Delivering the National DPP Lifestyle Change Program Online: transcript

Key points

• An online program is a year-long lifestyle change program delivered 100% online, and each delivery mode needs its own approved application before classes begin.
• Organizations need a fully developed technology platform and trained staff, and must provide regular live coach interaction, not only text or email.
• The core phase requires at least 16 weekly sessions, no more than one per week, and the core maintenance phase requires at least six monthly sessions, flagged if more than 35 days apart.
• A session counts only when a CDC-approved curriculum module is completed. One date is recorded per module, and the date of completion is recommended.
• Only one weight is recorded per session, it must be the participant's own, and algorithms to determine weight are not allowed.
• Physical activity minutes cover the prior week. Record 999 if minutes have not yet been requested and 0 if the participant did no activity.

Chapters

1. 0:00What an online program means
2. 1:19Organizational capacity questions for online delivery
3. 2:59Weights and managing large data files
4. 4:02Session frequency in core and maintenance phases
5. 5:08Live coach interaction and recording attendance
6. 6:21Extra sessions and session type labels
7. 8:12Collecting weight and physical activity minutes
8. 9:50Closing and further resources

Full transcript

0:00Welcome 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?

0:35An online program is a year-long lifestyle change program delivered 100% online for all participants, meaning participants log 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.

1:19In 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 do 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

2:23allow 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 a 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.

2:59Does your organization have the ability to obtain weights 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 six months? And as an online program do you have the capacity to manage large number 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.

4:02You 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 files. 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 is critical. The first six months of the program are considered the core phase.

4:34During 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 five or six days apart. More frequently than that, however, will cause your data to be flagged so that the data analyst can follow up with you. The second six months of the program are considered the core maintenance phase. During this time, you are required to offer a minimum of six monthly sessions.

5:08Monthly 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.

5:44Skype and FaceTime 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.

6:21Dates 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 logins. This is allowed, but the dates of these logins cannot be recorded. CDC recommends recording the date of session completion rather than the date of the initial login. 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 one through six, after offering the 16 required weekly core 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

7:22phase must be labeled as session type C and the session ID numbers must pick up where the required sessions left off. In months 7 through 12, after offering the required six 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 assessed only unapproved supplemental materials or activities. As an online program it is important that you are aware of the challenges associated with collecting participant weights and physical activity minutes.

8:12Online participants, like all other participants, are required to have a weight recorded at every session. Guidance for collecting weight 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.

8:48The 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 once 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.

9:20Others 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.

9:50This concludes the webinar. Please visit the National DPP Customer Service Center at nationaldppcse.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 US.

Source and licence

Recording: File:Webinar- Successfully Delivering an Online Program.webm by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019-10-04), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.