Self-management and health promotion remain a significant challenge for people with disabilities living in rural areas. Online learning is a promising avenue to make evidence-based programs available to people, yet the best approaches to implementing online content for rural people with disabilities are unknown. To establish these best approaches, RTC:Rural is partnering with stakeholders from the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL) and eight Centers for Independent Living across the country to develop two health promotion programs that blend online and face-to-face learning. These programs are based on the Living Well with a Disability program. This presentation shared the Integrated Knowledge Translation methods used to create the two programs, how to create effective program development teams across eight states, and outcomes and lessons learned during the first year of Participatory Curriculum Development strategy implementation, including examples of processes to engage end consumers and collect content derived from project partners. For more information on this research, see RTC:Rural’s Motivation for Self-Management project page: http://rtc.ruralinstitute.umt.edu/health-wellness/motivation-for-self-management/

1. USING PARTICIPATORY
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AS
AN INTEGRATED KNOWLEDGE
TRANSLATION STRATEGY
NARRTC 2017; ALEXANDRIA,VA
© 2017 RTC:Rural. Our research is supported by grant #90DP0073 from the National Institute on Disability, Independent
Living, and Rehabilitation Research within the Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human
Services.The opinions expressed reflect those of the author and are not necessarily those of the funding agency.

2. PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
• Project Objective
• What is Participatory Curriculum Development (PCD)?
• How we use Participatory Curriculum Development Approach
• Progress and Outcomes
• Next Steps
• Q & A

3. PROJECT OBJECTIVES: HEALTHY COMMUNITY
LIVING
• Use PCD as an IKT strategy to develop two blended learning multi-media
health promotion and self-management curricula to be delivered by CILs
in an in-person workshop setting.
1. Community Living Skills
2. LivingWell in the Community
• Share our application of Participatory Curriculum Development (PCD)
with other program developers

4. COMMUNITY LIVING SKILLS
1. Consumer training that builds motivation using self-determination theory
1. Focuses on consumer choice and control
2. Includes content such as time management, budgeting, travel training, self care,
personal safety, etc.
3. Group-based online multimedia presentation with discussion and exercises related
to quality of life goals and health improvement and maintenance.
2. Peer SupportTraining to improve self-management capacity
1. Focuses on building consumers skills to enhance choice and control & increase
motivation
2. Includes listening and demonstrating understanding, relationship boundaries, grief
and loss, motivation for change, etc.

5. LIVING WELL IN THE COMMUNITY
1. Consumer health promotion training that builds self-management skills related to
health and quality of life goals.
1. Focuses on the independent living philosophy and grounded in peer support.
2. Includes content such as goal-setting, problem-solving, healthy communication,
building supports, staying on course, etc.
3. Group-based online multimedia presentation with discussion and exercises related
to quality of life goals and health improvement and maintenance.

6. PARTICIPATORY CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
• Participatory Curriculum Development is a process for engaging end-
users in curriculum development.
• It is based upon an understanding of the knowledge, skills, attitudes and
beliefs individuals need to carry out specific tasks.
• Because it is responsive to end-user needs, it improves the effectiveness of
curriculum developed
Taylor, P. (2003). How to design a training course:A guide to participatory curriculum development (First ed.). Sydney:
Bloomsbury Academic.

7. PROJECT COLLABORATION
Research and Training
Center on Disability in
Rural Communities
(RTC:Rural)
Associated Programs
for Rural
Independent Living
(APRIL)
Centers for
Independent Living
(CILs)
Healthy Community Living
Leadership
Team
Living Well in the
Community
Development
Team
Community Living
Skills
Development
Team

8. PARTICIPATORY CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

9. ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
• Four week project orientation and curriculum training using online
Moodle classroom
• Two day in-person orientation, group formation meeting and Situation
Analysis
• Ongoing weekly one hour development team meetings via
webinar/teleconference
• One day in-person meeting at annual APRIL conference to establish
content development procedures with each development team
• Ongoing between-meeting communication: Slack, email, telephone

10. SLACK
CLOUD BASED COLLABORATION TOOL

11. ENGAGEMENT TOOLS
• Slack
• To share IL tools and resources, photos, videos
• Pinterest
• To pin useful concepts and content for curriculum development
• Flickr
• To generate a library of shared photos and videos for curriculum content
• Facebook
• To extend reach and engagement beyond official partners
• To solicit direct asks for particular content

12. PROGRESS AND OUTCOMES
• Creation of Community Living Skills curriculum
• Adaptation of LivingWell with a Disability curriculum for LivingWell in the
Community
• Over 2200 photos on the project Flickr page
(www.flickr.com/groups/healthycommunityliving)
• 178 followers on the project Facebook page
(www.facebook.com/HealthyCommunityLiving)

13. COMMUNITY LIVING SKILLS WEBSITE – EXAMPLE 1

14. COMMUNITY LIVING SKILLS WEBSITE – EXAMPLE 2

15. COMMUNITY LIVING SKILLS WEBSITE – EXAMPLE 3

16. NEXT STEPS
• Pre-production phase of curriculum program websites
• Production phase of first iteration of curriculum program websites
• Pilot curriculum program websites
• Adjust/adapt curriculum
• Evaluate
• Production of online facilitator trainings

17. QUESTIONS & COMMENTS

18. THANKYOU!
Tracy Boehm Barrett, Craig Ravesloot,Tannis
Hargrove, Mary Olson
© 2017 RTC:Rural. Our research is supported by grant #90DP0073 from the National Institute on Disability, Independent
Living, and Rehabilitation Research within the Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human
Services.The opinions expressed reflect those of the author and are not necessarily those of the funding agency.