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Self directed learning through community engagement at the University of Edinburgh
Johanna Holtan (Institute for Academic development)Simon Riley (Centre for Reproductive Health)
Andy Cross (GeoSciences)Ewan Klein (Informatics)
Arno Verhoeven (Edinburgh College of Art)
Workshop outline:
• Brief outline of different approaches at UoE
Activities:
• Break out groups identifying barriers (and solutions!) to wider implementation
Student Selected Components (SSCs)in the undergraduate medicine MBChB curriculum
• Medicine = conservative curriculum? • GMC 1993 directive imposed to reduce
content and provide choice • extensive experience since 1998 (the
“medical elective” goes back a lot further)
• SSCs form 20% of medicine timetable in all 5 years (student-led / arranged)
• Main learning outcomes are fully integrated and core “Graduate Attributes” = professionalism AND research skills, in the workplace
‘Core’learningoutcomeswhich includes graduate attributes
Choice20% of
time
Simon Riley, Director of [email protected]
So what do students do in SSCs?• Year 1 = group project on the wards (e.g. a patient safety project,
which is useful and valued! Choose from a list)• Year 2 = literature project (from a list), then a second project on
“anything academic” - students decide upon their own topic group, and find a supervisor
• Year 3 = shadowing another health care professional (in the broadest sense), not a doctor, and analysing their team – Midwife, nurse, paramedic, radiologist, transplant co-ordinator,
pharmacist, occupational therapist, lifeboat crew, hospital chaplain, homeopath, Police rape team, Scottish Govt, morgue attendant
– “Tell your colleagues about us”• Year 4 = research or audit project – critical time for career
exploration, and gaining research skills• Year 5 = Medical elective, usually abroad, may be resource poor,
emerging or developed
• Student-led, with motivated students, topical• Useful projects on:
• patient safety• systematic literature review• clinical audit and service delivery studies to improve local clinical care• integrating into research teams which may be published and
contributes to research output
• Not “too onerous” on faculty (e.g. limited assessment load; self-reflection, peer appraisal)
• Things can go wrong, but will pass as long as they demonstrate learning from their mistakes
• Good ‘alignment’ of aims and outcomes with motivated and interested students doing useful work, with idea rich, but time poor Faculty
• Trust your students!
Why does the SSC format work so effectively?
“Thoroughly challenging, yet enjoyable and stimulating. I’ve never worked so hard and yet felt so motivated to do so” Year 4 student
GeoScience Outreach:
• Optional course for final year Bachelors and Masters students• Develop and deliver a project and product for an external
(community) client to an agreed specification • Use para-professional knowledge and understanding to
communicate and work with a wider audience• Engage with an audience and community that may lack sufficient
subject knowledge and understanding • Learn from client the additional and complementary skills
required (e.g. audience specific communication skills)• Independent project work supervised / mentored by course team
and client
Edinburgh Living Lab
City- Education and engagement
within communities- Provider of educational
resourcesStudents
- Suits different learning styles
- Widening participation- Skills development- Employability
University- ‘Town and Gown’- Foster internal links / collaborations- Opportunities for staff and research students
Edinburgh Living Lab &
Learning by Developing
http://edinburghlivinglab.org
Key aims
• Promote improvements in student experience and outcomes • increased employability and personal development• deepen University links to the city
• Involve students more actively in their own learning
• Engage staff more deeply in teaching• Link teaching and research more closely• support the city in addressing complex challenges
Despite some incredibly frustrating moments, near the end of the week the culture shock began to wear off, and I eventually found my place within the team. I learned about different methods of data visualization, how to make a simple GUI layout, how to write basic HTML, and that computer science students can eat an astounding number of Oreos. I spent a great deal of time doing online research familiarizing myself both with which data my teammates were trying to gather, as well as how the data would be most effectively displayed. Although most of this research went more towards personal education than to the project, after five days I now know significantly more about innovative ways to analyse and present data than I did prior to the event.
Data, Design and Society
• New UG1/UG2 course proposal• Learning by Developing model• Team-based interdisciplinary projects,
engaging with ‘real world’ problems, brokered by ECCI
• Challenges:– Cross-school participation and resourcing– Essential small-group mentoring component– Differing expectations of pre-Honours students
Edinburgh Living Lab
Community- Education and engagement
within communities- Provider of educational
resources
Students- Suits different learning styles- Widening participation- Skills development- Employability
University- ‘Town and Gown’- Foster internal links / collaborations- Opportunities for staff and research
students
