Presentation by Barbara Anne Nicolls, Shane Roadnight, James Ellis, Buckinghamshire New University, UK at ePIC 2013

1. Blogging in the ePortfolio environment to
enhance reflective practice: a service
evaluation of the trainee Operating
Department Practitioners’ experience
Barbara A Nicolls, Shane Roadnight & James Ellis

2. Aim of the study
1. To evaluate the effectiveness of blogging in promoting
reflection and developing reflective ODPs
2. To inform curriculum development for managing the blog
task
Barbara A Nicolls, Shane Roadnight & James Ellis

3. What is an ODP?
A registered
professional with
a skills set
specifically
tailored to the
operating theatre
Operating
Department
Practitioner

4. Training to be an ODP
•
•
•
•
•
•
2-year Diploma in HE
32 weeks per year in practice
14 weeks per year at university
Varied regime throughout:
 Assignments
 OSCE
 Exams
 Practice assessment documents
Upon completion; join the professional register held by the Health and Care
Professions Council
Expectation of registration is continued professional development.

5. ePortfolio – student
owned, institution
independent
•
ePortfolio embedded in the curriculum
 Aspects of assessments are submitted to ePortfolio
 Reflections on practice experiences
•
Life long learning
•
The ePortfolio is ‘owned’ by the student not the university

6. Cohort 2011
comprising 8 individuals
- with a common interest in health care (peri operative
care) (Wenger et al. 2002)
- with sustained mutual engagement in peri operative care over
the term of the course, shared purpose of developing into
reflective professionals & lifelong learners, common practice
(Hara et al. 2009, Lave & Wenger 1991, Wenger 1998)
therefore, consider group as CoP?

7. Reflective writing : Learning to write
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/new-to-teaching/STEMresources/teaching-reflective-writing
Operating Department Practice Programme Learning Outcomes
Year
2
Sem
2
Level
5
CL 503
Specialising in Perioperative Care
Clinical Practice in Specialist
Anaesthetics, Surgery
CL 504
Developing Leadership Qualities
in the Perioperative Care
Environment Clinical Practice in
Specialist Anaesthetics, Surgery
ePortfolio presentation with
achievement of course
learning outcomes
Year
2
Sem
1
Level
5
CL 501
Advancing Perioperative Practice
Clinical Practice in Complex
Anaesthetics, Surgery
CL 502
Applied Anatomy and Physiology
Clinical Practice in Complex
Anaesthetics, Surgery
ePortfolio progression
Year
1
Sem
2
Level
4
CL 403
Developing Perioperative Practice
Clinical Practice in Emergency
Anaesthetics, Surgery
CL 404
Anatomy & Physiology
Clinical Practice in Emergency
Anaesthetics, Surgery
ePortfolio confidence building,
making connections,
reflection, self assessment
Summary of learning in Y1
Year
1
Sem
1
Level
4
CL 401
Fundamentals of
Perioperative Practice
Clinical Practice in
Anaesthetics, Surgery
CL 402
Principles & Practice of
Anaesthetics & Surgery
Clinical Practice in Anaesthetics,
Surgery
ePortfolio induction,
familiarization, exploration,
collection, selection of
evidence

8. Learning to write: Year 1 Level 4
• Use of Reflection page in Google Sites ePortfolio which provides
a discursive space for reflecting on peri operative care
• Structured employing reflective models to integrate theory with
experience (Boyd & Fales 1983, Boud et al 1985, Schon 1987)
•
a form of ‘academic’ reflection - involving a conscious and state
purpose for the reflection with an outcome specified in terms of
learning, action or clarification (Moon 2004)
• Scaffolding during transition to professionalism _ learning to write
reflectively and demonstrate growth
Barbara nicolls

9. Learning to write: Year 1 Level 4
The process of Reflecting in the ePortfolio comprises of:
1. Identifying and describing an ODP placement based experience
2. Analysing it using a conceptual framework
3. Uncovering assumptions
4. Conveying future action by articulating authentic professional growth
Provides appropriate opportunities for reflection to the trainees who are
attempting to absorb knowledge at their initial stage of learning to be
ODPs and to bring newly learned knowledge to the practice area.
Barbara nicolls

10. Transition in to Year 2 Level 5
•
year 2 of the ODP programme
 ePortfolio continues to grow
•
Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their
own learning
•
Reflections on clinical practice & self development
continue from the foundation built in the year 1

11. Life Long Learning
•
•
Does this take the student far enough?
Does it provide them with the expertise to support Life Long Learning &
CPD?

