Engaging with students;in podcast or in person?

Elspeth McLean, Staff Development Officer

Kath CorrieVisiting Tutor

School of Health SciencesUniversity of Liverpool Learning and teaching Conference Jun

29th 2011

The students

School of Health Sciences Year One programmes in

• Diagnostic Radiography• Nursing• Occupational Therapy• Orthoptics• Physiotherapy• Radiotherapy

Approx 280 students in interdisciplinary groups of 13

Introduction to Communication for Health Professional Practice

On completion of the module, the student will be able to demonstrate knowledge and skills of

1.Appropriate non- verbal behaviour related to the context of professional practice

2.Appropriate verbal behaviour related to the context of professional practice

Why include the patient or service user’s perspective?

• Essential • Ethical• Effective• Enhances the student experience

Organisation of module

Introductory session is in uni-professional groups .

Students asked to listen to podcasts after this session

9 sessions in interprofessional group with a facilitator (plus two e-learning sessions). Each group meets and works with a service

users on their 8th meeting

Each group has a wiki

where they are asked to post

responses to and reflections on their

work Final session is uniprofessional

Summary of module and arrangements for assessment

Why podcasts?

• Can make all interviews available to all students

• Can create with a pedagogic intention and promote active learning(Taylor and Clark, 2010, Salmon and Edirisingha,P. (2008)

• The ‘real voice’ is valued (Taylor and Clark 2010)

• Students use them (Copley, 2007)

Making a podcast of an interview about an encounter with health

professionals

What it was like

Student comments about podcasts

‘easy to use’‘made the task interesting’‘helped me pick out key points’‘enjoyed the clips from radio programmes’

Students learning from podcasts

The radiographers should have been communicating with the patient throughout the procedure to keep her calm and not worry her……by communicating with her they would have relaxed her and been able to prevent an unnecessary traumatic experience for a patient in their care

Why in person?

• We know it works and we how to do it– Get Involved projects, partnerships with Knowsley Cancer Support Centre, Pituitary Patients groups , OT Studies

What it was like

Student comments about meeting in personSummary of

question(there were 11)

Agree strongly

Agree Neither Disagree Disagree strongly

n/a

Content related to learning outcomes

21 83 75 16 3 0

Teaching methods including website helped me learn

16 43 47 55 35 2

The staff were responsive to my needs

49 94 46 5 2 2

I felt able to ask for help when necessary

62 104 21 7 3 1

The service user session helped reinforce the importance of good communication

106 61 16 8 2 5

Student learning from meetings

I found the session with the service user more realistic than what we do normally and really helpful to realise how communication can be important

Although podcasts /clips we often listen to provide the same message, meeting the service user face to face allowed you to understand their emotion and feelings in greater detail

Student learning from meetings cont

I think that the main thing that I took from the session was about eye contact, not just making it, but feeling it too

I found it really interesting that (our service user) was one of our podcasts…seeing her face to face made it a lot more realistic to me and highlighted the importance of communication and how it actually affects the patient

Pro’s and con’s

Making podcastsPro’s• Handy for students• Can use when convenient• Can choose what to keep in• Easy to make one that sounds

professional• Less scary than facing a room full

of studentsCon’s• Can’t ask questions or interact

Meeting in personPro’s• More impact – ‘realistic’• Interaction• Can still control situation• Can negotiate confidentiality• Less scary than facing a

microphoneCon’s• Needs good planning and

facilitation

Any questions?

References

Copley,J. (2007) ‘Audio- video podcasts of lectures for campus-based students’ Innovations in Education and Teaching International 44 4 387-399

Salmon,G. and Edirisingha,P. (2008) Podcasting for Learning in Universities UK, Berkshire, Open University Press

Taylor,L. and Clark,S. ‘Educational design of short, audio-only podcasts: The teacher and student experience’ Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 26 3 386-399