Health Professional Students as Resource Producers - Methods for Transitioning to a Web-Based Education.
|
If you are the presenter of this abstract (or if you cite this abstract in a talk or on a poster), please show the QR code in your slide or poster (QR code contains this URL). |
Abstract
Background
The number of quality clinicians entering the health workforce is directly related to the ability to deliver effective and efficient health professional education.
Web-based teaching and learning activities can produce comparable results to traditional teaching formats with respect to learner competency in both theoretical and clinical-based skills. Web-Based activities have the ability to overcome issues related to access and distance, and provide flexibility in the timing of student engagement with learning activities. However, adapting teaching and learning activities to a Web-Based environment can place significantly increased demands on staff time, finances, and information technology resources.
It is hypothesized that with the increased social demand for information technology hardware, video capability, and Web-Based skills within student life, students can benefit by actively contributing to the transition of educational materials to a Web-Based curriculum.
Objective
The primary aim of this research was to evaluate student perceptions of the educational value of their assignments being redesigned and published on a Web-Based platform to serve as ongoing teaching and learning resources for their student colleagues.
Methods
Undergraduate physiotherapy student assignments were redesigned to allow students to create brief instructional videos of the clinical skills for which they were trying to display competence. Each group of three students were allocated a particular clinical skill or sub-component of a clinical skill, e.g. professional communication, as the focus of their submission. Students were responsible for sourcing all aspects of their submission including simulated patients, filming, video-editing, meta-tagging and uploading to the Universities current online learning management system (Blackboard). Blackboard was also utilised for remote tutor quality review, before the submissions were published to a student searchable Web-Based repository of teaching and learning resources. The students completed anonymous surveys, including free text and 5-point Likert scale responses (ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree) to evaluate their perceptions of producing these educational resources, and their educational value. Ethics approval was obtained from Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee CF09/1420 – 2009000782.
Results
A total of 62 third year health professional students completed the submissions with 45% of students completing the evaluation survey. Of the students who contributed evaluations, 84% either agreed or strongly agreed that it was a good idea to create assignment submissions to become curriculum resources, and 67% reported that the redesigned tasks increased their enjoyment and task effort with the submissions. A further 78% of students reported an increased sense of purpose with the tasks, and 74% of students reported that reviewing their colleagues’ student-constructed Web-Based resources was equally as valuable as the staff-constructed resources. Content analysis of free-text responses found students reported that the fun, creative environment of constructing videos enhanced the learning experience. Student perceived limitations included difficulty with viewing varying file formats, and the time-consuming nature of constructing the resources.
Conclusions
Effective techniques exist for utilizing student skills and information technology hardware as producers of teaching and learning resources. Constructing the resources can be positive for the student as an effective educational method, and promoting adult learning skills. This educational approach also offers rewards to the educational institution by decentralizing the sourcing of information technology hardware, savings with tutor expenditure, and facilitating the transition to a Web-Based curriculum.
The number of quality clinicians entering the health workforce is directly related to the ability to deliver effective and efficient health professional education.
Web-based teaching and learning activities can produce comparable results to traditional teaching formats with respect to learner competency in both theoretical and clinical-based skills. Web-Based activities have the ability to overcome issues related to access and distance, and provide flexibility in the timing of student engagement with learning activities. However, adapting teaching and learning activities to a Web-Based environment can place significantly increased demands on staff time, finances, and information technology resources.
It is hypothesized that with the increased social demand for information technology hardware, video capability, and Web-Based skills within student life, students can benefit by actively contributing to the transition of educational materials to a Web-Based curriculum.
Objective
The primary aim of this research was to evaluate student perceptions of the educational value of their assignments being redesigned and published on a Web-Based platform to serve as ongoing teaching and learning resources for their student colleagues.
Methods
Undergraduate physiotherapy student assignments were redesigned to allow students to create brief instructional videos of the clinical skills for which they were trying to display competence. Each group of three students were allocated a particular clinical skill or sub-component of a clinical skill, e.g. professional communication, as the focus of their submission. Students were responsible for sourcing all aspects of their submission including simulated patients, filming, video-editing, meta-tagging and uploading to the Universities current online learning management system (Blackboard). Blackboard was also utilised for remote tutor quality review, before the submissions were published to a student searchable Web-Based repository of teaching and learning resources. The students completed anonymous surveys, including free text and 5-point Likert scale responses (ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree) to evaluate their perceptions of producing these educational resources, and their educational value. Ethics approval was obtained from Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee CF09/1420 – 2009000782.
Results
A total of 62 third year health professional students completed the submissions with 45% of students completing the evaluation survey. Of the students who contributed evaluations, 84% either agreed or strongly agreed that it was a good idea to create assignment submissions to become curriculum resources, and 67% reported that the redesigned tasks increased their enjoyment and task effort with the submissions. A further 78% of students reported an increased sense of purpose with the tasks, and 74% of students reported that reviewing their colleagues’ student-constructed Web-Based resources was equally as valuable as the staff-constructed resources. Content analysis of free-text responses found students reported that the fun, creative environment of constructing videos enhanced the learning experience. Student perceived limitations included difficulty with viewing varying file formats, and the time-consuming nature of constructing the resources.
Conclusions
Effective techniques exist for utilizing student skills and information technology hardware as producers of teaching and learning resources. Constructing the resources can be positive for the student as an effective educational method, and promoting adult learning skills. This educational approach also offers rewards to the educational institution by decentralizing the sourcing of information technology hardware, savings with tutor expenditure, and facilitating the transition to a Web-Based curriculum.
Medicine 2.0® is happy to support and promote other conferences and workshops in this area. Contact us to produce, disseminate and promote your conference or workshop under this label and in this event series. In addition, we are always looking for hosts of future World Congresses. Medicine 2.0® is a registered trademark of JMIR Publications Inc., the leading academic ehealth publisher.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.