Workshop / Focus Session onLearning Portfolios and Educational Social Networks -

Tools for Medical Apprentice Learners"

Donna M. D'Alessandro, M.D."donna-dalessandro@uiowa.edu "

Michael P. D'Alessandro, M.D."michael-dalessandro@uiowa.edu"

Educational Informatics"www.educationalinformatics.org"

www.slideshare.net/michaeldalessandro"

Departments of Pediatrics and Radiology"University of Iowa College of Medicine / University of Iowa Children's Hospital"

Disclosures"

• Nothing to disclose"

Some Questions"

•  Where are you from and what do you do?"

•  What is a question you want answered from this workshop?"

Goal"

• Demonstrate how learning portfolios and educational social networks can be used in medical education"

Workshop Outline"• Define"

• Learning portfolio and educational social network"

• Demonstrate examples"• PediatricEducation.org"• Pediatric Commons"• PediaLink"

• Define best practices interactively through discussion"

The Learning Continuum"

Data -> Information -> Knowledge - > Wisdom / Mastery"[acquired + organized] [reflected] [shared] "

Personal learning environment -> Social learning network"[focus on individual] [focus on group]"

Definitions"•  Learning portfolio (LP)"

•  Repository of interesting cases and other professional experiences and what you have learned from them"

•  Coupling of reflective practice along with the creation of LPs plays a key role in the learning continuum"

•  Educational construct: Adult learning theory = Learning situated in practice"•  Schon's theory of clinical problem solving / model of reflective

practice / learning cycle"•  For each case: Question ~ Story ~ Answer ~ Impact on Practice ~

Resources Used"

•  Educational social network (ESN)"•  Interacting on a regular basis with a group of people who share

their passion about a topic can deepen one's understanding, mastery and wisdom about the topic"

•  Can be easily done by sharing LPs on ESNs"

Example Learning Portfolios"

•  For each case: Question ~ Story ~ Answer ~ Impact on Practice ~ Resources Used"

Example of My Learning PortfolioPediatricEducation.org - www.pediatriceducation.org"•  A pediatrician's clinical experiences

coupled with reflection"•  5 elements for each case"•  Evaluation shows unstructured curriculum

unfolding in practice over 5 years (234 cases)"•  Covers 100% of age ranges (n=9)"•  100% of specialties (n=42)"•  98% of symptoms (n=127)"•  55% of diseases (n=707 [50-60% are pediatric])"•  90% of topics in 3 national pediatric curricula"•  20 hours of CME / year"•  "My reading is now focused on my patients""- D'Alessandro DM, D'Alessandro MP. Formative Evaluation of a

Pediatric Digital Library's Educational Content and Comparison to National Curricular Standards. Medical Teacher. 2008;30(9-10) 880-6."

•  Learner taking control of and assuming responsibility for their own learning by tying their learning to practice + receiving CME + MOC for it"

•  Learning portfolio documents what you have learned"•  Assessment by examination documents what

you don't know"

Example of Sharing Learning Portfolios Pediatric Commons -- www.pediatriccommons.org"

•  A community of pediatric learning, teaching, sharing + collaboration"•  Goal - build a pediatric learning community

around content, conversations and connections for the purpose of improving children's health"

•  Place to come learn pediatrics every day"•  Enter cases into your learning portfolio"

•  Store your experience, reflection, knowledge, wisdom"

•  Participate in your community of practice"•  Contribute content, Engage in conversations,

Make connections"•  Enables peer-to-peer and master-to-apprentice

teaching"

Pediatric Commons"

•  For each case: Question ~ Story ~ Answer ~ Impact on Practice ~ Resources Used"•  Permissions ~ Tag Cloud (discipline, anatomy, disease, institution, level)"•  Aggregated learning portfolios"

Integration Into The Educational Social Workflow Web site / Blog vs. Ning Network vs. Facebook page vs. Twitter"

Members: " 1 700 3,300 " " 216 Followers"Subscribers: 200 RSS/Email "19 RSS " " 3,300 " " 216 Followers"Visitors/month: 31,000 " 600 1,800 (Reach) " " N/A"Pages/month: 41,000 1,500 Unknown " " N/A"Cases/month: " 4 " 5 " " " 5 " " " 4"Comments/case: 0 0-1 0-1 0 Comments/Retweets"

