e-Learning Transformation Project Application Information
Name of project:
Health Sciences Council and Faculty of Education collaborative e-learning/research pilot
course redesign project of INTD410: Health Team Development
Date of application
October 1, 2005
Project leads:
Jane Drummond, Vice-Provost, (Health Sciences Council)
Fern Snart, Dean, Faculty of Education
Project team member names and positions
o Dr. Sharla King, Academic Coordinator (INTD410, Health Sciences Council)
o Dr. Mike Carbonaro, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education
o Prof. Liz Taylor, Associate Professor, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine
o Prof. Chris Ward, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry
o Dr. JoAnne Davies, Coordinator (Professional Development) Faculty of Education
Department(s) or service unit(s) involved
o Health Sciences Council (Faculties: Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics,
Medicine and Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Physical
Education and Recreation, and Rehabilitation Medicine)
o Faculty of Education
o InterProfessional Initiative
o AICT
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Description of project (1,000 words)
Context:
The Alberta government has committed $600 million to construct a world-class health and
learning facility, The Health Sciences Ambulatory Learning Centre, at the University of Alberta
by 2007. This centre will provide coordinated diagnostic and specialist services under one roof,
allowing health sciences students from various faculties the opportunity to learn in an
interdisciplinary environment. In the 2004-2005 academic year, 6,000 health sciences student
were enrolled, comprising 17% of the total University enrollment of 34,000. The number of
University of Alberta health sciences students benefiting from the enhanced learning
opportunities to be offered in the centre is expected to reach 12,000 by 2020. Students from the
faculties of medicine and dentistry, rehabilitation medicine, nursing, pharmacy and
pharmaceutical sciences, physical education and recreation and agriculture, forestry and home
economics will benefit from the most advanced interdisciplinary learning environment available.
Technology integration for teaching, learning and research will be a fundamental part of this new
facility.
In the early 1990s the need for an interdisciplinary course was conceived by the Heath Sciences
faculties on campus—the purpose being to provide an experience in building a team of health
professionals from different disciplines. In 2001 the course (formally named INTD410: Health
Team Development) was made a requirement of most health sciences programs and was offered
jointly by the faculties of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics, Medicine and Dentistry ,
Nursing, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Physical Education and Recreation, and
Rehabilitation Medicine.
INTD410 provides students with an interdisciplinary health care team learning experience. As
students work through case scenarios they develop a deeper understanding of the
roles/responsibilities of other health disciplines, the interrelationship among the disciplines and
how to develop on-going collaborations. Interdisciplinary collaborative skills are essential in
any thriving health care environment and are quickly becoming a critical element of any current
continuing professional education program.
INTD410 uses a process-learning approach to develop team skills. Students from the health
science faculties form teams of 6-7 students to work through various clinically-based scenarios.
Six teams comprise a section. Each section is overseen by at least two facilitators who guide
team discussions and provide individual and team feedback (note: current enrollment is 750
students per offering). A detailed course outline has been provided with this proposal (see
attached) which outlines the objectives, instructional methods, and evaluation procedures. For
example, the following hyperlinks direct readers to the types of learning scenarios used in the
class (Getting to Know our Teams and Professions; Dilemma; Community as Partner; Mr.
Mysenko; Series of Scenarios).
Redesign Pilot:
The current course design makes limited use of e-learning technology (e.g., Carol Twigg’s
Supplemental model) by allowing students to view the outline online, providing hyperlinks to
various online resources, and using email. Our intention is to further evolve INTD410 along the
blended e-learning continuum by utilizing asynchronous/synchronous technologies
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(WebCT/Elluminate) and pedagogically redesigning the course structure to suit these
technologies. The final result will be a fully functional online version of the course.
To achieve this goal we propose a multistage approach to the course redesign process. This
current proposal is a request for funding for the pilot stage. Further funds to support subsequent
stages of course redesign have been requested in a grant to Health Canada that is now pending.
