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      The Evolution of a Professional Practice Forum: Balancing Peer-to-Peer Learning With Course Objectives

      research-article
      , BA, MA 1 , , , BA (Hons), RN, PhD 1 , , BSc (Hons), PhD 1
      (Reviewer), (Reviewer), (Reviewer)
      JMIR Research Protocols
      JMIR Publications Inc.
      medical education, peer-to-peer, online learning, formative assessment

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          Abstract

          Background

          The Opioid Treatment Accreditation Course (OTAC) is a mandatory accreditation requirement in New South Wales, Australia, and aims to prepare medical practitioners for the provision of safe and effective Opioid Substitution Treatment to people with opioid dependence. The course has a strong focus on safe prescribing practices and the course design includes a Professional Practice Forum that is engaging for participants and effective at imparting complex ideas and concepts that do not place additional time constraints on already time-poor health professionals.

          Objective

          The study aimed to use participatory action research methods to develop and evaluate an online Professional Practice Forum that is a key component of the OTAC teaching and learning experience.

          Methods

          Three evaluation cycles were implemented with three cohorts of participants (N=40) to inform the design and review of the updated OTAC course. Overall, the study relied on participatory action research methods to enhance a sense of online community and to revise the Professional Practice Forum component of the course. Findings from survey feedback and an examination of Web metrics were used to monitor participant learning and were subsequently subject to thematic analysis in order to identify key themes.

          Results

          The use of participatory action techniques in the redesign of the OTAC course was a successful means of engaging with participants and resulted in four revisions based on feedback from facilitators and participants. The Professional Practice Forum was rated highly and received positive feedback from both moderators and participants.

          Conclusions

          The use of interactive forums in online learning in an educational module for adult learners can prove extremely valuable as a means for participants to share their expertise and improve their learning outcomes. In particular, the use of sticky and welcome threads were significant features that enhanced interactions between participants and facilitators and resulted in increased quantity and quality of postings. These findings can help inform future researchers on how to develop peer engagement modules that are amenable to assessment and that build an online sense of community.

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          Most cited references16

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          Effective e-learning for health professionals and students--barriers and their solutions. A systematic review of the literature--findings from the HeXL project.

          In 2003/4 the Information Management Research Institute, Northumbria University, conducted a research project to identify the barriers to e-learning for health professionals and students. The project also established possible ways to overcome these barriers. The North of England Workforce Development Confederation funded the project. The project comprised a systematic review of the literature on barriers to and solutions/critical success factors for e-learning in the health field. Fifty-seven references were suitable for analysis. This review was supplemented by a questionnaire survey of learners and an interview study of learning providers to ensure that data identified from the literature were grounded in reality. The main barriers are: requirement for change; costs; poorly designed packages; inadequate technology; lack of skills; need for a component of face-to-face teaching; time intensive nature of e-learning; computer anxiety. A range of solutions can solve these barriers. The main solutions are: standardization; strategies; funding; integration of e-learning into the curriculum; blended teaching; user friendly packages; access to technology; skills training; support; employers paying e-learning costs; dedicated work time for e-learning. The authors argue that librarians can play an important role in e-learning: providing support and support materials; teaching information skills; managing and providing access to online information resources; producing their own e-learning packages; assisting in the development of other packages.
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            Building Learning Communities in Online Courses: the importance of interaction

            Karen Swan (2010)
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              Is Open Access

              Community Management That Works: How to Build and Sustain a Thriving Online Health Community

              Health care professionals, patients, caregivers, family, friends, and other supporters are increasingly joining online health communities to share information and find support. But social Web (Web 2.0) technology alone does not create a successful online community. Building and sustaining a successful community requires an enabler and strategic community management. Community management is more than moderation. The developmental life cycle of a community has four stages: inception, establishment, maturity, and mitosis. Each stage presents distinct characteristics and management needs. This paper describes the community management strategies, resources, and expertise needed to build and maintain a thriving online health community; introduces some of the challenges; and provides a guide for health organizations considering this undertaking. The paper draws on insights from an ongoing study and observation of online communities as well as experience managing and consulting a variety of online health communities. Discussion includes effective community building practices relevant to each stage, such as outreach and relationship building, data collection, content creation, and other proven techniques that ensure the survival and steady growth of an online health community.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                JMIR Res Protoc
                JMIR Res Protoc
                ResProt
                JMIR Research Protocols
                JMIR Publications Inc. (Toronto, Canada )
                1929-0748
                Oct-Dec 2014
                31 October 2014
                : 3
                : 4
                : e58
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Workforce Education and Development Group Sydney Medical School University of Sydney SydneyAustralia
                Author notes
                Corresponding Author: Anna Janssen anna.janssen@ 123456sydney.edu.au
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6611-9651
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3512-7023
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0783-1918
                Article
                v3i4e58
                10.2196/resprot.3287
                4259924
                25363273
                f086144b-30f8-4b71-aff3-dc66fcbb63ae
                ©Anna Janssen, Tracy Robinson, Tim Shaw. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 31.10.2014.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

                History
                : 30 January 2014
                : 27 August 2014
                : 10 September 2014
                : 13 September 2014
                Categories
                Original Paper
                Original Paper

                medical education,peer-to-peer,online learning,formative assessment

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