Solving a problem.....what problem?

This module, along with others in the programme, makes the assumption that you are using a theoretically-grounded method or methods to solve a problem in order to facilitate learning for your students or for fellow colleagues in the case of faculty development initiatives. The question for this week is, what is the problem? How are we to know what the problem is that we need to solve?
This is where the ADDIE process begins. Analysis of the audience and the environment, or the curriculum, will guide you in understanding what it is you need to address and potentially guide you in deciding how to address the problem.

ADDIE, and other instructional design processes, is an iterative process. It requires the educator to begin with Analysis and then move through the process which will ultimately end with the process being another form of analysis through Evaluation.

Throughout this module, I will build on a graphical representation of suggestions and guidelines for how you will be able to frame your lEarning prototype or intervention within the ADDIE model.

Analysis could include identifying the module or programme and analysing it to determine where extra work could be done to facilitate learning based on feedback from students or academic outcome. It could include conducting a needs analysis with students through a survey or questionnaire, a focus group discussion, or analysis of module feedback comments. Once you determine whether or not your assumptions of the problem are supported by the afore-mentioned analysis, you can investigate potential solutions and analyse their ability to address the problem.

An example: 
An introduction to clinical practice module requires students to understand the value and importance of the patient interview. In the past, you have experienced students struggling with the patient interview in more senior phases of your course and make the assumption that if their introductory module were improved, their subsequent clinical practice modules would demonstrate this improvement through effective patient interviews.
Analysis for this scenario would include evaluation of the current teaching approach in the introduction to clinical practice module; a needs analysis investigating the need for a change or improvement in the  module executed by conducting focus group interviews with junior (currently in the Intro module) and senior students. 
Lets' assume that the students highlight a lack of preparation for real clinical practice and communication skills but shows that the theory of clinical interviews is strongly emphasized in the module.
The next step in analysis would include researching methods that could improve communication skills, methods that could facilitate application of theory, etc. You find that application of theory could be supported through the use of a flipped classroom, or assignments providing evidence of competence. The research should then go further to determine which would be most suitable for your environment and may then include a survey needs analysis where you determine whether or not students have access to technology that will enable them to engage with course material prior to class time (for a flipped classroom) or possibly record and submit electronic assignments demonstrating competence in interview skills.

As you can see from the scenario above, analysis before embarking on a solution to an assumed problem is essential. If I assumed that the way students are taught are incorrect and blindly went in to change the module structure, I would have no evidence to support it and may in fact have changed something that didn't need to be changed.

With this, I encourage you to begin your analysis process for your module/course. Comments are welcome should you have any questions, better yet, comment on each others' posts!

And so it begins....The boring admin part :)

Welcome to the FINAL module of your MPhil HPE coursework! I trust that you are approaching this with great excitement and not trepidation. As the final module, it is expected to be one that is complex and fitting for that of a "seasoned" and "critical thinking" Health Professional Educationalist.

Don't worry though, this module is far from boring. It is one in which, as promised, you will hopefully get to flex your HPE muscles that you have built up over the past two years using technology to facilitate the teaching and learning process. Though technology is a focus, I hope to engage with you in a discussion where we will start to change the way in which we approach these teaching and learning interventions, shifting from an E-learning to a lEarning approach. An approach in which learning is the focus and the electronic/technology component is just one of the tools used, along with content, teaching style, interactive group activities, assessment, etc.

In saying this, I would like to remind you that the approach that is used in this module is one of experiential learning. This means that you will be working on designing a new intervention/prototype, but at the same time use technology in a way that you could replicate in future as a teaching and learning tool through the blogs.

For each week of the module, you will have one aspect to focus on. The purpose of doing it in this way is for you to be able to focus your thinking and reading (and definitely writing) in a structured manner. As discussed at the beginning of the year, and in the module outline, we will be using one of the many instructional design approaches out there. ADDIE is a very basic, but useful method to use when embarking on the design of a new intervention. There are obviously many other design-based methods out there, however, for the purposes of this module, we will be focusing on this one.

I will be engaging with all of you on your blog as well as on this central one. It is also required of you to engage with your colleagues participating in this module on their blogs in order to learn through discussion and possibly collaboration. Please be sure to re-read the assessment structure for this module in the module outline and ask any questions you may have regarding this via the blog or the SUNLearn module forum.

I will be posting something specific to the focus of the week on each Monday of the module (don't worry, this post isn't it for the week) in order to begin the thinking and planning for your assignment. Remember, the finished product of this module is not to have completed the full ADDIE cycle, as the time given for the module is not sufficient. Instead, you are expected to at least complete the first three phases of the process Analysis, Design and Development; and then if it is not possible to complete the process with Implementation and Evaluation, to theoretically conduct these in a discussion in the assignment.

I look forward to this Exciting and Engaging
lEarning modulE!