Other Educational Social Networks"

Members: " "14,000 " "170,000 " " "130,000 " ""Subscribers: "14,000 " "N/A " " "N/A"Visitors/month: "Unknown " "Unknown " " "Unknown"Pages/month: "N/A " "Unknown " " "Unknown"Cases/month: "1 " "8 " " "30 ""Comments/case: "5-30 " "5-10 " " "5-50"

Mescape and Sermo are anonymous + have low signal to noise ratio ~ Sermo business model unsavory"

Other Educational Social Networks"

Members: " "Potentially 60,000 members of AAP, true number unknown"Subscribers: "N/A"Visitors/month: "Unknown"Pages/month: "Unknown"Cases/month: "12"Comments/case: "0"

Time To Reflect…"

• How many people have a learning portfolio?"•  If so, what is in it?"

• How many people participate in an educational social network?"•  If so, which ones?"

Defining Best Practices For Learning Portfolios"

•  What should they contain?"•  What is already available to implement them?"

•  Organization based"•  Examples - Pivio (AAMC+NBME), ACGME, institutions, specialty societies"•  Pros / Cons - All users in one place / Technologically behind the curve, focus on

what you've done rather than what you've learned, they own your data, non-interoperable data silos"

•  Individual based"•  Pros / Cons - Technologically ahead of the curve, focus on what you've learned

rather than what you've done, you own your data, interoperable / Users are scattered + not connected"

•  What is the best way to implement them?"•  Hardware"

•  Laptop vs. mobile"•  Software"

•  Device based office suite / database"•  Cloud based office suite / database (Google Docs, Evernote) "•  Blog"

Defining Best Practices For Educational Social Networks"

•  What is already available to implement them?"•  Organization-based"

•  Examples - Specialty societies - PediaLink"•  Pros / Cons - All users in one place / Technologically behind the curve,

non-interoperable data silos"•  Affinity-based non-profit"

•  Examples - Pediatric Commons"•  Pros / Cons - Technologically ahead of curve, interoperable / Few

users, sustainability"•  Affinity-based for-profit"

•  Examples - Medscape, Sermo"•  Pros / Cons - Technologically at curve / Non-interoperable data silos,

business models unsavory"•  Should you create dedicated ESNs or use pre-existing ones? "

•  Do you make them come to you or do you go where they already are?"•  What role can Facebook and Twitter play?"

•  Which tools are the most powerful and most useful for creating them?"•  BBS vs. BuddyPress vs. Elgg vs. Ning"

Defining Best Practices For Learning Portfolios and Educational Social Networks"•  Your data and information"

•  How do you maintain control of it?"•  Who owns your data?"

•  How do you keep it secure?"•  Physically"•  Electronically (encryption)"•  Professionally"

•  How do you keep it backed up?"•  How do you ensure its interoperability? "•  How do you migrate it to future hardware and software

platforms?"•  - Or - How do you own your data and keep it in a format

that can be reused throughout your professional life?"

Defining Best Practices For Learning Portfolios and Educational Social Networks"•  Professionalism"

•  How do learners respect confidentiality and utilize ESNs in a professional manner?"

•  Am I allowed to use Social media / Dropbox / Evernote / Google Docs / etc. by the institution? Or are they filtered?"•  If not, am I forced to do my work at home rather than at the institution?"

•  Posting of even non-Protected Health Information may not be allowed by institution"

•  Should I go back to paper for Protected Health Information?"•  Facebook and Twitter - what role can they play?"

•  Personal life vs. professional life – where do you draw the lines?"•  Some don't think your professional life should be on Facebook or

Twitter"•  Should I not use Social Media because of what my colleagues will

think?"•  Are Learning Portfolios and Educational Social Networks

an institutional concern or an individual concern?"

Conclusion / Call For Action"•  You are now armed with the knowledge

necessary to successfully advocate for the creation of learning portfolios and educational social networks at your institutions"

•  Your plan of action"• Will you create or refine a learning portfolio or

educational social network?"• What are / is your first steps?"• When will have your first step done?"• Put this by your computer…"

References"

•  Cheston CC, Flickinger TE, Chisolm MS. Social Media Use in Medical Education: A Systematic Review. Acad Med 2013: 88:1-9."

•  Mayo Clinic Center For Social Media"•  network.socialmedia.mayoclinic.org"