student consultation on mobile learning: methods, messages and musings

Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) ©http://www.alps-cetl.ac.uk

Student Consultation on Mobile Learning: methods,

messages and musings

Ceri Coulby Educational Staff Development Officer

Viktoria Joynes

ALPS Research Officer

www.alps-cetl.ac.uk


A Question:

When do you think students should be consulted on their OWN curriculum?

-Pre-course start

-Regular reviews throughout course

-Post course

-They shouldn’t be consulted


About the Projects• University of Leeds

• Final Year Medical Students

• 14 Re-Sit Placements

• PDAs for Mini-CEX

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

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


Methods of Consultation•Initial PDA trial (pre-

placement)

•Post placement:

Focus Groups and evaluative

questionnaires

•All PRE-assessment toolbeing rolled out

•Workshop: Watched Scenario and Feedback

•Focus Group

•Simulation Exercise


TASK

• As a group discuss the potential benefits and barriers to student consultation.

• What is your experience of student consultation?

• Can you predict our findings?


Methods of Consultation (2)

NO INCENTIVES OFFERED!


Findings – Mini-CEX“Typing was time consuming”

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

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

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

and felt learning opportunities were made easily available”


IMPACT

Scaled project for entire final year

Reduced the number of assessments

Told students to use audio to record feedback

Produced online training materials

Revised evaluation


Findings - ALPS“If the patient wanted to say something negative…then how does

that student respond to that? And who’s going to support that student to deal with that afterwards?”

“The assessment is usable although I feel the wording needs to be altered. The questions were appropriate – the multiple choice

answers need to be decreased as they are too broad”

“I feel the assessment would work well in practice if the student had full control of their own PDA and it was not used in a way

which would place the student under more pressure”


IMPACT

Recommendation that assessors receive service user feedback as opposed to

students

Language of assessment tool

Revised protocol for tool use

Guidelines for mobile device use

Further consultations


Negatives- Students do not always turn up!

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

continuous consultations

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

less time pressured)

- PRE-project consultation...more stressful for project team

Requires more resources and time


Positives

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

the project

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

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


Another Question…

How would what you have heard today, from us and your peers, influence your approach to student involvement?

If you were working on our project would you have conducted student consultation differently?


Reflection

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

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

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

student consultation on mobile learning: methods, messages and musings

Documents