Letter – Simple, but gives helpful information

Gloucester County College eLearning Welcome Letters – A host of PDF welcome letters written by instructors

Why Send a Welcome Letter? – Spells out the anatomy of a welcome letter, from University of Alaska at Fairbanks

[Photo credit: Welcome to opensource.com/education by opensourceway, on Flickr]

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Post tags: elearning, engagement, learner, online training, welcome letter

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Build Easier Course Schedules

Talance — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 10:00:38 +0000

Build Easier Course Schedules

Course scheduling is notoriously fiddly. Picking begin and end dates is a pain, with all that module and activity scheduling. But to be fair to your learners, you’ve got to be as specific as possible.

The PDF Assignment Builder (PDF), developed by George Joeckel and his colleagues at Faculty Assistance Center for Teaching (FACT) at Utah State University, aims to make the chore a little easier. The tool lets you build a tidy PDF-formatted syllabus, which is also helpful when planning your course.

It’s easy enough to use, but here’s a video that shows step-by-step instructions.

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Post tags: Faculty Assistance Center for Teaching, free, George Joeckel, online course, PDF, PDF Course Schedule Builder, tool, Utah State University

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