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
Choice
‘Core’
integrated and core “Graduate
20% of
learning
Attributes” = professionalism AND
time
outcomes
research skills, in the workplace
which includes
Simon Riley, Director of SSCs
Simon.C.Riley@ed.ac.uk
graduate attributes
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
Why does the SSC format work so effectively?
•
•
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!
“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
andrew.cross@ed.ac.uk
Edinburgh Living Lab
University
- ‘Town and Gown’
- Foster internal links / collaborations
- Opportunities for staff and research students
City
- Education and
engagement within
communities
- Provider of educational
resources
Students
- Suits different learning
styles
- Widening participation
- Skills development
- Employability
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
University
- ‘Town and Gown’
- Foster internal links / collaborations
- Opportunities for staff and research
students
Community
- Education and engagement
within communities
- Provider of educational
resources
Students
-
Suits different learning styles
Widening participation
Skills development
Employability