Within the midwifery curriculum we commonly use the discussion forums in moodle to support academic activities. This requires students to post their perspective on a given topic based on their research and to reflect on other participants postings. Here are a couple of points I have been reflecting on as I consider this medium as part of my course development.
“The online debating environment provides a very efficient setting to gather information on a topic through a process of student inquiry. The activity can be structured in a variety of forms to achieve particular learning outcomes (Lookwood&Gooley, p. 157, 2001)”.
Online learning has the potential to be isolating and solitary experience. On line debating can facilitate communication with the involvement of others students acting as stimuli and support for learning (Lookwood&Gooley, 2001).
Reference:
Lockwood, F., &Gooley, A.(Eds.). (2001). Innovation in open & distance learning. London: Kogan Page
Monday 26 March 2012
Activity 3 interview
Interview
Jade Wratten Midwifery Lecturer Palmerston North Midwifery Satellite (permission to name given)
This discussion revolved around the year long blended delivery midwifery practice skills paper (yr 1). This involves students meeting Jade once a week for a four hour teaching/debriefing sessions, moodle guided learning resources and clinical placements. For a detailed report outlining the five dimensions of flexibility please read my summary below I confess I find it hard to write the detail given concisely as a blog should be! I am still waiting for my second colleague to get back to me for her tips.
What have I learnt-
I had not thought to be so flexible with the venue choice for learning and how this affected the team building of the group. Do I have to use the booked classroom maybe we could sit out on the lawn for a while? Jade reminds be to be constantly seeking feedback and tailoring the session accordingly. Jade has infrastructure supporting her session. I need to negotiate Internet access at the hospital rooms that we book for our sessions in Wellington. Jade’s planning with her group gets good buy in to her sessions.
Thanks Jade
Summary Jade Wratten Interview
Time-Students can now pick the timing and format of their practice skills assessment i.e. iPad film clip or in front of lecturer as scheduled appointment. This is based on students saying when they feel ready and using the format they feel comfortable with to demonstrate competence. Previously this was role played with women at a given date during an intensive. Students get to use a wiki for rostering their clinical shifts (200hrs) which helps keep flexibility around family life and study commitments.
Delivery and Logistics-Modules are opened via a set schedule on moodle across the year (this is to help students work to a reasonable pace) and are archived for reference the following year. Elluminate/Adobe tutorials are recorded for those students missing or needing to refer to the content again. Students need a computer with certain applications preferably broadband and a headset. Students need a car to attend clinical requirements and to travel to intensive (unless pooling). Students need good planning as being on call to follow pregnant women means that schedules and deadlines for assignments can be disrupted if not engaging with requirements mindful of this uncertainty.
Entry requirements-This is an academic degree paper and students must meet NCEA level 3 in certain subjects and have a first aid qualification and health screening clearance. Confidentially is required regarding clinical aspects and a clear police record other than minor driving offences.
Content and instructional approaches-
Jade has a schedule of skills she needs to teach each week but negotiates the timing of this with her group. Often students want to get heavy academic things completed while fresh and debrief later in the session. Topics are often student led and can lead into other courses such as bio-science in order to facilitate integration. Students often negotiate the importance of a tangent and will sometimes opt to defer a designated topic to a less heavily scheduled session or to reduce its content that day (with more self directed learning) in preference. Jade often stops a session for feedback asking “are we on the right path, are everyone OK?” The weekly group decides based on the upcoming content where they want the session to be held. It is a popular preference to host each other at their own homes rather than the booked classroom. Jade feels they are developing a stronger sense of community through this student led innovation. Some students bring their babies and there is general support for need of comfort i.e. one students sits on the floor and another often stands due to back pain. Jade engages with her students a lot on a one to one basis via email, moodle discussion forum and on her cell phone which is free for students via the 0800 system.
Jade has a structured student who she emails the agenda of or her session to in advance. As the groups is small once a student attended via skype when geography was a challenge and at another session minutes were taken for a student that could not attend who wanted to know about the content.
Students can negotiate assignments be submitted in Te Reo.
Resources
Jade often uses her note book with students showing them material on moodle and the Internet that may help them to integrate the broader curriculum e.g. APA guides, EDC, Library, course outlines, year overview and exam and assessment schedules. These discussions often prompt students to share and help each other with their study skills in a blended curriculum. Jade has lots of negotiated support from UCOL in Palmerston North and students use their library and computers. OP distance services and CAPPEX are also resources that Jade is mindful of utilising. Jade has equipment for skills in storage and needs to ensure this is available for sessions mindful of the competing demands of other satellites for some of the more expensive equipment.
