3. Background
• Administering intra-muscular injections:
Updating staff on IM injection technique, appropriate equipment, patient
preparation, pre- and post-assessment, and infection control issues.
• One full study day
• Variable delivery locations
• Repeated many times a year
• Resource intensive
• Combination of theoretical knowledge and practical skills
4. General Considerations
‘External’ pressures Pedagogical
• Allow more effective • Allow student-led
use of time learning
• Allow more study days vs. • Self-identification of
to be run learning needs
• External pressures can be used as an opportunity to
reconsider current educational methods/pedgagogy
• Any changes should be appropriate, pedagogically
sound and advantage (or at least not disadvantage) the
student experience.
5. Rationale for blended learning
External Pressures
• Staff time commitments reduced once online
learning created
• Allows more study days to run
• Enables students to attend more easily (half day
vs. full day of leave from work)
6. Rationale for blended learning
Pedagogical
Study day split into:
Theoretical knowledge Practical skills
• Online self-directed learning • Classroom based tutor-led
• Work through learning at their • More effective use of the
own pace time as already prepared
• Test their own working
knowledge prior to attendance
• Self-identify further learning
needs.
7. Creating blended learning
Pedagogical
• Study resources already
written
• Re-evaluated for online
learning
• Course Notes
• MCQs (self-test)
• Links to further reading
• Specific break-up of topic
areas
8. Creating blended learning
Technical
• Created in MOODLE
• Lots of options/future flexibility
• Students self-enrol to access,
bypassing central registration
issues
12. Emergent Issues
• Accessing from within NHS requires compatibility with
very old web browsers (10 years old!)
• ‘Proof’ of use of the resource was not a requirement for
the face-to-face section of the study day, but could be
introduced if required.
• Different student learning styles were more easily
catered for.
• The pedagogical focus shifted from didactic ‘delivery of
information’ to active and self-directed learning.
• Students started practical section of study day more
prepared and informed.
13. Student Feedback
January - May 2011, 251 students
Negative comments summary
× More practice time on mannequins, and more arms/mannequins to
practice injection technique.
× Staff considered it would be beneficial if they were able to share the
learning materials and online resources with their nursing students.
14. Student Feedback
January - May 2011, 251 students
Much needed update/refresher provided in a relaxed and supportive
atmosphere.
Further reading could be easily accessed via online course.
Evidence-based content, linking theory to practice.
Online component was excellent preparation for classroom session.
Information on how to give IM injections in different sites seen as
extremely valuable.
Content of study days was relevant to students’ current practice and
increased their confidence in performing IM injections.
15. Summary
• It is possible to respond to a ‘changing environment’ and
deliver an improvement to the student experience
• Pedagogical considerations need to be central, if not the
main driver of change
• External pressures can be used as an opportunity to
rejuvenate currently in-place educational
methods/pedagogy
16. Summary
• It is possible to “do more with less”. After an initial
investment of time to create the online component
tutor-led teaching time has been reduced by half.
BUT:
• This is not at the expense of the overall amount of learning being
reduced.
• On longer courses and tutor-led online activity this may not be
the case
• Freed-up time could either be used for further enriching teaching
or organisational needs
• Most importantly, the student experience and outcomes
have been improved
17. The future…
• Currently reappraising all existing study days within
department
• Development into a more formal framework
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More information: You can crop a picture (trim slices from the side, top or bottom) by selecting on the slide the picture that you want to crop, going to the “format” menu, selecting “picture…” and in the “picture” dialog box clicking the “picture” button. This opens the crop options. The preview button allows you to see whether the crop achieves the effect you wanted. (If you have an old version of PowerPoint these controls may be located differently - refer to the PowerPoint Help menu.) Before importing a picture into your presentation save it in a suitable format (eg jpeg) at a resolution of 72 dots per inch if possible. This resolution keeps the size of the picture file small but still displays fine on screen – particularly important if you’re using several pictures, because half a dozen taken on a five megapixel digital camera and imported at full resolution could mean that your presentation is over 20 megabytes in size. This means it will take up unnecessary disk space, will be slow to open and run on many less powerful computers – and will be too big to e-mail.
