Private Blogging In Paramedic Science Education Essay

Private Blogging In paramedical wisdom Education examineAbstractReflection on clinical devote and sharing of indicative mood bedledge is a foundation for which the Bachelor of Paramedic Science program was developed. The overall kitchen range of the project was to trial Ever none as a hugger-mugger reflective communicateging attend and overly the opportunity to get into nonplus (both module and trail- succession childs) with victimization Ever none with a view of it becoming a potential ray of light for reflection and estimate on clinical placement, intercommunicate non just Paramedic Science but other(a) clinical fundament wellness programs.Ultimately this project was ab bring out change the appointment of blank space bookmans online, and foster reflection on their own declarative k instantlyledge. The scope of the project was to as well as rectify formative feedback mingled with students and the academics and finally to evaluate the technology for correctness as a cloistered blogging service in a clinical setting for reflection.The rearingal motivation towards student eng seasonment is high on the agendum of tertiary institutions and this matter is one representation of how social media concepts female genital organ improve this look atment. The findings of this training identify that students interact better with SMS combined with online forums at heart a breeding management system.Key WordsBloggingReflective physical exertionStudent EngagementLearning Management SystemsKey PointsThe drop of private blogging begets to improve engagement of distance students online, and encourage reflection on their studies inwardly the line of credit.The function of private blogging aims to improve formative feedback between student paramedics and lecturers military rank of technology and the function of social media be high on the agenda of tertiary institutionsPrivate blogging aims to enhance clinical think by students .shaping feedback provided to students by means of their own self discovery of tonic concepts introduced during the physique as well as self-regulated schooling by the students is important in paramedic fosterage.IntroductionReflection on and sharing of clinical entropy amongst student paramedics is a practice that has been introduced across all paramedic specialised manikins on wisecrack in the Bachelor of Paramedic Science at CQUniversity. The aim of the sphere- private blogging in paramedic foundations was designed to improve the engagement of distance education students online and encourage reflection on their studies at heart the lam. The heading was to also improve formative feedback and evaluate the technology for enamorness as a private blogging service in a clinical setting. The overall scope of the project was to trial Evernote as a private reflective blogging service and also the opportunity to gain experience (both supply and students) with using Evernote with a view of it becoming a potential tool for reflection and assessment on clinical placement, informing not only Paramedic Science but other clinical based medical and health programs on offer at CQUniversity.BackgroundThe study commenced during circumstance for a course within the Bachelor of Paramedic Science at CQUniversity 2011. Nineteen students were enrolled in the course and had the opportunity to engage with the course lecturer/s by dint of set hebdomadal tutorial drumheads in which all students were to respond to done their private blog enhancing engagement by students. These blogs were past tense summarised by the course coordinator and put online done the weekly forum in Moodle. Students were also to mean the clinical judgement aspects of the course reflecting on their clinical practices such as history taking and patient assessment. The introduction of private blogging into the course was think to improve formative feedback provided to students through the ir own self discovery of new concepts introduced during the course as well as self regulated learning by the students performing set tasks on family and friends as a representation of skills development and competency. The use of private blogging was hoped to improve engagement with distance education students and also to seek improvements in competent and reflective paramedic practice to be used throughout the program curiously for work incorpo crop learning.Blogging to improve student fundamental interactionPrior to the commencement of this study the course was offered in barrier one with approximately 70 students enrolled. Online weekly tutorials consisted of weekly problem solving and clinical judgement oppugns that require a resolution from the student. These questions ranged from problem solving exercises to case management exercises and general case studies requiring question and help chemical reactions.The interaction for these weekly formative tutorial sessions was low with a 12% (n= 8) students per week responding. The below table identifies the average response rate for all term 1 2011 courses and for the paramedic course within the Moodle learning management system.Table 1. Files, messages, clicks and discussions for 70 students in term 1, 2011 PMSC11001 paramedic course compared to the average for all term 1 2011 courses in the university.CourseFiles uploadedMessagesClicks countersign hitsDiscussion postsDiscussion repliesParamedic Course1281133238041357736 bonnie all T1 2011 courses151091335928794068Due to the limited nub of discussion replies (36 versus 68) it was difficult to ascertain what the students learned during the lectures. In turn it was then difficult to predict if what they learned in theory was going to be put into practice at their residential school simulation science lab sessions. An article by Wetmore et al. (2010) determine that writing