Distance learning for local coalitions – 9/7/10

Q: Missouri is interested in connecting with other states that have used webinars (or conference calls in the pre-webinar days) as a method of training & technical assistance for local coalitions. Missouri’s state coalition, Tobacco Free Missouri, is hoping to do regular webinars (as a benefit of membership) for local coalitions working on smoke-free air policies in their communities. They would like to know:

• What topics were covered?
• How often were the webinars/conference calls held?
• What were your experiences (positive as well as concerns/problems)
• What kind of participation did you have?

Also, please describe any benefits you saw from this experience and any other issues you think might be pertinent.

A:

1. Arkansas: The Arkansas Department of Health – Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program (TPCP)has utilized webinars to provide updates to Coordinated School Health grantees (20), Community Grantees (19), and to TPCP regional grant administrators (5).
    
• What topics were covered?
  Topics covered: Updates for Web-based Reporting System, Guidelines for Year End Procedures (closing award period and year end evaluations), Update on Arkansas’s Reduction of MSA Payment, and Included General Updates on Training Calendar…
   
• How often were the webinars/conference calls held?
  Once a month for grantees and grant administrators
   
• What were your experiences (positive as well as concerns /
  problems)
   
  • Positive: no travel time, no travel expenses, and record of attendees.
  • Problems: grantees experienced problems accessing the webinar (couldn’t see screen or didn’t have audio), grantees voiced frustration of not being able to respond by audio (in order to accommodate this issue, we split the grantees into two groups of 25 in order to allow full audio capabilities.)
     
• What kind of participation did you have? Approximately a 77% participation rate.
   
2. Michigan: The Michigan Department of Community Health Tobacco Section has offered at least one webinar per month beginning in calendar year 2009. We use the Adobe Acrobat webinar technology for our PowerPoint presentations to be viewed, and a conference call line for the audio. We have the capability of placing all participants on mute so there are no disruptions during the presentation.
    
   We have covered a multitude of topics from Native American tobacco use treatment to helping pregnant women quit tobacco, coalition building, a webinar discussing other tobacco products, how the Michigan Tobacco Quit Line works, tobacco use and oral health, effects of tobacco on diabetes, and many more.
    
   We have learned quite a bit as we have gone along, mostly about the technology. Since we do not have a technical support team to assist us, we had to learn the technology ourselves. We had to ask many, many questions in order to get to the point we are now, but things run smoothly for the most part. Occasionally we will have a participant say they cannot access the webinar, but we feel it is due to their own technology issues and not ours.
    
   We handle all calls in "silent mode." This means that no one can speak except the presenters. We handle questions through an online chat feature, which does help us to keep on track and have better structure on the call.
    
   We have excellent participation. The most we had at one time was 85 participants; we usually average around 40-45.
    
3. North Carolina 1: North Carolina Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch (TPCB) has utilized Webinars very effectively to plan for and implement the 2010 law that requires restaurants and bars to be smoke free.
    
   We have partnered with the UNC School of Government, and the attorney assigned to provide legal technical assistance on public health/tobacco legal issues. This has been an excellent partnership. We have held three webinars to-date and have two more upcoming.
    
   The first three webinars were on implementing the new statewide law and targeted Local Health Directors, their staff, and city/county attorneys.
    
   The next Webinars upcoming will be on 1) enforcement and legal challenges and 2) local ordinances.
    
   For a course description of upcoming webinars and a link to the archived webinars held to-date, click here.
    
   In addition, TPCB is extremely appreciative of the expertise of the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium that has helped indirectly in past webinars and will be a featured speaker in the upcoming webinar on enforcement and legal challenges.
    
   While the content of the webinars was valued highly, the Q&A period of each webinar was extremely valuable to participants. Questions were posted online and each webinar had a skilled moderator who would field the questions to appropriate presenters at the appropriate time.
    
   Archiving the webinars allows learners to go back over complex material and those who were unable to attend the webinar live to view and listen at a later time.
    