*SUNLearn Forum message*

Dear Colleagues

I am happy to welcome you to the e-Learning elective. Please remember that we will be working exclusively via the blogger platform. The Central Blog healthElearning ( http://mphilhse.blogspot.co.za/ ) will be used to post discussion topics and share suggestions and guidelines for the focus of each week. The interactivity from your side via the blogger platform is compulsory and contributes to the mark for this module. This will require you to blog at least once a week on your personal blog that you created as well as comment on your fellow MPhil colleagues' blogs during the module. Though we will not use the regular academic platform, it is still an academic exercise and I would like to encourage you to search for, and share, as many articles as it applies to the work you will be doing in preparation for your assignment at the end of the module. 

A suggestion is to use the terms Blended Learning, when searching for articles, as this is the more common/acceptable term used these days. Some of the more useful databases, apart from Google scholar, are Wiley Online, Springer and Ebscohost. These can be found on the library website.

As a reminder for you, these are your colleagues that you will be working with for the next 4 weeks on this module:

Humphries	Petro	http://barebonesanatomy.blogspot.com
Masava	Beloved	http://belovednet.blogspot.com
Muniru	Ayishetu	http://simulationsatsmd.blogspot.com
Rambiritch	Vanitha	http://vanitharam.blogspot.com
Tin Maung Maung	Yamin	http://pomeyamin.blogspot.com

Please visit their blog to share your constructive ideas and feedback on their posts as the module progresses.

 I will post this forum announcement on the blog as well for those who may not check to see them here

Another year, another....

Today marks the eve of the e-learning module contact session with the MPhil HPE Class of 2015. I find myself wondering.... Is this another year with more of the same? Another year of angst and exhaustion following a tough contact week and even more nerve-wrecking proposal presentations this morning? Is this just another year of trying to come up with a witty theme and style for the module blog that half the participants aren't going to remember how to find in September when the module is about to begin?

Well, do not fear. I'm not some despondent, tired-to-be-teaching-the-same-module-again, type of facilitator. No, in fact I know that no matter how prepared or unprepared I may feel for our session in the morning, I am going to be excited when 8h00 arrives. Here's why...

At the end of this exhausting, angst-filled week that has marked the beginning of your final year, I get the chance to inspire an idea in at least one of you. I don't know if it'll be more than one or all, who will choose to take this elective at the end of the year (I will be happy with at least one though :) :) ). What I do know, is that every year, including the year that I sat exactly where you are right now, there is at least one person who finds this module liberating, a melting pot of ideas that consists of all the assessment, theories of learning, methodology, leadership, etc. that has been company in the early hours of the morning. In fact, I found this module so liberating that I branched out into a new career path while still using my passion for HPE as my true north.

And so, as I end of this part of the post, I would like to complete the sentence that I started in the title by saying: Another year, another opportunity to generate interest in the use of technology for enhancing teaching and learning.


Now for the " hard" part:

You will have signed up for blogger and started your own first blog (for many of you) by now. This blog post that you have written will remain text written in invisible ink unless you let us know where you are in the cyber-universe.

1. In the comments below, type your name and your blog address ONLY. 
2. Visit one of your classmates blogs (using the address you found in the comment section here).
3. Read what your classmate has written and respond to them in the comment section under their post.
4. Write your blog address and password down somewhere where you will remember it! (If you have a google/gmail account you use regularly, you will not need to do this as it is the same as that password)

And that is it!

You have completed your contact session for one of your 2nd year electives. Now I will say goodbye...and hopefully, hello to some (or all) of you later in the year again.

Struggling along and asking for directions....

It seems that many are getting a bit stuck along this journey. Do NOT despair!  Often it is about stopping and asking for directions when we take a detour on a trip. You may just find that the person who is assisting you is more interesting than if you hadn't wandered off. With that, I encourage you all to keep in touch with each other and to email me if you need to, as some of you have.

The Development phase in the ADDIE process is about trying to implement what you have planned without actually implementing  just yet. Let me explain with a very basic example of how someone would go through the first three phases of ADDIE...

I am a lecturer who has realised that my students aren't grasping a particular concept and believe that a group assignment may help them to understand this concept. However, this particular class doesn't work well together in small groups and often moan when I ask them to do so. I consider using Facebook as a platform since I know almost everyone in the class is using it for social reasons.

The Analysis consists of doing a small survey with the class about their interest in Facebook and use of it, as well as how they access the internet (home/cellphone/campus computers). I discover that they do not want to use Facebook for academic purposes and that there are some students who do not have mobile or home access to the internet. I then search for other options and discover that a site called Wikispaces is a nice option that will allow everyone to contribute to a wiki (online resource) without actually having to work on it simultaneously. I also need to find out if I need ethical clearance for attempting this if I want to write it up or present it as educational research.