Jade Wratten Midwifery Lecturer Palmerston North Midwifery Satellite (permission to name given)
This discussion revolved around the year long blended delivery midwifery practice skills paper (yr 1). This involves students meeting Jade once a week for a four hour teaching/debriefing sessions, moodle guided learning resources and clinical placements. For a detailed report outlining the five dimensions of flexibility please read my summary below I confess I find it hard to write the detail given concisely as a blog should be! I am still waiting for my second colleague to get back to me for her tips.
What have I learnt-
I had not thought to be so flexible with the venue choice for learning and how this affected the team building of the group. Do I have to use the booked classroom maybe we could sit out on the lawn for a while? Jade reminds be to be constantly seeking feedback and tailoring the session accordingly. Jade has infrastructure supporting her session. I need to negotiate Internet access at the hospital rooms that we book for our sessions in Wellington. Jade’s planning with her group gets good buy in to her sessions.
Thanks Jade
Summary Jade Wratten Interview
Time-Students can now pick the timing and format of their practice skills assessment i.e. iPad film clip or in front of lecturer as scheduled appointment. This is based on students saying when they feel ready and using the format they feel comfortable with to demonstrate competence. Previously this was role played with women at a given date during an intensive. Students get to use a wiki for rostering their clinical shifts (200hrs) which helps keep flexibility around family life and study commitments.
Delivery and Logistics-Modules are opened via a set schedule on moodle across the year (this is to help students work to a reasonable pace) and are archived for reference the following year. Elluminate/Adobe tutorials are recorded for those students missing or needing to refer to the content again. Students need a computer with certain applications preferably broadband and a headset. Students need a car to attend clinical requirements and to travel to intensive (unless pooling). Students need good planning as being on call to follow pregnant women means that schedules and deadlines for assignments can be disrupted if not engaging with requirements mindful of this uncertainty.
Entry requirements-This is an academic degree paper and students must meet NCEA level 3 in certain subjects and have a first aid qualification and health screening clearance. Confidentially is required regarding clinical aspects and a clear police record other than minor driving offences.
Content and instructional approaches-
Jade has a schedule of skills she needs to teach each week but negotiates the timing of this with her group. Often students want to get heavy academic things completed while fresh and debrief later in the session. Topics are often student led and can lead into other courses such as bio-science in order to facilitate integration. Students often negotiate the importance of a tangent and will sometimes opt to defer a designated topic to a less heavily scheduled session or to reduce its content that day (with more self directed learning) in preference. Jade often stops a session for feedback asking “are we on the right path, are everyone OK?” The weekly group decides based on the upcoming content where they want the session to be held. It is a popular preference to host each other at their own homes rather than the booked classroom. Jade feels they are developing a stronger sense of community through this student led innovation. Some students bring their babies and there is general support for need of comfort i.e. one students sits on the floor and another often stands due to back pain. Jade engages with her students a lot on a one to one basis via email, moodle discussion forum and on her cell phone which is free for students via the 0800 system.
Jade has a structured student who she emails the agenda of or her session to in advance. As the groups is small once a student attended via skype when geography was a challenge and at another session minutes were taken for a student that could not attend who wanted to know about the content.
Students can negotiate assignments be submitted in Te Reo.
Resources
Jade often uses her note book with students showing them material on moodle and the Internet that may help them to integrate the broader curriculum e.g. APA guides, EDC, Library, course outlines, year overview and exam and assessment schedules. These discussions often prompt students to share and help each other with their study skills in a blended curriculum. Jade has lots of negotiated support from UCOL in Palmerston North and students use their library and computers. OP distance services and CAPPEX are also resources that Jade is mindful of utilising. Jade has equipment for skills in storage and needs to ensure this is available for sessions mindful of the competing demands of other satellites for some of the more expensive equipment.
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Activity Two
What does the term Flexible Learning mean to me?
Flexible learning to me is about facilitating learning and demonstration of knowledge in ways that suit learner styles and circumstances. This would probably mean the use of both synchronous and asynchronous activities and assessments. Flexibility I believe gives a level of empowerment to the learner but also responsibility in terms of engagement. This could involve concepts such as learning contracts. Self-direction is important.
