Using the Information-Gathering, Theoretical, Practical and Analytical Skills - Essay Example

? of Learning: Curriculum Deisgn and Development Old Module MODULE DESCRIPTOR Module Orthodontic Therapy Project Module Code OT1003 CREDIT VALUE 20 Module Delivery Year Module TUTOR Hemant Patel date Approved 13th August 2008 VERSION NUMBER 1 DEPARTMENT Institute for Postgraduate Dental Education PARTNER INSTITUTION None Module Aims The aim of the project is for the student to utilise the relevant skills that they have developed during their taught programme (transferable, communication, analytical skills, etc), together with the knowledge and understanding that they have acquired to produce an individual and independent piece of research. MODULE Content Typically projects will be carried out at follows: Phase 1 – Planning. After the first 4 weeks of the course, during which time students will be focussing on the acquisition of knowledge, the project will be introduced and students will be given a further two month to develop ideas for a project title. During this time students will be introduced to literature searching, analytical and presentational (PowerPoint) skills Phase 2 – Experimental. Students will be allocated supervisors and must complete a monthly progress report and attend any meets as deemed necessary by the supervisor. At the end of this period the student must submit a draft report, which will receive feedback from the supervisor Phase 3 – Final analysis and writing-up. The student will prepare a written report in the style of a scientific publication, including references (and will present their work to the staff and student cohort in the form of a PowerPoint presentation Teaching and Learning Strategy The Project Module provides an opportunity for the student to use the information-gathering, theoretical, practical and analytical skills that have been developing during the course. In addition, communication skills are developed during the preparation and presentation of the final project report in both a written form and as a PowerPoint presentation. Students will be encouraged to develop their own project ideas and liaise both with their clinical mentor and the project module tutor to ensure that these result in a sensible hypothesis and experimental design that may test the hypothesis. As such a wide variety of pieces of work may qualify for this module, including audits, questionnaire based studies, work with focus groups, reviews of scientific literature to gather data/information for analysis, analysis of any relevant databases or records of treatment histories. All projects will need to be approved in line with the Faculty’s policies on Health and Safety, ensuring Ethical Considerations and adherence with Peer Review of Scientific Proposals. INDICATIVE Assessment Number of Assignments Assessment Type/Duration/ Wordcount (indicative only) Learning Outcomes being assessed 1 log book/ monthly progress reports and performance judged by the supervisor and clinical mentor 3, 4, 5 1 Project write-up 2-3000 words 1. 2. 3. 6. 7 1 Presentation 15 min 1. 2. 3. 6. 7 Module Pass Requirements For successful completion of the module a mark of at least 40% must be achieved in each assessed component. Bibliography and Learning Support Material This will be entirely dependent on the project title selected. New Module MODULE DESCRIPTOR Module Title Orthodontic Therapy Project Module Code OT103 Module Delivery Year Module TUTOR Hemant Patel date Approved 13th August 2008 VERSION NUMBER 1 DEPARTMENT Institute for Postgraduate Dental Education PARTNER INSTITUTION None Overview Of The Course This Orthodontic Therapy Project is a module that lasts for a year aimed at training Dental Care professionals to become Orthodontic Therapists. This is one of the centers that have been approved to offer such a training program. Relationship with other Modules Co-requisites None Pre-requisites None Excluded Combinations None Project Aims The aims of the project are to: enable student to utilise and enhance the relevant skills that they have developed during their taught programme (transferable, communication, analytical skills, etc), together with the knowledge and understanding that they have acquired to produce an individual and independent piece of research. develop attitudes and behaviours needed for effective orthodontic therapy practise The module is designed to; encourage the students taking the orthodontic therapy project to accept the commitment before them to practice the GDC maintenance standards to the best of the patient’s interests. Enable the students taking orthodontic therapy project to apply skills, knowledge and understanding in the orthodontic therapy curricula framework; develop student’s be awareness of their possible limitations and the help they will have to seek from the clinician. Facilitate the development of professional attitudes, skills and behaviour necessary for effective communication with the colleagues as well as patients. Inculcate knowledge, skills, and attitudes which will support ongoing professional development and promote active engagement in continued learning. Format and content of the Course This project will be taken at this University’s Dental Hospital with the assistance from the module director and DCP tutors. A number of tutors and guest speakers from outside will also take part in the delivering of specialists lectures The module will be considered