The use of action learning sets and wikis to enhance learning in clinical settings

Learning & Teaching Conference 2010: Re-thinking the Curriculum

Dr Stephen McKinnellDirector of e-Learning

Denise PrescottDirector of CPD

Faculty of Health & Life Sciences

Mentorship through Action Learning in Health and Social Care

National agenda plus a direct request from the SHA.

First delivered - 2007/08No use of wikis

Difficulties for action learning sets communicating/meeting

Serendipity – a chance conversationSuggestion– use a wiki

Student Characteristics

Multi-professional Health Care Practitioners: Nurses, Physiotherapists, Occupational

Therapists, Radiographers, Radiotherapists, Paramedics, Social Workers.

Working in advanced roles…senior, experienced staff.

May or may not have recent educational experience.

Most are not IT natives.

Working within the “IT” constraints of the NHS.

Action Learning

“Experiential Learning is the process of consciously learning from experience in order to improve future practice. Action Learning is an approach to the development of people in organisations which takes the task as the vehicle for learning. It is based on the premise that there is no learning without action and no sober and deliberate action without learning”

Pedler (1997)

Professor Reg Revans

The practicalities!

Usually groups of 4-8

May or may not be facilitated

Meet to discuss issues which need to be current

The owner of the problem must want to resolve it.

The process works for problems rather than puzzles.

The process Identify & clarify the problem

Identify and list all possible actions

Select which action to take

Action

Reflect & Review

Interprofessional Learning Driven centrally by government

Patient centred care…in teams (High Quality Care for All, (DoH 2008))

“Two issues are emerging in health care as clinicians face the complexities of current patient care: the need for specialised health professionals, and the need for those professionals to collaborate” (Hall & Weaver, 2001)

Cooperative/Collaborative Paradigm

In cooperative learning, students work in heterogeneous groups to support the learning of their members.

Wikis facilitate computer-supported collaborative learning, i.e., the development of collaboration by means of technology to augment education and research (Augar, Raitman, & Zhou, 2004).

Enhances peer interaction and group work, and facilitating sharing and distribution of knowledge and expertise among a community of learners (Lipponen, 2002).

Enhance asynchronous communication and cooperative learning among students, and promote cooperation rather than competition (De Pedro et al., 2006).

Community of Practice

Collaborative learning becomes even more powerful when it takes place in the context of a community of practice.

A community of practice consists of people engaged in collective learning in a shared domain. Thus, learning becomes a collaborative process of a group.

Community of Practice

Wikis can serve as a knowledge platform for a community of practice where members can share their knowledge with the group, put up interesting pieces of information, work together, discuss issues, etc. (Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006).

Wikis are characterized by some elements fundamental to successful communities of practice, including a virtual presence, a variety of interactions, easy participation, valuable content, connections to a broader subject field, personal and community identity and interaction, democratic participation, & evolution over time (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin, & Rudolph, 2004).

What are wikis

Websites that allow easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser;

Ward Cunningham “the simplest online database that could possible work”;

Hawaiian for “fast”;

Backronymed by some to “what I know is”

Usage – Group 1 (421) 2008/09(n = 6)

Page Views

Edits Contributors

Comments

11.6.09 16 1 1 0

18.06.09 23 3 1 1Action Learning Set Minutes (14/09/09) 17 1 1 0

Ambulance Induction Logbook 18 1 1 1

Home 151 3 1 3

meeting 17.08.08 1-2pm 22 1 1 0

meeting dates 31 2 1 2

Minutes 16.07.09 27 1 1 0

minutes format 22 1 1 0

minutes format structure 20 1 1 0

Minutes from Meeting 17/08/09 24 1 1 2

The rules group 1 18 1 1 0

Topic 1 63 2 1 6

Topic 2 47 1 1 8

Topic 3 33 1 1 7

Topic 5 15 1 1 2

Usage – Group A (421) 2009/10(n = 4)

Page Views

Edits Contributors

Comments

Group A rules 24 4 4 0

Home 148 9 4 0

Meetings 35 4 3 2

minutes 3rd June 24 6 2 4

Minutes from 19/3/10 Case scenario 2 21 5 2 0

scenario 1 - 11.3.10 34 6 4 0

Scenario 3 64 10 3 12

Scenario for 3rd June 30 1 1 6

Student Evaluations

“The teaching methods helped me to learn” SA = 3, A=5, N =1

“The module content and delivery prepared me for the assessment” SA = 3, A = 5, N = 1

Which aspect of the module did you enjoy most? Relevance of action learning to practice = 7 Use of wikis = 4

“The module exceeded my expectations and the action learning element was positive”

Take Home Message

Matching pedagogy to practice. Recognition that the delivery of teaching has to fit

the context. Sometimes when something doesn’t feel right it

isn’t right (even if student evaluations are okay) Positive experience of using wikis

Support action learning Support collaborative learning Support the development of Communities of

Practice Enhanced student experience Enhanced tutor experience

References

Augar, N., Raitman, R. & Zhou, W. (2004). Teaching and learning online with wikis. Proceedings of the 21st Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) Conference, Perth: December 5-8, 95-104. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/pdf/augar.pdf

De Pedro, X., Rieradevall, M., López, P., Sant, D., Piñol, J., Núñez, L., et al. (2006). Writing documents collaboratively in Higher education (I): Qualitative results from a 2-year project study. Congreso In- ternacional de Docencia Universitaria e Innovación (International Congress of University Teaching and Innovation), Barcelona: July 5-7. http://uniwiki.ourproject.org/tiki-download_wiki_attachment.php?attId=98&page=Uniwiki- Congressos

References

Department of Health (2008) High Quality Care for All, Stationery Office, London.

Lipponen, L. (2002). Exploring foundations for computer-supported collaborative learning. Proceedings of the Computer-supported Collaborative Learning Conference 2002, Boulder, CO: Jan 7-11, 72-81. http://newmedia.colorado.edu/cscl/31.pdf

Pedler, M. (1997) Action Learning in Practice, Gower Publishing, Surrey.

Schaffert, S., Bischof, D., Buerger, T., Gruber, A., Hilzensauer, W. & Schaffert, S. (2006). Learning with semantic wikis. Proceedings of the First Workshop on Semantic Wikis – From Wiki To Semantics (SemWiki2006), Budva, Montenegro: June 11-14, 109-123. http://www.wastl.net/download/paper/Schaffert06_SemWikiLearning.pdf

References

Schwartz, L., Clark, S., Cossarin, M. & Rudolph, J. (2004). Educational wikis: Features and selection crite- ria. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 5(1). http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/163/692