What we do: Program Design

Education of mature professionals is a major challenge - quite different from that tackled in entry-level training normally experienced in the University and TAFE sector. Doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, research scientists, whilst all different at the detail, share a number of key characteristics:

• They have a significant body of pre-existing knowledge, often associated with their primary degree, which will drive their approach to acquisition of any additional knowledge.
  
  

• Often, their existing knowledge and experience can be used (and often must be used) to embellish their learning experience for them to take on the new knowledge quickly and to give them confidence to apply that knowledge in their work context. Team learning and peer-to-peer learning are key tools to capitalising on this pre-existing expertise.
  
  
• They are time poor - often acutely so. Any approach to education that has learners engaging in activities that are not intuitive and slow them down are not welcomed.
  
  
• They need tools and techniques to articulate their 'learnings' into practice. They do not have the time to invent implementation approaches themselves.

Med-E-Serv has developed best practice techniques for implementing the solutions to these challenges. Fortunately, we have had access to one of the largest "living laboratories" in the world with over 40,000 health professionals using our web-based services. Health professionals and doctors in particular are archetypal representatives of this "professional" audience, i.e. hard to win over, hard to engage initially, hard to hold their attention, easy to antagonise. In this context, Med-E-Serv found that none of the conventional Learning Management Systems deliver an environment that would provide the learning atmosphere and experience to meet the need of this critical audience.

The Med-E-Serv Education Framework was developed in response to this education market's specific needs. It is structured to provide an intuitive learning environment for users. From an educational point of view, it comes with its own native education objects which instantiate 18 critical learning behaviours. These objects reflect the essential learnings from Med-E-Serv's successful online education program development.

Program Structure

Each user will start the program with a different basic level of understanding of the topic area and with different learning goals. The primary challenge in developing a program of this type is to ensure there is a variety of educational experiences that can be used to meet the educational needs of a wide variety of users.

Med-E-Serv's educational programs:

• Utilise adult learning principals, so that clinicians can use the available resources to meet their individual learning needs.
  
  
• Are personalised to promote engagement in the program by the participants.
  
  
• Provide the participant with tools that enable them to incorporate their learnings into practice.
  
  
• Use case based materials to reflect actual situations found in the clinical setting. This encourages participants to interact with the material and assists with the incorporation of new knowledge and skills into research practice.
  
  
• Present materials in a format that allows discrete components of the workshop to be completed in a short period - 15 minutes. This is so participants who are time poor can complete a workshop according to their own schedule, rather than an imposed timeline. These stand-alone 15 minute learning units will also enable the educator(s) to see which units have been completed by the participant.
  
  
• Allow participants to measure their own performance with results of test questions being known only to them. Pre and post workshop questions provide for a demonstration of the improvement in learning.
  
  
• Allow participants to discuss situations or cases with each other in a secure, online environment. Discussion and learning with peers is an essential learning modality for clinicians.
  
  
• Allow participants to re-visit the material as often as necessary for their learning needs.

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