as to be successful completed after the presentation of workshop reports which must be satisfactory, successful completion of assessments, including end term assessment and it is at this point that the trainee will be considered eligible to have the final Orthodontic Therapy. All clinical practices that are part of this project will be conducted in the working environment of the trainees and will be under the observation of the trainer’s supervisors. General Information about the Module Expected Award Diploma in Orthodontic Therapy The title of the Programme Orthodontic Therapy Duration of the Module 46 weeks Study Mode Part –Time Programme Body Responsible for the Awards MODULE Content Typically projects will be carried out at follows: Phase 1 – Planning. After the first 4 weeks of the course, during which time students will be focussing on the acquisition of knowledge, the project will be introduced and students will be given a further two month to develop ideas for a project title. During this time students will be introduced to literature searching, analytical and presentational (PowerPoint) skills Phase 2 – Experimental. Students will be allocated supervisors and must complete a monthly progress report and attend any meets as deemed necessary by the supervisor. At the end of this period the student must submit a draft report, which will receive feedback from the supervisor Phase 3 – Final analysis and writing-up. The student will prepare a written report in the style of a scientific publication, including references (and will present their work to the staff and student cohort in the form of a PowerPoint presentation Learning Outcomes of the project On successful completion of this project a student will be able to: 1. Access relevant information that will enable them gain the relevant skills needed to meet the project’s aims 2. Review literature relevant on commitment before them which will later be applied in practising the GDC maintenance standards 3. Demonstrate independence in working and show attitudes and behaviours required for effective orthodontic therapy practise 4. Keep appropriate records of work related to topic under investigation as part of the skills, knowledge and understanding in the orthodontic therapy curricula framework 5. Work safely; undertaking risk analysis as appropriate and maintaining required safety records. 6. Carry out appropriate analysis of results obtained. 7. Present project in a written report and PowerPoint presentation, to describe relevant material, explain results and make appropriate conclusions Teaching and Learning Strategy The Project Module provides an opportunity for the student to use the information-gathering, theoretical, practical and analytical skills that have been developing during the course. In addition, communication skills are developed during the preparation and presentation of the final project report in both a written form and as a PowerPoint presentation. Students will be encouraged to develop their own project ideas and liaise both with their clinical mentor and the project module tutor to ensure that these result in a sensible hypothesis and experimental design that may test the hypothesis. As such a wide variety of pieces of work may qualify for this module, including audits, questionnaire based studies, work with focus groups, reviews of scientific literature to gather data/information for analysis, analysis of any relevant databases or records of treatment histories. All projects will need to be approved in line with the Faculty’s policies on Health and Safety, ensuring Ethical Considerations and adherence with Peer Review of Scientific Proposals. The project will entail a mixture of lectures and seminars all covering orthodontic therapy curriculum theoretical aspects. To add on this, exercises on typondont will be carried out on the Dental Hospital clinical environment. During the project, the students will also be expected to work as orthodontic therapists trainees and they will be closely monitored by their respective workplace trainer. INDICATIVE Class Contact Much of the underlying theory will be developed from already covered projects and this project will require approximately 250 hours of self-directed learning. INDICATIVE Assessment Number of Assignments Assessment Weighting % Type/Duration/ Wordcount (indicative only) Learning Outcomes being assessed 1 log book/ monthly progress reports and performance judged by the supervisor and clinical mentor 20% 3, 4, 5 1 Project write-up 80% 2-3000 words 1. 2. 3. 6. 7 1 Presentation 20% 15 min 1. 2. 3. 6. 7 Module Pass Requirements For successful completion of the module a mark of at least 40% must be achieved in each assessed component. Students interested in Orthodontic therapy project will be picked for training from dental care professionals that are already qualified and are registered appearing on the GDC register and full time course lasting for one year or any other post qualification experiences. Interested students will be expected to operate on an exclusive orthodontic practice. Roles of Dental Care professional include; Dental hygienists Dental nurses Dental therapists Technicians are expected to demonstrate APL of clinical dental sciences understanding, surgery protocols like cross infection and patient management Trainee Responsibilities The trainee process will depend mostly on the trainer offering suitable facilities and committing him/herself