Training materials for a mixed-media programme

A mixed-media training programme combines eLearning, face-to-face sessions and reinforcement tools to build knowledge and practical skills. Its materials need measurable learning objectives, content suited to the learners and delivery method, and clear instructions for the people delivering the training.

Programme and learning design

Training tools spread and consolidate knowledge in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, from scientific concepts to customer-engagement skills. ^{1, 2} Classroom training, coaching, mentoring and 360-degree feedback remain essential tools, and combining them with digital media supports tailored, phased training. ² In 360-degree feedback, employees receive confidential, anonymous feedback from those around them, typically managers, peers and direct reports. ² A curriculum can combine virtual, self-directed and face-to-face approaches with digital and traditional reinforcement. ^{1, 2}

eLearning often forms the core because employers can provide comprehensive training without expensive in-person courses and coordination of employees' schedules, while learners fit it around other commitments. ^{1, 3, 4} Face-to-face learning remains essential to a well-rounded approach. ^{1, 5} In-person activities offer varied inputs, whereas eLearning can be linear and isolating unless it varies delivery and gives learners some control through layered information, pop-ups, route choices, voice-over, games or quick questions. ²

Instructional design analyses learning needs and goals and develops a delivery system to meet them, helping learners achieve objectives and retain knowledge. ^{6, 7} Many medical writers apply its principles through skills acquired on the job without knowing the term. ⁷ After defining the audience and understanding its needs and motivations, design works backwards: identify desired outcomes, determine acceptable evidence of achievement, then plan learning experiences and instruction. ²

Learning objectives state what learners will know or be able to do after a course, such as recognising differences between acute and chronic pain. ^{6, 2} They should use measurable action verbs such as analyse, compare, design and explain, avoiding vague verbs such as know, appreciate and understand. ² Adult learners differ in their preferences for reading, visuals, audio and practical activity, so balanced content should keep these learners engaged across the programme. ^{6, 2}

Before writing, instructional design calls for consideration of three things: ⁷

1. Educational goals. Divide a large programme into activities with specific learning objectives and tasks. Understand how each activity contributes to the programme's goals. Tasks and post-activity assessments often check achievement.
2. Learners' needs. Establish the audience's knowledge, education, educational needs, likely application to work or everyday life, language barriers and cultural differences.
3. End product. Establish print or electronic format, viewing devices, technology and programming capabilities, access to designers and programmers, feasible interactivity such as live surveys, and monitoring needs.

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Each programme element should be planned separately and written in a suitable style, considering: ⁶

• The audience and its understanding of the subject and terminology.
• The value and end goal of the piece.
• Referencing requirements: support every statement, and establish whether highlighted source PDFs or reference-management software are required.
• Whether assessments will track performance and how regularly they will occur.
• Development and final-rollout timelines.
• How the piece relates to other materials in content and rollout timing.

^{6, 3, 2}

eLearning course development

Learners often undertake eLearning alongside their normal jobs, so content should deliver information efficiently and hold attention, whether it teaches a disease, product, procedure or skill. ⁸ An eLearning programme should contain: ⁸

• Well-defined course goals.
• Results-oriented learning objectives.
• Clear, concise text.
• Layered core and in-depth information.
• Engaging imagery.
• Numerous interactive elements.
• Effective assessment activities.
• A voice-over.

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A recommended course-development process is: ³

1. Define programme goals.
2. Define learning objectives.
3. Determine the platform's possibilities and boundaries.
4. Generate an overall content outline.
5. Divide content into short, approximately 20-minute modules or sections.
6. Write screen content and the voice-over script.
7. Review the draft for interactive elements and information layering.
8. Write a review activity using varied question types.
9. Liaise with the programme or project manager to ensure everything is programmable.

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The platform determines screen space and capacity for pop-ups or animations that break up text and focus attention; the writer should clarify its capabilities and limits with the programmer or project manager. ⁸ Small amounts of information across more screens are more effective and less intimidating than dense screens, and content below an unnoticed scroll bar may be missed. ⁹ Sections taking no more than 20 minutes should make content more digestible. ⁹

Content complexity and language should reflect prior knowledge and whether the course is foundational or a refresher; material suitable for key opinion leaders may confuse sales representatives, while simpler content may patronise experts. ⁹ Core screen text can carry essential information, with pop-ups for detail or glossary terms and links to earlier content for revision. ⁹ Messages should be clear, concise and active, avoiding colloquialisms when materials cross localities and allowing appropriate lighter passages. ⁹ Text boxes, icons, graphic labels, click-and-reveal buttons and tables offer alternatives to repeated bulleted lists. ⁹

