Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings
Assessment & Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) is a collaborative programme between five Higher Education Institutions with a proven track record for excellence in learning and teaching in health and social care. Along with Huddersfield this includes the University of Bradford, the University of Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan University and York St John University. Further information about the programme can be found at the central website. The aim of ALPS is to ensure that students graduating from courses in health and social care are fully equipped to perform confidently and competently at the start of their professional careers and so improve patient care.
Each university contributes to the collective development of the programme though active involvement in the overall operational plan and through site based projects that contribute to this. Of the 16 health and social care professions involved with the programme, Bradford offers pre-registration programmes in eight. These are:
- Midwifery
- Nursing (all four branches)
- Occupational Therapy
- Optometry
- Pharmacy
- Physiotherapy
- Radiography
- Social Work
Students and staff contribute to ALPS through active engagement in all aspects of the programme. Chris Dearnley is the site lead, and we report locally through the Partner Site Implementation Group (PSIG) chaired by Steve Milner, Associate Dean for Learning & Teaching (SoHS). There is representation from all eight professions within the University on the PSIG, plus all Practice Learning Facilitators within the area.
ALPS is breaking new ground on a number of fronts; firstly, it is working towards an inter-professional programme of assessment of common competencies such as communication, team working and ethical practice among health and social care students. This means that students from across the region, studying on any health & social care pre-registration programme will be assessed on these competencies in the same way and this could involve a practice assessor from any one of the other disciplines. ALPS is also planning to involve service users in this assessment, adding yet another dimension of change to current assessment of practice processes. Finally, the assessment tools that are being developed by ALPS will be delivered in electronic, mobile format, bringing a further challenge and even greater cultural change to the processes of practice assessment in the health and social care professions.
Inter-professional Education (IPE) has been successfully implemented into pre-registration programmes across the School of Health Studies and work is currently underway to include other ALPS professions at Bradford in this programme of study. Mellissa Owens, IPE coordinator within the School, has been appointed to the task of integrating inter-professional assessment and learning in practice settings within current and developing provision.
Dr Caroline Plews is the representative in the School of Health Studies for Patient and Public Involvement. She is the Bradford representative on the ALPS Service User and Carer Working Group and is actively involved in developing the role of service users and carers within ALPS and within the School.
The use of electronic mobile devices for learning and assessment in practice settings is both innovative and challenging. Each of the partner HEI’s undertook a pilot study between March and September 2006 (Dearnley et al 2007).
In Bradford the pilot study involved 26 student midwives and their lecturers. The findings highlighted some of the challenges related to the technology and to the professional culture within which the students are learning. The potential for increasing student centred learning was noted and crucially it was identified that significant levels of technical support will be required and this will be different to current support processes because of the ‘mobile’ aspect of this undertaking, which means that students will need support at home and in clinical placements (Dearnley et al 2006; Haigh at al 2007).
John Fairhall is the University’s Mobile Technologist and he represents Bradford on the IT group. John continues to play a key role in the training and preparation of students and staff who are using mobile devices. Bradford is now hosting the ALPS mobile support desk.
Ongoing Funded Research
Mobile Enabled Disabled Students (MEDS): The aim of this project is to inform the ongoing work and development of ALPS in relation to the specific needs of disabled students when using mobile technologies for learning and assessment in practice settings. Funded by the ALPS Research Capacity Investment Fund
Audio Supported Enhanced Learning (ASEL): This project aims to develop, implement and evaluate the use of audio within next generation technologies to support, enhance, and personalise the learner experience. It will also capture effective lecturer and learner practices from across the domains of teaching and learning that will help inform future practices across the HE sector. Funded by JISC.