fully to the outline of the module as highlighted bellow. In order to meet the programme’s requirements, the trainer has to agree to; Attend trainer workshops Providing patients numbers that ae sufficient and a variety of orthodontic procedures geared towards meeting the requirements of the module1 Be in a position to monitor, asses and supervise each visiting patient trainee Allow the trainee to take part in the initial full time course that will last for 4 weeks together with more study days at the Dental Hospital Allow for hospital clinical environment or practice inspection and react to any suggested recommendations2 Offer suitable resources and facilities Agree and support the module directors outcomes after the training Module Module Title 1 Introduction of the module Oral biology and biomedical sciences Human diseases 2 Communication skills, health informatics and behavioural sciences 3 Ethics, Law and professionalism Clinical orthodontics(orthodontic records) 4 Clinical orthodontics (The principles of orthodontics) Fixed or removable orthodontic appliances Dental biomaterials science 5 Clinical placement experience Module Cost and Resources The project will cost students $ 17, 000 with any arising costs during the module being the responsibility of the institution. The resources set aside by the institution will comfortably support 102 students for this year’s module. Bibliography and Learning Support Material The learning support materials are of the best quality that the students can get from any institution are carefully selected to assist the students in meeting the projects aims. Bibliography is on Orthodontic Therapy Approval by the School Education Committee Date module approved: ……………………. Signature of the Chair of the School Education Committee:…………………………………… Date: …………………… (Electronic signatures are acceptable) Approval for modules jointly taught by more than one School Date module approved by the second School(s): ……………………. Signature of the Chair of the second School Education Committee(s):………………………………………. Date:…………. (Electronic signatures are acceptable) Why This New MAF Is Better The new outline has been included with additional information and columns which are meant to make the new MAF better than the old one. The structure and information in the module under the new MAF will equip the students with the relevant information with regards to what the model entails and what is involved. These inclusions serve as better guidelines to students in understanding what they are getting into before taking the course. Relationship With Other Module The new module has been included with a column on how the module is related to other modules with sections like pre-requisites, co-requisites and excluded combinations within the module. This helps the student understand the combinations that are possible while taking this course. It is an important inclusion but was missing in the old module3. The pre-requisites are normally expected in different levels of the module and have to be included as module codes whenever they are needed. In some scenarios, though in very few cases, there is a possibility of having the student’s examination model being made the subject following the completion of a module. Co-requisites are important especially in selected cases where students are expected to take more than one modules. In such a case, the module definition of the self-contained programme has to be specified thus making the module clear to the students4. The module value in the new MAF is significant as it indicates the contribution of the module to the student’s course thus giving the student an idea of what is expected of him or her before starting the project. General Information about the Module General information about the module has been provided in the new module and the column entails the programme title, the mode of study, the award expected, the module’s duration and the body in charge with the awards. This offers a general outlook of the module and a glance on the column is sufficient for a student to have a rough idea of the module without reading through the whole module thus saves a lot of time. The indicative class contact in the new MAF highlights where the underlying theory of the module will be developed and the time needed for direct self learning. This is a crucial inclusion providing the students with the basis of the module thus the student remains guided on what the module entails and prepared with regards the time expected for their self learning5. With this information, the students will be able to prepare their learning timetable as they already have all that the module expects from them ensuring a smooth running thus meeting the objectives and aims of the project. Independent learning is an important inclusion in this project as the students is expected to take more studies apart from what is normally offered in class as the project entails a lot to be covered and the time allocated cannot be sufficient for everything to be handled in classroom. Learning Outcomes The learning outcomes have been listed in the new module in a standard form entailing a numerical list of the possible modules outcomes. The outcomes have to be numbered so as to ensure a desired response when it comes to the correlation between the assessment method and the outcomes. At least three and at most eight outcomes have to be specified in case of a 10 credit module6. The numbering