A couple of years ago I engaged with a postgraduate distance paper and was really frustrated that in a 7 week schedule not all the modules were opened to view the content. There was an assumption that we would engage on a week by week basis and leave the summative assessment until the final week. I found this really frustrating as I had a week’s planned leave earlier in the course and wanted to ‘hit it hard’ then and also start working on my assignment. Writing a large essay in the final week made all sorts of assumptions about when we were able to engage with the content especially as the unopened modules focused on content integral to the assignment. Flexibility to me is about letting the student have some control over pace of learning and engagement with assessment tools.
I find collaboration and group presentations in a flexible environment challenging. Dependence on others for input into an assessment that may not have the same degree of enthusiasm or grade aspirations for the topic can be frustrating.
Why is it necessary to use a more flexible approach in your work?
Midwifery is an art as well as a science midwives can be aligned to various philosophical ideals based a tremendous variety of experiences and evidence they use to inform their practice. Partnership with women is central to the midwives focus which means midwives must adapt their practice accordingly. Similar situations may not warrant the same response as informed consent and choice guide interaction. Midwives will expect educators to have similar response to them as students in alignment with this partnership model. Women need midwives to remain embedded in their communities education needs to be sensitive to the realities of midwives lives and responsibilities i.e. dependents, on-call, shift work etc. It is not very practical for most midwives to leave their responsibilities to engage in education commitments outside of their communities especially as backup for extended periods can be hard to negotiate. There is so much more potential for education to be delivered creatively than the traditional class room setting than ever before. Internet resources and technological advances such as telecommunications and media mean that the ‘classroom’ as a physical location may rarely be used again?
Flexible learning can vary in more ways than learning at a distance it involves options in resources, activities and types of media to support learning (Collis & Mooen 2002).
“Flexible learning is a movement away from a situation in which key decisions about learning dimensions are made in advance by the instructor or institution, towards a situation where the learners has a range of options from which to choose (Collis & Mooen p.10, 2002)”.
Collis, B., & Moonen, J. (2002). Flexible learning in a digital world, experiences and expectations. London: Kogan Page
What do you need to explore to help this happen?
Need to understand how to produce and incorporate new mediums e.g. blogs, discussion forums, videos, power points, polls, quizzes etc.
I need to explore what the Midwifery council would view as acceptable demonstration of learning to allocate professional development points to the course.
What goals do you have for using Flexible Learning in your work?
• • Accommodate learner styles
• Academically robust
• Accessible
• Enjoyable
• Engaging
• Learner centered
• Academically robust
• Accessible
• Enjoyable
• Engaging
• Learner centered
Monday 5 March 2012
Introduction
Hi everyone my name is Fiona Coffey I am a
Student Practice Facilitator (SPF)/Lecturer in the School of Midwifery based in
the Capital. I am engaging with the course towards the end of my maternity
leave after having my second gorgeous son, this has renewed my empathy with
students who also juggle their competing personal aspirations with everyday
life and study (time is a precious commodity). Engaging with my profession as a
consumer has strengthened my perspective and passion for the role of midwives
in our communities and in turn my part in ensuring that graduates are well
prepared to enter this workforce.
As an SPF a significant part of my role is
pastoral care and within the blended delivery model of the distance midwifery
curriculum I feel like a bit of a personal trainer trying to help my group keep
engaged and on track. The student group I am focusing on for the purpose
of this course is the return to practice midwife. This person is a midwife who no longer meets
the recertification programme requirements for a license to practice and have
been instructed by the midwifery council to undertake a return to practice
programme. Within this group I am particularly interested in the midwife who
has had an extended break from practice and has never participated in the
midwifery standards review process. These learners are almost certainly women
who would be middle aged or older. It is
likely that their undergraduate study may have been completed through a
hospital based training scheme rather than through an academic institution
graduating with a diploma rather than a degree. Formal academic work is likely
to be a daunting prospect. Flexible learning is important to assist midwives to remain embedded in their communities. New Zealand has a shortage of midwives especially in rural areas and we need to find ways to facilitate our dormant workforce to return. I would like to develop a module of a course focused on midwifery standards review that is inclusive of flexible learning pedagogy. Midwifery standards review is cyclic licencing requirement which demonstrates professional development ongoing in line with the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/regulation-health-and-disability-system/health-practitioners-competence-assurance-act
I look forward to learning and engaging with you all throughout the progression of the Flexible Learning course.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)