active(predicate) what was learnt theoretically is an in force(p) strategy to promote reflective learning leading to the development of critical thinking. In other words if a student in effect reflects on the declarative experience of their studies, this reflection will in turn improve the procedural knowledge and skills application required for proficient practice. Overwhelming rise is in back off of reflective learning practices through effective student-teacher interaction being included in clinical education paradigms (Wetmore et al. 2010).MethodsData presented in this paper are drawn from an exploratory scan conducted at the achievement of a three day residential school for a root year baccalaureate paramedic program. The course they attended was Foundations of Paramedics Science which is a first year course of the three year Bachelor of Paramedic Science program. The students in the course were distance education students.The aim of the study was to evaluate Evernote as a blogging service for students. The purpose of Evernote is toImprove engage ment of distance students online, and encourage reflection on their studies within the course.Improve formative feedback from teachersEvaluate Evernote as a private blogging service in a clinical settingThe overall scope of the project was to trial Evernote as a private reflective blogging service and also the opportunity to gain experience (both staff and students) with using Evernote with a view to it becoming a potential tool for reflection and assessment on clinical placement, informing not only Paramedic Science, but other clinical based programs such as Medical Sciences and Sonography.Evernote is a technology that assists users with organising various types of information from several different sources into one, central, web-based location. The product also allows users to clip web pages and chronicle them for later reference, store screen shots, photos, audio memos and text notes, all within a customizable storage system. Evernote can organize notes chronologically and share them between multiple users. In the context of this look students would share their notes (blog posts) only with their teachers in the course, thus creating a private blogging environment.The students had tutorials and on-line blog activities during which they were required to count on their responses and other relevant information into the Evernote program. The activities were located in their resource manuals and were identified by a blog sign. They were informed that they will be required to input information into EVERNOTE which only the lecturers will see, and that this information will be summarised and feedback provided to all students.The students were initially provided step by step guidance on how to access Evernote and begin their blogging campaign.The lecturers were provided training sessions leading up to the commencement of term and the students were also given online training videos to assist in using Evernote.The authors conducted a cartoon after a three day resi dential school in January 2012. The survey was distributed and received back by a non-teaching staff member. The questionnaire consisted of five pieces. scratch one contained demographic information related to the leave-takingicipants. Section deuce contained questionnaires based around their knowledge and capabilities of blogging with section three side by side(p) on from this and contained 13 questions with a seven-point Likert master identifying the students beliefs about blogging in the course. The poop section discussed the students feeling about the blogging go and identified some(prenominal) choice methods for their engagement with the lecturers. The final section attempted to identify their clinical reasoning by allowing the students to reflect on actual paramedic practice and the use of evidence based practice in paramedicine and whether blogging assisted them in improving clinical reasoning and judgement.Data used in the analyses came from a student paramedic-based e survey of blogging. Data collected by the questionnaire were stored on a Microsoft Access database that resided on CQUniversitys computer server. Survey data were coded and transferred from the Access database to an SPSS 18.0 (SPSS, 2010) statistical package software program. ethical approval was acquired by CQUniversity Human morals perpetration. Ethics approval (H11/11-163) was granted from 5 December 2011 to 30 June 2012 and was considered beneath the low risk review process.ResultsEleven students out of 19 (58%) faultless the survey with only 19 out of 27 students attending the residential school.The intent of the blogging exercise was to assess the students engagement with information extracted from the Evernote data base through the weekly tutorial sessions with questions uploaded by lecturers and answers provided by the students. Unfortunately out of a potential 190 blogs required there were only 14.1% of responses from students (n =27) which did not reflect an accurat e account of engagement and was only a two percent improvement on the previous engagement strategy through the Moodle online forum.Their engagement through blogging in Evernote was not a formal class-conscious assessment which kept with the consistency in the previous tutorial sessions through on line forums to ascertain if blogging improved engagement.DemographicsDemographic data was self-collected for comparison only, and a frequency distribution of gender, age, highest level of education, state of student residence and current employment/student status was under make watern. Information is noted in tables 1 and 2. Of the participants who completed this survey there was an almost equal variant of gender with 55 percent (n=6) female. Fifty percent were in the age group of 20-29 (mean 23 years ) (range 19-37) (table 