Home > The ATTC/NIATx Service Improvement Blog > ATTC's Pearls of Wisdom: Flipping the Classroom to Improve Intensive Technical Assistance Efforts
By Bryan Hartzler, PhD, director, Northwest ATTC, director/research associate professor, Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute (ADAI), University of Washington School of Medicine
A convergence of technological advances and pandemic influences has resulted in an influx of asynchronous learning resources, or products the health workforce access individually and experience at their own pace. Examples include online training programs, webinar recordings, podcast series, and clinical demonstration videos—all included in the on-demand resource library availed by Northwest ATTC.
As the depicted activities indicate, asynchronous learning resources serve many functions. These include: promoting awareness of useful treatment and recovery practices; increasing didactic or applied knowledge about a given practice; fostering insights about its personal/organizational compatibility; and informing adoption decisions. Within SAMHSA’s tiered rubric for technical assistance (TA), these are most consistent in intent with basic or targeted TA. In contrast, intensive TA efforts facilitate systems-level changes at health organizations to support coordinated implementation of a new practice—only in very rare circumstances would asynchronous learning resources suffice.
The synchronous learning activities depicted below are common features of intensive TA efforts. Among the functions served are: exploring organizational fit and readiness for a new practice; customizing it to local needs and resources; fostering requisite clinical skills amongst staff for its delivery to clients; preparing local systems for coordinated implementation; offering feedback and trouble-shooting during implementation; and creating a sustainment plan. The field of implementation science continues to scientifically test the utility of specific strategies intended to serve such functions.
How may asynchronous learning resources augment intensive TA? If paired with or integrated into synchronous learning activities, they enable one to ‘flip the classroom’4—an educational philosophy that communal learning is less effective via passive instruction methods (i.e, didactic lecture, persuasion) than active ones involving higher-order, applied tasks (i.e, case formulations, skills-training with behavioral rehearsal). A blended learning approach is the result, of which the following Northwest ATTC-involved examples included use of:
Beyond the appeal and convenience that asynchronous learning resources hold, they offer cost- effective and inclusive means of reaching workforce members who may otherwise be missed by our collective ATTC network efforts. With increasing demands for equitable workforce access to professional education and shrinking budgets available for its provision, there is much to be gained by expanding the situations and circumstances in which intensive TA efforts of the ATTC network embody a blended learning approach. Perhaps the aforementioned trio of examples may stimulate further innovative ideas for such expansion. Such innovation may just reflect the ATTC network’s best and brightest opportunities to accelerate the adoption and implementation of useful treatment and recovery practices among the addiction workforce.
References
1 Hartzler, B., Gray, K., Marx, M., Kirk-Lewis, K., Payne-Smith, K., & McIlveen, J.W. (in press). Implementing contingency management to address stimulant use. Journal of Substance Use & Addiction Treatment.
2 Hartzler, B. (in press). It’s time to broaden dissemination of cognitive-behavioral therapy for substance use disorders: Charting pathways to ascend the remaining mountainside. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice.
3 Aarons, G. A., Hurlburt, M., & McCue Horwitz, S. (2011). Advancing a conceptual model of evidence-based practice implementation in public service sectors. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services, 38(1), 4–23.
4 Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class every day. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.
The opinions expressed herein are the views of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), SAMHSA, CSAT or the ATTC Network. No official support or endorsement of DHHS, SAMHSA, or CSAT for the opinions of authors presented in this e-publication is intended or should be inferred.