Re Inventing the Wheel.....or not.

None of us want to labour away to re design a course only to find that we are re inventing the wheel. Therefore if your course already exists it is important to consider what does and does not work in its current format.

The part of  the current Introduction to Midwifery course gains the most positive feedback on is the face to face learning in the classroom sessions. Ironically this is the aspect that will be lost if the course becomes entirely on line. Clearly a strategy is needed to mitigate this.

On closer inspection of the feedback from past students the aspects of the face to face sessions that they really value are when we bring in guest speakers, midwives and current students. My planned strategy to use video footage of both midwives and students will hopefully fill the gap of not having face to face time.

An added benefit of presenting in a video format is that we will have control over the content. For currently when we have a panel of midwives what they express and how they do it can fluctuate wildly depending on the mood they are in, current work pressures, recent occurrences leading them not to portray a consistent picture of what midwifery is. In using video we can ensure that all aspects of midwifery are covered and the message is consistent.

In the face to face sessions students have the opportunity to ask questions of the panel. Again this would be missing in an online medium. A way to overcome this would be to have a discussion forum linked to the videos and monitored by the midwife facilitating the course. Students would be invited to post questions to the forum stimulated from watching the video and the facilitator could post replies and encourage discussion from the wider student group.

While this will never be the same as face to face, equally it may meet the learners needs, just in a different format.

Staffing and Costs

Currently the Introduction to Midwifery Course has four facilitators attached to it, 2 in the South Island and 2 in the North Island. Their duties related to the course are development of resources, teaching in face to face sessions (3days), marking of assessments, contribution and supervision of forum posts, administration.

As the course is staffed from within the Midwifery dept, which operates its own uniquely developed workload allocation system, it is difficult to ascertain a direct staffing cost per the program. However what can be seen is that there are 4 staff for 3 days of face to face teaching, this is the equivalent of 12 teaching days and admin and marking would need to allocated staff time on top of these days.

Also another current cost to the course is that the staff and students are widely geographically spread. This means that both staff and students can travel great distances to attend the face to face sessions, adding cost for the students and costs to the employer for the staff as well as the time spent in travel.

Switching the course to online would mean that you could potentially reduce the number of staff involved in the course, thus allowing some freeing up of schedules, eliminate the need to travel, reducing costs and potentially allowing students anywhere in the world to participate.

Yet we should be cautious to see online education as the money saving alternative. There would need to be money spent on the development of the course and the resources, plus there would still be a staff allocation needed to supervise the forum discussions, address any questions and mark the final assessment if it stays as an essay.

While a more detailed analysis would need to be done regarding any cost savings of making the course online, it could be seen as a more sustainable option both from a student and employer perspective. Otago Polytechnic in 2004, committed to becoming a sustainable organisation and a leader in the field of education for sustainability by weaving education for sustainability into each programme of study (OP Leadership Team, 2004), this would therefore support the development of this course in an online format.

Reference:
Otago Polytechnic Leadership Team. (2004). Education for sustainability at Otago Polytechnic. Retrieved from http://www.otagopolytechnic.ac.nz/about/sustainable-practice/education-for-sustainability.html

Creating an online community.

As I consider the risks and benefits of changing the delivery method of the Introduction to Midwifery Course I am left pondering how to create the sense of community, that is easily generated in the classroom, in a similar way online. In doing this I am working under the premise that creating community is desirable to enhance the learning experience, however as I am essentially setting up a course that is a conduit for information sharing perhaps this premise is not necessary?

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education (cited in Fisher, 2003) fewer than 50% of students complete on line courses, thus creating community may enhance this number by encouraging a sense of belonging within the course and responsibility towards its completion.

How to do this without meeting face to face?

Clearly in the absence of face to face meetings there is a need to create interaction. Interaction an be:

• student to content
• student to student
• student to facilitator

Activities within the course to achieve this:

• use of quick quizzes or activities related to content throughout the course material
• use of a discussion forum with directed questioning to encourage student to student debate.
• use of adobe sessions, or similar for student to facilitator interactions.

Barriers to success of above options:

• not engaging with course material and therefore not participating in the quizzes or activities.
• need to constantly monitor forum using up staff time.
• inability to make adobe sessions. Course could be running constantly in an open education forum and therefore have participants at different parts of the course all the time.

Possible solutions:

• Use video and audio of the facilitator to introduce the course and engage the student with the content.
• Offer 'reward' or incentives of being able to move to the next step once one module or activity is completed. Thus the set up would be that when you embark on the course you cannot 'unlock' all the content until you complete the modules and activities to prevent skimming of the course.
• Encourage peer assessment within the forum and allocating specific staff time to attending to it.
• Rather than having 'live' adobe, use embedded videos of the facilitator speaking to different topics with the back up of being able to contact the facilitator by email or phone.