I can then move on to the Design phase. In this phase I plan the assignment and ensure that I understand the website/online space of Wikispaces completely. I also decide on which students will do what and how they will be assessed. I need to design a basic training/demonstration session for students in class and ensure that there will be sufficient support for them, via email / message box in my office if they have questions.

This is where I will start the Development of my intervention. I set up the Wikispaces class page and invite each of the students to the site. I create a "training manual" for them on how to access and use the site and include a clear description for them on what is expected in the assignment. This includes reminding them of the fact that the internet is an open space requiring good academic writing skills and plagarism is not allowed.

This brings me to the focus we've had this week. The development of your intervention requires that you prepare fully for the Implementation phase. Should the first three phases be correctly carried out, the implementation phase shouldn't require new content to be created or excessive problems to arise. You will be prepared. Your materials are prepared. Your "plan B" options are in place. You are ready to IMPLEMENT.

Midion's Blogsite

Dear All We are struggling to add Midion's blogsite to the Course blogs on the right hand side. Until we sort it out, I want to invite everyone to view and bookmark his site to go and comment. His site address is: http://midionmapfumo1.blogspot.com/ Midion - now you have to write some posts for your fellow students to comment on!

eLearning Tools

I came across this ineteresting classification of eLearning Tools the other day - many of which I had not heard of before: http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/best-of-breed/. If you click on the links on the page, they just go to a short description on the same site - not very useful. You have to do a search to find the actual website hosting the tool mentioned.

Despite all the criticism often leveled at PowerPoint, it comes out as 4th most popular tool in their analysis: http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/analysis-2014/. Used properly, PowerPoint is an extremely flexible and powerful tool providing visual input and animation. However, many use it as a memory jogger and just place multiple bullet points on their slides - so called "death by bullet points". I posted a short video on YouTube on how to rather use PowerPoint: http://youtu.be/sICh1PNjFM4.

All of this can be overwhelming but the conclusion is don't make it complicated for yourself or for your students!

Developing your design

This week we take a step toward using what we have learnt in the analysis phase and putting it into action. The trick here is to NOT jump straight in and do  anything, rather, it is time to use the power of the pen / keyboard and design the intervention you have planned. Think about the students you are targeting, the module that you are working in, the problem you're addressing.....then, and only then, can you start to design the intervention.

I am currently sitting in another province in South Africa, on a family holiday. It would have been great to just jump into the car and start to drive. However, there were a few things that I needed to do first. I needed to know when both my family, and the family we're visiting, would be able to be on holiday. Once we knew that, we planned the route we would travel, estimated the amount of money we would need for our trip, looked at the weather to determine what clothes to wear, etc. etc. etc.

If we had not done all of this, we could easily have ended up driving along and getting stuck without petrol. Or perhaps we would have by chance arrived at our destination and found the family we're visiting were away on business. This is a very simple example that I am using to illustrate the importance of the phase we have just completed, Analysis, and the phase we are entering, Design.

Using the analysis of your situation, you will now need to design the intervention with particular attention paid to the possible pitfalls. If you are designing a new method of assessment using technology, have you thought about the adaptations needed in the teaching and learning activities of the module? You could be thinking of creating a learning activity using social media, but have you considered the ethical implications of this?

The design of any intervention requires a step-by-step plan of how you will execute your proposed endeavour. Do not underestimate the importance of this step....if we did that in the example I gave earlier, I would have ended up Richmond with a very unhappy family in tow :)

Analyse what? - Simple ways of finding out what your students want

In my previous post I suggested that you find out what the student needs are before starting any e-learning project. Remember, without a clear picture of what the needs are in your environment, you could be creating a lot of work for yourself designing a fantastic project or intervention that will never be used or appreciated.
There are different ways of determining what you should be focusing on, and I would like to share a few with you:

• Discuss potential issues with colleagues (often, what you identify as a problem is something that a colleague has already addressed and found a solution for)
• Conduct a short 'desktop analysis' of student feedback that has been received over time for your module.
• Send out a survey to students asking what their problem areas are in a module

These are just three ways of finding out where an intervention is needed. For the third idea, sending out a survey, a Google Form is a quick and easy way of collecting data.  Here is a short video clip on how to create and send the survey. I've also included the view that students will get as well as the results you can expect to see. 

Adding ADDIE to your GPS

Today the journey has officially begun for the 2014 tour group on the e-learning MPhil HPE safari. In order for us to be sure to reach our destination, we will have to add the route to our GPS. For this journey, you will need to follow the ADDIE route and to do so, let us go slowly through what that really means. ADDIE is a popular instructional design process whereby you systematically develop your e-learning prototype for this module. In this week, we are doing what all good travellers do, and that is to do an Analysis of your intended surroundings.

