e-Learning
e-learning and Psychiatry
I have made some enquiries about the use of e-learning in undergraduate and post graduate teaching in psychiatry, which I would like to share with you. Psychiatry has historically attracted little interest from medical students for a number of reasons. These may include; the stigma attached to mental illness and anxieties about working with mentally ill people (wrongly perceived as being difficult and dangerous). A major task for academics within my department- division of psychiatry at the University of Nottingham- has been attracting students interest in our specialty. Course organizers are becoming increasingly interested in the use of e-learning. The division has recently introduced a new module for undergraduate teaching in psychiatry, a major component of which is WebCT. Web based lectures have now replaced traditional face to face didactic lectures.
WebCT
In my department, the idea of introducing WebCT seemed very attractive form the out set. The general impression was that, they would provide a useful tool for learning which could be accessed at any time. The introduction of WebCT proved not to be as easy as everybody thought it would be. The use of technology was the first obstacle we faced. Shortly after introduction of WebCT, students highlighted a number of technical difficulties. For example poor quality of audio, difficulties with accessing the lectures on line (password protected), lack of access to PC...etc. Students who had no computers at their homes, requested to have a printed version of the lectures, the question was then who should be paying for that?
Most of these technical problems were fixed, but soon other problems emerged. Students complained about variations in the quality of various lectures and amount of knowledge provided in each lecture. Work is still ongoing to remedy this problem. This may involve updating most lectures without of course "offending" anybody.
We are currently undertaking Student evaluation of teaching (part of PGCHE group project) looking at views on various aspects of the module including WebCT. Results of our pilot study (10 participants) showed mixed views on WebCT. It is viewed by some students as "a waste of time and money", whereas others see it as a very useful learning tool .
I can see some benefits to using WebCT. First; it will save lecturer time as you don't have to give the lecture repeatedly. Second; it will save you anxiety, as you don't have to face the audience. Finally; Web lectures can be updated regularly.
I can tell from my own experience that WebCT has a potential to improve standards of teaching in psychiatry. But, it remains largely unclear whether introduction of WebCT has any bearings on students attitudes towards psychiatry.
RLO
I have recently read with interest an article in the British Medical Journal about reusable learning objects (Walsh Kieran, Reusable learning objects BMJ Volume 332: P: 1193, 20 May 2006) The author discusses the prospect of all medical schools everywhere sharing their on line learning resources. They argue that this will fill gaps in the online resources available in your institution. According to Kieran Walsh, a team at University of Dundee are building an "International Virtual Medical School". They say that learning contents can be split into objects and then tagged and recombined to form teaching experiences. For example if you give a lecture on pneumonia in London then you can download a chest x-ray from New York to put into your presentation.
The idea seemed very interesting when I first read it. I was thinking whether this approach could be utilized in psychiatry? There is certainly a humane touch to psychiatry which will be hard to explain merely by reusable learning objects. For example patient's subjective experience of mental illness. In our department we sometimes use movie materials to demonstrate this, i.e. "The beautiful mind". Perhaps RLO will be invaluable in teaching biological aspects to many mental disorders. For example brain receptor abnormalities in schizophrenia.
e- Learning and professional development
e-learning courses are now widely available in psychiatry. These are largely accredited for continuing professional development. They cover such areas as psychiatry and law, biological psychiatry, major advances in psychiatric treatments...etc. At the end of each online course you get a certificate and credits or what we call CPD units. I personally have access to a lot of those e-learning materials through British medical association and doctors.net. I have recently accessed an online course on Mental capacity act and found it very useful. It has certainly saved me a lot of time and money. In the recent past people had to travel round the country and pay for such courses. Whereas now you do them at your convenience and in front of your PC.
Keeping a blog
I have been keeping this blog for more than 3 years. During this time I managed to post a large collection of materials for MRCPsych exam (membership of Royal college of psychiatrists). Keeping a blog is something I can mention on my CV and boast about!
Keeping this blog has helped me to expand my knowledge in psychiatry. Unfortunately because of demands of my current job, I haven't been able to update my blog for a while. For some time my blog was linked to a popular website. This has prompted me to update it regularly, but unfortunately we couldn't maintain the web address for financial reasons. My advice for those who keep a blog would be to make there blog available to a wide audience by linking it to a popular website.
