2004 LOLA
Compelling or Engaging Online Learning Moment
A discrete, powerful moment during a live event, under 5 minutes in duration

Monica Randall, Seattle, WA, and Hank Weiss, PhD, MPH, Center for Injury Research and Control, University of Pittsburgh "Car Crashes During Pregnancy"

Play Acceptance Speech: Hank Weiss, Ph.D., MPH Center for Injury Research & Control

Live Session Objective:
This online event was a synchronous multimedia educational seminar entitled “Car Crashes During Pregnancy” that was aimed at a wide audience of public health practitioners and researchers. Car crashes are the leading cause of fetal injury mortality. Dr. Weiss presented an overview of the problem and discussed key research and policy needs. Ms. Monica Randall, whose child received a serious head injury in utero after their car was struck by a drunk driver, discussed the details of her crash, the nature and impact of the delayed diagnosis and the challenges and joys of raising a child with neurologic disabilities caused by a crash during pregnancy. The final segment with Ms. Monica Randall is the part that was nominated for and indeed received the Lola award.

Nominator's Comments:
"This online seminar contains our nomination for the most compelling online learning moment. Often, educational seminars (whether online or not) can be boring and stale rehashes of written material; or worse, dry PowerPoint exercises causing instructor induced narcolepsy. However, by mixing a topically relevant and engaging personal story with text, images, videos, live voices and simultaneous multiple audience feedback, a unique learning environment and personally touching experience can be created and shared among an audience around the globe. One mother’s personal story about a crash that injured her unborn baby moved the audience beyond the communications technology, past the potentially cold computer interface, and into a vivid and moving understanding of the issue and its true burden."

"Overall, this seminar demonstrated a powerful and integrated use of the multi-functional medium to deliver a story with impact. It was the compelling delivery of the story, which by opening people's hearts, led to a deeper understanding of the larger issues at play. This was not theater; it was a live, riveting, account of one person’s experience that transformed a heretofore hidden and underrated safety problem into an issue of importance for the audience. The proper measure of the level of engagement in online learning comes when the technology fades into the background leaving the content of story and learning experience to stand by itself. This is what transpired at this May 2004 webinar and what makes it a strong contender for this LOLA award category."