01.11 The newsletter of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine, Spring 2006

Issues and news on learning and teaching in medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine

Print: ISSN 1740-8768

Online: ISSN 1479-523X

In this issue

New African veterinary schools network
Why, who and what is a medical care practitioner?
The online learning issue

Other publication formats

This issue is also available as a low resolution PDF document suitable for printing.

Welcome!

Welcome to the summer edition of 01. In this issue you will find a selection of articles, some commissioned and some sent to us in response to our advertisement. We had a great response to our request for unsolicited material - so please do keep sending articles to us with descriptions of your educational developments to newsletter@medev.ac.uk

There is an online learning theme to this issue, with articles on patient pathway models for online simulation, eModerating for healthcare educators, finding and evaluating health and life science information on the internet and the African Universities Veterinary eLearning Consortium. We also hear from the winners of the 2005 THES/Academy eTutor of the Year, learn about the latest online materials for supporting new academic staff, and discover how St George's, University of London has been repurposing existing learning materials to share. Finally we find out about how Sheffield Medical School has been using online assessment.

There is a call for JISC-related eLearning case study proposals - you can get up to £1K for each case study with up to £25K available overall, so make sure you fill in the online form and tell us about your experiences.

Advancing skills for professionals in the rural economy Dr Abigail Hind,Aspire, Harper Adams University College
A patient pathway model for clinical learning in treatment centres Dr Sharon Buckley, Medical Education Developer, University of Birmingham and Project Manager, BBC Strategic Health Authority CITEC Mr David Morley, Medical Education Developer, University of Birmingham Dr Sharon Jones, Consultant and Clinical Sub Dean, Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust Dr John Couperthwaite, Educational Technology Team Manager, University of Birmingham Medical School Hemant Ojha, Consultant Urologist, Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust Peter Appleton, Development Manager, Electronic Bookings, Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust, Mr Thierry Boucheny, IT specialist, Education Development Unit, University of Birmingham
Workshop report: eModerating for health care educators - what I didn't know about eLearning Ms Sally Wilks, eLearning Co-ordinator, Peninsula Medical School
Conference report:AVTRW Gill McConnell, Educational Development Manager, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh
Miniproject update:A new class of doctors. The health science graduate entry into medicine Dr Heather Crick, Lecturer in Integrated Medical Sciences Dr Adrian Hastings, General Practitioner and Senior Lecturer in Medical Education Dr David Heney, Phase 2 Coordinator, Department of Medical and Social Care Education, Leicester Medical School
Workshop report: The best of the web - finding and evaluating health and life science information on the internet Robert Abbott, BIOME Service Officer, and Laurian Williamson, BIOME Content Coordinator, University of Nottingham
Conference report: Innovations in disability equality education Paul Dieppe, Professor of Health Services Research, University of Bristol, Director, MRC Health Services Research Collaboration, Chairman of the Health Council
AUVEC: A new African veterinary schools network empowering animal health services with eLearning David Dewhurst, Professor of eLearning Technology Section, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, Dr Mark Eisler and Dr Sue Welburn, University of Edinburgh
Our course and winning the THES/Academy eTutor award 2005 Petra Boynton, Deborah Swinglehurst,Trisha Greenhalgh, Jill Russell, Geoff Wong, The International Primary Health Care course team, Open Learning Unit, Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, University College London
EEBP: Education for evidence-based practice Dr Kevork Hopayian, Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, University of East Anglia
Latest developments in the Academy supporting new academic staff (SNAS) project Nigel Purcell, Senior Educational Advisor, Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry & Veterinary Medicine
Why, who and what is a medical care practitioner? Dr Olwyn M.R.Westwood, Reader in Medical Education, European Institute for Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Frank C Hay, Professor of Immunology, Centre for Medical and Health Care Education, St GeorgeÕs, University of London
Workshop report: Standard setting for undergraduate examinations a beginners' practical guide Dr Katharine Boursicot, Head of Assessment, Barts and The London School of Medicine Queen Mary University of London, Trudie Roberts, Professor of Medical Education and Head of Medical School, University of Leeds
Project focus: REHASH Chara Balasubramaniam, Terry Poulton, Raja Habib, Trupti Bakrania, Arnold Somasunderam, Maryam Vahdat and Sheetal Kavia, St GeorgeÕs, University of London
A touchstone for online summative assessment Dr Simon Wilkinson, Dr Reg Dennick and Heather Rai, Medical Education Unit, University of Nottingham
Forthcoming educational events and conferences
Workshop programme and funding opportunities

Welcome Gillian Brown

The Subject Centre is delighted to welcome Gillian Brown as our new Education Advisor.

Gillian joins us from a solid project management background at Newcastle University, and has been a great addition to the team since she joined us in February this year. Gillian will be the face of many of the activities of the Subject Centre, so if you haven't met or heard from her yet, you soon will, as she zooms round the country to workshops and conferences. With her dance interests, we are sure that Gillian will keep us all on our toes!

To get in touch email gillian@medev.ac.uk or call 0191 222 5888.

Call for JISC-related eLearning case study proposals

(up to £1K each / ~£25K available overall)

We and the JISC www.jisc.ac.uk (who have made available the majority of funding), wish to commission case studies in our subject areas detailing experiences of using tools and services to support eLearning, such as those developed under (but not limited to) JISC X4L or Distributed eLearning (DeL) Tools.

The primary purpose is to:

raise awareness of JISC support services and tools (novice PIs are particularly welcome)
embed the outcomes of past work on IPR and consent (see, for example, www.creativecommons.org, www.cherri.mvm.ed.ac.uk)
promote and document innovation and collaboration
promote sharing of resources and experience
link national services to institutional learning and teaching strategies and procedures.

You might wish to document sharing your own learning and teaching materials (e.g. images, digital video, assessment items, metadata, or content packages), or adapting and using materials made available by others.

Priority will be given to imaginative proposals using the following:

digital repositories (e.g. JORUM www.jorum.ac.uk)
question item banking tools and processes (e.g. TOIA www.toia.ac.uk)
packaging content (e.g. RELOAD www.reload.ac.uk)
JISC services (e.g. TechDis www.techdis.ac.uk, JISC Legal Information www.jisclegal.ac.uk or JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service www.jiscpas.ac.uk)
engagement with and embedding of tools developed under, e.g., JISC DeL funding

You may submit as many proposals as you wish, by the closing date of 30th June 2006.

Please see the website for terms and conditions, and contact Suzanne Hardy (suzanne@medev.ac.uk / 0191 222 5888) to discuss your ideas.

http://www.medev.ac.uk/resources/proposals/miniprojects4/

Erratum: We wish to acknowledge the JISC Regional Support Centre for Yorkshire and Humber www.rsc-yh.ac.uk who jointly organised, with the Higher Education Academy,the workshop on Open Source VLEs, described on page 26 of the Spring 2006 edition of the newsletter.

Advancing skills for professionals in the rural economy

Dr Abigail Hind, Aspire, Harper Adams University College

In January 2005 the Government awarded Harper Adams University College funding to establish Aspire, a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), in recognition of demonstrated excellence in higher education.

Harper Adams was selected in recognition of its outstanding work in:

helping students develop their academic and professional skills
providing work-based learning for sandwich students
meeting the continuing professional development needs of rural professionals requiring short courses and part-time study
supporting those with a disability.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England granted Harper Adams £1.94 million to reward its achievements and enable further excellence to be developed and shared with others.

Aspire was selected based on evidence from external reviews, student progression and achievement data, graduate employment track record and student satisfaction.

Aspire is the only CETL located within an institution or university faculty that specialises in supporting the needs of the rural economy, land-based and food sectors.

What will Aspire do?

The purpose of Aspire is to promote excellence in teaching and learning in higher education. Staff will work with students from Harper Adams and colleagues from other universities and colleges to develop innovative ways to teach and support learning.

The work will specifically focus on supporting:

placement learning
continuing professional development through part-time and work-based learning
transferable academic and professional skills (communication, numeracy, IT, problem solving, team work, personal development and career management)
learner support for disabled students and those needing assistance to develop specific study or numeracy skills
learning using information and communication technologies.

Employers and professional bodies will also be involved in order to contribute to the development of new ideas.

What additional resources does Aspire provide?

The funds will be used to:

Create the Aspire Centre in the heart of the campus which will provide staff, students and rural professionals with a stimulating place to work, to study and to access support and resources.
Improve the IT platform so that learning technologies can be enhanced through an improved learning environment and support for both campus-based students and distance learners.
Provide the specialist support, professional development, time and rewards to encourage and enable staff and students to develop and evaluate learning and teaching innovations.
Harness the imagination and creativity of staff to develop and reflect on innovative approaches to learning and learner support, through Aspire fellowships.
Support staff to share their work and findings, internally, and externally through speaking at learning and teaching events, contributing to research-based publications and by providing opportunities for inward secondments for colleagues from other universities and colleges.

