The Connected Learner: University of Bradford

Sarah and I were invited to give a Key Note address at the University of Bradford conference: The Connected Learner: Distance Learning for the 21st Century last week. Through our networks we had been recommended to speak about our experiences in developing the MSc Advanced Occupational Therapy programme delivered online from registration to graduation (applications for Sept 09 intake accepted until August 24th 2009).
Whilst being nervous, we were very keen to both share our ideas and learn from the experiences of others.
The first Key note speaker, Palitha Edirisingha from University of Leicester talked of his work in the media zoo and the work of the Beyond Distance Research Alliance -. Palitha also referred to Salmon's 5 stage model of elearning which is something I intend to look at more closely in a quiet moment.

We then sat in on a couple of workshops on Second Life and the use of social networking in learning . As we were not staff at the university we had difficulty getting access to the internet - but it was a useful experience to see how delegates were introduced to Second Life, and the facilitiator, Will Stewart has kindly offered to share his extremely clear notes and instruction for us to consider using with our second year MSc students as we begin to introduce them to Second Life.

Lunch was very tasty, and we had a chance to chat to a few of the delegates. Sarah's chair nearly landed her in a very embarrasing situation - but luckily she managed to compose herself and the offending bolt from the chair was later found under the table to corroborate her story!

Sarah and I presented to the conference after lunch - potentially the graveyard slot - but we were well received and managed to keep to time. We explored (amongst other things) the importance of
a) the pedagogy informing the technology
b) being a student yourself of the technology before expecting others to engage
c) online identity (more of this soon in another post)
d) social constructivist approach - and being consistant with this
e) pushing boundaries and challenging self and others

We also shared what we have learned from our developments and what we have still to learn. Whilst there were very few questions immediately after our session, we were asked many at the plenary session. Most centred on how we are using negotiated assessment and the time resource requirements in developing and delivering a totally online programme.

What becomes clear as we network and reflect more about our programme is how innovative we are here at Salford with this MSc. Whilst there are pockets of online teaching and learning developments, very few are delivering whole programmes totally online using elearning principles.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to attend our Key Note address. We have been invited to join a couple of University online networks in Ning and Pebblepad - which we are looking forward to being involved in. We have also exchanged contact details with a number of people who are interested in what we are doing and may want to collaborate with us in the future. We are always happy to work with others and share ideas and experiences where relevant.

Time to regroup....

Has it really been that long since we posted? Our apologies to our regular readers - although as a team we have been undergoing some difficult times over recent weeks which I guess has impacted on much of what we do. In brief the University of Salford is in the midst of Project Headroom -
a plan to cut 150 frontline staff, with the aim of creating ‘financial headroom’ for investment - with particular investment in the planned Media City at Salford Quays.
To this end we have lost 2 members of our team to voluntary redundancy - so work has been in progress to look at how we will work with the Strategic plan whilst accommodating the changes within the team. Challenging change indeed! However, we have rallied and have some very clear ideas of the way forward. We are intending to focus on areas of collaborative research and innovation - so if anyone has any ideas they would be interested in working with us - let us know.

Competant, Proficient or Expert

image: St Pancreas Station statue
One of our recent posts has been discussing the issue of what undergraduates need to know. I did consider leaving this thought as a comment on this post - but decided to create a new post instead and would be keen to know your thoughts.
I really like what Creek(2009) has to say in her letter "Achieving a higher level of expertise". In this letter she discusses the nature of expertise in practice and states that within education, students are "taught that using a model for practice represents the highest level of skill" of the OT - a point she refutes by using Benner and Tanner's (1987) work on how expert nurses work and her own description of expert practice "the context of the intervention modifies the occupational therapy process and the therapists thinking, negotiation and action" (Creek 2003 p17).
The point she is making in this letter is that undergraduates are taught how to be competant and not proficient or expert in occupational therapy- therefore undergraduates need to understand that their approach to models of practice tends to be limited to an acceptable yet limited standardised and routine approach. Only with practice and experience can this be moved forward. Therefore those practitioners that are flexible, responsive and 'eclectic' with their use of models and interventions could be said to be practicing at a proficient and/or expert level.

References:
Benner P, Tanner C (1987) Clinical Judgement: how expert nurses use intuition AmJ Nursing Jan 23-31
Creek J (2003) Occupational Therapy defined as a complex intervention London:COT
Creek J (2009) Letters to the Editor: Achieving a higher level of expertise BJOT 72(2) 90

what do undergraduates need to know?

Here at Salford we are constantly reviewing our programme to ensure that we are enabling the students to gain the necessary skills that they will need in order to be more than capable clinicians and hopefully to further develop the profession in the future. We have thoughts and ideas about what's currently working and not working for us but I'd be interested to know what others think about what skills you think a band 5 'should' have. We are told fairly regularly by a small (I think) number of clinicians that our students don't have enough knowledge of anatomy and physiology. Is this important? Do we need this knowledge as OTs? I would also be interested to see what others think about theoretical frameworks that we teach students. They seem to be getting and understanding generic models (MOHO, CMOP, Kawa River) but getting confused about what we called intervention models (CBT, Neurodevelopmental, Psychodynamic, Biomechanical etc.) We're wondering whether this is because we're not teaching it in quite the right way and find that students talk about referring on to others regularly and don't seem to be able to articulate what they're doing as on OT....we want more on therapeutic activity rather than using a CBT approach for example. All thoughts and ideas greatfully recieved.