In 2010, the University of Leeds first issued smartphones to all
fourth and fifth year medical students, giving them access to
assessments and progress files for collecting evidence of their
capabilities using MyKnowledgeMap's ReallyManaging Assessment
platform.
This was the first time that a UK medical school has provided
undergraduates with all the tools they need to study off-campus via
mobile phone technology.
The project has gone from strength to strength and the
University of Leeds' ReallyManaging Assessment installation now
transports hundreds of assessments a month, directly between
students on hospital placements and the university tutors.
The Requirements
A set of tools were needed which took advantage of the unique
properties of the iPhone. Students needed a convenient way to
respond to assessments in the workplace, while tutors needed an
easy-to-use way of authoring materials and deploying them to
students' iPhones.
Offline working was critical - in many of the wards, no
high-speed data signal was available, and students had to be able
to receive assessments when they had connectivity, fill them in
offline, and sync back to the server when they were connected
again.Other tools to allow students to record experiences on a more
ad-hoc basis were also needed.
The tool would have to handle this in a way that was easy for
the student to work with and which didn't interfere with the work
they were doing.
The Challenge
Under the pioneering scheme, 520 medical students are loaned an
Apple iPhone for the remainder of their course. At this stage of
the Leeds medical degree, undergraduates typically spend much of
their time in hospitals, GP surgeries and community health clinics.
They can find it difficult to keep in regular contact with tutors
and have to carry around any reference manuals or record books that
they might need during their work placement. Assessment and
feedback can be difficult when students are away from the
university.
The Solution
The smartphones were loaded with dedicated apps that the
students download straight from Apple's App Store. The apps allow
them to respond to prompts and questionnnaires that their tutors
have authored online and despatched to their phones. Students can
record notes on interesting cases whilst still on the wards, and
test their knowledge of procedures or protocols they have just
observed. The ReallyManaging Mobile apps are a mobile
interface to ReallyManaging Assessment, linked to student
portfolios.
Tutors are able to author assessments using the web-based
ReallyManaging Assessment authoring environment, and easily deploy
them to learners' smartphones. The students can reply offline, and
assessments can include multimedia snippets as well as text
reflections and multiple-choice type questions.
Students can submit responses back to their portfolios, where
they can be reviewed by tutors and graded against a set of core
competencies.
"No other UK medical school is taking advantage of the virtual
learning environment to such an extent," said Professor Trudie
Roberts, Professor of Medical Education at the University of Leeds.
"It is vitally important that medical students continue to develop
their skills and record their progress when they are in practice,
as well as when they are on campus. Mobile phone technology means
that students can do this quickly and easily, wherever they happen
to be working."
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