Author: Jane Priestly, j.a.priestley@bradford.ac.uk

Author: Michael Hellawell, m.r.hellawell1@bradford.ac.uk

Author: Judith Hinton, j.hinton@bradford.ac.uk

Author: Bryan Walkden, b.walkden@bradford.ac.uk

JISC e-Learning Activity Area: Learning Resources and Activities

Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: Health Sciences and Practice

This case study illustrates...use of podcasting, an effect on student personal development, student satisfaction with e-learning, innovation in learning and teaching, staff satisfaction with e-learning, staff personal development, an influence on policy, management of learning assets, an effect on social equality

Tangible Benefits

What tangible benefits did this e-learning approach produce?

Student evaluation demonstrated a high level of satisfaction with the teaching and learning strategy, especially for the perceived degree of relevance to future practice. Course statistics taken from our VLE show a significantly higher usage in this module compared to an equivalent 20 credit module with 6539 "hits" as against 3990 in the 15 week period leading up to assessment.

Use of the VLE has exposed students to a wider range of issues and broadened the range of learning activities. It has catered for a wider range of learning styles and has facilitated the application of theory to practice.

A significant improvement in student satisfaction with the learning process has been evidenced in module and online evaluation:

"I enjoyed the session which for me reminded me of the importance of clear concise communication and reinforced the need to involve the patient/family in the discussion to avoid taking too much control and not allowing for their voices/opinions/concerns to be heard which could make the discussion less effective. The actors were great and made the scenario very realistic."

"I thought it was really useful, really liked talking to the family about their thoughts. I think it will be really helpful in the future."

"I thought the session was really excellent. It really opened my eyes to different communities and changed my perspective on some issues. Listening to Julie & Kevin's stories was depressing, but I think they are important for everyone to hear. I'd definitely ask them to speak to the students next year."

There has been a noticeable improvement in staff satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for, e-learning. This has also been noted within the department and across the School of Health. Staff have disseminated examples of innovative use of e-learning and shared practice within the department, the wider institution and with colleagues elsewhere.

An increase in service user involvement and community engagement has provided a means of increasing collaborative activity with external partners and enhancing patient and public involvement in course delivery through the medium of e-learning.

The project has enabled us to obtain more funding to develop the programme further.

Whilst no resource savings have yet been identified this is certainly anticipated once the approach is repeated and the learning materials re-used.

Did implementation of this e-learning approach have any disadvantages or drawbacks?

The implementation of this e-learning approach did have a few disadvantages. Despite the developments taking place as a consequence of the curriculum development and planning process, the time required to develop the approach was not fully appreciated. As a consequence it was not been fully factored in to the workload planning of staff and therefore relied on the staff team's ongoing motivation to push ahead with the developments. Another drawback identified was that not all students engaged with the material and some did not access it at all. It is acknowledged that this is something that is not just limited to these resources and engagement with e-learning is being discussed in the wider community. With the time invested, it was disappointing nonetheless.

Another drawback contributing to the previous point regarding time was the choice and integration of all the software and media options available to us. Accessibility was of paramount importance to us and as a consequence this influenced some of the decisions regarding software such as Course Genie. This gave us accessible web-based resources that worked seamlessly with the University's VLE. Additional benefits in using Course Genie were the use of MS Word based documents as a template, a programme all staff were familiar with. As a dedicated IT development team was not available staff with varying technical expertise were all able to contribute to the production of the web-based templates. When producing the media clips many options in terms of software and format were available. The materials were produced in a variety of different formats and file sizes to increase accessibility but this was time intensive. This approach has proved expensive particularly in terms of time and this could be a drawback to rolling it out within the wider curriculum.

How did this e-learning approach accord with or differ from any relevant departmental and/or institutional strategies?

This approach clearly accorded with the government's strategy for engaging service users within healthcare education. In doing so it pre-empted the University's strategy but has since aligned well with it. In addition to the engagement of service users it also clearly met the University e-learning strategy and has been highlighted as an area of good practice within the institution. That said at times the institutional strategy was not always explicit in the amount of time that should be allocated to such projects. In this respect the amount of time required to implement the project was potentially problematic and only possible through the goodwill of the staff team. The approach is now embedded within the module and has generated interest within the staff team and beyond. It is the intention that this should be rolled out to appropriate areas within the wider curriculum.