During this pilot stage one section of the course consisting of 24 students and one instructor will
be completely moved into an online format. Students will be grouped in 4 teams of 6 (similar to
the current instructional model). Where appropriate, WebCT will be used to manage course
content (presentation material e.g., .ppt files, student manual e.g., .pdf files, resources hyperlinks
to WebSites, e.g..,.mov files that contain scenarios or recorded synchronous sessions),
assignment submissions, and student progress (feedback, grades). Elluminate will be used to
deliver/record the virtual classroom synchronous sessions (e.g., moderated voice/video
instructor/student interactions, moderated student breakout rooms, student-centered guided active
learning).
Implementation set of redesign activities:
1. Selection of students will be done on a volunteer basis. Students who participate in the pilot
will be required to have their own computer at home with a high-speed (Telus/Shaw) internet
connection. The home computer must satisfy certain technical requirements. Students will
receive a two hour PD session on WebCT/Elluminate technology prior to the start of the
course.
2. During the course preparation (November and December, 2005) the instructor will receive
PD on using WebCT and Elluminate as collaborative online teaching tools. Course materials
not currently in digital format will be converted (e.g., video). Copyright will be obtained for
all digital based materials where appropriate. A WebCT course site will be created to manage
the course. New instructional strategies (e-pedagogical) will be developed to transform the
teaching/learning context to support technology integration.
3. Students will meet online for synchronous sessions on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings over
the five week course (January 10– February 9). Students will access course content
asynchronously in preparation for synchronous meetings. Synchronous sessions will also be
available during the course for students to meet together online and for instructor office
hours.
Corollary set of redesign activities (theoretical, organizational, and evaluative):
1. Development of an e-pedagogical model that combines both asynchronous and
synchronous technologies;
2. Development of a collaborative framework for interdisciplinary faculty e-learning
projects;
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3. The design of a research component to evaluate: a) the e-pedagogical process, b) students
learning experience, and c) the organizational implications of the e-learning model used
in this pilot.
4. Some possible research activities include the following:
a. Students and teams will be evaluated pre/post course to determine development of
team skills during 5 weeks (the degree to which the students have actually developed
interdisciplinary team competencies).
b. A comparison of competency development will be made between students/teams in
the traditional version of INTD410 versus those in the redesign section. In this case
we intend to follow the evaluation guidelines outlined by the Center for Academic
Transformation, section D, Comparisons of Student Work Using Common Rubrics
(www.center.rpi.edu/R2R/R2R_ModAssess.html )
c. Students will be evaluated using the team objective structured clinical examination
(TOSCE), reflective assignments, and questionnaires.
d. Focus groups will be used to obtain student feedback about the quality of the learning
experience from both e-learning and non e-learning groups of students.
e. An evaluation of team dynamics will be conducted during problem-based learning
activities in synchronous sessions and instructional sessions (e.g., breakout rooms),
by analyzing recorded synchronous instructional sessions.
5. We will determine scalability cost with respect to increasing student access.
Benefit to University (up to approx. 300 words)
The proposed pilot offers significant benefit to the University by supporting interdisciplinary
collaboration between Health Science Faculties and the Faculty of Education in the area of elearning. As such it maps directly into many of the themes/recommendations proposed in the
University’s Academic Plan and e-Learning Plan. Furthermore this pilot continues to
enhance and support the Canada wide leadership role of the University of Alberta, Health
Sciences, in the area of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Academic Plan:
Interdisciplinary collaboration: Health Sciences (six Faculties) interdisciplinary
collaboration is widened to include collaboration with the Faculty of Education and AICT.
Such collaboration will strengthen working relationships on campus and encourage crossfertilization of pedagogy, research, and technology integration.
Improve the quality of undergraduate teaching: INTD410 is a continually evolving course.
This course redesign continues this process by incorporating new technology and by
supporting innovative opportunities for student/instructor interactions. A primary goal is to
provide our students with necessary instructional support that enables them to be active
learners with a greater sense of responsibility for their own learning.
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Focus on teaching-research continuum: This project integrates teaching-research in an
applied way through the development and evaluation of new e-pedagogical strategies.
e-Learning Plan
The pilot project directly applies to all or part of the following recommendations from the elearning plan 1, 2, 5, 7, 11, & 17. The project is designed to support the transformation of
students’ instructional environments to enhance student-centered active learning through
technology integration.