2).Based on the ANOVA analysis, P hold dears indicated that there is no significant difference between genders and amongst age groups with regard to their thoughts on blogging (P value threshold set at PTable 2 Participants GenderGenderNPercentage womanlyMale655545Total11100Table 3- age of participantsDescriptorNPercentage19202227293237 deficient2121121118.29.118.29.19.118.29.19.1Total11100The second part of the survey asked participants if they have blogged before. Of the 11 respondents, only one had previous blogging experience and that persons experience was over 12 months previous to this survey. To ascertain if students had concerns with blogging based on past experiences of themselves or family/friends, a second question asked do you know of any bloggers who have gotten in trouble with friends or family for things they posted on blogs? in that respect was an arouse response of no for this response (n=11, 100%). The final question within this section asked for a comment on blogging and what the participants would like to know about blogging, of the responses received three out of eleven (27%) participants advised that they did not enjo y the blogging experience and therefore did not indigence any hike information provided to them.The third section of the questionnaire was aimed at gathering information about the participants beliefs of blogging in the course PMSC11001. They were advised there were no right or wrong answers and the seeker were only interested in their general opinions about the participants beliefs and thoughts of blogging within the course PMSC11001. This section was assessed using a 13 item, seven-point Likert-type scale anchored by the use of bipolar adjectives (i.e. pairs of opposites) from powerfully agree = 1 to Strongly disagree = 7.Table 4- Questionnaire Mean Scores (n=11)QuestionMean criterion DeviationHow confident were you that your writing in your blog was private3.181.47How a good deal did you consider something was too personal to blog5.181.40How often did you reflexion at the log of the lecturers responsesWould you take lesser care with what you wrote if it was open to the publi c4.303.722.002.19How a lot did the comment the lecturers wrote on your blog affect future entries4.631.12Would it bother you if the things you produce on our blog could be available to other studentsDo you reckon things you bother on your blog affect your gradingDo you commit lecturers would feel disallow towards you based on your blogDo you remember your peers would feel negative towards you based on your blog5.095.095.004.821.581.221.341.25How did you find the process of enrolling in EvernoteDid you find using Evernote program easy for your weekly blog entriesWere you able to find responses from your lecturers easily through the Evernote programWere you able to publish your blogs easily through Evernote4.734.825.005.001.491.331.091.61Although most students did not engage with Evernote blogging as part of their weekly tutorial and as identified below students did not want to engage with lecturers through blogging there was a approximately positive inference about their conf idence in their blogs being private (M = 3.18, SD = 1.47) and they identified that they would take more care if they knew the blogs were available in the public domain (M=3.72, SD=2.19). A majority of the respondents indicated a negative response to their experience with the Evernote blogging system and especially if it had negative impact on their grades (M=5.09, SD=1.22) and they also believed that lecturers would think adverse of them (M=5.00, SD=1.34). In relation to reading posts and publishing blogs in Evernote, once more the students had a negative impression of this suggesting that it was slightly difficult to enroll in Evernote M=4.73, SD=1.49) contempt the step by step guide offered to them. They also found it slightly difficult to use (M=4.82, SD=1.33) and found it difficult to find the lecturers responses (M=5.00, SD=1.61).The fourth section asks the students about their feelings towards Evernote blogging and then continued to ask about other social media concepts for e ngagement with their lecturers. Students were able to give more than one response for this answerTable 5 Social Media Concepts for EngagementMoodle Online ForumsSkypeBloggingFacebookTwitterSMSParticipants45%0%0%0%0%90% on that point were five responses (45%) to using the Moodle online forums with the majority of students (90%, n=10/11) advising that engagement by the lecturers was best through SMS contact. Two students advised that they liked to be contacted by SMS and then would look immediately at the online forum site if requested to.Of the questions have your blogging habits changed since the use of Evernote and would you blog again in other course, all the respondents (100%) answered no with 27% (n=3) advising that they did not enjoy the experience and would not like to use blogging again within another course.DiscussionCQUniversitys ten year strategic blueprint statesCQUniversity will attract and retain more students, helping them to achieve their educational goals regardle ss of their cultural and family background or their country of origin. We will offer a range of counsellings for students to access higher education and pee their educational potential. We will provide a stimulating environment that promotes and supports savant engagement utilizing appropriate technology and infrastructure (CQUniversity 2012).Despite limited research into the efficacy of social network technology in paramedic education, this master study has identified that to achieve the strategic goals of the university and in particular utilizing appropriate technology, students in this program have identified SMS as an engaging way of helping them achieve their goals. Paulus et al. (2009) identified that new technologies