12. Blog
• To further support the concept of LLL/CPD we
have embedded a blog in to the assessment
regime
• The aim?
• To maintain
 Growth
 Self- motivated
development
 Development
of peer group

13. Why did we choose a Blog?
•
Different tool for reflective development
•
Lends itself to independent development of self & others
•
Creates a community of practice/team working
•
Shares ideas, good practice
•
Promotes self development & professional awareness

14. Experience
•
Students each created a blog page in their individual ePortfolio
•
Students required to create 3 entries on a topic of their choice related to
peri-operative care over a 2-week period and share them with a selected
group of peers
•
Students required to post 3 responses to maintain a dialogue
•
Blog assessment rubric distributed and explained to enable students to
understand how the task is assessed albeit formatively
•
The blog assignment is self moderated
•
Allowed to develop through student freedom
•
Risks of misinformation identified

15. Writing to learn in the ePortfolio
environment: Findings
Data collection
• Formative assessment using the rubric
• Student perception survey using Google form
• Focus group interview – checking back/empowering participants
• Qualitative analysis of blog content

16. Findings from the Formative assessment using
the blog rubric

17. Student perception responses
(N=8)
Agree/
completely
agree %
Neutral %
Disagree
/completely
disagree %
I enjoy writing reflections on the blog
3 (37.5%)
2 ( 25%)
3 (37.5%)
I enjoy reading my peers’ blog posts
4 (50%)
3 (37.5%)
1 (12.5%)
I enjoy responding to my peers’ blog posts
3 (37.5%)
3 (37.5%)
2 (25%)
a. become more thoughtful and mindful of my work
4 (50%)
1 (12.5%)
3 (37.5%)
b. become more aware of my learning needs
4 (50%)
2 (25%)
2 (25%)
c. learning from & with peers is fun
5 (62.5%)
1 (12.5%)
2 (25%)
d. continue this experience as a professional
1 (12.5%)
5 (62.5%)
1 (12.5%)
e. time consuming
2 (25%)
4 (50%)
2 (25%)
f. Keeping in touch with peers 24/7 on various placements
7 (87.5%)
0
1 (12.5%)
Blogging experience:

18. Focus group interview
responses
What did you like about blogging?
What did you dislike about blogging?

19. Focus group interview
responses - like
• social connection with peers in geographically
diverse placements
• sharing and comparing experiences on placements
• blogging broadens the understanding of peri operative care
information, practices through knowledge base of a collective
whole (e.g. hyperlinks to other sources)
• teach and learn at the same time while engaging with reflective
practice (Hibbert 2008)
• similar to using facebook for information seeking and sharing

20. Focus group interview
responses (dislikes)
• difficulty of sharing the Blog page in their ePortfolio
with peers – IT issue
• suggested group size – small to enable co-construction of
knowledge
• another prescribed assignment blogging should be continuous
without time limitations –
• clear guidelines on “how to blog on the course”
• need “ a guide on the side” to prevent being misinformed
• lack of time for learning effectiveness

21. Positive outcomes
•
Social constructivist learning through online CoPs
(collaboration, )
Small cohort – assessment process manageable for course
team
Blog task reinforced need for reflection as part of experiential
learning cycle – reflective practitioner
initial step to independent learning – could lead to lifelong
learning

22. Now what?
•
Timing of blog task to develop competency in blogging and
in reflective writing and practice
use of a blog platform e.g. Google Blogger to benefit from sharing
blog posts, archiving, and accessibility
Student Blog facilitators – training, clear guidelines to support them
in the blogging environment to optimize learning outcomes
group size
find time to analyse blog posts to ascertain the effectiveness of
blogging

23. Suggestions ?