   Each webinar was evaluated, and this helped in the planning of next steps.
    
   Participants appreciated getting quality training and not having the expense of travel, especially in these tight budget times. Grant funds paid for the first webinar series. For the upcoming webinars, registration is required, however, scholarships are offered to those of the intended target audience who needed assistance to register. Local health departments registered several team members per one computer registration. However, if a participant wanted continuing education credits (we offered CLEs to the attorneys) they had to register independently.
    
4. North Carolina 2: Please see below:
    
• What topics were covered?
  Media and Social Marketing, SHS Law Implementation, Framing SHS Policies, Diversity and Disparities, New and Emerging Products, Quitline, Youth and Tobacco, Basic Media Skills, Cessation, Health Communications , Grant Management
   
• How often were the webinars/conference calls held?
  We have standard quarterly webinars as well as on the fly.
   
• What kind of participation did you have?
  Participation varies by topic, most times the webinars are mandatory for the coalition members.
   
• Please describe any benefits you saw from this experience and any other issues you think might be pertinent.
  The North Carolina Tobacco Prevention & Control Branch has been using webinar technology for the past 3 years as a means of relaying important information to our local coalition members and partners. This has allowed us to include experts from anywhere in the country and beyond to participate, present, and answer question posed by our participants who feel more engaged in a webinar as opposed to a conference call. The services are 24/7/365, which is nice if you need to reach out to other time zones.
   
• What were your experiences (positive as well as concerns/
  problems)
  The obvious benefits are the costs savings as it relates to travel and time. There are many webinar services available and the most pertinent questions that Missouri should ask themselves are:
   
  • How often do you plan to use the technology?
  • Do you want integrated service (telephonic and web-based)?
  • How many seats do you want to purchase? (Services are sold by seat numbers – actual links to the webinar)
  • Who will you designate as your Webinar point person?
  • Will your current operating system support the new webinar technology? (Plug-ins, etc.)
  • How will you allow your coalition members to interact?
     
  Lastly, know that the technology is not perfect. There are always glitches here and there. Folks get disconnected, forget to download the plug-ins, can’t install the plug-ins due to firewalls, try to share links exclusive to them, etc. However, overall this is a great way to meet. Limit the time to no more than 1.5 hours. If you’re going to use it longer, build in breaks, activities, etc.
   
5. Ohio:
    
• What topics were covered?
  a) The LGBT Community (with CDC-OSH’s National Network) and Tobacco Use/Health Issues (one time); b) to seek input from state tobacco/health partners for updating our tobacco-related disparities plan (two separate groups to update the plan).
   
• How often were the webinars/conference calls held?
  These were each done once, in three separate meetings.
   
• What were your experiences (positive as well as concerns/
  problems)?
  All times experiences were positive, meeting attendees did not have to travel to the city of Columbus to learn or contribute to the plan. The best experience was the LGBT National Network because we gave them access to our webinar and they ran the meeting from start to finish; they did a great job. For getting feedback to update the strategic plan, since the technology was new to us, we relied more heavily on handouts distributed to the meeting attendees prior to the webinar rather than the webinar screen.
   
• What kind of participation did you have?
  Each group had an average of about ten people or so.
  
  Overall, we would highly recommend the use of distance learning for coalitions. It helps to educate or have a meeting to seek input when persons cannot travel. Make sure you have someone very skilled in using the system or else participants and speakers may become frustrated by the “challenges.” Finally, make sure you know the licensing requirements prior to using systems like “Go To Meeting.” We were told by our Office of Management Information Systems that we had to have a license to use this, even if just for one session.
   
6. Tennessee: Tennessee provided several webinars to the tobacco coordinators and health educators, as part of a capacity building component of our contract with the Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium (TTAC). The topics covered are listed below in a brief format.
    
