Headspace...the final frontier

Jason's log, stardate 10082010.

Good grief, this all went really quickly. Just the other day one was wondering what to come up with. Having considered my average IT skills, the trepidation at the outset was somewhat overwhelming. Having ruminated and read around the ADDIE design model it slowl became manageable. The saying "How do you eat and elephant....one bite at a time" rang true during the journey through this module. The keep it simple principle also proved helpful. Bells and whistles might be very distracting in an e-learning undertaking and thinking about how to engage people in a cyberworld was a bit of a "kopkrapper" (for our non-Afrikaans speakers: head scratching stuff).

The design part of the process presented the biggest challenge during this exercise. Have to keep in mind the available resources (myself and my average IT skills)and the abilities of the target group (recently qualified midwives)to navigate the intended learning intervention on a PC-based platform. One does not wnat to however "dumb it down" and the line is fine between that perception and user-friendliness.

Engaging with the material over the last while has given me new insights into what one can do with the programmes readily available to us such as PowerPoint and the free software and applications available on the web. The only issue is knowing what you need and where to find it on the web. With all the skills we use in our professional daily lives, the more you do it the better you become at it, this is also true with being involved and working with e-learning.

So at the end of this module which has taken me out of my comfort zone, I wish all my fellow e-learning Jedi, may the force be with you. And in the words of master Yoda, blog you must.

Checking the competition.

Since I was kicked in the teeth by the WHO, I went looking at the online presentation about the partogram e-learning tool they developed. Also to see the design of the application. Must say, bravo to them. I would not have been able to make it look like that with my limited creativity skills, they had voice-over, animated graphics, the whole she-bang. I would need some time with George Lucas to come up with things like that. So a guru would be needed for that level of e-learning offering. For now I will keep it simple. Found me a high resolution electronic copy of the gravidogram. Now on to getting my head around how to make the tool interactive.

And we're off....

A is for Analysis...feels like pre-school all over again:)

Having identified the practice gap of correctly plotting the measurement of the symphysis-fundal height (how high the top of the womb is from the pubic bone)on the first visit of a pregnant woman, especially when she has unsure menstrual dates or no early ultrasound, provides the impetus for this project. The implications for apprpriate care is big especilly when gets to a point of having to decide whether a woman id post-dates(over due). So getting the first recording right is very important in the care that pregnant women receive. So glad the WHO beat me to the partogram one, the gravidogram would be so much simpler, I think....

Now to get hold of a high resolution digital copy of the gravidogram.

So here we are, all on this wonderful journey to becoming e-teachers. Now as for the ADDIE thingy...it reminded me of the Tupperware rivals in the kitchen cupboard. I am looking forward to this module and have had a few ideas about developing something for use in obstetrics/midwifery training. My initial thought was putting together an electronic Partogram training thingy as the use of the partogram is shocking within the health service. Then upon looking around seeing what there is already, the WHO has already developed such an e-learning tool which was released in March this year...damn them.Now WHO would have thought they would beat me to it? No point in reinventing the wheel. So after considering other training issues, I think that I would look at an e-learning programme to teach the correct way of plotting uterine-fundus growth on a gravidogram (the antenatal card graph)to detect growth fall-off or derangement.

Now I am so hoping that WHO does not beat me to it. TIme to get to grips with the ADDIE thing and see how we proceed.

Midstetrics

Teaching the art and science of midstetrics is an ideal opportunity for developing electronic resources. There are many such resources such as the WHO Reproductive Health Library and the Perinatal Institute's CTG tutor. I would like to know what others have developed,are developing or even thinking about E-Learning in Midstetrics.