I have made some enquiries about the use of e-learning in undergraduate and post graduate teaching in psychiatry, which I would like to share with you. Psychiatry has historically attracted little interest from medical students for a number of reasons. These may include; the stigma attached to mental illness and anxieties about working with mentally ill people (wrongly perceived as being difficult and dangerous). A major task for academics within my department- division of psychiatry at the University of Nottingham- has been attracting students interest in our specialty. Course organizers are becoming increasingly interested in the use of e-learning. The division has recently introduced a new module for undergraduate teaching in psychiatry, a major component of which is WebCT. Web based lectures have now replaced traditional face to face didactic lectures.
WebCT
In my department, the idea of introducing WebCT seemed very attractive form the out set. The general impression was that, they would provide a useful tool for learning which could be accessed at any time. The introduction of WebCT proved not to be as easy as everybody thought it would be. The use of technology was the first obstacle we faced. Shortly after introduction of WebCT, students highlighted a number of technical difficulties. For example poor quality of audio, difficulties with accessing the lectures on line (password protected), lack of access to PC...etc. Students who had no computers at their homes, requested to have a printed version of the lectures, the question was then who should be paying for that?
Most of these technical problems were fixed, but soon other problems emerged. Students complained about variations in the quality of various lectures and amount of knowledge provided in each lecture. Work is still ongoing to remedy this problem. This may involve updating most lectures without of course "offending" anybody.
We are currently undertaking Student evaluation of teaching (part of PGCHE group project) looking at views on various aspects of the module including WebCT. Results of our pilot study (10 participants) showed mixed views on WebCT. It is viewed by some students as "a waste of time and money", whereas others see it as a very useful learning tool .
I can see some benefits to using WebCT. First; it will save lecturer time as you don't have to give the lecture repeatedly. Second; it will save you anxiety, as you don't have to face the audience. Finally; Web lectures can be updated regularly.
I can tell from my own experience that WebCT has a potential to improve standards of teaching in psychiatry. But, it remains largely unclear whether introduction of WebCT has any bearings on students attitudes towards psychiatry.
RLO
I have recently read with interest an article in the British Medical Journal about reusable learning objects (Walsh Kieran, Reusable learning objects BMJ Volume 332: P: 1193, 20 May 2006) The author discusses the prospect of all medical schools everywhere sharing their on line learning resources. They argue that this will fill gaps in the online resources available in your institution. According to Kieran Walsh, a team at University of Dundee are building an "International Virtual Medical School". They say that learning contents can be split into objects and then tagged and recombined to form teaching experiences. For example if you give a lecture on pneumonia in London then you can download a chest x-ray from New York to put into your presentation.
The idea seemed very interesting when I first read it. I was thinking whether this approach could be utilized in psychiatry? There is certainly a humane touch to psychiatry which will be hard to explain merely by reusable learning objects. For example patient's subjective experience of mental illness. In our department we sometimes use movie materials to demonstrate this, i.e. "The beautiful mind". Perhaps RLO will be invaluable in teaching biological aspects to many mental disorders. For example brain receptor abnormalities in schizophrenia.
e- Learning and professional development
e-learning courses are now widely available in psychiatry. These are largely accredited for continuing professional development. They cover such areas as psychiatry and law, biological psychiatry, major advances in psychiatric treatments...etc. At the end of each online course you get a certificate and credits or what we call CPD units. I personally have access to a lot of those e-learning materials through British medical association and doctors.net. I have recently accessed an online course on Mental capacity act and found it very useful. It has certainly saved me a lot of time and money. In the recent past people had to travel round the country and pay for such courses. Whereas now you do them at your convenience and in front of your PC.
Keeping a blog
I have been keeping this blog for more than 3 years. During this time I managed to post a large collection of materials for MRCPsych exam (membership of Royal college of psychiatrists). Keeping a blog is something I can mention on my CV and boast about!
Keeping this blog has helped me to expand my knowledge in psychiatry. Unfortunately because of demands of my current job, I haven't been able to update my blog for a while. For some time my blog was linked to a popular website. This has prompted me to update it regularly, but unfortunately we couldn't maintain the web address for financial reasons. My advice for those who keep a blog would be to make there blog available to a wide audience by linking it to a popular website.
posted by Najat | 5:07 pm
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