Review activities should align with learning objectives; short knowledge checks within sections can refocus attention and reinforce learning. ⁹ The voice-over expands short screen content into a full script, but should contain no essential information absent from the screen because learners may switch it off. ¹⁰ It should sound natural when read aloud, with brackets, lists, acronyms and abbreviations adjusted for spoken flow. ¹⁰

Face-to-face session design

Classroom and workshop materials may teach therapy-area knowledge, develop skills such as customer engagement, or help learners make tailored action plans. ⁵ A session may stand alone or complement eLearning; for complementary sessions, the writer should understand and, if possible, see the other materials before tailoring content. ¹¹ The objective may be to convey information, develop a plan such as training staff on a new procedure, or practise responding to doctors' objections during a sales call. ¹¹ Sessions commonly open with their goals and revisit them at the end so facilitator and learners can assess achievement. ¹¹

Objectives guide the choice of activities and agenda, which outlines the slide content and supporting materials needed. ¹¹ Ideally, sessions mix facilitator-led information sharing with small- and large-group activities, reducing the loss of concentration associated with long slide presentations. ¹² The balance depends on whether the purpose is information transfer, skill practice or collaborative scenario work. ¹²

Possible activities and their writing requirements include:

Activity	How it works	Materials	Uses
Role-playing	Participants respond in character using new knowledge.	Scenarios or questions to seed discussion, or full scripts for actors.	Skill practice and embedding knowledge.
Problem solving	Small groups solve a problem and report to everyone.	One or more scenarios and a reporting method, such as a slide template.	Embedding knowledge and teamwork.
Attendee presentations	Each participant gives a short, prepared presentation.	Assigned topics and possibly a slide template.	Skill practice and conveying information.
Competitions or games	Small groups compete in a quiz or more complex game.	Questions, game format, instructions and score recording.	Embedding knowledge, competition and fun.
Poster creation	Groups create and present a visual account of an assigned topic; photographs can record the outcome.	Assigned topics, instructions and source material to summarise.	Teamwork and conveying and embedding knowledge.

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Facilitator and participant materials

Global companies may need central resources that affiliates can share and adapt, delivered by facilitators who were absent from development discussions. ¹⁴ Instructions should therefore be clear and materials self-explanatory. ¹⁴ A facilitation guide explains each activity's aims, content and delivery and may suggest room layouts, IT and audiovisual requirements and participant numbers. ^{14, 13}

Materials to consider for a face-to-face session are:

Item	Content
Agenda	Provided to all attendees and closely tied to learning objectives.
Invitations	Reason for the session, expected prior knowledge and any preparation required.
Facilitator guide	Essential for centralised training: how to use materials, run breakouts and convey key messages; possibly room setup, Wi-Fi and printing requirements.
Exercise materials	Question or scenario cards, posters, sources, slide templates and instruction leaflets.
Participant workbooks	Session summary with sections to complete during training.
Training evaluation	A way for participants to give feedback.
Post-meeting reinforcement	Tools requiring recall or review, such as quizzes, follow-up video conferences and online resources.
Printing guide	Instructions for printing materials correctly.

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Reinforcement and microlearning

Engaging reinforcement tools can embed learning and help ensure long-term retention. ¹⁵ Smartphone or tablet quizzes can test knowledge after training, delivered through proprietary or in-house systems. ¹⁶ An online learning portal or learning management system supports self-directed learning and access to resources. ¹⁶ Its text and short, engaging internal communications should match the other materials' tone and style; questionnaires can gather curriculum feedback. ¹⁶ Video conferences allow live training across countries, using slides adapted from eLearning and the audio script as trainer notes; recordings can be stored on the portal. ¹⁶

Microlearning presents written, graphic or video content in three- to five-minute bursts. ¹⁷ Effective activities must be:

• Bite-sized: focused, standalone and no longer than three to five minutes.
• Content-focused: limited to what learners need for one objective.
• Learner-centred: delivered on a platform that engages learners in the activity.
• Accessible: available immediately when needed on the learner's device.
• Relatable: able to evoke feelings that leave an impact.
• Easy to retain: relevant to learners' lives.