For more information please contact:

Dr Abigail Hind, Aspire Director

amhind@harper-adams.ac.uk

for overall programme, fellowship and secondment schemes

Mr Kevin Brace, E-learning Development Officer

kbrace@harper-adams.ac.uk

for e-learning

Mr Charles Cowap, Lifelong Learning & Curriculum Manager

cdcowap@harper-adams.ac.uk

for work-based learning

Mrs Helen Hammond, Professional Skills Co-ordinator

hhammond@harper-adams.ac.uk

for professional and research skills development

Mrs Jane Hill, Learner Support Co-ordinator

jhill@harper-adams.ac.uk

for study skills and disabled student support

Mrs Sarah Parsons, Numeracy Support Tutor

sjparsons@harper-adams.ac.uk

for numeracy skills and maths support

Dr Russell Readman, Placement Co-ordinator

rreadman@harper-adams.ac.uk for placement learning

www.harper-adams.ac.uk/aspire

A patient pathway model for clinical learning in treatment centres

Dr Sharon Buckley, Medical Education Developer, University of Birmingham and Project Manager, BBC Strategic Health Authority CITEC

Mr David Morley, Medical Education Developer, University of Birmingham

Dr Sharon Jones, Consultant and Clinical Sub Dean, Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust

Dr John Couperthwaite, Educational Technology Team Manager, University of Birmingham Medical School

Hemant Ojha, Consultant Urologist, Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust

Peter Appleton, Development Manager, Electronic Bookings, Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust

Mr Thierry Boucheny, IT Specialist, Education Development Unit, University of Birmingham

University Departments and NHS Trusts within the West Midlands, under the auspices of the Birmingham and Black Country Strategic Health Authority Centre for Innovation and Training in Elective Care (CITEC) and the West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority Inter-professional Learning Group, have established a project to develop treatment centre-based inter-professional clinical attachments for undergraduate students of medicine and the allied health professions.

In a climate in which increasing student numbers and changing patterns of inpatient care are making traditional ward-based teaching more difficult, and in which understanding of the approach to patient care adopted by treatment centres will be important for the health professionals of the future, it is essential to exploit to the full the educational opportunities offered by such centres.

Within the NHS, less seriously ill patients are increasingly cared for in treatment centres and other managed care environments, rather than in traditional, in-patient settings. Such changes offer both opportunities and challenges for the education of future health professionals. Here in the West Midlands, Universities and NHS Trusts have embarked on a project to develop treatment centre-based clinical attachments for undergraduate students in medicine and the allied health professions. The project will explore the potential for inter-professional learning in such environments, will identify the good practice needed to make such attachments successful, and will assess the contribution to be made by on-line virtual patient type simulations.

The project builds on work undertaken for undergraduate medical students at Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust. Medical students at Good Hope undertake a one week attachment to the Treatment Centre during which they undertake a series of activities to help them understand the clinical process from initial recognition of symptoms by the patient, through to discharge. This includes a preparatory on-line simulation, clinical experience in the treatment centre, and associated follow up work.

The on-line simulation follows a patient pathway model in which the student follows a virtual patient through each stage of referral, diagnosis and treatment (Figure 1). Two care pathways are currently available, haematuria and transient ischaemic attack (TIA). In each, the use of video clips of consultations and associated activities encourage the students to view the journey as an integrated whole, rather than as a series of discrete steps.

Key features of the patient pathway-based on-line simulations for haematuria and transient ischaemic attack

Patient perspective focus
Video clips of a virtual patient at each stage of the patient journey
Interactive activities that simulate as far as possible actual clinical tasks
Formative MCQ and open text questions with feedback on answers

Activities simulate, as far as possible, the tasks the student will undertake when qualified, for example, preparation of a GP referral letter using information from video sequences of a GP consultation and interpretation of investigation results.

Formative MCQ and open answer questions, with feedback, are included, as are questions that encourage the students to empathise with and reflect on the patient's experience. Initial student evaluation of the usefulness of the simulation is very encouraging.

The potential of the model for inter-professional learning was recognised at an early stage of the development and, over the last few months, project groups to consider how this might be done have been established at each of the NHS Trusts within the West Midlands that have Treatment Centres. At Good Hope, project groups are developing two patient pathway-based clinical attachments, one for pre-operative assessment, and one for falls and fractures. At Kidderminster, a project group is adapting the existing haematuria pathway into an inter-professional attachment for medical, nursing and radiography students and are in the first stages of preparing an attachment relating to the breast cancer pathway. Sandwell and West Birmingham (City Treatment Centre) will, over the next few months, develop pathway attachments for chest pain, arthritis, and, possibly, back pain. We hope to have a number of pilot attachments running in the 06-07 academic year.

For more information about the project, please contact Sharon Buckley at s.g.buckley@bham.ac.uk or sharon.buckley@bbcha.nhs.uk

Acknowledgements:

The project groups gratefully acknowledge the time, enthusiasm, commitment and expertise of clinicians at Good Hope Hospital Trust, particularly

Mr Hemant Ojha, Consultant Urologist

Dr Rafiq Henry, Consultant in Elderly Care Medicine

Mr Richie Malloy, Senior Cardiac Nurse

Mr Peter Appleton, Development Manager, Electronic Bookings

Centre for Innovation and Training in Elective Care, one of five Dept of Health projects that aim to support the introduction of Treatment Centres nationally

Workshop report: eModerating for health care educators' what I didn't know about eLearning

Sally Wilks, eLearning Co-ordinator, Peninsula Medical School

I remember initially feeling a great sense of excitement about the eModerating for Healthcare Educators' course. There was also an element of apprehension since I was likely to be the only Learning Technologist (LT) working in a group of highly experienced healthcare practitioners. Five weeks later I'd discovered that although my skills and LT experience helped me navigate and function within an online course, and to understand the concepts behind it, I still had a great deal to learn about the reality of life as an online student.

I started working in the area of what was known as computer aided learning (CAL) and educational technology in Biological Sciences over ten years ago. As CAL and other learning technologies evolved into e/blended learning, and currently moves towards technology enhanced learning, the essence of my job has remained the same. In a nutshell:

Learning technology is the use of a broad range of communication, information, and related technologies to support learning and teaching.
Learning technologists apply, or support learning technology in practice, and/or undertake research relating to learning technology.(1)

So for years I've worked with staff from many disciplines to enhance their students' learning experience with the use of learning technologies, and hopefully improved their teaching experience as a result. Pedagogical research, evaluation studies and various courses in teaching, eLearning and assessment have given me a good understanding of the theoretical background behind the use of learning technologies and how to design materials, courses and systems to maximise the beneficial effects of learning technologies. Then I started the eModerating course and discovered some highs and lows of life online and just how much I didn't know!

Our course moderator David Shepherd skilfully guided us through the five- stage process and various levels of engagement from basic access, socialisation and familiarisation, information exchange, knowledge construction and development. Looking back at the course objectives I feel that they were addressed very well. However, for me the most powerful outcome of doing this course was not to be found in the list of course objectives but in the experience of how different the reality of doing an online course is from the idea of doing it.

My reflections at the end of week one included:

The experience of being an online student is a revelation so far and I feel I'm gaining so much insight into how the idea of doing an online course differs from the reality. When helping staff design online activities to be used with students I don't think I've ever really fully appreciated until now how different this all feels. I look forward to feeling more comfortable with the format as the weeks progress.

By week five I'd had several more eureka moments including finding out how hard it is to manage the time to carry out online activities effectively. Group dynamics minus body language and eye contact is very different, fun but weird! My fellow participants were from a wide range of healthcare educator backgrounds and I enjoyed their company, contributions and support. Hopefully we all learned a great deal from each other and discovered how much more there is to online moderating than simply keeping an eye on a discussion forum now and then! My work as a problem- based learning facilitator in PMS was something that I found surprisingly useful in the online setting and skills transferred quite naturally.

This course really opened my eyes to how important it is to get some sense of the nature of online working across to academics when they are designing online activities. I'd like to make it compulsory that anyone supporting students online should do a similar course. Sign up for the next course if you get a chance!

For more information please contact s.j.wilks@plymouth.ac.uk or www.atimod.com

(1) ALT website: definition of learning technologies and learning technologists www.alt.ac.uk/learning_technology.html

Conference report: AVTRW

Gill McConnell, Educational Development Manager, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh

This year marks the 60th annual conference of the Association for Veterinary Teaching and Research Work (AVTRW) traditonally held in Scarborough before Easter.This timing could have something to do with the proximity of a renowned Easter-egg shop just around the corner from the Royal Hotel, the venue for many years.This slightly frivolous opening, perhaps, gives a flavour of the friendly and relaxed family atmosphere that can be enjoyed at Scarborough, where one colleague cannot be alone in recalling her father returning from the conference with the prized eggs.

But it would be wrong to assume that AVTRW is a sideshow without influence. The Association is a specialist division of the BVA (British Veterinary Association), holding both a scientific and political brief. Through affiliation to BVA, it can comment to Parliament, to welfare and other organisations on areas of interest to its members.

AVTRW provides the only UK and Ireland conference that is aimed directly at veterinary researchers and teachers. Heads of School, Directors/Deans of Teaching, officer- bearers of the RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons), researchers from DEFRA (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), veterinary investigation centres and commercial companies are always well represented amongst the attendees, as well as university lecturers and researchers. This provides an ideal networking opportunity for newcomers to the veterinary research and education scene. Although loosely structured around themed sessions on important areas of teaching or research, there is active encouragement for young scientists to present their first papers to a critical but friendly audience.

The strengths of the AVTRW conference are most immediately obvious at times of controversy. During and after the 2000/2001 foot and mouth outbreak, strategy, clinical science and epidemiology were all vigorously debated, whilst reports and images from front line veterinary volunteers added a moving testimony that few present will forget.

Topics in last year's agenda, reported in the Veterinary Record(1), included a keynote by Dr Remco Shrijver on Coping with an international outbreak of potentially zoonotic disease - centred around the avian flu outbreak in the Netherlands in 2003; Dr Susan Shaw on Emerging and reemerging diseases in companion animals, and from Dr Paul Webb, Confirming the unconfirmable on atypical scrapie.

