State Government (Washington) Department of Children, Youth and Famlies (DCYF)

Rivertown was tasked with converting 40 hours of in-person training to asynchronous web-based training in the early stages of the COVID-19 lock-downs, when meeting in person was not possible. Knowledge checks and interactions were added to the content to add interactivity for the students. There is a discussion component which allows students in a cohort to respond to questions from the instructor, and allows an instructor to provide feedback to the student and grade their responses. Students can also comment on each other’s posts, which helps replicate the one-on-one interactions when meeting in a classroom. Child Care Basics is made up of 12 modules, including an intro and conclusion.

Washington States Department of Children, Youth, and Families provides resources for state agencies and providers who specialize in family and children’s services. Currently, Rivertown is developing e-learning courses and delivering them through our Inspire LMS® learner management system to over 120,000 Washington state employees and contractors.

Agencies and providers in the state of Washington who provide childcare services and are licensed through DCYF. There is a secondary audience of high school students who work with childcare providers, and instead of using the discussion platform, DCYF conducted live Zoom sessions with an instructor. To facilitate the different presentation needs of each instructor, Rivertown developed a slightly different variant of each module.

DCYF was able to deliver the training when meeting in person was not possible. Certifying additional child care workers was critical as there was a severe shortage of these workers in Washington. The “Child Care Basics” program we developed served a critical need for the Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families by providing needed training and certifications to childcare workers as in person training was impossible due to Covid 19 restrictions. The program is still being used and provides certifications for childcare workers statewide.

“We had a lot of great feedback about the modules!”

Diana Stokes
Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families