arranges the outcomes in accordance to the order they are expected to meet giving the students an idea of what outcomes have been given more priority and also have the students remain guided on what has to be achieved at the end of the module. Module Requirements The module requirements section in the new MAF is more detailed compared to the other MAF. Module requirement have to be detailed and clearly indicated highlighting the criteria used for picking the students and the qualification expected. The requirements also specify the mode of the course; this can either be full time or evening classes as well as the time the course is expected to last7. Module requirements closely relate with the learning outcomes and the more detailed they are the better the chances of meeting the learning outcomes. The additional information such the criteria used for picking students will ensure than students don’t enrol to the wrong modules and are forced to change midway the project. Module Aims The aim of the module should be more detailed as it has to contain all the necessary information regarding the module purpose, the benefits associated with the module as well as the significance of the subject context as a whole. The aim of a module varies greatly from one module to the other hence it has to be detailed to clearly bring out the objective of the given module. The information in this section should include the specific skills and knowledge that are expected from the students after completing the module such as to teach, to nurse or to design8. Module Cost and Resources The resource section is meant to assure students that the institution offering the module has adequate staff and resources to oversee the module to its completion. Once the module has commenced, it is normally difficult to guarantee additional resources yet the students expect the unit offered to be met by the additional costs from the institutions budget allocations. It is there for important for the resources column to be included in the module so that the students are made aware of the amount of money they need to settle while taking the module and the contribution of the institution to support them9. The number of students taking the module should be proportional to the resources allocated. In cases where the student’s numbers seem to be constrained in relation to the resources allocated, then there has to be an indicated cap in addition to the selection basis that takes into consideration the students who are perusing the module as their priority course. This means that the column should also include the number of students that are expected to take the module in that academic session. In situations where the number of students happens to be a cap, this has to be indicated in the module and the rationale for the cap explained. This column serves as an assurance to the students on the viability of the module. The Module and the Module titles The module and the title of the module have been listed in the new MAF to vast the students with what the module entails and are arranged in accordance to how they will be covered. This approach will equip the students and guide them in their personal studies as they will be provided with the topic of units to be covered in the order that they will be covered in class. Students will be able to read a head of the teacher and research more than what is provided in class. Indicative Assessment In the assessment details, the weighting column has to be included as it assists in determining the specific examination length and the contribution of the assessment to the overall mark of the module. The module assessment section is more detailed in the new MAF indicating the semester that the module will be taught as well as the assessment period. In most cases, modules are offered in Autumn semester, Spring Semester or in some cases Full year10. However, it is important that this is indicated in the MAF for the students to be clear with when they will be taking the module and put in place any necessary measures and plans in place. In other cases, some modules are offered in more than one of the periods named above. However, in such a case, one of the periods has to look at as default. Summers are the most ideal period for postgraduate modules. The period for module Assessment has also been indicated following the completion of the module11. These are vital information that the students need but were lacking in the old MAF. Content And Format The content and format section in the new MAF is important as it contains a lot of necessary information about the module that is not provided in the old MAF. Some of the information that is relevant to the students before the course commences includes where the module will be taken and those who will be responsible for overseeing the module. It also provides room for any additional lecture and lecturers that may be needed during the module. The section also provides the students with information on what the teaching will entail as well as the exercises involved in the module. This inclusion is meant to enable the students be more prepared for the module and avoid confusion while the module is in progress. The role and requirements of the students during the course is also specified as well as those who will be responsible to monitor them12. With such information, the students will be better placed to make necessary preparations in advance. The conditions for