STUDENT EDUCATION FEATURE something that we were very keen to continue to do via the on-line L ’ apple course .
During this pandemic , maintaining links , communicating and sharing good practice ideas with all of our placement co-ordinators and current educators was viewed as a salient part of the L ’ apple . With this in mind , we built in a separate virtual resource for our co-ordinators and current educators , which had access to updates from all three HEI ’ s and a live webinar for questions and discussions .
Going ‘ live ’ The first L ’ apple course went live in July 2020 , and feedback from participant educators was essential to the development of the second run of the course in November 2020 . Occupational therapist Stephanie Huddlestone said : ‘ I have thoroughly enjoyed this course , and the fact that it has been delivered electronically provides more flexibility with completing the course . I am quite motivated to complete self-directed learning activities , therefore I was able to include protected time within my calendar so that others could see that I was training .
‘ I feel that [ the course content ] has confirmed a lot of things that I already know and am already doing with staff members that I currently supervise . It has also highlighted further learning objectives that I can work on moving forwards … I can now also honestly say that I am looking forward to being a part of the learning process for occupational therapy students .’
Reflections on the first run of L ’ apple The L ’ apple course enabled the members of the three HEI educator course team to work together remotely and efficiently deliver an online course , while administration staff were able to take the lead on enrolling educators and sending them the relevant links .
An additional economic advantage of remote learning is that practice educators do not have to travel large geographical distances to attend the training . The cost of this , in both time and money can create a barrier to attending .
Now , we are able to provide training to a wider range and increased numbers of educators across the region , whereas previously we could only accommodate 40 course participants at a time and nearly always ran a waiting list .
The flexibility allows occupational therapists to access the courses throughout the year , regardless of location .
It was fantastic to have such large numbers of new educators on the course , and this was down to a number of reasons , including the flexibility of virtual remote learning and occupational therapists being able to engage in the learning activities in their own time , to enable them to fit this around their own clinical pressures .
However , busy clinicians do not always have the time that is necessary to engage with online learning . For the second run of the course , we emphasised the need for study leave , so that participants had the chance to reflect and focus on their own learning and CPD , without the demands of a clinical caseload and family .
Some participants did request study leave , but this was cancelled due to the considerable pressures of the workforce . Even in these challenging times , it is vital that managers and employers allow staff time for CPD activities , and acknowledge that online learning does take time and effort , which needs to be accommodated within an employee ’ s workload .
During the pandemic , we are all learning how to use new technology to carry out assessments , interventions , communicate and learn . Learning remotely is also a skill that can be challenging for some .
The original RCOT APPLE course benefitted from networking opportunities and face-to-face discussions , allowing new educators to share their fears , ideas and experiences about how to support and assess a student in their clinical area .
In the virtual L ’ apple course this was a challenge , and perhaps a key aspect that was missing with educators having to wait until the online webinar at the end of the course .
We experienced a few teething problems with the technology ; a few participants were unable to access certain materials due to NHS firewalls and in the second run of the course we incorporated more training and technical pointers to enable participants to engage with the various platforms the course is housed on .
Taking our pioneering first cohort ’ s feedback into account , we added more instructions for the second run of the course and more introductory material to explain what the course is , how to use it and what the expectations of the course are .
Networking and joint learning The self-directed nature of the course suits some learners better than others . It takes confidence to trust that skills will be developed simply by engaging with the course materials , especially if participants had been out of education for some time .
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