virtual therapists: teaching tomorrows health care practitioners how to use wikis

Virtual Therapists

Incorporating Wikis in health-care

educationANITA HAMILTON UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Photography: Luka Skracic

The Vision

To develop the skills of the next generation of health-care

practitioners to use Web 2.0 tools so they can develop and disseminate excellent health

care resources

ANITA HAMILTON UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

The Approach

Invite instructors to incorporate a Wiki into existing group-work assignment

Inform students about the project aims & the role of Wikis in health care practice

Provide training and support

Invite students and instructors to participate in a learning-style survey and focus groups

Physiotherapy Wiki

The Journey

Unraveling the Difficulties

Mid-way LessonsChange to another wiki program

Educators need to be flexible and creative… they also

need good tech skills and support

Reduce curriculum while adopting new technology

Creating a wiki is a journey… the process is as

important as the product

Don’t assume that students are tech-savvy based on age

Phase Two of the Journey

Speech Pathology Wiki

Occupational Therapy Wiki

Kolb’s Learning Styles

x 2 = 24.957p=0.002

Three cells contained less than the required number

Descriptions of Kolb’s learning styles

Accommodating• Prefer "hands-on" experience.

• Involved in new and challenging experiences.

• Act on "gut" feelings rather than on logical analysis.

• Rely more heavily on people for information than technical analysis.

• Action-oriented careers such as marketing or sales.

• Work with others to get assignments done, to set goals, to do field work, and to test out different approaches to completing a project.

Converging• Find practical uses for ideas and

theories.

• Solve problems and make decisions based on finding solutions to questions or problems.

• Prefer technical tasks and problems than with social and interpersonal issues.

• Specialist and technology careers.

• Prefer to experiment with new ideas, simulations, laboratory assignments, and practical applications.

OT group

PT group

Descriptions of Kolb’s learning styles

Assimilating• Understand wide range of

information and putting it into concise, logical form.

• Less focused on people, more interested in abstract ideas and concepts.

• Important that a theory have logical soundness than practical value.

• Information and science careers.

• Prefer lectures, readings, exploring analytical models, and having time to think things through.

Diverging• View concrete situations from many

different points of view.

• Observe rather than take action.

• Enjoy generating a wide range of ideas, such as brainstorming sessions.

• Broad cultural interests and like to gather information.

• Imaginative and sensitivity to feelings

• Arts, entertainment, and service careers.

• Prefer working in groups to gather information, listening with an open mind, and receiving personalized feedback.

SP group

Themes Wiki technology

Educator

Habits

New learning environment

Theme 1Wiki

Technology

“I was concerned about completing my assignment and learning what I needed... I wasn’t really interested in learning a lot about technology” (Student)

“...we spent more time trying to format than we did with the actual content...” (Student)

Theme 1Wiki

Technology

“...it had a really good amount of functions... to link to external sources... link to somebody else’s page... loading external pages... that was pretty cool stuff!” (Student) ANITA HAMILTON UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Theme 1Wiki

Technology

“...I’ve found I have used the Wiki [again], we had to do a case history information and I used the Wiki to fill that in... it was easier than going through the textbook...” (Student)

Theme 1Wiki

Technology

“... I don’t think they understood how much work it was going to be to learn about the assignment and learn about this [wiki] too.” (Student)

Theme 2

Educator – knowledge, curriculum design, flexibility & enthusiasm.

“...we hoped they would use the technology to facilitate learning” (Instructor)

Theme 2

“... she [educator] was perfectly willing to change the assignment a bit...” (Student)

Theme 2

“I remember emailing her [about the wiki] and she got back to me right away, enthusiastic, detailed steps on how to do something or ‘come and see me’.” (Student)

Theme 2

Theme 3Trust –

information, group, & the

“I don’t know how the Wiki works really, but also with confidentiality...

