Use of learner data in selecting instructional content for continuing education

In order to use the rich data available about the knowledge and professional practice of Physician Assistants (PA’s), it was necessary to develop a methodology to organize and relate information about patients seen in practice, perceived needs, and prior knowledge both in terms of the PA role and the content to be taught. Such a process may be useful to consider in the design of instructional materials for other populations and other settings.Most instructional development models stipulate analyzing the learners as one step in the development process. Instructional developers in actual practice often use few learner data. The Physician Assistant Self Assessment Project was unique in this regard. An extensive self assessment instrument was administered nationally to Physician Assistants (PAs). This assessment provided the following types of data about Physician Assistants: body system knowledge, number and type of patients seen in the PA practice, PA perceived need for continuing education, and professional role performance (D’Costa. 1982). All of these data were considered in suggesting topics for continuing education materials. The means by which these data were used in the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process of developing continuing education materials can be adopted easily by other instructional designers working in a variety of settings.Physician Assistants constitute a new profession, one evolving from medical care shortages, particularly in rural areas. Some of the first PAs were trained by their employing physician and received little or no formal education. Today, PAs can enter the profession through a two-year post-secondary training program. However, many PAs have had military medic experience, obtained baccalaureate and graduate degrees, or achieved a variety of other relevant education and experience to add to formal training. PAs are state certified under a variety of regulations, but all are required to be supervised by a licensed physician. They must pass a PA certifying examination every six years in order to practice.The goal of this instructional systems development project was to design and produce 18 self-paced learning modules that would assist the individual PA in remediating the deficiencies identified by the self-assessment examination. No single set of data resulting from the PA Self Assessment test was considered adequate for developing continuing education modules. For example, while PAs as a group may have received low scores in a body systems category, the designer must ask the question, “Is is necessary to develop training in a particular disease if PAs do not encounter that disease in their practice?” Thus, five data sets were studied to determine the content areas for module development. Those were: (a) practice profile, (b) need profile, (c) role perception, (d) body systems knowledge, and (e) question distribution in the examination. The data which measures each criterion will be discussed below. Then, the way these data were applied to the content specifications for the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process will be described.