About

Malay version

ACoRD aims to introduce innovative digital pedagogy methods that will benefit healthcare and biomedical science students in the partner countries by sharing existing expertise and training academic staff and technologists in those countries about how to develop high quality, peer reviewed multimedia digital tools and resources and integrate them into existing traditional curricula

Objectives

  • To identify areas of the medical, nursing and biomedical sciences curricula in partner countries where students would benefit from digital resources to enhance their learning which will allow the consortium to build capacity in how to develop such resources.
  • Transfer knowledge and experience from the EU institutions, which have already gone through a successful implementation of digital learning methods in medicine, nursing and biomedical sciences, using a train the trainer approach to build expertise in using the co-creation methodology called ASPIRE (Aim, Storyboarding, Populating, Implementing, Release, Evaluation) for the development of  reusable learning objects (RLOs).
  • Use the experiences gained by academic and technologists in the partner countries to create new and repurposed RLOs using the ASPIRE process.
  • To evaluate the RLOS with students in each of the partner countries following embedding into the medical, nursing and biomedical sciences curricula.
  • To create a bespoke repository of RLOs in the style of the internationally acclaimed HELM Open repository, containing the 22 open access RLOs created in the ACoRD project which can grow with the increased capacity to create high quality digital resources extends.

ACoRD will share pedagogically high quality resources for widespread ease-of-use, by teacher and learner. Commonalities and similarities in health care policy increase the effectiveness of shared resources for improving health care systems in PCs. This partnership contains leaders in this type of resource development in Europe, and the project has the potential to contribute to three agendas: curriculum modernisation, the needs of the patients as the highest of priorities, and continuing professional development.

The underlying principles of this work resonate with Eurasian cultures. The European RLO approach mirrors participatory design based on a variety of stakeholders that might use the RLO in the future, informed by clinical practice; educational needs, artistic approaches, building a story of a patient’s experiences, and requiring the generation of solutions. Its continuing development will enrich the mutual experience of geographically distant countries across EurAsia.

Background to the project

The Malaysian National E-Learning Policy has been established since 2011 with the aim to transform Malaysian higher education institutions (HEIs) to become globally competitive by building a high quality and sustainable e-learning framework. To achieve the aim, the Ministry of Higher Education work with HEIs in Malaysia to build capacity within the academic community, to establish a national e-learning platform, and to coordinate and spearhead the content development. Key initiatives that are currently being taken include launching massive open online courses (MOOCs) in subjects of distinctiveness, making online learning integral, and establishing the required cyber infrastructure for higher education and lifelong learning.

While most HEIs in Malaysia have implemented e-learning in their curricula, there are variations in the quality and number of e-learning materials produced; this can be attributed to the differences in organisational eLearning cultures, resources, expertise and curricula. For instance, at University of Malaya (UM), in line with the Malaysian Educational Blueprint, a range of MOOCs, open educational resources (OERs), and an e-learning platform (Spectrum) are in place to support the E-learning Policy’s goals to become a ‘nation of lifelong learners’ and ‘globalized online learning’.  In Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), a Moodle e-learning portal (PutraBlast) is used. In addition, other e-learning tools such as Padlets, Blendspace, Edmodo, Kahoots and Edpuzzle have also been utilised to enhance students’ learning. For International Medical University (IMU), blended learning started in 1998 and has evolved over time. For Taylor’s University (TU), e-Learning Academy (eLA) is the unit responsible to drive the e-Learning initiatives in Taylor’s University and has been very proactive in promoting the use of technology in teaching and learning. Currently, eLA consists of 11 staffs from 3 different functional units namely Content Development Unit, Learning Technology Unit and Training and Development Unit which together supporting TU’s e-learning.

However, despite e-learning being a national higher education agenda, a survey on Malaysia HEIs found that implementation of e-learning remains suboptimal. For instance, 61.5% of the HEIs in Malaysia do not have e-learning policies, and only 12 out of 20 HEIs which have e-learning implementation plans achieved a success rate of 0 to 50%. In addition, more than 60% of e-learning materials available were at best moderately interactive. More than half of the lecturers and students considered integration of e-learning in their institution inadequate.

In Malaysia, most HEIs face key challenges when implementing e-learning strategies; these include lack of expert training facilitators, training modules, trans-disciplinary team (clinicians, teachers, learning technologists and instructional designers), infrastructure, and motivation among the teaching staff. Some students have difficulty accessing e-learning resources, find the content uninteresting and e-learning activities time-consuming.

In order to overcome these barriers, the updated National E-Learning Policy 2.0 stresses on the importance of developing high quality e-learning content and building e-learning capacity in Malaysian HEIs. The target is for most Malaysian HEI to acquire at least 40% of new e-learning materials for courses and achieve e-content of international standard by 2025. Furthermore, lecturers are also encouraged to use, develop and innovate e-learning materials as part of their teaching. For example, University of Malaya requires the lecturers to develop and teach using e-learning and this fords part of their annual performance assessment.

Besides, one of the Malaysian Education Blueprint (2015-2025) objectives is to encourage globalised online learning so that it will widen access to good quality content, enhance quality of teaching and learning, lower cost of delivery, and bring Malaysian expertise to the global community. In our proposed project, the development and dissemination of reusable learning objectives fit well into this remit of the Malaysian Education Blueprint.

The University of Nottingham (UoN), University of Stavanger (UiS) and and Karolinska Institutet (KI) are centres of excellence for e-learning in Europe. They have strong foundation, experience and team in producing high quality reusable e-learning materials. The University of Nottingham Health E-Learning and Media Team (HELM) is the world leading expert in RLOs in health which has a wide range of methodological and technical expertise in the development and evaluation of the RLOs. The Department of Digital Learning in UiS specialises in developing digital learning materials and solutions for online education and have produced various online solutions since 2000; KI has an e-learning platform called Ping Pong which provides Open Educational Resources (OER) . The teams from UoN, UiS and KI are therefore well placed to support the Malaysian HEIs in building e-learning capacity.

Currently, there is no systematic approach to developing e-learning materials within and across HEIs in Malaysia. This project focuses on e-learning because it is in line with the Malaysian national education agenda to use blended learning to improve teaching and learning experiences and outcomes. The Erasmus+ KA2 – Capacity Building in Higher Education Grant will facilitate capacity building in e-learning in the Malaysian HEIs to develop RLOs which can be shared across different disciplines in biomedical health sciences, in Malaysia and across the region. These RLOs can be adapted and repurposes to suit local culture and healthcare practices. In the context of biomedical health sciences, common contents can be shared across disciplines such as medicine, nursing, biomedical science and pharmacy.

References

“Executive Summary Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education).” edited by MINISTRY OF EDUCATION MALAYSIA, 32. Putrajaya, Malaysia: Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2015.

Atan, Hanafi & Embi, Mohamed & Hussin, Supyan. (2011). e-Learning in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions: Status, Trends, & Challenges. Department of Higher Education Ministry of Higher Education.