Group Admins
Description
Medical teaching at the University of Leeds (UoL) is both academic and practical. We have developed e-resources (an eBook and iPhone app) which facilitate the use of a blended learning approach to bridge the perceived gap between the two.
A specialist team of consultant physicians, clinical educators and the Technology Enhanced Learning team have developed the RRAPID resources to underpin and support the delivery of RRAPID (Recognising and Responding to Acute Patient Illness and Deterioration) teaching delivered to all undergraduate medical students at Leeds.
The RRAPID curriculum strand is designed to equip undergraduate medical trainees with skills to appropriately manage acutely ill patients, and the RRAPID eBook and iPhone app are intended to provide mobile and interactive resources to enhance this practical teaching.
The eBook provides theoretical and practical content to aid the understanding and application of the RRAPID approach. It is a multimedia learning tool containing videos, images, interactive patient scenarios, case-studies and a case-log feature. The app is complimentary to the eBook and provides a more concise tool ideal for use as a quick reference guide for use within the clinical setting, important for when our students are on clinical placement.
This blended learning approach could be transferred to fields other than medicine such as support for practical fieldwork, laboratory work and other disciplines which contain both practical and academic elements.
The RRAPID eBook and iPhone app were released via the Apple App Store for free international download on the 1st January 2013. The eBook is also available on an open website (http://rrapid.leeds.ac.uk/ebook/). Prior to and following the release of the RRAPID tools, all years of the Leeds MBChB degree programme were surveyed in order to ascertain how medical students utilised e-learning resources in general (mobile apps and eBooks) to enhance their medical learning. The post-release evaluation also determined RRAPID resource usage and captured student perception of the resources themselves and the usefulness of their individual components.
Prior to releasing the RRAPID eBook and iPhone app, 24% of the respondents (n=643) were using non-fictional eBooks and 48% were using mobile apps as part of their medical training at least on a weekly basis. In the first five months following their release, 58% of the respondents (432) used the RRAPID eBook and a further 44% used the iPhone app, with 29% of the respondents using the app in the clinical setting.
The majority of content in the RRAPID eBook exceeded how useful students predicted it would be prior to its release. Students particularly highly valued the interactive elements and would like to see more of this material. The eBook was particularly utilised to revise topics prior to exams, whereas the app was most commonly used by students as a quick reference tool when on placement.
In our workshop we will introduce the RRAPID approach and e-tools (10mins), demonstrate a vignette of a RRAPID teaching session (10mins), and expand upon the pedagogy of the blended learning approach and discuss the findings of our initial evaluations (5mins).
Authors
| Name | Suzanne R. Bickerdike |
| URL | http://medhealth.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/lime |
| Affiliation | University of Leeds |
| Country | United Kingdom |
