JISC

Start date: 1 June 2002

End date: 31 July 2004

Funding programme: Exchange for Learning (X4L) programme

Project website: http://extranet.lauder.ac.uk/x4l

JISC theme(s): e-Learning

Introduction

A wide range of health care professionals undertake study each year to enter the nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, fitness and social care professions.  Programmes provided range from those designed for school leavers and adult returners with no previous qualifications, through to those embarking on a professional career.

The first strand of this project will aim to identity electronic resources to support learning and teaching in these professional disciplines. The research process will primarily focus on existing JISC-funded resource databases and content repositories but will also consider other sources such as the NLN, UfI, SUfI and commercial publishers of electronic materials. 

The project will then:

• create a repository of resources for health care programmes using agreed metadata – this will involve agreeing vocabularies for education and medical terms and for accessibility
• develop models for re-purposing resources will enhance learning and teaching by increasing the use of JISC resources - the project will focus on re-purposing models which could be replicated by tutors.

Aims and Objectives

The aim of this project is to identify electronic learning materials held within identified resource databases and content repositories and provide models for accessing and re-purposing resources to support health care curriculum delivery  (at FE and HE levels) with specific reference to ‘the big four’ diseases: Cancer, Chronic Heart Disease, Stroke and Mental Illness. 

Specific project objectives associated with the aim of this project are as follows. 

To identify learning and teaching resources relevant to health care programmes and specifically the ‘big 4’ diseases by:

• carrying out a search of defined and agreed databases and content repositories
• evaluating the resources for appropriateness for programmes at Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) levels 4 to 8
• evaluating the materials identified for disabled accessibility.

The project will also highlight areas to JISC where little or no learning materials exist to support learning in the identified health care subject areas.

• To metatag and catalogue the resources and any learning objects produced in the project within a repository using standard procedures emerging from JISC. The intention is to work with other JISC X4L projects, CETIS, TechDis and LTS to obtain advice on the appropriate metadata tagging and content packaging standards to apply, in particular in relation to accessibility tagging.  The project also intends to work with Strand B projects to create a sustainable repository for the resources identified / developed.
• To create approximately 10 hours of re-purposed learning objects that will support the delivery of the health care related programmes.  The emphasis of this objective will be on developing and testing a range of models for accessing and re-purposing resources.  The purpose of the models will be to provide practical guidelines that could be replicated by tutors in FE/HE colleges.  The models will range from how to access resources from a repository to disaggregating resources for use within a VLE learning programme.  The development process for the re-purposed resources will be used to test the models and to provide exemplars.  
• The projects will also focus on making re-purposed resources accessible to learners with visual impairments.
• To test the usability of the re-purposed objects in ‘real-life’ learning situations.
• The project will also test the usability and accessibility of the re-purposed objects with learners with visual impairment who will be studying health care programmes.
• To evaluate the pedagogic impact the use of the re-purposing models have on teaching approaches and the impact the re-purposed objects have on the learner experience.
• To evaluate the project and disseminate the outcomes of the project to the JISC Community and other potential end users.

The final report for this project is appended to this page as a WORD file.