Equally topical are subjects covered in the educational strand, whether from UK or Europe. Professor Neil Gorman from the RCVS Education Strategy Group presented Framework for 2010 at the 2002 conference, with debate on a possible postgraduate professional training year. This is still a hot topic today, with revalidation and potential changes to the Veterinary Surgeons Act, 1966 highlighting the need for political as well as educational debate.

The conference has received consistent support and attendance from officers of the Subject Centre, with regular sponsored sessions and speakers helping to raise the profile of education at the conference - sessions have included portfolios in veterinary education, communication skills, OSCEs, skills labs, the DIVERSE disability project and a keynote last year on the Higher Education Academy.

Education was particularly high on the agenda this year the conference opened with The challenge in establishing a new veterinary school, Professor Gary England, Foundation Dean of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine, describing the inception of the first new veterinary school in the UK for over fifty years.

For more information please contact g.mcconnell@ed.ac.uk

(1) Veterinary Record, News item, 21st May, 2005.

Miniproject update: A new class of doctors - The health science graduate entry into medicine

Dr Heather Crick, Lecturer in Integrated Medical Sciences

Dr Adrian Hastings, General Practitioner and Senior Lecturer in Medical Education

Dr David Heney, Phase 2 Coordinator, Department of Medical and Social Care Education, Leicester Medical School

On induction day at medical school, the traditional image is of teenagers, away from home for the first time, nervously taking their first steps into the medical profession. In September 2003, a new and different cohort of mature graduates enrolled at Leicester Medical School for a 4 year accelerated degree. Mature students are now an established feature of British medical schools, but what defined this cohort as unique is that all the students already have knowledge and experience of working as health care professionals within the NHS.

We describe here the first cohort of students now in their third year of study, who will graduate in 2007. This mini- project has looked at the motivations of health science graduate (HSG) students to study medicine and their intended career specialty. Unlike the traditional five year course, the four year course comprises a contracted Phase I period of 18 months (from 29 months) providing students with core knowledge, particularly in subjects areas not treated in depth in the courses of previous qualification. In Phase II the students join with those on the five year course for two and a half years of learning, largely in clinical attachments.

The first students were drawn from more than 12 health care professions (Figure 1). On entering medical school they had a range of experience from recently graduated to those working professionally for up to 20 years. Nursing and psychology graduates formed over half the first intake.

The average age of the students on entry to medical school was 27.3 years old (+/- SD 5.13) with 3.8 years post graduate experience (+/- 2.64). 69% of students were female, resulting in a slightly higher proportion of women than men than on the five year course at Leicester for that year (59% female). Many of the students reported relevant work experience and clinical competences that can be used directly in medical practice. For instance, several of the nurses had worked for more than three years in A&E; or theatre. Some were skilled in paediatric resuscitation, cannulation and catheterisation etc. Amongst the diagnostic radiographers, there was experience with angiography and CT imaging. Such skills were repeated throughout the disciplines. Whilst the nature of the skills may enable a student to progress more easily through their medical training, it remains to be seen whether specific competences allow a student to advance more rapidly to a career grade post.

Many of the students also held higher degrees and postgraduate qualifications; (e.g. specialised diploma in intensive care nursing), ten students held masters degrees (e.g. pathology and toxicology) and two had PhDs. As many of these qualifications are by research, we anticipate that these students may also contribute significantly to medical research in the future.

The heterogeneity of the cohort can be a challenge for tutors who find themselves teaching to a class which may contain an experienced practitioner in that area of medicine. However, this diversity of knowledge has been very rewarding in small group work as the groups have specialists in their midst to draw on when studying together. For instance, clinical vignettes are often used during the Phase I of the course for consolidation and application of basic science information. Consider a case study of a patient with pathological fracture due to metastatic bone disease. The graduate students around the table may comprise a radiographer, pharmacist, palliative care nurse and psychologist. Each can offer their own input into the discussion in a unique inter-professional learning environment.

We were interested to find out whether HSG students entered medicine with the intention of choosing a specialty in which they had previous training and experience. For example, a diagnostic radiographer to become a radiologist or an intensive care nurse to work as an intensivist. Hence, we asked students to tell us which specialty they had in mind to pursue. In a pilot survey of the first HSG cohort taken half way through their first year, 13 students chose a specialty that reflected the experiences and competences gained during the first career and degree. The survey was repeated at the end of Phase 1 (as the students were about to enter their clinical training and had competed their basic science teaching). At this time point, only three expressed such a conviction, which included just two students whose views had not changed. The second and third cohorts of HSG students have been surveyed on entry to medical school, prior to commencement of teaching, and will be sampled again at timely points throughout their course. We are also working closely with the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland NHS Postgraduate Deanery using qualitative research methods to investigate factors which determine specialty choice and with the Post- Graduate Dean, Dr Derek Gallen, who also works for Modernising Medical Careers.

As mature students, these health care professionals not only faced the challenge of a high intensity four year course, but dealt with issues of leaving the security and status of their profession to become a student again, with a substantial fall in income. Many have committed themselves and their families to pursue their goal that will hopefully lead them to success and fulfilment. It is with interest and admiration that we follow these students through their medical course to graduation and watch with anticipation to see how their previous experiences and skills influence their career choices and post-graduate progression.

For more information please contact hc27@le.ac.uk, amh5@le.ac.uk or dh39@le.ac.uk

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Academy Subject Centre Miniproject Funding Scheme and the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland NHS Post-Graduate Deanery.

Workshop report: The best of the web - finding and evaluating health and life science information on the internet

Robert Abbott, BIOME Service Officer

Laurian Williamson, BIOME Content Coordinator, University of Nottingham

BIOME was launched in 2000 to help overcome the problems of finding high quality health and life sciences information on the internet. It provides UK students, teachers and researchers with a subject-focused collection of relevant Web resources.

A workshop held at the University of Nottingham in November 2005 provided an overview of BIOME and of internet evaluation issues, and helped delegates to identify reliable internet resources and teaching materials in medicine and nursing, dentistry and animal health.

Introduction

The one-day workshop, consisting of presentations and practical exercises, was attended by 25 academics and information professionals representing the health and life sciences. The main aims of the day were to:

find and evaluate health and life science information on the internet
raise awareness of the value of BIOME and other internet services in order to support education in these subjects
highlight internet resource evaluation issues
provide information and materials to the delegates, for them to cascade to colleagues and students for training purposes.

The BIOME subject gateways

In the mid-1990s, with the advent of the internet, quality-evaluated subject-specific resources began to be developed and used within UK academia. Among these successful ventures was OMNI, followed in the late 1990s by the Resource Discovery Network (RDN), funded by JISC. So- called hubs were established, each with a responsibility for a particular range of subjects supporting the curricular needs of higher education. Currently there are 8 such hubs, including BIOME, which is based at the University of Nottingham.

BIOME gives free access to quality- evaluated internet resources in the health and life sciences, via 6 subject- focused gateways:

OMNI - medical and health sciences
NMAP - nursing, midwifery and allied health professions
VetGate - animal health and veterinary science
BioResearch - biomedical research
Natural Selection - the natural world
AgriFor - agriculture, food and forestry.

Though aimed primarily at UK higher and further education, being freely available via the internet BIOME has many other users, including the NHS. Over the years it has collaborated with academic institutions, healthcare related networks, including Academy Subject Centres, and professional societies.

New resources are added continually to BIOME, and the accessibility and continued relevance of its existing 30,000 resources are monitored constantly. These resources include educational materials, interactive tutorials, government reports, information about professional institutions, databases, and images. Usage of the service is considerable; during October 2005 more than 2 million page requests were handled.

The workshop's first practical session involved browsing and searching the features and services provided by BIOME.

Internet resource evaluation: the question of quality

Popular search engines can rapidly identify seemingly relevant items, but all too often their output lacks context, is too voluminous to assess properly, and mixes dubious resources with valuable ones without hint of quality control. Search results may be vulnerable to covert manipulative techniques employed for commercial or other ends.

The volume of information likely to result from a search request, coupled with the potential for transience and for poor quality of retrieved sites, detracts from internet utility. Because anyone can publish anything on the Web, without refereeing or peer review, there are real concerns about quality, the potential consequences of inaccuracy being particularly serious in the health and life sciences.

In these subject areas, as in others, some way is needed of pinpointing reliable resources from among those of lesser quality. BIOME and the other RDN hubs provide this service by assessing resources according to strict evaluation guidelines, using indirect indicators of quality.

The BIOME evaluation guidelines examine a resource for its:

context - audience, authority and provenance
content - coverage, accuracy and currency
format - accessibility, design and layout, and ease of use.

The second workshop exercise consisted of evaluating and judging the quality of internet resources using the BIOME evaluation guidelines.

Virtual training suite

The RDN also hosts more than 60 subject-specific online tutorials, known as the Virtual Training Suite (VTS), focusing on internet related information skills, and each with a similar structure. Authored by specialists with subject and internet expertise, nine of these tutorials are relevant to BIOME users.

These tutorials are edited and maintained by BIOME staff and are ideal for:

student induction
use with research and study skills modules
information skills and internet training
use in virtual learning environments (VLEs).

Each tutorial covers key internet resources for the subject matter concerned, search skills, critical evaluation of resources, and how to cite internet resources. Special features include quizzes and interactive exercises, a links basket (for saving interesting Web sites to revisit later), while posters and guidelines are available for lecturers and trainers.

During the workshop the delegates reviewed a handout about the VTS that was designed for teachers and trainers, and were able to explore this free interactive resource during a practical session.

