I would like to give you a quick summary of the AMEE Guide for e-Learning in Medical Education (Ellaway & Masters, 2008) – and apply it to the South African context.
The first part of the guide is an overview of e-learning, e-teaching and e-assessment for novices, while the second half of the guide focuses on the day-to-day issues of e-learning, looking both at theoretical concepts and practical implementation issues.
I’m not going to bore you with the e-learning-for-idiots part, but just highlight a few issues what I think is relevant to our situation.
As I was reading through the AMEE guide, what struck me was the reference to two e-Learning paradigms: e-learning content vs. e-learning processes.
e-Learning content can be divided into, for example, online course materials, e-books, e-library, commercial e-learning content (e.g. Apple health apps), plug-and-play plug-ins to WebCT and Blackboard, the internet as a whole (e.g. Google Scholar, Wikipedia), podcasts, vodcasts, RSS, etc. One advantage of placing content online, is that it can be divided into chunks that can be reused for various courses and reduce duplication (e.g. one link for everyone if you use the same diagram in different modules).
e-Learning processes evolve over time, e.g. online discussions, chat, conferencing, e-assessment, e-portfolios, etc. It also supports increasing the common outcomes or competency frameworks (e.g. CanMEDS) by cross-mapping the internal curriculum. A potential great advantage of an e-Learning system is to develop and assess the longitudinal development of graduate attributes in students. Unfortunately most e-courses are discrete courses and may not support tracking of curricula integration, sequencing patterns, etc.
The guide suggests that longitudinal e-portfolios may be the answer to develop and assess graduate attributes, through blogging, reflection, appended files, assessment, etc. In our context it could mean that students are enrolled to a ‘Graduate Attribute’ e-module over a course of 6 years, compiling evidence of his/her growth in the key competencies needed to be a doctor in the 21st century.
In our context the big challenge is to ensure that students take the development of the key competencies serious and that they are mature in self- and peer review. This may be why a signature learning experience in the first year may be of importance: to lay the foundation from day one to equip freshmen with the competencies to develop graduate attributes and to develop a longitudinal e-Portfolio.
Sources:
Ellaway, R. & Masters, K. 2008. AMEE Guide 32: e-Learning in medical education. Part 1: Learning, teaching and assessment. Medical Teacher, 30:455-473
Wiley, D.A. (Ed.). 2000. The Instructional Use of Learning Objects [online]. Available: http://reusability.org/read [2011 October, 21].
Your idea of a longitudinal e-Portfolio makes a lot of sense. In this way it will become the students' responsibility to prove that they do possess these key competencies. I am just wondering about the following:
ReplyDelete1. What do you see as a 'signature learning experience' in first year?
2. How will you go about assessing these portfolios?
Sounds like a great idea to me.
The signature learning experience will be at the beginning of the first year. After an initial orientation upon arriving on campus, students will be placed for 2 weeks in a rural community, where they will conduct household and health system surveys in IP teams using mobile technology to capture data real-time. This will take place in partnership with local government authorities and community forums. It will also serve as an opportunity for students to reflect on their personal and own profession’s role in addressing the health needs of the 21st century. It will facilitate an appreciation of the roles other professions play in meeting the needs of the community and assist to break down the institutional barriers between education, research and community engagement, as well as assisting the integration of the live-learn spaces.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great. My experience is that students almost never have an idea of the patient's real context - where they live, what their house and community looks like, the different roles of the inhabitants of the house, community facilities available, etc. This will be a rude awakening for some - but essential for planning optimal intervention. And as you say - the students will immediately learn about the their own and other professions' roles.
ReplyDeleteIs this definitely happening in 2012? Please keep me updated - sounds so interesting.
This article may be of interest to you - maybe you have it already?
ReplyDeleteCarbonaro, M., et al. 2008. Integration of e-learning technologies in an IP health science course. Medical Teacher, 30, 25-33.