   Webinar #1 ‑ January 20, 2010/90‑minutes/approximately 35 participants
   TITLE: Community Mobilization and Closing the Loopholes in the Tennessee Smoke‑Free Law
   Materials Provided:
    
   • The Health Educators Role in Advocacy
   • Competencies for Chronic Disease Practice
   • TN Grassroots Calendar
   • Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights Presentation
   • TTAC Introductory Presentation
      
   Webinar #2 – February 17, 2010/90‑minutes/approximately 28 participants
   TITLE: Implementing the CDC Best Practice Comprehensive Program with Limited Resources
   Materials Provided:
    
   • CDC Best Practices Presentation
   • CDC Best Practices User Guide for Coalitions
   • TTAC Introductory Presentation
      
   Webinar #3 – March 17, 2010 /90‑minutes/approximately 28 participants
   TITLE: Tobacco‑Related Disparities: Identifying and Reaching Specific Communities
   Materials Provided:
    
   • Regional Coordination of Tobacco Control Strategies in Rural West Virginia Presentation
   • Achieving Voluntary Tobacco‑Free Worksite Policies Covering Low SES Workers Presentation
   • Building Relationships for Taking Action Against Tobacco in Rural Oklahoma Presentation
   • Approaches for Identifying Tobacco‑Related Disparities Presentation
   • Community Activities Toolkit
   • Disparities Planning Tool
   • TTAC Introductory Presentation
      
   Webinar #4 – April 27, 2010/90‑minutes/approximately 25 participants
   TITLE: Tennessee Cessation Systems
   Materials Provided:
   • TN Cessation System Presentation
   • TN Quit Line Q1 2010 Report
   • Quit Line Report Glossary
   • TTAC Introductory Presentation
      
   The positive experiences as reported by the participants were that the webinars provided an opportunity to:
    
   • Learn many things without even leaving the office or having to travel to a central location as required in conventional training.
   • Learn how to use modern technology
   • Share with other participants or even develop relationships with other colleagues across the state through the webinar process.
   • Learn what works in other parts of the state.
   • Learn by listening to others’ questions and responses.
   • Gain a better understanding of key topics covered.
      
7. Texas: Our media contractor, EnviroMedia Social Marketing, had done several webinars to provide training to our regional staffs and coalitions. Here are their answers:
    
   • What topics were covered?
      
     • Grassroots activities to inform media planning.
     • Media campaign elements and new materials for use.
     • Training to access media materials and reporting distribution on a local level.
     • Status of ordinance activity in San Antonio (media coverage, opposition, and next steps).
        
   • How often were the webinars/conference calls held?
     We recommend once per quarter for coordinated planning and sharing of information.
      
   • What were your experiences (positive as well as concerns/
     problems)?
     Good use of time and efficient. We use a webinar tool that is easy to use, called GoTo Meeting (www.gotomeeting.com). Everyone on the webinar sees the screen simultaneously and can follow-along together (not skip ahead). We also provide a conference dial-in number for audio. All of the log-in information for the webinar is sent at least 24 hours before the call.
      
   • What kind of participation did you have? High participation since it is beneficial information.

Other Responses:

1. Tobacco Control Legal Consortium: We would be happy to talk with Tobacco Free Missouri or similar organizations from other states about whether we might be able to play a role in these types of webinars, as well as talk about what support we might be able to provide with their tobacco control efforts. TCN members can contact Maggie Mahoney or any of the attorneys in our office about this.
    
2. Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium: The Tobacco Control Network has been the beneficiary of a 3-year series of national webinars on smoke-free air issues that focus on new science and reports that are relevant to all the states working on smoke-free policies. We plan to continue quarterly webinars for the TCN members and partners next year. TTAC manages these webinars, recruits speakers and provides all logistical and technical support. TTAC has also served as presenters on policy issues for states and other organizations. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of service. Editor’s note: For general inquiries about TTAC’s services, including technical assistance and training, please contact ttac@sph.emory.edu.

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