Materials to support teaching and learning

In the final session, some key sites of interest to academics working in UK higher education were described. Freely available interactive teaching resources for several specialities were suggested for the delegates to investigate, according to their interests, in the practical session.

Intute

The RDN is currently undergoing extensive re-structuring and re- branding, in order to create a more consolidated service with closer integration of subject areas, and to provide a single interface for users. During the summer of 2006 BIOME, along with the other RDN hubs, will become part of Intute. The name BIOME will disappear, but the six component gateways will remain in essence, under new names, to become the Health and Life Sciences collection within Intute.

For more information please contact robert.abbott@nott.ac.uk or laurian.williamson@nott.ac.uk

BIOME: biome.ac.uk

Virtual Training Suite: www.vts.rdn.ac.uk

Conference report: Innovations in disability education

Paul Dieppe, Professor of Health Services Research, University of Bristol, Director, MRC Health Services Research Collaboration, Chairman of the Health Council

This paper summarises the projects presented and key outcomes of a meeting on innovations in disability education, held the Royal College of Physicians, London, in October 2005.

Dame Carol Black, President of the Royal College of Physicians of London, introduced the meeting and welcomed delegates.

Lord Rix, President of the Royal Mencap Society, gave a keynote address and endorsed the efforts being made by delegates to improve education and understanding of disability within UK health care, and encouraged them to be politically active in the pursuit of this goal.

Summary of presentations

Professor Peter Rubin, Chairman of the GMC's Education Committee and Chairman of PMETB, told delegates that the GMC is fully committed to supporting disabled students and doctors, but that the GMC has no legal power over student admissions. General recommendations on the subject were a problem, as individuals need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Professor Rubin encouraged delegates to provide the GMC with suggestions for improvement, which could help inform the next edition of Tomorrow's Doctors.

Dr Linda Marks presented the Learning Journey for Health and Social Care Professionals who work with Disabled People - a document that she and colleagues from the Health Council have produced to provide a framework for learning about disability issues throughout a health professional's career. This framework divides professionals into three categories (novice, competent and expert) and categorises learning objectives into knowledge, skills and attitudes. Dr Marks told delegates that she hoped that the Learning Journey would be widely used and prove helpful.

Haqeeq Bostan of DARE talked about the need to change attitudes in, and the culture of, the health service in order to achieve more inclusivity. He explained that DARE endeavours to enable people though a 50:50 mix of service users and providers, and by disabled people learning together with able-bodied colleagues. He encouraged delegates to challenge stereotypes in health service provision and utilisation.

Stephen Duckworth, Chief Executive of Disability Matters Ltd, talked about the need to reintegrate students and health care professionals with recent onset impairments, so that they could continue to contribute to their profession. He stressed the need for an empowerment model that includes intrinsic, individual factors, rather than either the medical or social models of disability. He drew parallels between institutionalised racism and the discrimination that disabled people experience in health services.

Barbara Waters, Chief Executive of Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities (www.skill.org.uk), outlined the work of her organisation, which aims to help people with disabilities get into higher education and training. She illustrated this through the recently published booklet Into Nursing and Midwifery and told delegates that lack of funding was delaying publication of a similar booklet to help disabled people get into medical school. Barbara stressed the need for educators to distinguish between core competencies and assessment. Without this clarification, misunderstandings may lead to disability discrimination.

Dianne Keetch, Practice Development Officer at the Disability Rights Commission (www.drc.org.uk), outlined barriers that disabled people face in gaining entry to higher education, and the discrimination that they can experience during education and assessment. She made the point that some of the barriers were unwitting, and others bureaurocratic. She reminded delegates that they must avoid acting on negative assumptions and stereotypes about the dangerousness, fitness, health and employability of disabled applicants; in doing this they are likely to avoid complaint of unlawful discrimination.

Dr Margaret Byron, leader of the HEFCE funded Partners in Practice project presented the outcomes of this research project, and launched its key output - the Different Differences workbook. This provides teachers and curriculum organisers with frameworks, practical tips and resources to help them plan and deliver teaching on disability. Dr Byron stressed the fact that this workbook is a document for action, which she hopes will be widely used by Health Colleges and Medical and Dental Schools.

Professor Trudie Roberts talked about the research work that she and her colleagues had undertaken, to explore current attitudes about disabled doctors, within both the general public and the medical profession. They had found mixed views. There was much agreement about the potential value of there being more disabled health care professionals, and many positive comments. For example, people think that disabled doctors are likely to have increased empathy with patients. However, concerns were also expressed, particularly about disabilities affecting communication with health care professionals and mental health problems which might affect competency (www.medev.ac.uk/docs/roberts_final.pdf).

Elizabeth Anderson outlined the Learning from Lives programme that runs in Leicester/Warwick, to help students understand disability issues. Students have placements in which they have to get to know disabled people, and learn to understand their problems and issues within context. Their learning is supported by professionals, and they are encouraged to appraise the wider issues impacting on the lives of the disabled individuals. In her presentation, she stressed the importance and value of involving disabled people themselves in education.

Professor Ruth Chambers talked about the Disabled Doctors' Action Group, investigating the problems experienced by disabled doctors. This group had learnt of negative experiences of colleagues who had developed impairments after qualification. She said that it seemed the profession was poor at caring for health problems which developed amongst its own. She also pointed out that there was a dearth of hard evidence on the subject, made worse by the fact that many doctors and medical students are concerned about disclosing problems that they may have. She challenged everyone in the audience to find ways of responding to the needs of their disabled colleagues.

Anne Tynan, Director of Diverse, a Veterinary Medicine Disability project funded by HEFCE, outlined her work, which has led to two publications Pushing the Boat Out and The Sequel. Anne explained that a third product Time to Take Stock tackles the contentious issue of competencies. She told delegates that the findings were highly relevant to the implementation of the DDA within health professions.

Dr Janice Fiske summarised initiatives within the dental profession to help improve oral health dental services for disabled people. She explained to delegates that a number of different groups were working on this, including the British Society for Disability and Oral Health, the British Society of Gerodontology and the Joint Advisory Committee in Special Care Dentistry. This work was leading to the formalisation of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, with the aid of the Department of Health that has helped put Special Care Dentistry on the general dental agenda.

Discussion/conclusions

Disabled people need to have a major role in the organisation and delivery of education about disability within medical and dental schools.
A vast array of resources are available to help medical and dental schools develop improved education on disability.
The GMC, medical and dental schools, and other stakeholders need to promote improved education about disability and promote the inclusivity agenda within the professions.
Long term, we need to increase the numbers of disabled people working as healthcare professionals. This will aid the general understanding of disability within the professions and facilitate the delivery of better health care for people with disabilities.

Several other important points emerged during the day's discussions:

Improving education and understanding of impairments and disability amongst health care professionals should be a higher priority for all stakeholders.
Disability education needs to be person-centred and involve disabled people as teachers. - NHS culture should change, becoming more positive towards people with disabilities. We need more disabled health care professionals.
Public perceptions of health care professionals are important. We need to reflect the need for more diversity and inclusivity. The media can play an important role in this.
The GMC should provide guidance to medical schools, and consider innovative ways of including more disabled people within the medical profession, such as limited licences. - The publications listed are potentially of great benefit. Their use should be encouraged and piloted in different health and social care education settings.
New legislation within the DDA means that there is urgency for change within medical and dental schools and health colleges. Admissions tutors should work with experts in disability; they and teachers should promote disability equality strategies.
Students need exposure to people with impairments and disability over long time periods during their training. They should be encouraged to keep diaries of their interactions and impressions.
More disability champions are needed in key organisations. - PCTs should set targets for the number of placements for doctors with disabilities, both newly qualified and those with recent impairments returning to work. - Disabled people offer the solutions and can be drivers of change.

References

Anderson ES, Lennox AI, Peterson SA, Learning from Lives: a model for health and social care education in the wider community context. Med Educ 2003: 37: 56-68

Byron M, Cockshott Z, Brownett H, Ramkalawan T. What does disability mean for medical students. Med. Educ 2005; 39: 176-83.

Byron M and Dieppe P. Educating health professionals about disability: attitudes, attitudes, attitudes. J R Soc Med 2000; 93: 606.

Roberts TE, Butler A and Boursicot KAM. Disabled Students, disabled doctors - time for a change? Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine Special Report 4. ISBN 0 7017 0173 0. 2004.

Tynan A: Pushing the boat out and The Sequel available at: www.medev.ac.uk/resources/features/pushing_the_boat_out

Tynan A: Time To Take Stock: Disability and Professional Competence, ISBN 0 7017 0199 4, 2005

Into Nursing and Midwifery - positive experiences of disabled people. Available from Skill (National Bureau for Students with Disabilities), www.skill.org.uk

Different Differences: Disability Equality Teaching in Healthcare Education. Available from the Partners in Practice web site: www.bris.ac.uk/pip

Teaching/learning resources available from the Health Council

Learning Journey for Health and Social Care Professionals who Work with Disabled People - a one page framework outlining the knowledge skills and attitudes needed when dealing with disabled people.

One-in-Four-of-Us - the Experience of Disability. A 28page A5 sized booklet about physical disability for use by teachers and students.

Special or Different - meeting and treating the health needs of people with learning disabilities. A 24-page A5 sized booklet for students and teachers.

