Big Assumptions in Online CPD (WB-04)

CME/CPD educators are deeply familiar with the gap between knowledge and practice–our goal is often to help move health professionals beyond routine practices, towards behaviors they already know they should do, by examining barriers to change. And yet, as CPD providers, we face our own practice gap between our knowledge of effective practices in CPD and our implementation of them, particularly when it comes to taking learning online. Education psychologists Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey have described “Immunity to Change” rooted in tacit “Big Assumptions.” These Big Assumptions produce fears or worries, reveal competing commitments, and result in actions or inactions that hinder positive change.

COVID-19 allowed us to challenge many assumptions about CPD, including the role of technology since many CPD planners, teachers, and learners had to rapidly pivot to new modes of delivery such as online learning. Some welcomed this change as an overdue opportunity to use technology to enable increased reach to speakers and participants or to rethink how we provide CPD by incorporating effective CPD strategies such as spaced and workplace learning. Others have made do with “emergency remote teaching” while longing for a return to the way things were. In this interactive workshop we seek to surface, interrogate, and ultimately begin to dismantle the Big Assumptions serving as barriers to change in technology-enhanced CPD, particularly online CPD, in order to support CPD leaders in fostering the optimal use of technology to achieve their educational goals.

Presenters