successful completion of the course are also specified in the section so that the students remain focussed on what has to be met before they are considered eligible to sit for the final exam. The number of modules required in the course and the time within which the module is expected to be completed is specified. The location for clinical practices is also specified and those in charge of the supervision13. Authorization and Bibliography The new MAF has included additional information such as the whether the module completion results from external examiners comments or any other agencies or whether the module market is fully recognized. The MAF has gone further to come up with suggestions of solving any delivery logistics or problems with the resources apparent to the coordinator or department head of the module making it the most appropriate in achieving the objectives and learning outcomes of the project. This re-written module is better than the old one as it presents a new module structure that has been adjusted, its curriculum revised and approved by the University’s relevant authorities as being the most appropriate for the students. The new module is aimed at ensuring that each trainee develops, devises and articulates the learning module at the University. This is a better module as it will guide the students to follow the module steps in a more logical manner so as to mirror the learning module development14. This version gives the student a more clear outlook of the project in an effort to achieve an alignment between the learning activities, the outcomes and the assessment of the learning module. This module has captured information that is more essential to enable the students to assess and deliver the learning module in better ways. The additional information in the re-written version include; details clarifying the delivery of the module, delivery pattern outline, the methods to be used for assessment, the criteria to be used in the module and the timing of the module. This module has also highlighted the students terms of accessing the module, how to access the resources and has also outlined the learning requirements. The module has gone further to describe the assessment activities involved in the module as well as the learning experience that are more flexible to accommodate more students15. The employable skills expected from the student have been identified and recognized as being relevant in the practical and employment environment. This has made this module more important and attractive to both students and employers16. The changes that were made which were not in the initial module include; 1. Adjustments in the pre- and anti-requisites 2. Major adjustments in the structure content that needed descriptor amendment 3. Typographical adjustments 4. Adjustments in the learning and teaching methods, i.e. the module will be full time for the initial four weeks and then the students will have to take evening classes after that 5. Changes in the workload of students 6. Adjustments in the module assessment timing and approach 7. The module also highlighted the cost incurred17 The changes have been approved on academic grounds so as to ensure that the module offered by the university has been designed to the highest academic standards possible providing the students the best teaching and learning experience possible. This way, resource implication will be identified in the earliest stage and resolved as early as possible. The new MAF includes some relevant details missing in the old MAF as well as additional information that are important to the students. Such inclusions make the new MAF make it far much better than the old MAF thus the one recommended between the two. Bibliography Amarillo, Implementing competency-based education: A resource guide, Texas State Technical Institute, 1999 B Britton & J Black, Understanding expository text-A theoretical and practical handbook for analysing text, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, 2005 B Hooks, Teaching to transgress, Routledge, New York, 1999 G Gloeckener, & C Love, Integrating basic skills into vocational teacher education curricular, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins J Biggs & C Tang, Teaching for Quality Learning at University, 2007, p 284-316 J Foran, et al., Effective curriculum planning, Paradigm Publishing International, Eden Praire, MN, 2000 J, Schwab, The practical 4: Something for curriculum professors to do. Curriculum Inquiry, 13, 239-265 L Moore & D Carnine, 1989, Evaluating curriculum design in the context of active teaching, Remedial and Special Education, 10(4), 28-37 M apple, Official knowledge: Democratic education in a conservative age, Routledge, New York, 2003 M Blinn, & G Pike, ‘How undergraduates picture their work lives in the year 2000: Data for curriculum development, Journal of Vocational Education Research, 11 (3), 49-68 P Smith & T Ragan, Instructional Design, Macmillan, New York, 2003 R, Brandt, Applied strategies for curriculum evaluation, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2000 Schubert, H, Curriculum: Perspective, paradigm and possibility, Macmillan, New York T Eysink, Learner Perfomance in Multimedia Learning Arrangements: An analysis Across instructional approaches, http://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/publication/1989072 T, Duffy & R, Waller, Designing usable texts, Academic Press, Orlando, 2000 Read More