Custom Courseware Development
Do you need high-quality, interactive online courseware
developed for your school, facility, or organization? HealthSoft
has extensive experience in developing custom courseware for a
variety of organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, the Developmental Disabilities Nurses Association,
the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology,
the Association of Teachers of Prenventive Medicine, the Department
of Defense, and the Central Florida Healthcare Development Foundation.
HealthSoft has has been developing educational software for more
than 15 years, and its programs have been purchased by thousands
of schools and healthcare facilities around the world.
Frequently Asked Questions About Custom Courseware Development:
Question 1:
If I am interested in having a custom course created for my facility, school, or organization, what should I do?
Answer:
Call HealthSoft at 800-235-0882, M-F, 9 AM - 5 PM (Eastern Time) and ask for Mary Alice Willis. She will discuss your needs with you and help you consider the factors involved.
Question 2 (the most frequently asked question!):
How much does custom courseware cost?
Answer:
Asking how much custom courseware costs is like asking a building contractor "How much does it cost to build a house?" A mansion obviously costs much more than a one-room
house. The same is true with courseware. A complex, long course with many graphics, video, and other features obviously costs more than a simple, short course without multimedia elements. To a
large extent, development cost is determined by two factors: 1). what you want, and 2). how much of the work you do yourself. For example, if you write the content and provide the photographs/graphics,
your cost will be much lower than if HealthSoft must write the content and obtain the media elements. That being said, HealthSoft's prices are extremely competitive. We do our best to give you
high quality courseware that fits within your budget.
Question 3:
What guarantee do I have that the courseware designed by HealthSoft will meet my needs and be delivered on time?
Answer:
From the start of each project, HealthSoft will work with you to develop mutually agreed-upon courseware specifications and deadlines. You first approve a storyboard, which is
a written document that completely describes every word and all features that will be included in the courseware. You then approve the finished product on the Internet. HealthSoft considers its
work done only when it has met all agreed-upon specifications to your satisfaction. HealthSoft has never missed a performance deadline and has never had a customer that was not 100% satisfied
with a finished program.
Question 4:
I've got some ideas for writing an online course, but I don't know anything about programming. Can HealthSoft help me get the course programmed and published?
Answer:
The answer is a qualified "maybe." HealthSoft will work
with a subject matter expert (SME) to develop an individual course
if we believe that the topic is marketable, e.g., to schools,
healthcare facilities, and health professionals. We do not charge
the SME for our programming services and we pay a royalty to the
SME based on sales of the course. The royalty amount varies according
to how much of the work is done by the SME and how much of the
work is done by HealthSoft. HealthSoft owns the copyright to the
course and all distribution rights. If you have an idea for an
online course that you are interested in developing and want to
discuss your idea, call 800-235-0882, M-F, 9 AM - 5 PM (Eastern
Time) and ask for Mary Alice Willis.
Question 5:
If HealthSoft helps me develop a course and put it online, how can I track the performance of employees and/or students?
Answer:
HealthSoft delivers courses from within a learning management
system (LMS). We set up a special section of our server for your
school/facility and give you a group administrator code. This
code allows you to authorize faculty or educators to access the
administrative interface on our LMS and see information about
learners. You can view information such as who did the course,
their test scores, what day they did the course, how much time
they spent doing the course, their answers to each test question,
etc.
Question 6:
I have an interest in educational research. I would like to evaluate test reliability and validity for an online course that I have created, or I would like to do research about
other aspects of online learning. Does HealthSoft have any tools available that I could use to do this research?
Answer:
HealthSoft has an optional research interface that can be set up for any course that is delivered from within its LMS. This interface provides continuously updated individual user
data and aggregate data about groups of users. Data is analyzed and a screen interface presents information such as mean score, median score, standard deviation, reliability co-efficient, p-value,
item discrimination index, response frequency, and nondistractors. If there are particular variables you are interested in collecting, HealthSoft can help you design and implement online questionnaires.
HealthSoft is experienced in doing research about online education and can help you streamline various research tasks, such as online agency agreements and individual human subject consent forms.
Question 7:
I would like to write a self-paced interactive online course for our school or facility, but do not have any idea how to begin. What do you suggest?
Answer: A good place to start is by taking a variety of self-paced interactive online courses from different publishers. Notice the instructional design, how the content is written, how images and other media elements are presented, and how interactivities
are used to engage and guide the learner through the courseware. If you have a question about getting started in developing interactive education, please feel free to call HealthSoft at 800-235-0882, M-F, 9 AM - 5 PM (Eastern Time) and ask for Mary Alice Willis. She'll be glad to answer any
quick question.
Question 8:
Can HealthSoft develop SCORM-compliant and ADA 508-accessible online courses?
Answer:
Yes.
Question 9:
I'm interested in knowing more about what it is like to work with HealthSoft. Does HealthSoft have any satisfied customers who I could call for a reference?
Answer:
Yes. HealthSoft would be glad to provide references upon request.
Question 10:
I am a graduate student in nursing and, as a school project, I created a computer-assisted instruction. Can I get this published?
Answer:
If the program you have created is of good quality, if it is marketable, and if you are willing to spend any additional time and effort needed to make it commercial, the answer is probably yes. HealthSoft would be happy to review the work that you have done and provide guidance. HealthSoft considers
all work sent to it for review to be confidential and proprietary to its author. If you and HealthSoft decide that HealthSoft is not the right developer or publisher for your work, your work is returned to you. If you have any concerns about protecting your original work in this process, please
call HealthSoft at 800-235-0882, M-F, 9 AM - 5 PM (Eastern Time) and ask for Mary Alice Willis. Many students and faculty have developed wonderful interactive programs, and many of them end up sitting on a shelf or being used at only one school or facility. It would be great if these programs
could be published so that more people can learn from them.
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