How UMCG cut face-to-face training by 1/3 with blended learning and Easygenerator

How UMCG cut face-to-face training by 1/3 with blended learning and Easygenerator

At the University Medical Center Groningen, healthcare professionals create all e-learning content, giving learners just-in-time training that fits their daily work.
UMCG
UMCG
UMCG
Industry
Healthcare
Employees
14,000
Headquarters
Groningen, Netherlands

Introduction

The University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) is one of the largest hospitals in the Netherlands. It combines patient care, education, and research, and supports thousands of healthcare professionals across specialties. Marina Wildeboer is a nursing instructor and curriculum designer at the Wenckebach Institute, WIOO, UMCG. Over the years, she has also helped design the hospital’s blended learning strategy. Marina’s learners are primarily nurses who specialize in different areas of patient care.

The challenge

WIOO, UMCG already had a blended learning approach in place. Their in-person training was well-established, but they wanted to scale digital learning. That’s why they needed a tool that would allow the medical and nursing staff and educators to create their own e-learning content. This had always been the setup—training was conducted by the healthcare professionals who knew the content best. But the process was not yet scalable. Face-to-face training sessions took a lot of time, and learners lacked access to just-in-time learning materials. To truly scale their learning, UMCG needed a way to make content creation simple, fast, and collaborative.

The solution

UMCG chose Easygenerator because of its ease of use. They needed an authoring tool that healthcare workers could pick up quickly without needing experience in e-learning design or outside help. Now, every course at UMCG is created by healthcare professionals—and always as a team. “It’s the medical and nursing instructors, the nurses, and the doctors who can co-create the content,” says Marina. “That way, our training program is truly aligned with the learners.” Co-authorship helps maintain quality, spreads the workload, and makes the process less intimidating. The healthcare workers create and review courses together using Easygenerator’s real-time editing and in-app commenting features. This collaboration also speeds up the process. People don’t need to schedule meetings or go back and forth over email. They can add feedback, make edits, and move forward—all in the same tool. But creating the training is only part of the process—keeping it up to date is just as important. In healthcare, things change constantly: protocols, equipment, procedures. As Marina points out, “You can’t go a whole year without updating content. Care is always changing, and you have to stay aware of that.” With Easygenerator, teams can update courses instantly, and co-authors keep each other in check.

The results
1800+
courses created

Today, 400 medical and nursing professionals use Easygenerator to create e-learning. They’ve created over 1800 courses so far. Thanks to this, UMCG reduced its face-to-face training sessions by 1/3. Learners can now complete the theory part of their training at their own pace. This approach also supports just-in-time learning—something critical in healthcare, where quick access to accurate knowledge can make all the difference. Marina recalls a moment when a nurse faced a situation and needed a quick refresher. She pulled up a microlearning on Easygenerator on her phone, which gave her the confidence and clarity she needed to prep effectively.

How UMCG did it

Once Easygenerator was introduced, WIOO, UMCG’s L&D team introduced a basic framework that showed healthcare professionals how to shape their e-learning. That was all the structure the teams needed. After that, the healthcare professionals and instructors took over entirely. They created their own content and kept the momentum going. There’s no review process from L&D, no bottlenecks, and no waiting. Co-authorship is built into every step. Most courses have four to six co-authors; in some cases, more. Teams divide the work, review each other’s content, and collaborate directly inside Easygenerator.

UMCG’s progress with Easygenerator

See how UMCG has increased its output with Easygenerator.

Marina Wildeboer-van der Tuin
Nursing Instructor
"It's the medical instructors, the people working on the ward, the nurses, and the doctors who co-create the content. That way, our training program is truly aligned with the learners."
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