Hmm more thinking and planning to be done.

Reference:
Fisher, M. 2003. Designing courses and teaching on the web: a how to guide to proven, innovative   strategies. Maryland, USA: Scarecrow Education.

As the song goes..."video killed the radio star"

The current Intro to Midwifery course is run with two days of face to face teaching and is assessed with a group presentation and written assignment. I am thinking that the 'face to face' element could be removed as ultimately I would like the content of this course to be an 'open' design and able to be accessed by anyone at anytime. The main thrust for this is the course is about sharing information about the realities of being a midwife in NZ and the reality of the Bachelor of Midwifery degree. To better inform potential applicants, ease the burden on administration staff and promote the work of the Otago Polytechnic Midwifery department. The aim of the course is not primarily to assess knowledge, but to inform. Therefore it lends itself to being delivered online, but in doing so does not want to lose the elements that learners value in the current 'face to face' teaching such as meeting current students and midwives.

An idea to accommodate this would be to use video as a presentation medium. I propose to take video footage of current students, asking them questions about their experiences and also showing the various settings in which they study with the idea that a picture can paint a thousand words and the prospective students can literally see the sort of home office set up required for studying, the sort of classroom where student groups regularly meet and the maternity facilities where they gain practical experience.

A second set of videos could be produced with interviews with midwives in their various work settings, remote rural to high risk hospital units.

I do not envisage these videos being costly to produce as they could be edited in software available on home computers, they could be short to hold attention and could be updated as required.

The story so far....

This is what I have previously developed in relation to the learning outcomes for this course. Thought it would be good to post as I will refer to it as I develop my ideas.

LEARNING OUTCOMES	LEARNING ACTIVITIES	TEACHING STRATEGIES	CONTENT	ASSESSMENT
At a beginning level demonstrate understanding of midwifery and maternity structures in New Zealand.	Self -directed Moodle (or wiki) package that introduces content and context of NZ maternity system.	Have available on Wiki educator as a free resource. Adobe tutorial	Overview of the structure and function of the NZ maternity system and its relationship to the wider structure of NZ health system. Identify the roles and relationships of midwifery and maternity organizations eg NZCOM, MERAS, MMPO, Mof H.	Online quiz (self -marking) able to be undertaken numerous times until learner achieves 100%           10%
Briefly discuss the roles and responsibilities of midwives in New Zealand.	On line scenario based learning and/or videos of ‘real’ midwives in different settings discussing their roles and responsibilities. Initiate discussion of these videos in an online tutorial to then encourage learners to contribute to discussion forum to debate current NZ midwifery issues.	Have available on Wiki educator as a free resource. Adobe tutorial	Outline the legal and professional responsibilities of a NZ midwife. Consider the challenges to this including comment on media perceptions of midwives and midwifery care. Through the video footage of practicing midwives learners will be introduced to different settings in which midwives can work.	Discussion forum (terms requirement that learners contribute a minimum number of times)             20%
Demonstrate understanding of the learning approaches used in the Otago Polytechnic Bachelor of Midwifery programme and the expectations of student midwives within this programme.	Moodle package (or wiki) that introduces the courses, their delivery methods and assessments. Frequently asked questions component to this shell. If online use video footage of interviews with current or recent students across the programme or if face to face have a student panel that learners can discuss the realities of being a midwifery student.	Blended or online delivery? Mixed use of educational technologies across the course. Moodle, discussion forums, academic essay at beginning level. Adobe tutorial.	Over view of the papers and assessments and how they are delivered over the 3 years of the programme. Included in this will also be information about face to face sessions and the expectations regarding practical experience opportunities. Through the delivery of this course the learners will have experienced many of the delivery methods utilized in the programme, so simply undertaking this course will assist the learner in meeting this learning outcome.	Write an essay that describes how they plan to adapt and cope with the demands of being a midwifery student in the Bachelor of Midwifery programme. (This could form the basis of their application essay)         70%

Welcome to Assessment 3 Development Ideas.

Funny how education can take you to places you never thought you would go.........never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would become a blogger, what next Twitter????

The course that I am developing is an 'Introduction to Midwifery' aimed at learners considering applying to the Bachelor of Midwifery Degree at Otago Polytechnic. Currently Otago Polytechnic has a paper of the same name in its Certificate in Health Science. It is a Level 4 paper with a 10 credit value, running over 6 days with 60 hours of formal attendance and 40 hours of independent learning.

It is my vision that this course is well suited to being delivered via the web and could be made available on an open education forum. This blog will reflect my process in taking what is already existing and modifying it to become a web based course.

Hope you enjoy the journey with me, any feedback, suggestions will be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Emma