Student Consultation on Mobile Learning: methods,

messages and musings

Ceri Coulby Educational Staff Development Officer

Viktoria Sargent

Research Officer

www.alps-cetl.ac.uk

Poll Question

• When do you think students should be consulted on their OWN curriculum?– Pre-course start– Regular reviews throughout course– Post course– They shouldn’t be consulted

About the Projects• University of

Leeds• Final Year Medical

Students• 14 Re-Sit

Placements• PDAs for Mini-CEX

•ALPS*•900 Mobile Devices (PDAs)•16 Health and Social Care Professions•Assessment Tool

*Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings CETL: Universities of Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and York St John and Leeds Metropolitan Universities

Methods of Consultation• Initial PDA trial

(pre-placement)

• Post placement:Focus Groups and evaluative questionnaires

•All PRE-assessment toolbeing rolled out

•Workshop: Watched Scenario and Feedback

•Focus Group

•Simulation Exercise

Methods of Consultation (2)

NO INCENTIVES OFFERED!

Video

• https://www.alps-cetl.leeds.ac.uk/

Findings – Mini-CEX• “Typing was time consuming”

• “I think having an email/ phone number for support is important. I didn’t use this, but felt reassured that it was there”

• “My suggestion would be to keep the format simple and the number of assessments reasonable”

• “I have really enjoyed this placement. As compared to other placements I think I had a clearer sense of my goals and what I wanted to achieve. I really felt supported by people on the team and felt learning opportunities were made easily available”

IMPACT

• Scaled project for entire final year• Reduced the number of

assessments• Told students to use audio to

record feedback• Produced online training materials• Revised evaluation

Findings - ALPS

• “If the patient wanted to say something negative…then how does that student respond to that? And who’s going to support that student to deal with that afterwards?”

• “The assessment is usable although I feel the wording needs to be altered. The questions were appropriate – the multiple choice answers need to be decreased as they are too broad”

• “I feel the assessment would work well in practice if the student had full control of their own PDA and it was not used in a way which would place the student under more pressure”

IMPACT

• Recommendation that assessors receive service user feedback as opposed to students

• Language of assessment tool• Revised protocol for tool use• Guidelines for mobile device use• Further consultations

Negatives- Students do not always turn up!

- By consulting PRE- project, it takes longer to get anything produced. i.e. Assessment tool – continuous consultations

- Can only be done without time-constraints (re-sit students – finite amount of time, assessment tool – less time pressured)

- PRE-project consultation...more stressful for project team– Requires more resources and time

Positives

+HOWEVER – saves re-write time, and increases success chance of the first run of the project

+Consulting at outset made students feel more involved – and more engaged as a result

+Students feel valued- and more willing to engage in research

Reflection

• Consulting pre-project created a much more usable assessment tool as a result of consultation

• BUT it’s not always appropriate to consult PRE and POST

• How much student time are we able to/should we use up?