Critical understanding of selected key concepts and theories related to core areas of academic practice.
There are many different approaches to designing educational courses, and the use of online technologies offers more flexibility in this area than ever before. There needs to be a strong link between educational intentions and the course content, of course, but the material also needs to be presented in such a way that it is accessible to the individual and suits the learning style of the student and the teaching style of the educator (Morgan & Houton, 2011). One such theory that places the learner at the central point of his or her own education is the constructivist approach. This is a particularly convincing approach in that it considers the learner as being an active agent in the learning process, and thus has the responsibility to engage with the content on their own terms to meet their own needs (Loyens & Gijbels, 2008).
In medical education, there is a need to ensure that complex concepts are taught in such a way that they are both theoretically and realistically accurate. Meyers & Nulty (2009) suggest that there are five design principles that can be useful in teaching scientific courses. These principles include ensuring that the education is authentic, real-world, and relevant (Meyers & Nulty, 2009), which is particularly relevant in terms of designing a course that will have practical applications, such as one focusing on diabetic retinopathy. There is also a need to orient the student both within their discipline and to help them look beyond it (Kreber, 2010). In a sense, the purpose of this course is to help students understand the principles of diabetic retinopathy, but there is also a duty for the student to understand their own needs in terms of how the information will be used, and to engage with other learners and look outside of pure medicine.
Critical assessment of teaching, learning, assessment practices and promote high quality student learning.
One of the main aims of high quality student learning is to impact not only the knowledge of the student, but also to have an impact on their ways of thinking and practising. McCune & Hounsell (2005) described an approach that relates to biology students, suggesting that it is important for them to master a number of different things in order to truly benefit from the course. This type of multi-dimensional approach is an effective way of ensuring that students receive a high-quality education because it does not focus only on facts, but also on the way that the student engages with the subject. In the sciences particularly, it is important to design a course that imparts knowledge about practice, conventions, and experimental data to ensure that their needs for learning are fulfilled correctly (Miin et al., 2000). It is also integral to the approach used for the diabetic retinopathy course that the principles reflect not only knowledge, but applicable information.
Although there are a number of different approaches of providing high quality student learning at the postgraduate level, it is an approach that favours teaching the essentials of the subject and allowing the students to focus on themselves that is most appropriate. This constructivist approach was useful throughout the development of the course because at the postgraduate level there is an expectation of being able to develop a more personal approach to learning that goes beyond the instructor (Ruiz et al., 2006). It is critical for postgraduate students to be able to take the material that is presented and then construct this so that it has personal meaning for them in their education. The literature also suggests that postgraduate courses that present theories that can then be used as transferrable skills allow more room for student development (Adams et al., 2007). This is an integral part of planning a good quality postgraduate course.
One issue that is central to the concept of designing academic courses is taking into account the cultural needs of the student. When designing medical courses, this is particularly important as the learning needs of the students will be reflected in their application of the knowledge to practice (Conole et al., 2004).There is a real need to make a strategic decision before the course is designed about how best to incorporate the needs of various student populations and perspectives (Toohey, 1999). Wenger (1998) suggests that there is a duty for the course designer to negotiate the complex field of meaning when assessing student diversity, and approach the course by highlighting the meaning of the course as seen through the eyes of diverse students. This does not just relate to cultural differences, but also to how the course relates to the wider aims of the student.
Toohey (1999) also suggests that learning is done as a social process, which involves students engaging with each other, their educators, and the ideas as part of a social community in order to gain this knowledge. One of the criticisms of online courses is that these social components are lost (Aragon, 2003). One of the aims of creating this course on diabetic retinopathy was to ensure that this social learning approach was not lost, as it can be particularly useful for students who require this form of approach as part of their learning. To refer back to the issue of student diversity, the online classroom has a place for social learning theory in that it removes many of the obstacles that stem from diversity issues that occur in the real-world learning environment. It seems evident that a well-designed, online course can incorporate these issues of social learning and diversity with ease.
Critical reflection on course purpose and their articulation, with course activities and assessments.
One of the main elements of designing an academic course is to fully understand its purpose. From this focus point, the design can then move on to incorporating course activities and assessments that are related to this purpose (Krajcik et al., 2008). One of the most useful ways of developing a course is to write a short course description that outlines the goals of the course and what it aims to impart upon those that take it (Bovill et al., 2011). This approach has been very useful in terms of creating course activities and assessments that are directly related to the aims of the course, as it provides a framework to refer back to when delving deeper into the creation process. These purposes also provide a focus for the student when using a student-focused, constructive approach, as the students are aware of the aims of the course before they take it and can outline their own objectives for taking it (Stanley & Dougherty, 2010).
Articulating the course purpose is also useful in that it can highlight areas in which course activities may need to differ from student to student. When offering courses such as this one on diabetic retinopathy, it may be that there are a diverse range of students that are taking the course for different reasons as part of distinct course paths. In this sense, students who want to understand the issue from a pathological perspective, for example, may want to undertake an activity that is more academic in nature. Those who want to incorporate their knowledge into practice may want an assessment that focuses on these practical skills. This diverse approach relates back to ensuring that the goals of the course purpose are met whilst still meeting the individual needs of each student taking the course.
Critical understanding of ways of monitoring, reviewing, and taking forward course development.
There are a number of ways of ensuring that student needs are incorporated into course development. Earl (2012) suggests that assessment processes can be a useful way of pushing forward the learning outcomes for the course, and this can be relevant to the process of course development. The results from assessments and course evaluations can be used for the purposes of review in terms of developing future courses, or improving the current one. Sambell et al. (2012) also suggest that this approach is a valid way of monitoring and reviewing the course, with regular assessments pushing students to reach their potential and providing constant feedback for the educator. This is a valid approach in teaching biological and physiological concepts as it is often simple to prepare quick assessments that can be used continuously throughout the program (Gardner & Gardner, 2012).
There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to standard University processes for course monitoring and review. Many times, these are not specifically tailored for a discipline but are used to assess a variety of different courses and styles (Moore & Kearsley, 2011). In this sense, it is not particularly useful when trying to appraise a course which has taken a different approach for some pedagogical reason. Despite this, these frameworks can be used to give a good idea about the nature of course development and give broad ideas about how the process should be conducted (Swan, 2001). There are also a number of other feedback methods that can be useful, which include final course feedback, encouraging students to give feedback throughout the course, and by using the assessment method as noted as above (Vargo et al., 2003).
Attention to place of course in overall programme of study and issues of progression.
A final central focus of creating a course is understanding how it fits into the wider scheme of study for each student. A medical course such as this may be taken as a standalone as part of a continuing education protocol, or it may be taken as part of the requirements to gain a practical degree in medicine or nursing (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013). As such, the course needs to reflect these different approaches to learning and ensure that the needs of the student are met depending on their programme of study and issues of progression. One of the most useful ways of developing a course relating to this approach is to gather information about the programme of study of the students taking the course and assessing how well the course fits into this program (Jones et al., 2001). If there is already information on foundation concepts, then these can be omitted from the course, or touched on briefly, whilst these concepts may need to be included fully if students have no experience of them.
There are a number of different ways in which this can be useful when designing a course. It can help highlight areas in which the course is lacking in terms of the individual needs of the student, which should be the top priority for high quality education (Kurtz et al., 2005). It can also help to highlight how the course fits into the wider scheme of knowledge, and whether there are transferrable skills that can be used as part of the teaching and assessment processes.
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