An intrinsic case study of an online workshop: Learning how to facilitate interprofessional collaborative practice
Creators: name: Casimiro, Lynn
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Health Sciences, Education.
subject: Education, Technology of.

description: Collaborative patient-centered practice (CPCP) is an area of interest for continuing education in healthcare because it has the potential to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of health services. Because ELearning is becoming increasingly popular, the primary purpose of this qualitative intrinsic case study was to examine the design, development, delivery, and evaluation of a non-credited, six-week, continuing education online workshop about interprofessional education for collaborative patient-centered practice (IECPCP). This workshop was offered at no cost to the participants. The secondary focus of this study examined the self-reported outcomes that participants perceived they had achieved through the workshop in terms of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and practices necessary to stimulate CPCP in the workplace. Three groups of participants (a total of 31 participants), were included in this intrinsic case study. The first group of six participants took part in a survey-based needs analysis to inform the design of the workshop. The second group of three participants formed the production team. During interviews, the production team members offered retrospective feedback on the design and development of the workshop based on the learners' comments. The third group of 22 participants included the learners who registered in the workshop and completed one or more data collection methods designed to capture their eLearning experience. The data collection methods included a pre-workshop survey, a temperature check, a post-workshop survey and email, and a post-workshop interview. A descriptive analysis was completed for the survey data and course records. The interview data was subjected to an interpretive analysis using the constant comparison method. All data sets were triangulated and interpreted through the lens of socioconstructivism with specific emphasis on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. The results showed that in a continuing education context where learners are not asked to pay a registration fee, the rate of participation in an online workshop is closely linked to personal and professional motivational factors that can outweigh all design aspects of the learning resource. This study also showed that the more time the learners spent interacting with the learning resource, other learners, and the facilitator, the more they reported examples of the following: moving from knowledge construction about CPCP toward the development of CPCP skills; the adoption of attitudes conducive to CPCP; and the application of practices that stimulated CPCP in the workplace. This intrinsic case study suggests that all aspects of motivation and participation should be integrated within an eLearning model to influence the way online programs are designed, developed, delivered, and evaluated for this particular target group of learners. Integrating the concepts of motivation and participation into online program design, development, delivery, and evaluation will likely create an environment that stimulates active engagement in the online learning process.