This pilot project is a precursor to a larger research grant proposal to Health Canada entitled:
Understanding Interprofessional Health Team Formation and Function: Designing and
delivering interprofessional learning experiences that enhance patient-centred practice (see
attached executive summary). The pilot project will help support this grant application by
acting as seed funding for the e-learning initiatives proposed in the grant. A significant
portion of funding in the Health Canada grant is directed at further scaling (student online
capacity) of INTD410. The Health Canada grant also proposes to extend e-learning capacity
for continuing education/learning of various Health Sciences professionals in the community.
Project stakeholders & partners
o Health Science Council (Faculty and students)
o Faculty of Education
o AICT
Key deliverables
o A transformation of the students’ instructional setting and instructional experience to
one that integrates technology to enhance and support a more student-centered active
learning environment as measured by the students’ successful completion of the elearning course.
o Development of an e-Learning alternative delivery model for the INTD410.
o An organizational model that describes the redesign process in the context of the
IntD410 content area using a combination of asynchronous (WebCT) and synchronous
(Elluminate) technologies. The model will also outline the implications for scalability
and sustainability of the redesigned course.
o Professional development of INTD410 course instructor and students as documented in
their coursework and team behaviours.
o Develop a framework of e-learning interdisciplinary model that could be incorporated
into continuing health professional education.
o Course pilot assessment plan forms as defined by
www.center.rpi.edu/R2R/R2R_ModAssess.html
o Reports, conference papers, research articles.
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Project schedule, and milestone dates;
o Oct 1 – Dec 31, 2005
 redesign course
 recruit students
 provide PD to students on asynchronous/synchronous e-learning environment
 provide e-Learning pedagogical training for instructor
 define research case study objectives
o Jan 10 - Feb 9, 2006
 Course implementation
 Pre/post evaluation, focus groups.
 Collect qualitative data on course e-learning pedagogical implementation.
o March 1 – July 30, 2006
 Analyze data
 Develop organizational model
 Write-up results (reports, conference papers,manuscript)
o Aug 1 – Dec 31, 2006 ...
 Refine course and prepare for increased number of teams for Winter 2007
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Budget both for the sub-set of activities that require funding by the Vice-Provost
(Information Technology) as well as budget estimations for the larger project, if
appropriate. Please describe in-kind contributions as well as direct funding
requirements.
PD support for instructor/course
materials revised
PD support for students
Administration/technical support of
Elluminate seats
New instructional e-learning format
transformation (exisiting materials).
Time required for converting materials
to the appropriate digital format for e learning presentation (scanned
graphics, video tapes).
20 hours x $35.00
$700.00
30 hours x $35.00
25 seats x $1.00 hour x 8 hours a
week x 5 weeks
80 hours x $30.00
Miscellaneous
Paper/photocopy
Gathering and analyzing data from
RA - Health Sciences/Education
asynchronous/synchronous sources,
interviews with students, interviews
with instructor, develop and analyze
rubrics to compare F2F and redesign
versions, analyze course data (student
feedback, TOSCE).
$1,050.00
$1,000.00
$2,400.00
$100.00
$6,000.00 $11,250.00
In-Kind: Initial purchase of Elluminate Use of Elluminate seats
seats.
In-Kind: Faculty of Education PD
Use of the PD facilities
facilities.
In-Kind: AICT technical support and Use of WebCT
WebCT infrastructure.
Information about whether ethics approval has been or will be obtained for project
evaluation
Ethics approval will be obtained from Health Research Ethics Board (Panel B) in
November, 2006.
How FOIPP is being managed
All transcripts and questionnaires will be stored in a locked file cabinet in Health Sciences
Council office (300 Campus Tower). Only Project Leads, course coordinator and research
assistant will have access.
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List the names of any documents that provide more comprehensive descriptions of the
project. These may be requested at a later date to save time writing additional project
documents.
Health Canada proposal: Understanding Interprofessional Health Team Formation and
Function: Designing and delivering interprofessional learning experiences that enhance
patient-centred practice (see attached executive summary)
Signature of project leads
___________________________________
Jane Drummond, Vice-Provost (Health Sciences Council)
___________________________________
Fern Snart, Dean, Faculty of Education
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