Students complete a large clinical service development project in teams of four over a 10 week period using an action learning approach - this is a pass/fail component assessed by their clinical supervisor. During the semester, student teams attend five set meetings at which one student from each team presents an update on their project and facilitates discussion. The set presentation and a short written report have a individual mark worth 20%. A 30% mid-semester exam tests understanding and application of action learning and service context and development knowledge. Group work and professional communication skills are assessed by a 15% Conference Abstract and 35% Conference Presentation. I run two linked courses using this format: HRSS4210 - for 80-100 final year undergraduate occupational therapy students; and HRSS7200 - for 60 final year Graduate Entry Masters occupational therapy and audiology students.
Details
- CLASS SIZE
- 80-100
- CLASS LEVEL
- Third year, Post-graduate
- ASSESSMENT SECURITY
- High security
- TIME REQUIREMENTS
- Medium time
- GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES
- In-depth knowledge in the field(s) studied, Effective communication skills
- CONDITIONS
- Work-related, Group, Sequence
- FEATURES
- Authentic, Problem based
- TAGS
- presentation, active learning, staged, research skills, discussion prompt
Advantages
Students engage in a real clinical project with real clinicians and produce outcomes which enhance occupational therapy services for clients. Set meetings are engaging, fun and highly productive opportunities for students to support and challenge each other to generate novel solutions to problems. The final professional conference day is a celebration of success not just for the project outcomes achieved but a milestone marking students transformation into occupational therapists.
Challenges
Projects are offered by clinicians and it isn't possible to ensure that all are equal in terms of scope, complexity and amount of support provided. Students are challenged by the open-ended nature of action learning must cope with the ambiguity of not knowing what their project outcome may look like at the end.
Tips for implementation
Keep in contact with clinical project supervisors and intervene early if problems arise. Give students lots of practical tips about what has worked well in the past e.g. methods for communicating effectively with their clinical supervisor, use of project management tools, time logs, document management etc. Encourage set mentors to take a back seat when facilitating set meetings and let students generate solutions and make suggestions that will progress the projects.
Professor Jenny Fleming
j.fleming@uq.edu.au
Dr Fleming is an occupational therapist and researcher in the field of brain injury rehabilitation. Her PhD completed in 1996 was on the topic of the development of self-awareness following traumatic brain injury. She has continued to pursue collaborative research on role of metacognitive factors in brain injury rehabilitation. Other research interests include prospective memory assessment and rehabilitation, community integration and the transition from hospital to the community, and psychosocial adjustment and outcomes following acquired brain injury, as well as lifetime care and support for people with complex neurological disability. She is Head of Occupational Therapy at The University of Queensland, and is a Fellow of the Occupational Therapy Australia Research Academy, a Fellow of the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment, and C-Editor of Brain Impairment. Find out more