Professional Development for Teachers of Health Professionals

About

Modules

The following modules have been designed to step you through a process of developing a subject in a contemporary Australian educational setting. There is an emphasis on the use of online publishing and communication platforms that promote independent and transferable teaching practice.

The assignments in each of the modules are used to guide and assess your learning. On successful completion of a module you will be awarded a badge for displaying on your email signature, website or networking profile. Our badges are currently issued through Credly.com and Wikiversity.

Communicate and help

Communication is open on the following channels

Google+ - the primary channel for our community of practice
LinkedIn - a secondary channel for our community of practice
Facebook - a secondary channel for our community of practice
Twitter #healthprofessionals - a wider network of interested parties
leighblackall@gmail.com - The program coordinator

Events

Our events are coordinated through Google+. We try to host as many face to face events as possible, and video stream them out to a wider network through Google+ Hangouts. For past and upcoming events, please visit our events page on Google+

Evaluate teaching practice

Reflexions on a rainy day by Tomascastelazo on Wikimedia Commons

In this module you will evaluate your teaching practice. You will seek observations and comments from your peers, survey and collect feedback from your students, and write an evaluative report of your practice.

Instructions

Contact a peer who will observe the range of your teaching practice. They are to look at your subject website, observe your teaching and assessment methods, and give constructive feedback. Document that feedback online, preferably publicly accessible as a link from the subject website.
Prepare an online survey for students, both formative and summative. The formative survey consists of 2 or 3 questions asked at key stages in your subject's schedule. They are used to check progress and make necessary adjustments to the program so as to aid student progress. The summative survey is taken at the conclusion of the subject, and asks for overall feedback. If you're teaching in an educational organisation, consider using or adapting the questions they would ask in their surveys.
Write an evaluation of your work that includes:

a statement of your objectives and/or the issues you are trying to address in the development of your subject;
descriptions of the range of methods you used, key insights gained from the peer observations and student feedback surveys, and what you did to respond to this feedback as the subject progressed;
and finally, a statement of what you will do next in your developments.

Publish the evaluation online and link it to your subject website. Take care to de-identify data cited from the surveys and observations, unless you have approval to publish their identities. Once published, you can be awarded the Evaluate teaching practice badge.

Activities, assignments and assessment

SUBWAY CAR by Erik Calonius on WIkimedia Commons

The design of efficient and effective learning activities, assignments and assessment methods is probably where the art in teaching is. We are continually collecting up and documenting interesting examples of these, and will list them on the Activity, assignments and assessment Wikiversity page. If you already have an interesting example or method, please feel free to add it to that page.

Instructions

Your goal is to devise an appropriate range of activities, assignments and assessments that effectively teach your subject's learning objectives and assesses a student's learning outcomes. Describe your plans and methods on your subject outline.

Review your subject's learning objectives and devise activities that teach and ultimately assess a student's learning outcomes. Consider how formative assessment can be used to teach, and how 3 different types of assessment activities can triangulate assessment.
Review the recorded examples on the Activity, assignments and assessment Wikiversity page, note any that strike you as interesting and possibly useful. Consider adding your own.
Account for the workload of your subject and adjust accordingly.
Outline your attempt at the above assignment as a comment below, or in the discussion page of this module on Wikiversity. Upon successful evaluation of your efforts you will be awarded the Activities, assignments and assessment badge.

Produce educational content

TV-journalist running, by Edaen on WIkimedia Commons

Teaching often requires the sourcing and possibly the production of content. From instructional videos through to deliberative forums, the scope and range of options here are enormous. In this part of the Professional Development for Teachers of Health Professionals program, we will look at some contemporary methods for sourcing and reusing content, and some simple techniques for producing content.

Instructions

Your goal is to develop a range of links and resources on your subject's Wikiversity page (or equivalent accessible webpage), and an introductory video to your subject. You should spend between 10-20 hours on this task.

Read through the guideline on Sourcing and producing educational content.
Update your subject outline with links to external resources and embedded media. Produce a video that introduces your subject and explains how it can be studied. Remember to ask the Teachers of Health Professionals online community if you have a question or need some assistance.
When your subject outline is complete with educational content and a range of activities, assignments and assessments, copy it into an accessible website for your subject. You can use Wikiversity, Google Sites, your organisation's website or learning management system.
Include content and/or links to content in your Wikiversity subject or course page, as evidence that you can legitimately source and create content. Once your efforts can be reviewed on your subject page you will be awarded the Educational content production and management badge.

Connect and communicate

Two pay phones by Doug Wilson on Wikimedia Commons

It is often said that the majority of learning happens informally, especially professional learning. To support this, we have established Teachers of Health Professionals, an online community of practitioners. You can use this community to network and socialise generally, or find peer support for your efforts in this program.

Instructions

Create an account with Google (you might want to click the link saying "..keep my current email address")
Setup your Google+ profile
Join the Teachers of Health Professionals Google+ community, and consider turning notifications on - so announcements there will forward to your email address.
When you have joined the community, please introduce yourself by giving a brief intro in the "Share what's new" box on the community page.
Do the same to share links, ask questions or simply share an account of your work

Write a subject outline

Александр Иванович Ровенко by Rovenko on Wikimedia Commons

It is likely the case that, despite the value of learning informally through connection to a social network, that your own teaching work will remain focused on the development and delivery of a formal course. Here you will investigate the requirements of a formal education regulator and design and develop a formal course to the standards of that regulator.

Instructions

You will develop a basic draft subject outline that describes the subject concisely, lists learning objectives, and describes assessments of learning outcomes. Many people continue on from this first draft to develop a comprehensive study guide. For the purposes of this module, your goal is to develop a basic first draft subject outline.

Study the Australian Qualifications Framework, or other equivalent qualifications-standardising body. Health professions often have over arching accrediting bodies as well, get to know their expectations of a qualified practitioner relevant to what you're teaching.
Use the subject outline template on Wikiversity to guide your drafting of a subject outline.
When finished, provide a link to your subject on the Participant examples page.
By listing a suitably completed project from the Creating Accessible Courses below in the Participant examples section, you will receive the Subject and course development badge to recognise your effort and progress in the Teachers of Health Professionals program.