...at an office only so many people have access... but on the internet?” (Student)

Theme 3Trust –

“... the biggest [concern] would be trust, as to who is actually putting the information on it.” (Student)

“...who had access and what their credentials were.” (Student) ANITA HAMILTON UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Theme 3Trust –

“We didn’t use the comments [tool] until the peer review process as we thought: ‘this is not our project, we don’t want to mess with it’.” (Student) ANITA HAMILTON UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

“….she’s often over at the library, she prefers it. I think she could use the computer if she wanted to” (Student)

Theme 4

Habits – being comfortable with online technology

“Something you can’t develop online is the friendship...” (Student)

“...you can’t fully understand someone if you don’t see them... gestures, facial expressions...” (Student)

Theme 4

“...this was a really good opportunity... it forced us to use it...

...there was some pretty strong resistance...

...it was a good way to overcome... reluctance for certain people” (Student) ANITA HAMILTON UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Theme 4

“There was one person who wasn’t interested in learning about the Wiki, she knew how to post things... but if it came to changing something like colours, she would ask one of us to do it... it was fine like that” (Student)

Theme 4

“My style of evaluating is to sit and think and to flip and then to read and then to think...

...the Wiki doesn’t lend itself to that, you move you click and you can’t easily compare.” (Instructor)

Theme 4

“... commenting on people’s work... I told the reader... ‘you will go and see the spacing on your work looks a little wacked...’ I put the comments in white text. (chuckles) ” (Instructor)

Theme 4

“There was a peer review process, we’d check content, grammar, anything and then there was an additional page linked where we would put all the suggestions...” (Student)

Theme 5

“you could see what they had posted and you could say “I have to post this for my group”.” (Student)

“...lets have a chance to look at each other’s work... pick up on good ideas... be flattered if someone takes your idea...!” (Instructor)

Theme 5

“...when we do the editing everyone can

see it... some may take it personally but it’s actually a

good learning experience too”

(Student)

Theme 5

“I might be able to critique someone’s

work more on a Wiki rather than being

face to face” (Student)

Theme 5

“when you access someone’s ideas in written form you’re accessing different skills of theirs... not their personality, but their written work, it’s quite different [from] to face to face” (Student)

Theme 5

“We’re capitalizing on everyone’s

strengths in the groups”

(Student)

Theme 5

Implications

Educator

Technology

Course design

Learners

Educator profile:

Positive attitude to eLearning

Responsive online

Creative/flexible course design

Formative assessment

Think on feet

Share & receive technology tips ANITA HAMILTON UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Technology features

Sophisticated yet simple/intuitive

Available 24/7 (or close to that)

Suits learning goals

Has a “sandbox” to play with the tools and to share tips

Course designIncorporate training in the

new tool to reduce learner anxiety

Time given to learn new tools

Course learning and evaluation activities meet learning goals

Activities meet technology capacity

Flexibility in evaluationANITA HAMILTON UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Learners are more positive when:

They feel connected with the educator

They feel they are appropriately evaluated

They perceive the technology as useful, for now and future

Diffusion of InnovationAn Idea

Communication Channels

Social System(Rogers, 2003)

Example of Application in Practice

Questions?

ReferencesKift, S. (2003). From bolting on to embedding: How do we progress the

seamlessness of online and in-class learning environments to enhance student learning outcomes? Paper presented at the OLT 2003 Excellence: making the connections. From https://olt.qut.edu.au/olt2003/Proceedings/OLT%20Conf%20Proceedings.pdf#page=161.

Potts, H. W. W. (2006). Is E-health progressing faster than E-health researchers? [Electronic Version]. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8. Retrieved 1 May 2008 from http://www.jmir.org/2006/3/e24/.

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations. (5th ed.). New York: Free Press.

Sun, P., Tsai, R. J., Finger, G., Chen, Y., & Yeh, D. (2008). What drives successful e-Learning? An empirical investigation of the critical factors influencing learner satisfaction. Computers & Education, 50, 1183-1202.

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virtual therapists: teaching tomorrows health care practitioners how to use wikis

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