Q & A with SGIM’s CEO and the Chair of the Learning Management System (LMS) Task Force

Why is SGIM adopting a Learning Management System (LMS)?

SGIM Council acquired an LMS with two goals in mind: 1) serve existing members and 2) recruit new members by providing an effective platform to share content, offer scholarship, and provide continuing medical education (CME) and maintenance of certification (MOC) credits for professional development.

What was the LMS Task Force asked to do?

The Council created a task force in late 2020 that was charged to: 1) provide recommendations regarding revision of current committee and commission responsibilities related to educational content; 2) identify procedures and criteria that would enable effective governance, review, selection, and maintenance of content development; and 3) present a report to the Council by March 2021. The task force included members of SGIM Council, ACLGIM, and SGIM staff.

What is the LMS Task Force recommending?

The first recommendation calls for SGIM to develop a formal business plan for the LMS that includes an analysis of the potential return on investment and can help determine its financial value to the organization over time. The business plan should be part of the initial LMS implementation in partnership with the Finance Committee and should include fiscal goals for the LMS with specification of data needed to track the return on investment. The LMS should enhance the value of SGIM members’ work, but not all LMS products should be free to members. Free content can impact perceived value and we believe SGIM can find creative ways to provide content to members and ensure a return on investment for the organization. The fiscal value of the LMS to SGIM’s annual revenue should be a factor but not primary driver in content selection and delivery. The primary driver will be the delivery of content that supports SGIM’s mission and vision.

The second recommendation calls for a new steering group to provide leadership in the identification, implementation, and curation of content for the LMS. The charge of this steering group includes the following:

1. develop clear rubrics, policies and procedures for selection and curation of LMS content;
2. develop operational structures and forms to assure that SGIM committees and commissions understand the process by which content gets submitted for LMS approval;
3. develop guidelines for offering CME/MOC credits;
4. develop evaluation quality metrics and a dashboard by which LMS products are reviewed;
5. develop evaluation criteria for the full life cycle of the content to ensure materials are continually updated for relevance and timeliness;
6. communicate quarterly, at minimum, with SGIM’s committees, commissions, and regional leaders; and
7. report regularly to the Council in the next three years, with an expectation that the role of the group will evolve over time.

Group members will represent a diversity of expertise and perspectives, including content strategists, content planners, experts in CME/MOC, experts in educational program evaluation, and a business strategist. The work to develop, manage and maintain an LMS will require substantial effort by SGIM members and staff. As such, the task force believes that this new organizational entity is needed to build the infrastructure and oversee the development, delivery and evaluation of content that honors SGIM’s mission and vision, while generating new revenue for the organization. Initially, Council will need to approve major strategic decisions and policies while generally entrusting content selection to the steering group.

How will content be selected for the LMS?

The task force recommends that the steering group deploy a staged process for content development, taking into consideration the 2019 Career Development Oversight workgroup report and the 2018 CaREER Workgroup proposal.^1,2 The group will start by prioritizing existing content, then transition into new material after developing clear rubrics, procedures and plans for content selection, review and integration into the LMS. The task force recommends use of an evaluation tool similar to that proposed in the 2019 Career Development Oversight Workgroup report. The group will need to develop communication strategies to disseminate the rubrics, procedures, and plans to SGIM committees/commissions and membership-at-large. Materials should be deemed high quality by considering the timeliness of the content, its relevance to members, its practice-changing potential, and its impact on current clinical practice and policy. The content may include Annual Meeting content, longitudinal career development programs, webinars, courses, journal self-study, and CME/MOC assessments. Revenue generating content should expand over time with increasing external dissemination and outreach.

Many thanks to members of the LMS Task Force: Suzanne Brandenberg, Mitch Feldman, Reena Karani, Erika Baker, and Dawn Haglund!