For more information please contact p.dieppe@bris.ac.uk

AUVEC: a new African veterinary schools network empowering animal health services with eLearning

David Dewhurst, Professor of eLearning Technology Section, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, Dr Mark Eisler and Dr Sue Welburn, University of Edinburgh

The formation of the African Universities Veterinary eLearning Consortium AUVEC has initiated a major new venture aimed at capacity building for the African animal health sector through the provision of new online learning opportunities.AUVEC has been formed following a series of workshops exploring approaches to developing pro-poor animal health services through enhanced veterinary education jointly organised by Makerere and Edinburgh universities with the support of the DFID Animal Health Programme.The workshops have been held in Naivasha, Kenya (October 2005) and Entebbe, Uganda (March 2006).

Members of AUVEC are the vet schools in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Republic of South Africa represented by their respective deans; the African Virtual University; the Malawi Veterinary Service (where there is no vet school); and the University of Edinburgh (associate member). Once established this initiative aims to expand to include other nations, including post-conflict countries; sectors, such as animal health training institutes; and languages (francophone and lusophone).

The aim of this consortium is to create a common eLearning framework, which will develop, deliver and share learning resources across the African veterinary network in order to improve the quality of delivery of animal health and production services for the poor.

Livestock are vital to the livelihoods of millions of poor people in sub- Saharan Africa. But endemic and epidemic diseases limit productivity, jeopardising assets of the poor and exacerbating poverty. Diseases can sometimes be transmitted between livestock and people, posing a direct threat to the health of livestock keepers, their families and the communities in which they live. Donor-driven structural adjustment policies have decimated African veterinary services through hasty privatisation programmes, exacerbated by HIV/AIDS and brain drain. Control of endemic livestock diseases now relies on farmers, animal health assistants and extension workers often ill equipped for the task. The livestock sector is also changing, driven by increasing demand for livestock food products by increasingly urbanised populations in developing countries.

The massive challenges to be overcome in developing pro-poor animal health services are exacerbated by the chronic shortage of post-qualification training for vets. The learning opportunities currently available to veterinary professionals largely remain limited to traditional MScs and PhDs offered as full-time, residential courses. These are expensive - far beyond the reach of the majority of workers in either the public or private sectors who can ill afford to devote two or more years to full-time education. The AUVEC group has identified a clear need for higher degrees offered via flexible, distance learning formats and less formal opportunities for Continuing Professional Development. This vision for capacity building for the African animal health sector through the provision of new learning opportunities includes a great desire to acquire the skills to enable the African universities to deliver learning resources online to meet the needs of both urban and rural communities. The flexibility of eLearning provides enormous potential for making a real impact in Africa where there are serious problems in retaining trained professionals and major difficulties in enabling those who need education the most to learn while they are working.

AUVEC is now scoping the roadmap to enhance animal health services through the provision of online learning opportunities for vets. Steps in this path will include: The development of skills and capacity in authoring and delivering eLearning; sharing of eLearning courses and content; and development and delivery of online Masters programmes and Continuing Professional Development courses.

Both the African Virtual University and the University of Edinburgh will play key support roles in building the infrastructure needed by the consortia and sharing knowledge and expertise to develop world-class e-learning. Edinburgh has already made a significant contribution to the capacity of the members of AUVEC to enhance veterinary learning through the donation of the Computer-aided Learning In Veterinary Education (CLIVE) suite of eLearning resources.

For more information please contact david.dewhurst@ed.ac.uk mark.eisler@ed.ac.uk sue.welburn@ed.ac.uk

Our course and winningthe THES/Academy eTutor award 2005

Petra Boynton, Deborah Swinglehurst,Trisha Greenhalgh, Jill Russell, Geoff Wong, The International Primary Health Care course team, Open Learning Unit, Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, University College London

The Masters programme in International Primary Health Care at University College London is a fully online, part-time course for experienced professionals, working in primary health care settings. It aims to promote teaching and service development in primary health care and high quality research in an international context.The course is aimed primarily at senior clinicians, researchers, policy makers and leaders in education, with graduates making a significant contribution to primary care development and the establishment of infrastructures for research and teaching programmes in their own countries and regions.

Our eighth intake of students will begin their studies in September 2006, making it one of the UK's longest-running online programmes. The course was conceptualised and is directed by Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary care at University College London. It has attracted students from 16 different countries and nine different health care professions from 17 different undergraduate disciplines, creating an incredibly rich learning community in which multiple perspectives and culturally diverse resources can be shared. In addition to introductory modules on the academic study of primary care, principles of research and evidence-based practice, and international comparisons of health care systems, students can choose modules on quality improvement, health informatics, and getting research into practice and policy. They also undertake a dissertation in primary care research, systematic review, service development or teaching and learning.

In being awarded the Times Higher/Higher Education Academy eTutor of the year award in 2005, the course was commended for its orientation towards the pedagogic process, the way in which the student experience informs the rationale and design of the course, and its strong team approach to all aspects of course development and teaching. The judges liked the fact that, even though a fully online course, the technology was very much secondary to the pedagogy, with an explicit commitment to clear educational principles.

Our teaching and learning is firmly based on a constructivist pedagogy (see Box 1), a particularly appropriate approach for the academic study of primary health care, the intellectual basis of which draws judiciously and eclectically upon a wide range of disciplines. The constructivist approach also fits well with the needs of the students, who can be characterised as post-experience learners, working as part of multidisciplinary teams within complex, continuously evolving organisations, and seeking learning predominantly for its applicability to problems in the work environment - hence a key need is for transferable problem-solving strategies rather than competences per se. This has been described as educating for capability.(1)

The course is designed so that collaborative learning is central to the student's learning experience. Early in each unit learning activities encourage students to talk with colleagues in their workplace, or to engage in some other collaborative learning activity in an authentic setting. Then students come together in the online environment for a concentrated period of tutor-facilitated and student- moderated interaction (typically for two weeks) in the form of a virtual seminar. The virtual seminar is designed so that the tasks the students undertake are explicitly linked to the assignment for each study unit. The seminar becomes an opportunity for students to present initial ideas, focus, reflect upon, and refine their ideas. Through online discussion the students are able to actively construct knowledge. They have the opportunity to practice and develop their higher order academic skills. They share and learn from each others' experiences and perspectives and they get exposure to different approaches to problem solving and learning. These benefits of distance and collaborative learning for work-based learners are highlighted in the following quote from one student, a missionary doctor in a remote part of Tanzania: Despite my remoteness and perhaps slightly unusual job description, I have enjoyed being in the virtual environment of the course and with professionals from across the world. Different perspectives on problems provide new insights and stimulate learning. I look forward to continuing with the course and applying that learning as I continue in my everyday work here.

Quality improvement is high on the course agenda. Our course team has researched and developed a detailed quality framework,(2) which sets out a clear vision for quality, and provides a succinct set of standards and measurable success criteria for each of the key components of the course: course materials, the interactive learning environment, tutor performance and development, assessment, student communication and support, and administrative and technical support. We are currently undertaking an innovative action research project in collaboration with colleagues from other online courses to develop models of peer observation of teaching in the online environment

Characteristics of constructivist teaching and learning(3)

Multiple perspectives and representations of concepts and content are presented and encouraged.
Goals and objectives are derived by the student in negotiation with the teacher.
Teachers serve in the role of guides and facilitators of learning.
Activities, opportunities, tools and environments are provided to encourage meta-cognition, self-analysis, self- regulation, reflection and self-awareness.
The student plays a central role in mediating and controlling learning.
Learning situations, environments, skills, content and tasks are relevant, realistic, authentic and represent the natural complexities of the real world.
Primary sources of data are used in order to ensure authenticity and real-world complexity.
Knowledge construction and not reproduction is emphasised.
This construction takes place in individual contexts and through social negotiation, collaboration and experience.
The learnerÕs previous knowledge constructions, beliefs and attitudes are considered in the knowledge construction process.
Problem-solving, higher-order thinking skills and deep understanding are emphasised.
Knowledge complexity is reflected in an emphasis on conceptual inter-relatedness and interdisciplinary learning.
Collaborative and cooperative learning are favoured in order to expose the learner to alternative viewpoints.
Assessment is authentic and interwoven with teaching.

Further details of the MSc in International Primary Health Care can be obtained from www.internationalprimaryhealthcare.org

In September 2006 the UCL course team are launching a new distance learning certificate in research methods for primary care (with on-site study days in London) www.ucl.ac.uk/openlearning/pged.htm

For more information on the peer observation of teaching in the online environment project can be found on the University of London Centre for Distance Education website www.cde.london.ac.uk/index.htm

For more information please contact p.boynton@pcps.ucl.ac.uk

Fraser S, Greenhalgh T. Coping with complexity: educating for capability. British Medical Journal 2001;323:799-803.
Greenhalgh T, Toon P, Russell J, Wong G, Plumb L, Macfarlane F. Transferability of principles of evidence based medicine to improve educational quality: systematic review and case study of an online course in primary care. British Medical Journal 2003;326:142-5.
Murphy E. Constructivism: from philosophy to practice, 1997. www.cdli.ca/~elmurphy/emurphy/cle.html

Higher Education Academy eTutor of the Year competition 2006 closing: 9 June 2006

EEBP: education for evidence-based practice

Dr Kevork Hopayian, Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, University of East Anglia

Why a new journal?

Articles about EBP appear across many journals (general medical, educational, and discipline specific) because the subject crosses boundaries. Several journals exist to provide evidence-based commentaries or analyses. However, no journal is dedicated to supporting the teaching and development of EBP. Education for Evidence-Based Practice has been launched to meet this need.

It is the creation of The Evidence Based Health Care Teachers and Developers (EBHCTD) Conference, an international network which has grown out of three conferences (2001, 2003 and 2005) and covers five continents and every health care discipline. It will be an online, open access journal.

