5 Considerations When Shopping for CME Hosting Vendors and Providers

As a busy CE director, you may find that choosing from several CME hosting vendors can be overwhelming. Trying to decide which features are critical for your program and which are nice to have but not essential can become a time-consuming challenge. Fortunately, there are a few basics that must be part of any learning management system for CE. While comparing CME hosting vendors, you can focus on these five crucial considerations to help you pick the right vendor for your continuing medical education program.

1. Many Options for Content

How can content options change? For example, your CE program may not include audio content now, but instructors could add it in the future. When reviewing CME hosting vendors, look for the ability to include many different types of content, including audio, video, and interactive lessons. E-learning, podcasts, and webinars are all essential activities that the CE platform you select should be able to include. As the leading LMS for medical associations, health systems, and medical education companies, EthosCE allows you to easily embed videos from YouTube or directly from your program and create multimedia questions.

You should also be able to easily and quickly import content from your legacy courses. EthosCE supports course import using SCORM and Tin Can (xAPI).

2. Automated Administrative Tasks and Learner Engagement

A CE learning management system should automate as many tasks as possible, freeing your time to focus on your learners, instructors, and program. Look for platforms that will save time and money by automating administrative tasks, including enrollment and course tracking.

Look for automation at the administrator level and automated functions that instructors can use within courses. According to Karen Gebhardt and Kelly McKenna in eLearn magazine, structured and automated instructor messaging during online courses can help increase engagement, create deeper learning, and improve learning outcomes.

Ethos CE enables the automation of your administrative tasks, as well as course components, including RSS/Grand Rounds using mobile devices. Easy-to-use tools can manage CME tracking, and reporting is simple and automated for many external systems.

3. Flexible Tools for Educators

CE is evolving constantly and so are the programs. E-learning should be flexible and adaptive, and CE directors should include flexibility in their criteria for choosing CME hosting vendors.

EthosCE supports flexible e-learning and allows in-person workshops to be smoothly integrated into your CE program. Adobe Presenter, Articulate, and Captivate are all supported. You can also use EthosCE to quickly combine courses or separate course units. A course creation wizard allows instructors to create courses quickly. They may be cloned a single click, and you can drag, drop, and reorder components.

4. Learner Satisfaction and Ease of Use

Can learners easily use the continuing medical education platform you’re considering? EthosCE has a well-designed, learner-tested and -approved linear course workflow. Icons indicate the learner’s progress throughout the course. If you’ve worked with other LMS, you know how critical a clear course workflow is. EthosCE has visual cues that learners can instantly see, no matter which device they are using to access the material.

Adult learning theories vary, but they all focus on the quality of learner interactions with other learners, the instructor, and course content. EthosCE has the flexibility and capability to support different models of course delivery and instructor emphasis. If collaborative learning is a part of your courses, Ethos CE’s flexibility also supports collaboration and learner-driven content, which are essential components of CDC guidelines for CE for healthcare professionals.

5. Self-Service: Automated Certificates

It may seem a minor point, but while you’re evaluating CME hosting vendors, don’t overlook the value of self-service, automated certificates. Not only will this program feature save administrative time, delivering needed certificates and reports on demand is crucial for any healthcare CE program. With EthosCE, you can create any appearance you desire for your program certificates. They are instantly personalized, and you can embed signatures and seals. Learners can access and reprint certificates themselves, with no need for extra work on anyone’s part in your office.

Choosing between CME Hosting Vendors

Choosing the CME hosting vendor that’s right for your program doesn’t need to be a confusing, overwhelming process. All the vendors you evaluate should have multiple options for content, automated administrative tasks, flexible tools for your educators to use, and easy course use and navigation. The programs should also allow you to create and automate course completion certificates that learners should be able to access, download, and print on their own schedule, with no need for administrative help. EthosCE performs well in all these dimensions, and added features and support services enhance its capabilities, making it the leading choice among CME hosting vendors for health systems, medical associations, and medical education providers.

To learn how EthosCE can enhance the continuing education of your medical professionals, request a free 1-on-1 demo with one of our specialists today!