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The state of California uses Simple to bring it’s child abuse mandated reporter training online.

586,353

People certified

188,228

Childcare providers certified

159,956

School personnel certified

California Child Abuse Mandated Reporter Training homepage

About the client

Funded by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP), the Child Abuse Mandated Reporter Training initiative provides free training for all mandated child abuse reporters in California.

Child Protective Services is the major system of intervention for child abuse and neglect in California. OCAP administers federal grants, contracts, and state programs designed to promote best practices and innovative approaches to child abuse prevention, intervention, and treatment. OCAP serves as a statewide source of information, developing and disseminating educational material regarding prevention/early intervention programs, activities, and research.

System goals

CDSS Entity Management screen
  • A role-based user experience

  • Online course player and training

  • Learner and curriculum metrics and reporting

  • User account creation and login

  • Accessibility and ADA compliance

  • SCORM compliant

  • Easy to use navigation and features

Providing a simple solution

Challenges

The Mandated Reporter Training (MRT) platform offers a curriculum focused on child abuse mandated reporting for professionals as well as the general public. The learning management system in question needed to provide comprehensive, effective training to professionals from a broad range of backgrounds, including nurses, teachers, and law enforcement officers.

The previous MRT training was fragmented and ended in a survey-style examination with a certificate of completion emailed to the user. The process was difficult to navigate and outdated because it was spread out across multiple sites and tools. It also had issues with accessibility and performance on mobile devices.

Finally, users did not have an account to use to store their training progress, histories, or certificates, causing extra work for the CDSS team as they worked hours to recreate certificates of completion.

Solution

Implementing a Learning Management System for MRT made the training process simpler both for the client, CDSS, and for their end-user. Simple implements Learning Management Systems (LMS) that deliver educational content and make it easy to deliver, organize and track coursework.

These systems are SCORM-compliant, making management of the platform easier for the client. SCORM stands for “Sharable Content Object Reference Model.” It’s a reference model that defines standards for constructing online training content so that it can be easily shared across systems. This makes it easy to create, share, and purchase content without needing to modify it for compatibility. Utilizing SCORM-compliant courses allows the Mandated Reporter Training course player to track user interactions, communicate and store that information in the LMS.

The LMS offers elegant solutions to the above challenges:

  • it offers a single access point for all coursework and materials for ease of use
  • It provides learners with easy access to courses and account management tools
  • It provides administrators with tools to manage content and report on relevant metrics
  • It allows for the analysis of data on specific learners, curricula, and time frames.
An Intuitive Learning Experience

One feature that made this LMS such an impactful solution for CDSS was the ability for users to self-identify themselves. This allowed each user to find the appropriate coursework, i.e. content for school teachers, volunteers, or child care providers. They could then follow a path to find training tailored to their profession.

Trainings were organized in a linear and predictable curriculum path, allowing users to know exactly what needed to be done and what their progress was to obtain their certification.

Improved Accessibility

Accessibility was a key requirement from CDSS. The Mandated Reporter Training site includes advanced functionality allowing visitors with disabilities to view the site in alternative ways, making the content easier to access and view.

For example, users can:

  • Toggle between site colors and high contrast colors
  • Increase and decrease the font size
  • Translate the site into multiple languages

Furthermore, the MRT site follows Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and best practices.

The new Mandated Reporter Training platform expedites, simplifies, and standardizes training and certification processes, of which CDSS was desperately in need.

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"We have had over a million users in less than two years. Based on the traffic and response to the platform, I can tell people like our website. It’s so much more interactive than our previous platform, and I feel like that interactivity really helps with adult learning. The site is visually stimulating, interactive, very user-friendly, and effective for getting our California Mandated Reporters trained."

Angela Ponivas

Chief of the Office of Child Abuse Prevention
California Department of Social Services

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Schedule a personalized demo

Simple LMS is highly versatile and can be implemented to deploy training for organizations in several different industries, including government, corporate, medical, non-profit, education, and more.

Want to see how simple learning can be? Schedule a personalized demo of Simple LMS and explore our innovative learning management system

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