The National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT®), the national certification body for occupational therapy professionals in the United States, embarked upon a novel project to employ a virtual continuing competency platform. The genesis for the innovative virtual product was the result of a practice analysis study - the goal of which was to gain evidence-based direction for individualized programs of continuing professional development. The study identified six key areas for focus: providing client-centered care, working in interprofessional teams, employing evidence-based practice, applying quality improvement, utilizing informatics, and promoting professional responsibility. The virtual platform targets certificants’ needs related to maintaining knowledge for current practice as well as supporting career enhancement and growth. With neither an existing platform nor content to meet its needs, NBCOT took on the task of designing, developing, pilot testing, and delivering the virtual platform and all of its supporting content from initial concept through deployment. The live system includes a web-based assessment delivery engine, certificant dashboard, and interfaces that support selfreflective assessments, multiple-choice practice knowledge assessments called mini practice quizzes, animated case simulations, and games as educational experiences. Prior to the full implementation of the new virtual continuing competency platform, a pilot test including 512 unique testers accessing 6,561 assessment tools was conducted. This paper will introduce the program at a high level and discuss the design process to frame discussion and then share the descriptive results of the user pilot study. While this specific program targets occupational therapy certificants, the virtual platform, focus areas, and lessons learned regarding use of a large scale virtual assessment program apply to other domains. The team will share generalized recommendations for future design and development of advanced technology-enabled assessment, certification, and educational experiences based upon our findings.
Piloting a Groundbreaking Virtual Continuing Competency Platform: Results and Recommendations
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