Welcome to the National Diabetes Prevention Program's "Successfully
Delivering an Online Program" Webinar. Presented by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's Diabetes Prevention Recognition Program (DPRP).
Organizations have the option of delivering the National Diabetes
Prevention Program lifestyle change program using four different delivery
modalities. The purpose of this webinar is to focus on online program delivery.
What does it mean to deliver an online program?
An online program is a year-long
lifestyle change program delivered 100% online for all participants,
meaning participants login into course sessions via a computer, tablet, or
smartphone. Participants must interact with trained Lifestyle Coaches at
various times and by various communication methods, such as online
classes, emails, phone calls, and texts. Please note this is different from a
Distance Learning program.
It is important to remember that all
organizations must submit a separate application for each delivery mode they
want to use and that classes associated with the new delivery mode cannot begin
until the application is approved. In addition, organizations, regardless of the
delivery mode, must adhere to the DPRP Standards. This includes use of a CDC-
approved curriculum and compliance with program duration and intensity
requirements.
Before submitting an application for CDC recognition, all
organizations should have completed the Organizational Capacity Assessment. If
your organization is currently recognized for a delivery mode other than
online, but is interested in delivering an online program in the future, it is
important that you review the capacity assessment questions specific to online
programs. Let's go through those questions now.
Does your organization have an
appropriate technology platform to deliver an online version of the
year-long lifestyle change program? It is very important that you have your
platform fully developed before starting classes. Ease of access for
participants is essential for retention. Does your organization have an
appropriate technology platform to allow participants to interact with a
Lifestyle Coach over the year-long lifestyle change program? Online programs
must provide regular live Lifestyle Coach Interaction, either in a group
format or one-on-one. You cannot depend on text messaging and email as the sole
form of communication. Have you provided training on a specific technology
platform to be used to deliver the online lifestyle change program to
program staff? Making sure that you have sufficient numbers of qualified staff
and that they are fully trained on the technology is essential to successful
delivery. Does your organization have the ability to obtain weight via digital
technology such as Bluetooth-enabled scales? If you are using Bluetooth-
enabled scales, how are you teaching the participants to use them? And, how will
you be able to ensure that the weight being recorded is the weight of the
participant and not someone else in the household? The collection of accurate
weights is your responsibility as a CDC- recognized organization.
While not
specific to online programs, each organization should consider whether it
has the staff with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to collect, enter, and
submit the required DPRP evaluation data elements using a comma- separated
value (CSV) format to CDC every 6 months. And, as an online program, do you have the
capacity to manage large numbers of session records that could result from
conducting an online program? Managing large numbers of records does not simply
refer to how you will enter the data. You need to ask yourself how you will be
able to upload and send large data files to the CDC and correct errors that CDC
finds in your large data file. CDC is not always able to give
participant-level detail when hundreds or even thousands of errors are detected.
Online session delivery can be very different from in-person delivery.
Understanding what CDC will and will not allow it's critical.
The first 6 months of the program are considered the core phase. During this
time, you are required to offer a minimum of 16 weekly sessions. Weekly
sessions cannot be held more frequently than once a week. When analyzing the data,
CDC won't reject the file if classes are held 5 or 6 days apart. More
frequently than that, however, will cause your data to be flagged so that the data
analysts can follow up with you. The second 6 months of the program are
considered the core maintenance phase. During this time, you are required to
offer a minimum of 6 monthly sessions. Monthly sessions cannot be held less
frequently than once a month. CDC will flag core maintenance sessions
if they are being offered more than 35 days apart. As an online organization,
your participants may be self-paced. You must ensure that sessions are not being
completed in such a way that these intensity guidelines are being violated.
Regardless of which delivery mode you are using, live Lifestyle Coach
interaction is required. This communication can be done in-person, over
the telephone, or using a teleconference. Skype is Face Time are acceptable
mechanisms for Lifestyle Coach interaction. The interactions do not have
to be one-on-one; they can be held in a group format.
Recording attendance
accurately is critical to measuring participant adherence to the program
requirements. A session is comprised of working through the curriculum module,
recording body weight, and recording physical activity minutes for the week
leading up to the starting of the module. Dates cannot be included if
participants only record weight but do not complete the module. Dates when only
text or email communication occurs with the Lifestyle Coach cannot be included
at sessions. Only one date can be recorded per module completed. Online
participants frequently complete a module over multiple log-ins. This is
allowed, but the dates of these log-ins cannot be recorded.
CDC recommends recording the date of session completion rather than the date
of the initial log in.
CDC encourages organizations to offer sessions beyond
what is minimally required. As an online program, however, a few things must be
considered. Only sessions where a CDC- approved curriculum module is fully
delivered can be recorded on the submission spreadsheet. During months
1-6, after offering the 16 required weekly
course sessions, you may allow your participants to access repeat core
modules they have already completed, or you may allow them to begin core
maintenance modules. Remember that any sessions offered during the core phase
must be labeled as session type "C", and the session ID numbers must pick up
where the required sessions left off. In months 7-12, after offering the
required 6 core maintenance modules, online organizations may allow
participants to access one of the remaining core maintenance modules or
repeat one of the core modules. All sessions offered during the core
maintenance phase must have a session type of "CM" on the submission
spreadsheet and have a submission ID of 99. You cannot record dates when
participants accessed only unapproved supplemental materials or activities.
As an online program, it is important that you are aware of the challenges
associated with collecting participant weight and physical activity minutes.
Online participants, like all other participants, are required to have a
weight recorded at every session. Guidance for collecting weights can be
found in appendix F of the 2018 DPRP Standards. The use of Bluetooth
technology must ensure that the documented weight is that of the
participant. CDC does not allow the use of algorithms to determine participant
weight. Only one weight can be associated with a completed session. If participants
are weighing themselves multiple times a week, the closest weight to the date the
session is completed is the one to be used. The lowest weight taken during the
weekly or monthly session can also be used as long as
only one weight is recorded per session date.
Documentation of physical activity
minutes is required when physical activity has been introduced into the
curriculum, regardless of delivery mode. As you develop your online platform,
consider how you will accurately and completely collect the minutes recorded
by participants. Some organizations have developed methods for accessing
participant trackers. Others use online survey tools to have participants submit
their minutes or send out email reminders for them to submit minutes.
Documented minutes should reflect the total number of minutes completed during
the week prior to starting the session. If participants have not yet been
asked to report physical activity minutes, 999 should be
recorded. A zero should be reported if the participant indicates no physical
activity occurred during that week.
This concludes the webinar. Please visit the
National DPP Customer Service Center at NationalDPPCSC.cdc.gov for
more resources and to submit your questions that you may have. Thank you
for joining with us to help prevent type 2 diabetes in the U.S.