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.
No comments:
Post a Comment