Digital Learning Committee Action Plan

In April 2020, the Board of Directors approved this Action Plan and a phased implementation of the listed activities over the next three to five years in support of the Strategic Plan. The activities will be reviewed by the Board for funding on an annual basis.

In December 2023, ASHG released a refreshed Strategic Plan. This Action Plan was refreshed in support of the Strategic Plan and approved by the Board of Directors on April 25, 2024.

Strategic Issue

ASHG envisions a world in which people everywhere realize the benefits of genetics and genomics research and seeks to advance understanding and appreciation of that research to advance science, health, and society. Based on the Strategic Plan, the DLC will focus on engaging the genetics and genomics community through digital content to increase learning opportunities, career growth and training, as well as provide a year-round forum (outside of the Annual Meeting) to increase awareness around advocacy, diversity, and public engagement strategies.

Desired Outcomes

ASHG members see the Society as an important year-round source for high quality, engaging digital programs and members value interacting with each other in an inclusive space to develop their skills through these tools.
Geneticists at all levels increase their expertise of the newest research, tools, techniques, and career options across the genetics and genomics field. They are also better informed of best practices around public outreach, advocacy, and the communication of ethical, legal, and social implications of genetics and genomics research.
ASHG professional education programs demonstrate the added value of membership with a goal of encouraging early renewals as well as recruiting new members to join the Society.
ASHG is better able to reach, engage, and equitably serve researchers worldwide by fully leveraging and deploying technology platforms to provide year-round online professional education.

Guiding Principles

The DLC works collaboratively with other committees to facilitate development of digital programs around topic areas including career development, advocacy, public awareness, diversity, and ELSI issues.
Selected topics, speakers, moderators, and images should reflect the broad diversity of the research community.
The DLC will offer strategic input on funding opportunities and educational grants cultivated by ASHG staff that are available for digital and professional education programs, helping to ensure they advance ASHG strategic objectives.
ASHG will pursue strategies with broad reach and impact, avoid duplicative efforts, and leverage partnerships and technologies that enable us to reach more of our target audience. The Society may also test new strategies in smaller settings, with the intent to build on successful models.
ASHG professional education programs prioritize content driven by member needs and include an explicit added benefit for ASHG members.

Action Plan

The DLC will play a leadership role in content development on novel scientific education topics, and a coordinating and organizational role for career development, advocacy, public awareness, diversity, and ELSI topics. On the latter, program development and implementation would be the responsibility of individual committees. DLC staff liaisons will be responsible for helping them develop those efforts within an approved editorial calendar guided by the DLC and being mindful of budget parameters. They will also work with other staff to understand likely resource needs and capacities and support planning by other committees.

1. Planning And Implementation: The DLC will guide staff to develop, maintain, and implement a year-round regular content stream of ASHG digital programs guided by an editorial calendar through direct calls to and in alignment with other committees’ actiodn plans including the Career Development Committee (CDC), the Government and Public Advocacy Committee (GPAC), the Professional Practice and Social Implications Committee (PPSI), the Public Education and Awareness Committee (PEAC), and the Membership Engagement Committee (MEC). The DLC oversight will ensure that a broad array of topics will be covered that meet the needs of the ASHG membership with minimal overlap across all content areas.
  1. Develop ASHG Digital Programs – The DLC will have oversight of Digital Programs through an editorial calendar, developed and maintained by ASHG staff, with input from other committees and ASHG Journals. The DLC will offer feedback on new content types, monitoring and evaluation efforts, and implementation of digital programs from all the ASHG committees and ASHG Journals. They will involve members through surveys and explore ways to engage members in topic development to ensure that member needs are being met throughout the process.
  2. Review Workshops – The DLC will be responsible for the review and programming of Interactive Workshop submissions for both ASHG’s Annual Meeting and the year-round digital program.
2. Content Creation: The DLC will work with the ASHG community to cultivate a diverse list of scientific topics and potential speakers and will help convert them into digital program content that is of high interest to current and potential ASHG members. DLC will ensure a broad range of topics are included that span basic, translational, and clinical work in the genetics and genomics field.
  1. Webinars – As a part of the ASHG digital programs editorial calendar, the DLC will choose speakers and popular topics from across the genetics and genomics field and convert them into live or pre-recorded webinars of various lengths including short, interactive pieces up to longer, training length webinar series.
  2. AM Content Capture – The DLC will work with input from the Program committee and ASHG staff to determine which events to capture at ASHG Annual Meetings. These events will then be broken down into shorter, digestible pieces for posting and further dissemination on the LMS platform. The DLC will help to guide ideas for how to maximize the use of AM footage after the meeting to keep members engaged online after the in-person event.
  3. Podcast – The DLC will work with ASHG staff to capture audio interviews with ASHG members on various topics including their career trajectory, their research, and their outreach and advocacy efforts, to be shared in series aimed at insights into the scientists who make up ASHG.
3. Technology Innovation: The DLC, with support from ASHG staff, will stay up to date with technologies and platforms to ensure accessibility of ASHG digital programs.
  1. ASHG Learning Center – The ASHG Learning Center is ASHG’s learning management system which acts as a hub for all digital content produced for ASHG members. The DLC will provide guidance to ASHG staff on content management where necessary.