Reflective Practice Notes: #FSLT12 #MOOC

My first massive open online course (mooc) has started.  The 2012 First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (#FSLT12) is a diverse group of medical educators engaged in a collaborative environment. My experience as a learner in medical education awakens my pursuit for a career in academic medical education.  My strength as innovator shapes my motivation for this platform as a beginning. The profession of medical education has formidable and complex challenges to address in healthcare, this holds around the wold.  I see my futurist position in Geoffry Moore’s Crossing the Chasm based on diffusion of innovations theory from Everett Rogers.

My academic progress has come with a considerable investment in independent self-directed learning. I have experience in the development of peer-to-peer learning modules in medical education through webinar experiences for physicians-in-training.  In these brief online settings, interactive involvement supports a short-lecture format with a move from discussion to dialogue to enhance learning and experiential connectedness. For example, a “Learning Well Webinar” planned for premedical and preclinical medical students about the strategies for learning the basic science curriculum was developed in collaboration with medical students, premedical students and a faculty member based on innovative approaches.  My efforts began with online book discussion webinars for physicians' storytelling.

Professional Standards Framework

In considering the framework of professional values this models is based on respect of peer learning adding a diverse learning community to medical education. Open registration and enrollment aims at equal opportunity for learners. The aims and objectives of the “Learning Well Webinar” offer an innovative approach to higher education learning.  The model was limited in “evidence-informed approaches and the outcomes from research, scholarship and continuing professional development” because it was new, but does fully recognise the implications for future professional practice.

I blog and write for reflective practice in medicine and life. A reflective practice on teaching and learning will be a new endeavor that’s staring in the very early stages of my professional development.  Using Brookfield’s lens of autobiography, I see my unique experience in developing peer-to-peer webinar modules as valuable, where credibility has been maintained with the support of faculty and the power of space beyond institutional walls enabling authentic encounters for learning. In Educating Physicians—A Call for Reform of Medical School and Residency Cooke, Irby and O’Brien describe four goals for medical education: standardization and individualization; integration; habits of inquiry and improvement as well as formation of professional identity.  Reflective practice provides support for evidence of personalized competency throughout the unique trajectory of training and career advancement.  


N.B. I'm also reading about mooc skepticism as Joshua Kim shares his "7 Concerns"at Inside Higher Ed.

References

• Cooke M, Irby DM, O’Brien BC. Educating Physicians—A Call for Reform of Medical School and Residency. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2010.
• Kies S, Martinsek, A. Improving first-year medical student performance with individualized learning strategies. Journal of International Medical Science Educators 2010 March; 20(1). 
• Moore GA. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers. rev ed. New York: Harperbusiness; 1999.