assists teaching and learning methods by providing a way of not stagnating the education of students through traditional methods and now supports the students construction of new knowledge. It has also been identified in the literary productions that academ ics pack to keep abreast of the technological changes and the needs of the current genesis of students. There is the potential for a division between students and faculty if they are attempt with new technology (Liu 2010). Liu (2010) also identified that through the Horizon opus 2009 several challenges had arisen and one of them is the growing gap in technology use between students and faculty even though technology use in academia is becoming more and more popular (p. 102).Additionally it has been identified in literature that blogging or journaling is an effective strategy to improve the education of students (Wetmore et al. 2010) where educators in various health and medical related programs have use blogs and reported benefits for student success when interacting with blogging exercises and activities (p.1339). Within this pilot study it was understandably identified by all students non-dependant of age or gender that blogging was not a preferred method of engagement with t he lecturers with the preference being SMS in combination with online forums, despite previous evidence suggesting students do not engage with online Moodle forums. This is despite overwhelming evidence identified in the paper print by Ladyshewsky and Gardner (2008) where they stated that there is a growing body of literature to support the use of web based discussions to form student centred learning. They also identified that students come literately prepared for university through their knowledge of email, SMS and handheld devices including iPad (Ladyshewsky and Gardner 2008).In an online article by Becka(2012) it was identified that Recent research into how students use supple devices has highlighted how frequently they access SMS and therefore this aspect is crucial to ensuring we engage effectively with them at key times and about key issues. In another article it was clearly identified SMS was the best technology used to support learning through engaging students in formati ve assessment objective questions with feedback, as well as SMS-based collaborative learning tasks (Brett 2011). Evidence that students within the Bachelor of Paramedic Science program at CQUniversity have engaged with lecturers through SMS is evident in the course evaluation surveys completed at the end of every term. During term one 2011 the course evaluation response was 78% with a place of 4 out of a maximal score of 5 for the course, this was improved in term three 2011 with an 89% response rate and a score of 4.1/5 for the evaluation. Finally for term one 2012 the response rate was 97% with an overall satisfaction rating of 4.7/5.Limitations and RecommendationsThe respondents to this survey were not randomly selected but were enrolled in the paramedic specific course and provided with the opportunity to trial the Evernote system as part of this course.The comparatively small fare of students available in this pilot study and the crook of responses made it difficult to app ly some statistical tests. Although the results here were overwhelming against blogging with support of SMS social concept for engagement and also online forums through the alive Moodle LMS, future research should utilise a larger sample across all years and courses of the paramedic program in order to alter a more accurate analysis and more precise calculations. Although the results of the survey indicated that students overwhelmingly preferred the use of SMS, given the technical constraints on the number of characters in an SMS, it does have limitations as a tool for reflection.The educational motivation towards student engagement is high on the agenda of tertiary institutions and this study is one representation of how social media concepts can improve this engagement. Future research with a qualitative component would enable effective evaluation of students thoughts on social concepts for engagement. With the availability of diverse and large amounts of technology, tertiary in stitutions should be tone at areas of social concepts for engagement and interaction which are easily accessible, are user friendly and usable by all students. In other words hardware and software that is in line with the next generation of students is recommended. A schematic of how future SMS integration into teaching and learning is shown in the chart below.Ask questions related to lectures through SMS12 educateeLECTURER3Students notified of questions in LMS via SMS214Answers provided in online forum3PROVIDE CONTINUOUS FEEDBACKAnd summarise findings into Moodle LMSConclusionThis study has provided a picture of student engagement techniques which are of value and entertainment for baccalaureate students. Findings indicate a clear association between SMS and online Moodle forums on improving student engagement with these techniques being both valued and enjoyed by students. This engagement will allow academics to further explore perceptions of students within their courses and va lue of the course content through the SMS and forums. Interactivity and active participation seems to lead to a new learning and teaching behaviour. By using modern technologies, students knowledge and engagement in course material can be implemented even to large lecture rooms. Sharing and collaborating different pieces of content as well as communication over different channels allows rethinking informative approaches. Both students and academic staff will report a coarse potential for engaging with large class sizes.Conflicts of InterestNoneEthical ApprovalEthic approval was gained through CQUniversitys Human Ethics Committee