Scope

EEBP will publish articles on research and innovation in all aspects of evidence-based practice education at all levels: undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing education. It will also cover developments in EBP itself and evidence for educational strategies.

The types of articles we are looking for are original research, systematic reviews, commentaries, study protocols and reports on innovations.

Open access publishing

Sharing knowledge is a central principle of the EBHCTD Conference so open access publishing is a natural choice for us. What this means is that all the articles are free to readers to view on line. The flip side is that authors have to pay for publication once an article is accepted. This should not pose a problem. Publication is the ultimate step in research. Researchers should include author fees in their funding applications. We are keen to support submissions from poorer countries so we will waive the fees for authors from countries on the WHO HINARI list and where there are other special circumstances. Our journal is hosted by BioMed Central who have many years of open access publishing.

Open access means that articles appear immediately on acceptance, there is no weekly or monthly issue. Registered users can request regular e-mail alerts of articles in their areas of interest. Registration is free.

The advantages to authors are:

high visibility: the BioMed Central site is fully searchable
permanence: all original research is archived in PubMed Central, so permanent accessibility is assured
citable articles
authors keep copyright.

Editorial process

We have two Editors-in-Chief, Jose Emparanza and Andrew Booth and an editorial board including many disciplines. Apart from the usual suspects, we have a librarian, a manager, a dentist and a veterinary surgeon.

All articles will be peer reviewed. Our editorial policy is in keeping with internationally accepted codes of practice (Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, Vancouver, 2001). All submissions and all our work are on line.

The future

Our first call for papers has gone out and we hope to be publishing within a few months. More details about the journal can be found at www.eebp.org

To read the instructions for authors and peer review policy, follow the links to the online submission system.

To register for free email alerts (and to learn more about BioMed Central) go to www.biomedcentral.com, click on the button Log on/Register on the horizontal menu.

For more information please contact eebp@ebhc.org

Latest developments in the Academy supporting new academic staff (SNAS) project

Nigel Purcell, Senior Educational Advisor, Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry & Veterinary Medicine

Since the summer there have been a number of significant new developments in the SNAS project which will be of interest to those of you involved in developing teachers or who are new to teaching.The key purpose of the SNAS database is to provide subject specific resources for teachers who are new to teaching and who may, for example, be taking a generic PG Cert or Certificate in Academic Practice course.You can look at the database itself by going to www.heacademy.ac.uk/snasdatabase.asp.

Strand 1: Discipline-specific resource and guidance

Strand 1 is intended to further develop and enhance the database itself. The aims this year are to improve the quality of existing records, to fill in gaps in the current database and to create and populate two new topic areas. Do keep a look out for the new entries which should become available over the summer. For more information about this strand please contact Dr Yolande Knight at (yolande.knight@plymouth.ac.uk).

Strand 2: Mechanisms to share discipline specific pedagogy

Strand 2 consists of an online forum for programme tutors to be followed by a forum for students on PG Cert programmes to help them to access and utilise the SNAS resources. This is a really interesting experiment and we hope will provide a new and effective way to increase the usefulness and impact of SNAS. If this pilot works well then we may be trialling a similar process for our subject areas. For more information about this strand please contact Rowland Gallop (r.gallop@worc.ac.uk) or Phil Gravestock (pgravestock@glos.ac.uk).

Strand 3: Linking research and teaching

Strand 3 is intended to provide support for course leaders and participants in making pedagogical links between teaching and discipline-based research. Its main activities are to produce a set of discipline-based resources and to populate an Academy website on linking teaching with disciplinary research. Part of the strand also involves exploring with course leaders on accredited programmes the extent to which they currently integrate teaching with disciplinary research in their courses and how SNAS might support them in developing and enhancing this aspect. For more information about this strand please contact Mick Healey (mhealey@glos.ac.uk) or Alan Jenkins (alanjenkins@brookes.ac.uk).

Call for case studies

In support of this strand we have put out a call for case studies of how teachers have linked teaching and research. You can contribute by going to www.medev.ac.uk/docs/SNAS_Case_studies.rtf and completing the proforma. All case studies will be entered into a prize draw, so you could even win a £50 Amazon voucher!

In addition to the individual strands Bland Tomkinson (bland.tomkinson@man.ac.uk) has the task of ensuring that the work of SNAS meets the needs of all staff engaged in accredited courses, i.e. new full-time teaching staff, contract research staff, post-grad and post-doc students who teach, part-time staff, technical and other support staff, and associates

Finally, as the subject centre representative on the SNAS planning group I, together with my colleague Yolie Knight from the GEES subject centre have the responsibility for keeping up to date with what is going on in SNAS and for ensuring that all of the SNAS activity reflects the perspectives and concerns and of our subject communities.

For more information or if you need some support in utilising SNAS please contact nigel@medev.ac.uk

Why, who and what is a medical care practitioner?

Dr Olwyn M.R.Westwood, Reader in Medical Education, European Institute for Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey *Frank C Hay, Professor of Immunology, Centre for Medical and Health Care Education, St GeorgeÕs University of London*

The NHS was inspired and created in the 1940s, but needs have changed as have advances in healthcare technology and delivery, and patient expectations.The paper, The NHS Plan for England proposed ways in which the NHS might deliver a more patient-led service. Health Resources in the NHS Plan recommended less rigid boundaries between respective health professions for skills delivery, to allow flexibility and accessibility of career pathways, to support staff achieving their true potential.

In the early 1990s, there were discussions between the Royal Colleges, US and UK healthcare and education providers on introducing a generic healthcare professional equivalent to the US-Physician Assistants (US-PAs). The US-PAs have been an integral part of their healthcare delivery since the 1960s, but for other countries including the UK, Australia and Canada, physician assistants are an exciting development. Inevitably, a new profession is viewed with caution, but key players in the US have emphasised how US-PAs are part of the medical team, along side doctors and nurse practitioners (Hutchinson et al., 2001; Mittman et al., 2002).

Physician assistants for the UK's NHS?

US-PAs are so successfully working in the UK that they have already formed the UK Association of Physician Assistants (see www.ukapa.org.uk). US-PAs were recruited to general practice and accident and emergency within the UK to support areas with skills shortages - and the scheme has been a real success for NHS staff and for improving patient access and care (Walton; 2004; Woodin et al., 2005). Moreover, for the majority of patients attending the GP surgery notice no difference between the GP and the US-PAs, other than the fact they are American!

For our own home-grown PAs, however, the use of the title, physician assistant, has been intensely debated, (Heath, 2004; Child 2005), owing to, at least in part, differences in the perceptions of the word physician within the UK and USA health systems. Therefore, the working title for the UK-equivalent is, at present, medical care practitioner (MCP) - the final name has yet to be agreed. It is expected that the US-PA will be mentors and role models for MCP students, as well as facilitators for integration of MCPs into healthcare teams. Nonetheless, the key issue is the NHS clinical governance arrangements for US-PA as a profession in the UK to have appropriate regulatory status (Woodin et al., 2005).

Curriculum and training of MCPs in the UK

The Universities Board for MCP Programmes (Birmingham, Hertfordshire, London-South Bank University, Kingston and St. GeorgeÕs; Surrey, Warwick - in collaboration with Coventry - and Wolverhampton) has worked with the National Competence and Curriculum Framework Development Steering Group (that includes Department of Health, representation from Royal College of Physicians & Royal College of General Practitioners, the NHS stakeholders and US-PAs) to agree the core curriculum and skills competences. The rationale for such a document is to assure a consistent level of knowledge, skills competence and professional behaviours for accredited degrees, to facilitate national transferability of the final award.

Curriculum planning and content

As MCPs will be working to a medical model, the nature of the knowledge and skills have been informed by both the curricula for US-PA degrees and the medical curriculum (GMC 2003) with respect to:

the disciplines for core scientific and clinical knowledge and skills competences and their assessment
competence of the clinical mentors and supervisors
establishing the recognised route for registration and professional identity.

Generally, the applicants for MCP programmes will be post-graduates, (like their US counterparts) and the time frame for the degree is expected to be equivalent to 3 academic years. As the breadth of curriculum is vast, the Universities Board for MCP Programmes have taken advice from others, including the US Accreditation Review Commission for Education of Physician Assistants with respect to the breadth and depth of curriculum content and the nature of the clinical placements. For MCPs, a minimum number of hours and types of clinical placements are specified within the competence and curriculum framework document.

Learning within the clinical setting

Expertise is available within the university hospital sector for clinical teaching, supervision, and mentorship of medical, MCP and other healthcare students. But obviously there will be a capacity issue with respect to clinical placements, and potential competition between education providers of MCPs and other trainee health professional groups. Therefore systems will need to be established for quality assuring the clinical placements, as well as innovative approaches to provision and scheduling.

Assessment of MCP degrees

The general view is that the type and frequency of assessment should remain the responsibility of the university awarding the accredited MCP degree. But with this new professional emerging, the Universities Board for MCP Programmes endorse the introduction of a national accreditation examination as a pre-requisite for professional registration to assure fitness to practise of MCPs to all - colleagues, patients, and the MCPs themselves. In following the US model, it means that MCPs are the only UK healthcare professional required to jump such a hurdle in order to register to practice. (It is noteworthy that there are discussions within the GMC on the appropriateness of national examinations for medical students.)