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Examples include phone battery settings, consent forms, heart-valve structure, diabetes-drug action and pulmonary embolism formation. ¹⁷ One or two microlearning videos cannot replace a full professional learning programme, but can explain difficult topics or provide another route to objectives. ¹⁷ Clinicians may also use them to explain diseases, therapies or trials to patients and the public. ¹⁷

Online education can use text, slides, animations, interactive webinars and classes; the educational goal and topic complexity determine the activities and resources. ¹⁸ Course content should be clear, concise and comprehensive. ¹⁸ Changing technologies and organisational goals require training approaches and writing styles to adapt to the audience and material. ¹⁹

Pharmaceutical sales training

Sales training writing focuses on scientific and clinical education and requires knowledge of the people, processes and collaboration involved. ²⁰ Commercial representatives are adult learners with varied education and sales experience. ²¹ Training audiences can also include medical affairs, clinical nurse educators, patient services, patients and health professionals. ²¹

Representatives need to understand their own and competing products' trials and the public data physicians may see: manuscripts, prescribing information and otherwise unpublished meeting data. ^{22, 23} Self-study print or eLearning modules highlight important data and explain difficult information for representatives who already have the source PDFs. ²² Oncology modules commonly have three parts: ²²

1. Study design: selection criteria, randomisation, patient numbers, dose and schedule in each arm, primary and secondary endpoints, and baseline characteristics.
2. Efficacy: the primary and some or all secondary endpoints, often survival and tumour response rates.
3. Safety: all-grade and grade 3–4 adverse-event rates, serious events, deaths from adverse events, and discontinuations, interruptions, reductions or other modifications caused by adverse events.

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Another typical pivotal-trial module uses the clinical study report, sometimes supplemented by the investigator's brochure or protocol, to provide more detail than product labelling. ²³ Its sections are:

• A brief study description, such as phase 3, randomised, placebo-controlled and multicentre.
• Study design and endpoints, often including an algorithm.
• Materials and methods covering selection criteria and dosing frequency and amounts.
• Efficacy and safety results for every defined endpoint.
• A brief conclusion stating the key takeaway.

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Insights about unusual populations or biomarkers can help representatives explain the trial to customers; thorough knowledge of pivotal data builds confidence. ²³ Competitor content relies on journal articles and prescribing information because proprietary trial documents are unavailable. ²³

Medical backgrounders may cover the indication, anatomy and physiology and trial reviews in print, video, slides or online materials. ²³ Marketing or sales-training departments determine data depth, with a recommended minimum of simply written summaries of pivotal phase 3 trials supporting FDA approval, published studies and direct comparisons, phase 4 postmarketing studies, and phase 1–2 summaries where pharmacokinetics matter. ²³ Advice on competitor comparisons differs: one position prohibits trial-result comparisons without head-to-head studies, while another recommends placing pivotal and other important results in the context of competing products to help representatives answer questions and objections. ²³ Oncology modules provide disease, agent and treatment-landscape background for informed customer conversations. ²²

The client contact is usually a commercial training manager or director, with marketing, medical, legal and regulatory reviewers. ²¹ An agency team may be led by a learning strategist, medical director and project manager, with writers, editors, content managers, illustrators, designers, fact-checkers and technical staff developing content. ^{24, 21}

Training follows the multi-year route to FDA approval: ²⁵

1. Prelaunch: foundational disease-state, treatment-landscape and product training, using print or digital modules, assessments, patient cases, quick-reference cards, interactive deep dives and expert-led sessions.
2. Launch: training, workshops, annotated package inserts and certification.
3. Postlaunch: support for existing indications, updated materials and resources addressing knowledge or skill gaps, with new foundational and launch curricula for added indications.

^{25, 26}

Development commonly uses an outline and three drafts, templates, medical editing, graphic design, storytelling and strict page-level citation for every statement. ²⁶ Late reviews and therapeutic changes may produce out-of-scope work. ²⁶ Writers choose presentation formats, collaborate with illustrators, define unfamiliar terms in customised glossaries and write for practical application. ²⁶

A deliverable-development sequence is:

1. Writer and client agree a content outline.
2. The writer produces draft 1.
3. The writer produces draft 2, which the medical editor reviews, edits and fact-checks; a content manager uploads it to the client's content management system.
4. Medical, legal and regulatory reviewers assess every deliverable for approval and resolve comments.
5. Further drafts resolve review comments and finalise layout, followed by another upload.
6. Document approval incorporates layout changes and resolves comments, leaving the deliverable ready for use.

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Outlines and every draft are fully annotated and internally edited and reviewed before client submission. ²⁷