Leveraging Education 2.0 for Health Care Leadership and Improvement
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Abstract
In addition to offering a convenient approach to overcoming geographic barriers, web 2.0 and mobile-based approaches to medical education may also serve as a cultural contagion spreading the growth of innovation and multidisciplinary collaboration within health care. Early experience from the first year of a new, 18-month hybrid online/residential degree program in health care delivery provides insight into one approach to leveraging curriculum design, course structure, and educational delivery to support program learning objectives. Some key lessons learned about web 2.0 educational implementation and delivery are outlined below.
Distance education delivered over the internet allows adult working professionals to apply classroom lessons to their workplace in near-real time, and to pursue advanced training without long absences from their workplace. A hybrid model combining distance education and brief residential periods also offers opportunities for introducing students to valuable cultural traits and practices characteristic of the web 2.0 community that are often absent from health care culture. These include leveraging meaningful and useful existing technologies that support: 1) Creative, interdisciplinary problem solving with an emphasis on collaboration and interactivity; 2) A willingness to be daring, experiment with platforms and approaches, learn from failures and constantly iterate; 3) Practical uses of data and outcomes, and a focus on value; 4) Assessing and managing consistent streams of incoming information; 5) Swiftly gaining working knowledge of new technologies, programs and platforms.
The suite of 2.0 tools supporting this approach to graduate education delivery include custom iPad apps, simulations, a learning management system, web conferencing tools, lecture capture and streaming technologies, digital coursepacks, discussion boards, and social media tools such as Twitter and blogs.
Practices that support a cultural shift towards 2.0 approaches include de-emphasizing grades; “public†assignment submission; constant feedback, modification and iteration; deep collaboration between participants, faculty and support staff in the constant quality improvement of course materials and delivery methods.
It is challenging to deliver a “high-touch†educational program that is integrated, interactive, richly personal and of high value and quality. Challenges include the need for a sophisticated information technology infrastructure; faculty training for online teaching; cross-platform user support, often with a high degree of end-user computer security; nurturing interpersonal relationships in a virtual online environment; ensuring cohesion of taught principles and delivery principles; and building an implementation team driven to innovate in a “start-up†environment.
Through deliberate design processes that harness and embody the technological assets of web 2.0 along with its approaches and culture, a distance-based, internet delivered education not only transcends geography, but provides value-added skills that reinforce and strengthen health care education.
Distance education delivered over the internet allows adult working professionals to apply classroom lessons to their workplace in near-real time, and to pursue advanced training without long absences from their workplace. A hybrid model combining distance education and brief residential periods also offers opportunities for introducing students to valuable cultural traits and practices characteristic of the web 2.0 community that are often absent from health care culture. These include leveraging meaningful and useful existing technologies that support: 1) Creative, interdisciplinary problem solving with an emphasis on collaboration and interactivity; 2) A willingness to be daring, experiment with platforms and approaches, learn from failures and constantly iterate; 3) Practical uses of data and outcomes, and a focus on value; 4) Assessing and managing consistent streams of incoming information; 5) Swiftly gaining working knowledge of new technologies, programs and platforms.
The suite of 2.0 tools supporting this approach to graduate education delivery include custom iPad apps, simulations, a learning management system, web conferencing tools, lecture capture and streaming technologies, digital coursepacks, discussion boards, and social media tools such as Twitter and blogs.
Practices that support a cultural shift towards 2.0 approaches include de-emphasizing grades; “public†assignment submission; constant feedback, modification and iteration; deep collaboration between participants, faculty and support staff in the constant quality improvement of course materials and delivery methods.
It is challenging to deliver a “high-touch†educational program that is integrated, interactive, richly personal and of high value and quality. Challenges include the need for a sophisticated information technology infrastructure; faculty training for online teaching; cross-platform user support, often with a high degree of end-user computer security; nurturing interpersonal relationships in a virtual online environment; ensuring cohesion of taught principles and delivery principles; and building an implementation team driven to innovate in a “start-up†environment.
Through deliberate design processes that harness and embody the technological assets of web 2.0 along with its approaches and culture, a distance-based, internet delivered education not only transcends geography, but provides value-added skills that reinforce and strengthen health care education.
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