USING E-LEARNING TO ENHANCE & TRANSFORM UNDERGRADUATE NURSE EDUCATION IN MALAWI

1. USING E-LEARNING TO ENHANCE & TRANSFORM UNDERGRADUATE NURSE EDUCATION IN MALAWI Gladys Msiska PhD; David Dewhurst Pro

2. The presentation • Geographic position of Malawi • Background • Collaborative partnerships • Enhancement of teaching & learning • Statistics on utilisation of CMS • Constraints in the utilisation of CMS • Conclusion

3. Malawi: The warm heartof Africa • Situatedin the southern eastern part of Africa • Sub-Saharan Region • Population 14 million people

4. Background • Acute shortage of nurses, doctors and clinical officers • Increase students enrolment. • Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) - BSc programme for registered nurses • Presently 200 students are enrolled per year. • Radical changes in course delivery - introduction of learning technologies • The elearning project - collaborative partnership.

5. Collaborative partnerships • The collaboration began in 2010 • Sharing of existing digital resources • creation of useful partnerships to enable local resource creation. • Capacity building and collaborative activities

6. Achievements of the partnership • In-country development of the skills and knowledge to create and integration digital resources to curriculum. • Trained > 90% of KCN academic staff to create high-quality digital resources. • 1000 online resources, many developed locally • Driven the modernisation of the Nursing Degree – blended learning promoting self-directed learning

7. Achievements of the partnership • Enhanced IT infrastructure – PCs for students and a new server • Staff development in modern pedagogies, assessment and use of e-learning • Sustainability – local content creation & staff development workshops • IT staff able to maintain and further develop the CMS • facilitation of learning through a collaboratively developed CMS

8. Enhancement of teaching & learning • Moodle platform for a curriculum management system (CMS) • An electronic environment that supports teaching and learning. • Contains various modules and other resources - implementation of the curriculum.

9. CMS home page

10. BSc Programme modules in CMS

11. Enhancement of teaching through CMS • Manage and plan teaching • Blended learning - face to face contact with students combined with self directed learning through existing digital resources Digital resources on clinical skills • Online interactive sessions through forum discussions • Student assignment can be uploaded and submitted • Grades on SARIS

12. Enhancement of learning through CMS • Students can access module packs, resources and the module activities. • Find up-to-date information • Engage in self-directed learning through digital resources egarticulate quiz which provide feedback • Students can learn psychomotor skills through locally developed digital resources

13. Discussion forum in CMS

14. Shared Resources through CMS

15. CMS usage Gradual growth during the first full year of implementation & a sharp increase at the start of the second academic session.

16. CMS usage • Usage of CMS is highest during working hours and Peak times are 3 & 4pm. Usage extends to 9pm

17. CMS usage

18. Constraints • Intranet in use but connectivity is a problem sometimes • Time to develop the resources • Sustaining the motivation

19. CMS • http://saris.kcn.unima.mw/

20. Acknowledgements • We are grateful to the Scottish Government International Development Fund for the financial support.

21. Conclusion Using elearning to ensure the fruitfulness of teaching-learning interactions?' Thank you !!!!!!!