The team involved in developing the national accreditation examination have taken advice from assessors of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board and undergraduate medicine with respect to the guiding principles for the assessments (Southgate & Grant 2004). Knowledge and skills will be tested by written examinations and OSCEs respectively; these will be jointly set and agreed between the HEIs. Blueprinting of the core curriculum for question and OSCE station preparation, and standard-setting techniques will be applied, as with the UK medical programmes and the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants in the USA.

Regulation of MCPs

Discussions with regulatory bodies are on-going to clarify the mechanism for the regulation of MCPs. Thus the finally agreed title of the role will be protected, i.e. set by the regulator and adopted by employers, assuring a nationally agreed minimum standard of practice. Currently, the trainee MCPs and US-trained PAs in the UK work under a delegation and referral clause of the GMCÕs document Good Medical Practice (GMC, 2001) so are not independent, but have negotiated performance autonomy (Mittman et al., 2002), and may apply to become associates of the Royal College of Physicians.

Conclusions

The US has led the way for the training of PAs, but it is acknowledged that locally developed education and appropriate resources for this new role in the UK are essential for their successful introduction into the medical team, to assuage concerns of the existing professions and patients. Nationally agreed NHS policies and guidelines, together with the education of the present workforce are essential for the success of this new profession. If MCPs follow a similar pathway for success as their US counterparts, they will assist in improving capacity and facilitate the NHS to respond more effectively to patient needs.

For more information please contact o.westwood@surrey.ac.uk

Acknowledgements: To the Universities Board for MCP Programmes (Guy Dean, Barry Hunt, Di Jackson, Hilary Paniagua, Janice Forbes-Burford, Jim Parle, Nick Ross, Ed Peile, Neil Johnson) and the members of the National MCP Team (part of the National Practitioner Programme).

References

Child DL, Benett I, Walton I, Reeves D, Browne C, Heath I (2005) The medical care practitioner: Newspeak and the duping of the public. Br J Gen Pract. 55(512):229-31

Department of Health (2000) The NHS Plan Department of Health

Department of Health (2002) HR in the NHS Plan - More Staff Working Differently Department of Health

General Medical Council (2001) Good Medical Practice 3rd ed, GMC, London

General Medical Council (2003) Tomorrow's Doctors: Recommendations on Undergraduate Medical Education, GMC, London

Heath I, (2004) The medical care practitioner: Newspeak and the duping of the public. Br J Gen Pract. 54(509):891

Hutchinson L, Marks T, Pitillo, M (2001) The physician assistant: would the US model meet the needs of the NHS? BMJ.

323: 1244-1247 Mittman, DE., Cawley, JF, Fenn, WH (2002) Physician Assistants in the Unites States Br. Med J. 325: 485-487

NHS Modernisation Agency (2004) A Career Framework for the NHS www.modern.nhs.uk/cwp

Southgate L, Grant J, (2004) Principles for an assessment for postgraduate medical training. A working paper from the Postgraduate Medical Training Board

The Competence & Curriculum Framework for the Medical Care Practitioner (2005) www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/12/25/86/04122586.pdf

Walton I, (2004) Why have a physician assistant? Br. J. Diabetes & Vascular disease 4(5) 345-346.

Woodin J, McLeod H, McManus R, Jelphs K, (2005) Evaluation of US-trained Physician Assistants working in the NHS in England www.medev.ac.uk/dinky?dinky_id=590 (Accessed June 6th 2005)

Workshop report: Standard setting for undergraduate examinations

a beginners' practical guide

Dr Katharine Boursicot, Head of Assessment, Barts and The London School of Medicine Queen Mary University of London Trudie Roberts, Professor of Medical Education and Head of Medical School, University of Leeds

This workshop was the third in a series designed by Kathy Boursicot and Trudie Roberts for the Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine.The first workshop was designed to disseminate good practice in the design and implementation of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) for the assessment of clinical skills.The second was a practical guide to enhance the consistency of marking in OSCEs by training examiners.The feedback from these four workshops (each was conducted twice) indicated a desire in the academic community for some practical guidance on setting standards in examinations.

With the current climate of accountability and transparency requirements of standards of competence in medicine and other professional course, the setting of passing standards (the pass mark or cut score) in examinations has become a crucial issue, both for internal and external quality assurance purposes.

We designed this workshop for people new to standard setting, who want an introduction to the academic principles underlying different contemporary best practice methods. This workshop was developed to distil the enormous quantity of published work on standard setting into practical methodologies.

Participants working in groups had the opportunity to apply three different standard setting methods to genuine examination material, and then review the outcomes of the different methods. This experiential workshop provided participants with the reality of applying standard setting processes, involving scrutiny of examination material and using their professional experience, to make judgements about standards.

Participants from medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, nursing, midwifery, veterinary nursing and examination management came from across the UK, and spanned undergraduate and postgraduate sectors. The participants were organised into multiprofessional groups so that they could share commonalities and explore differences across professional education. At the end of the workshop, the strategies and practicalities of introducing formal standard setting methodologies for use in people's home institutions were discussed.

Workshop Learning Objectives for Participants

Develop the ability to critically analyse standard setting challenges for institutional assessments
Gain a working knowledge of the principles of standard setting
Understand the differences between norm and criterion-based standard setting methods
Acquire practical experience of 3 different standard setting methods
Develop the ability to critically analyse the defensibility and outcomes for a particular standard setting activity
Select appropriate standard setting methods for different situations
Plan strategies for the introduction standard setting in their own institutions

Benefits for the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine and the disciplinary community

Support for the mission of Subject Centres, in particular, to promote and facilitate faculty and professional development
Dissemination of good practice in standard setting for undergraduate assessment
A common framework for meeting QAA and professional body requirements in relation to standard setting

Both workshops were conducted at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. 47 particpants have attended to date and two more have been arranged (27 September and 30 November 2006), to accommodate the waiting list.

References

Berk RA, (1986). A consumer's guide to setting performance standards on criterion-referenced tests. Review of Educational Research, 56, 137-172

Cizek GJ, (2001). Setting Performance Standards: Concepts, Methods, and Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Jaeger RM, (1989). Certification of student competence. In R.L. Linn (Ed.), Educational Measurement. New York: American Council on Education and Macmillan Publishing Company

Kane M, (1994). Validating the performance standards associated with passing scores. Review of Educational Research, 64, 425-461

Livingston SA, and Zeiky MJ, (1982). Passing scores: A manual for setting standards of performance on educational and occupational tests. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service

Norcini JJ, and Guille RA, (2002). Combining tests and setting standards. In Norman G, van der Vleuten C, and Newble D, (Eds.): International Handbook of Research in Medical Education (pp. 811-834). Dordrecht: Kluwer Press

Norcini JJ, (2003). Setting standards on educational tests. Medical Education, 37, 464-469

Norcini JJ, and Shea JA, (1997). The credibility and comparability of standards. Applied Measurement in Education, 10, 39-59

Zeiky MJ, (2001). So much has changed. How the setting of cutscores has evolved since the 1980s. In Cizek GJ, (Ed.): Setting Performance Standards: Concepts, Methods, and Perspectives (pp. 19-52). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

For more information please contact k.a.m.boursicot@qmul.ac.uk or t.e.roberts@leeds.ac.uk

Project focus: REHASH

Chara Balasubramaniam, Terry Poulton, Raja Habib, Trupti Bakrania, Arnold Somasunderam, Maryam Vahdat and Sheetal Kavia, St George's, University of London

St George's, University of London, has led a consortium of Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) partners in the Re-purposing Existing Health Assets to SHare (REHASH) project, which has adapted existing large collections of high-quality, web-based, health resources for different educational contexts.This project is funded by the JISC as part of the Distributed eLearning programme under the theme of supporting collaborative teaching and sharing of resources across institutions.The partner institutions include King's School of Medicine, Kingston University and Croydon College.The re-purposed resources were specifically tailored to support student learning at several distinct educational levels including courses in FE which widen access to nursing, medicine and healthcare, and continue these resources through into HE undergraduate courses in medicine and nursing.

The aim of REHASH was to provide teachers with a fast and economic way of developing attractive educational course units, and to provide students with learning resources that would be consistent when progressing, moving up through different educational levels, from FE to HE. The intention was that a resource escalator would play its own part in promoting a feeling of familiarity, and reducing anxiety in adult learners moving into the HE sector.

It was envisaged that discussions between FE and HE institutions over resources could promote a higher level of interaction between teachers on FE Access courses and their counterparts in HE.

A re-purposing model was devised which consists of a six-step process involving teachers, learning technologists, and technical staff.

Existing resources are mapped to new objectives by the learning technologists.
Relevant teachers are contacted and the resources are subsequently reviewed in order to meet new objectives.
Under the guidance of the teachers, the resources are re- purposed by learning technologists.
Re-purposed resources are quality assured by following the various guidelines and also checked for scientific and editorial discrepancies.
These resources are content- packaged by using the RELOAD tool to ensure interoperability (both SCORM and IMS compliant) and then assigned metadata to increase search functionality.
The completed resources are uploaded into respective virtual learning environments, repositories and websites.

The primary target of the project was to re-purpose existing resources which mapped to approximately 60% of the learning objectives from the cells, tissues, and organs component of the basic and clinical science theme for years 1 and 2 of medicine, and approximately 30% of the learning objectives from the one-year access to nursing course and the foundation course for medicine. In both cases, the original targets have been exceeded, with a greater than expected coverage of learning objectives.

In addition, the following supplementary objectives were considered in the original proposal and are beginning to emerge as project outcomes:

Resources do compete ergonomically and in quality with the existing rapid and efficient process used for assembly of teacher's lesson plans.
Resources are attractive to both teachers and students.
Resource sharing has strengthened existing collaborative relationships between the FE and HE partners.
Institutions that have not created these resources are willing to use them in their own courses.