In this week, you are required to investigate possible ideas for your prototype, as well as identify who your target market is and what it is that they need.  The analysis includes analysing the job, selecting task functions and selecting the setting. Remember, you cannot expect your e-learning activity or project to be successful if you do not know what need you are fulfilling!

To help you get started, why don't you read this interesting article.

On your mark.....get set.....go!

Setting off on the Journey

We are less than a week away from setting off on the journey to the land of ADDIE. As I contemplate the process of designing the e-learning intervention/prototype that the students of this module will go through, I realise the importance of understanding the journey that all of them have already been on. I realise that there are those with extensive tour-guide experience in the land of Assessment, those who have collected the various postcards from the world of learning theory, and others who are tanned from enjoying the ocean of curriculum development. I look forward to being the tour guide on this next journey and hope that you are all buckled up, ready to enjoy the ride.

Welcome to the e-Learning MPhil HPE 2014 Module

I'd like to start the session today with a quote by David Thornburg: "Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer, deserves to be." A strange quotation to lead the discussion around an e-learning module? Well, through our discussions, thinking, writing, planning and blogging today, we hope to help you understand exactly how this quote is the perfect one for anyone considering a teaching and learning activity using technology. Resources and ideas will be shared with everyone in the session and hopefully, will assist those who choose this elective to start planning well ahead of time for their module. We hope that you will enjoy this journey we are about to begin and that your passport will be filled with stamps from all the digital stops you've made along the way.

Pirate on the High Seas of e-Learning

Final Assignment - We've arrived!

As the final bell is about to ring (Monday 4 November)on this module, a few administrative guidelines for the assignment. The final assignment should be no less than 5 pages (5-8 pages is a reasonable length) 1.5 paragraph spacing Arial, 11 Font. We look forward to receiving and reading your final products.

Arriving at the harbour...

As we enter the harbour after our journey through this module, there are a few things that I'd like you to keep in mind. As with any trip, when you will have pictures and memories of the journey. So let's make sure you have packed in your memory card before you disembark... In writing up your assignment, have you identified a need? If yes, then have you checked to see if this is your perception or a real need for staff or students in your environment. Be sure to include this in your writing. Using your blog and ideas you've developed, add (or pack in) all the relevant literature to support your ideas. Use these to start building the argument for why your chosen design and development plan was needed. Then finally, think about how you will check or evaluate the process (view and edit your pictures, if you will). Now, in order to disembark, we need to ensure that you have cleared all the cupboards and drawers in your cabin. This means, have you taken a look back at your curriculum analysis knowledge, your assessment knowledge or theories of learning? Have you taken note of how much you have learned, not just for this module, but throughout your MPhil journey and used this in writing up your assignment? Remember, you may not think of it now, but somewhere tucked away in the back of your mind (drawer) you have gained knowledge and skills in a variety of HSE areas....use these! I trust that you have all had a great journey and look forward to seeing the "album" (assignment) on 4 November.

e/merge Africa - Online Seminar - Designing Blended Courses for Low Resource Context: Will They Still Come to Class?

Please feel free to sign up/ follow the new Seminar Series on "Designing Blended Courses for Low Resource Context: Will They Still Come to Class?" hosted by the e/Merge Africa site.

I think the theme is crucial for those educators in our developing country contexts. To see more and to join the movement go to web address:

http://emergeafrica.net/live/

Nice Slide Share on the 7 C's of Instructional design

7 cs learning_design_mooc from Grainne Conole

ICS Learning Group: Instructional Design Strategies for eLearning

ICS Learning Group: Instructional Design Strategies for eLearning: The ADDIE model has got to be one of the, if not just *the*, most popular instructional models used in the eLearning development process. I...

e-Learning Acupuncture: Authentic Learning in Online Courses

e-Learning Acupuncture: Authentic Learning in Online Courses: The library at my school has a book entitled A Guide to Authentic e-Learning by Jan Herrington. Unfortunately, it is currently signed out....

Developing your developmental skills

As we enter week 3, I hope that you are all enjoying the experience (and not pulling your hair out!) of the module. This week we focus on the development phase of the project that you envision. Taking an excerpt out of Michael Allen's book "Leaving ADDIE for SAM" (pg 15), I'd like to remind everyone what the ADDIE model requires from the Development phase. In this phase you should be specifying the learning events/activities, specifying the instructional management plan and delivery system, reviewing/selecting existing materials, developing the instruction and validating the instruction. Remember, though that these are guidelines of what your process should be. Ultimately, this week you should be using what you know from the Analysis and Design phase of your project to really think about the details and theoretically come up with the materials you are going to use in your course/module/intervention. The end is in sight...so don't lose the momentum you've already gained working through the module. Finally, please remember to contact your mentors directly should you need some extra, specific assistance.

Don't Reinvent the Wheel or Free Medical Resources

If you are looking for some free medical resources in order to save you from having to create your own, check out Steve's Stuff.