Development and Pilot Implementation of the Online Certification of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Personnel

Objective. The current paper aimed to discuss developing the online newborn hearing screening certification course and revisions made from pre-pandemic face-to-face strategies to the online implementation in response to COVID-19 limitations. Furthermore, it aimed to create recommendations for the refinement of the course. Methods. The development of the adaptation consisted of document review, focus group discussions among program faculty before and after implementation, which covered the demand for the certification course, opportunities for adaptation, situational limitations, and online implementation advantages and concerns. In addition, a cost-benefit analysis of the online course was done. Results. The certification course was developed within a month and retained the same learning objectives going into an online implementation. One significant change was the addition of a local experience module which allowed for the participation of regional newborn hearing screening coordinators. More resources were required from both instructors and learners to implement successfully. Due to the asynchronous nature of the online course, the evaluation scheme was adapted accordingly. However, teaching strategies were limited. The pricing of the course was also not optimal. Conclusion. Although there were merits in adapting the certification course to the online learning platform, there were areas for refinement. These were the alignment of all course modules to learning objectives, the addition of varied teaching methods, and the revision of pricing for the course.