REHASHed resources have been embedded in several ways, one of which was to create an opportunity at both the regional and national level for sharing across the FE/HE boundary. As a result, and due to the multi-foci nature of this project, it required the development of guidelines and methodologies for the pedagogical, technological, and societal elements underpinning re- purposing, all of which are already being made available to the wider community via the project website.

The resources were intended as supplementary resources for self- directed learning (SDL), as adjuncts to the taught/delivered material. However, in an experiment which drew upon the REHASHed resources, a tutor delivering a lecture to access to nursing students at Croydon College used the re-purposed web-based resources as the lesson materials for presentation in the classroom. These were used deliberately without modification, even though they were primarily intended to assist with SDL. These resources were heavily image- based, and the theory was that students would gain from the fact that the identical resources displayed in the classroom (including the text) would be available online later for review and revision. This one-off process anecdotally proved very successful for both students and staff.

In summary, the project has already demonstrated that resources can be effectively re-purposed to different educational levels, made sufficiently generic, and shared by courses in different institutions. There is also genuine enthusiasm on the part of teachers to utilise these resources, regardless of the institution where they are made, so that the resources are not restricted to web-based learning but can also be used in the classroom, thereby forming a blended approach.

The natural obvious extension of this project is a formal evaluation of the embedding experience (as mentioned above), to address issues such as:

do students and teachers value the resources?
how do students use them?
what is their impact on teacher/student practice?
are resources as easily adopted by institutions who were not involved in their preparation?

These issues form the backbone of a separate Academy case study currently being undertaken by the REHASH team with students and staff at Croydon College. This will explore the possibility of taking web- based resources, primarily intended as supplementary support for HE students, directly into the post-16 classroom and structuring a lesson plan around the resources. This case study will also evaluate whether:

students and teachers find advantages or disadvantages in using identical resources for both lesson presentations and supplementary materials?
these resources can be easily shared by teachers throughout the FE sector particularly in relation to access to health professions course?

For up-to-date information on all REHASH project developments and how to access these resources please visit www.etu.sgul.ac.uk/rehash or contact cbalasub@sgul.ac.uk

A touchstone for online summative assessment

Dr Simon Wilkinson, Dr Reg Dennick and Heather Rai, Medical Education Unit, University of Nottingham

Many pressures are driving interest in new forms of assessment but often there is resistance to summative examinations being held online due to fears over speed, security and resilience. In January 2006, the University of Nottingham Medical Education Unit trialed the online summative assessment of one of its end of semester examinations. Subsequent feedback from students and staff has been very positive and no significant problems occurred during the exam.

Interest in new forms of online assessment for summative purposes is growing across medical education. Primarily this is driven by two desires: for the facilitation of faster and more reliable marking, set against the backdrop of increasing student numbers, and a growing interest in question types that are more discriminating, reliable and interactive than the traditional True/False/Abstain.

The University of Nottingham Medical School has for many years used OMR systems to mark large numbers of objective questions. However, even with rapid scanning this can take up to four hours per cohort for a single exam paper. In order to evaluate the potential advantages, and pitfalls, of a totally computer-based assessment system against the traditional OMR approach the Medical Education Unit piloted a single end of module summative exam for 258 students.

The assessment software employed was TouchStone 2.5; an in-house system which is also licensed to the University of Sheffield Medical School. TouchStone has been used to provide formative assessments across all years of study in the Nottingham curriculum since 2002. It also provides progress test type papers for the monitoring of progression throughout the Advanced Clinical Experience course in the final year. In addition in 2005 TouchStone was first used to host online summative exams for the Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) programme at Derby. The Derby GEM cohort consists of only ninety students so this pilot would also test if the approach could be scaled to the undergraduate Nottingham intake of 258 students.

The module chosen to evaluate this new approach was Structure, Function and Pharmacology of Excitable Tissues. This is a first year core module with 258 students registered and was due to be assessed by exam in January 2006. Discussions started in July 2005 between the senior systems development officer and two of the course convenors. An immediate and very practical problem quickly emerged - where to find 258 computers for the whole class? After seeking advice from Information Services a lab of 150 computers became available at the universityÕs Jubilee Campus which could facilitate the assessment of the entire cohort in two separate sittings.

Paper is easy to keep secure, it is possible to know who has access to a printed exam sheet and it is easy to control who it is given to and when. In contrast to this web pages can be accessed by anybody at anytime, potentially anonymously, an undesirable feature for an online assessment. Initially TouchStone was designed to restrict access to an exam only for the length of that exam. This system was very successful for the 90 students on the Derby GEM course who could all be seated simultaneously in one computer lab. However, with an exam that has two sittings this was no longer adequate as the exam would be accessible while one of the sittings was not supervised. The solution to this was to create a database of all the computer IP addresses within the examinations lab. Attempts from any machine not in the examination room were automatically rejected by the server.

Aside from security, another concern surrounding online assessment, is the familiarity of the users (students) with the software itself. The software must have a high degree of usability if it is to minimize the cognitive load on the student and allow them to concentrate on the exam itself. This problem has been tackled twofold: by iterative redesign and evaluation of the user interface over a number of years, and by exposing students early in the semester to formative exam papers online with a similar mix of question types to the final examination so that they may familiarise themselves with the software.

On the day of the exam students were asked to meet at the exam lab 15 minutes before the scheduled start time of the exam in case of login problems. All users in TouchStone log into an initial page which contains a Sit Paper button that launches the exam. Each cohort, 125 and 131 students respectively, were instructed by invigilators to begin at the same time. All requests were sent back to a Sun Fire V240 server specifically dedicated to running assessments. The average response rate from cohorts of this size starting simultaneously was about 2-3 seconds. The exam itself consisted of 22 individual screens containing a total of 43 questions and students were free to navigate in either direction throughout the exams, leaving difficult questions to come back to later. The only slight difference visually on the screen was the inclusion of Fire Exit icons in the four corners. In the event of a fire evacuation, invigilators would instruct students to click on one of these icons which will cause the system to do two things:

record the current answers in case the computer lab does actually get damaged by fire, and
clear the screen so that examinees cannot see other examinees answers whilst evacuating the room.

The online help system also details all protocols which will be followed in the event of various events: fire, server failure, client failure, LAN failure, etc.

Server Specification

Hardware

Sun Fire V240 2 x 1GHz UltraSPARC IIIi CPUs 4Gb RAM Mirrored hard disks 2 x power supplies SSL Hardware accelerator

Software

TouchStone 2.5 Apache 2 MySQL 4.1.7 PHP 5.0.2

Exam Paper

Question Types

Multiple Choice 9

Multiple Response 17

True/False 1

Extended Matching 2

Fill-in-the-Blank 8

Ranking 2

Image Hotspot 2

Labelling 2

After the exam an Excel spreadsheet was automatically generated by TouchStone and was sent to the central exams office eliminating any need for the manual transcription of results and the opportunity for errors which this entails. The module coordinators were also able to log in and bring up the exam transcript of any student they wished, or view a report showing the number of students selecting each item and distractor.

In summary the experience of conducting a large scale summative exam online was very beneficial. Approximately 2,600 sheets of paper were saved, four hours of OMR scanning saved and the ability to use interactive question types not available on paper, such as image hotspots and drag and drop labels. Interest has already grown within the Medical School for examining end of semester 4 exams online.

For more information please contact simon.wilkinson@nott.ac.uk, reg.dennick@nott.ac.uk or heather.rai@nott.ac.uk

http://www.hyms.ac.uk/ used with permission

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01.11 The newsletter of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine, Spring 2006

In this issue

Welcome!

Contents

Welcome Gillian Brown

Call for JISC-related eLearning case study proposals

Advancing skills for professionals in the rural economy

What will Aspire do?

What additional resources does Aspire provide?

A patient pathway model for clinical learning in treatment centres

Key features of the patient pathway-based on-line simulations for haematuria and transient ischaemic attack

Acknowledgements:

Workshop report: eModerating for health care educators' what I didn't know about eLearning

Conference report: AVTRW

Miniproject update: A new class of doctors - The health science graduate entry into medicine

Workshop report: The best of the web - finding and evaluating health and life science information on the internet

Introduction

The BIOME subject gateways

Virtual training suite

Materials to support teaching and learning

Intute

Conference report: Innovations in disability education

Summary of presentations

Discussion/conclusions

References

Teaching/learning resources available from the Health Council

AUVEC: a new African veterinary schools network empowering animal health services with eLearning

Our course and winningthe THES/Academy eTutor award 2005

Characteristics of constructivist teaching and learning(3)

EEBP: education for evidence-based practice

Why a new journal?

Scope

Open access publishing

The advantages to authors are:

Editorial process

The future

Latest developments in the Academy supporting new academic staff (SNAS) project

Strand 1: Discipline-specific resource and guidance

Strand 2: Mechanisms to share discipline specific pedagogy

Strand 3: Linking research and teaching

Call for case studies

Why, who and what is a medical care practitioner?

Physician assistants for the UK's NHS?

Curriculum and training of MCPs in the UK

Curriculum planning and content

Learning within the clinical setting

Assessment of MCP degrees

Regulation of MCPs

Conclusions

References

Workshop report: Standard setting for undergraduate examinations

a beginners' practical guide

Workshop Learning Objectives for Participants

Benefits for the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine and the disciplinary community

References

Project focus: REHASH

A touchstone for online summative assessment

Server Specification

Exam Paper

Resource groups

Recommended links

Search resources