Development of an e-learning platform to improve learning delivery in a low-resourced clinical ultrasound training setting

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY : Background/Objective: Some clinical ultrasound training programmes provide suboptimal training that result in credentialing failure. To address this failing in our low-resourced setting, an e-learning platform was designed and constructed using a participatory action research approach where clinical ultrasound trainees, e-learning developers and researchers collaborated to improve the trainees' access to learning delivery and enhancement, with the aim to eventually improve their low credentialing success rate.Methodology: The participatory action research approach involved a mixed methodology to collect, manage and analyse data for each of Susman and Evered's cycle of enquiry steps, namely diagnosis, action planning, intervention, evaluation and reflection. The integration of instrumental and focal theories closed the practice-research gap by adding the necessary rigor to the study.Results: The diagnosis stage revealed that the poor credentialing performance was caused by learning delivery failure that reduced the trainees' academic engagement. An e-learning platform was designed and constructed as an intervention to consolidate the current training capacity and provide trainees with new alternative access pathways to deliver learning more effectively (action planning). The e-learning platform was designed within a learner-centred, adult learning and motivational pedagogical paradigm. The evaluation of the e-learning platform intervention identified: context-specific resource savings, that all study participant groups accepted the new reality of incorporating e-learning as part of a blended learning approach and the learning access of trainees improved. Future research should focus on validating the usability of the draft e-learning platform and improvements of learning delivery and learning enhancement by initially making use of small peer groups followed by larger user-based groups (reflection).Conclusion: Collaboration led to real practical and social change by creating a custom designed e-learning platform that changed the way clinical ultrasound trainees learn within a low resourced context. Early inclusion of the trainees as study participants led to their early adoption of the ability of a newly designed e-learning platform to firstly improve their learning delivery, then restore their academic engagement and eventually their learning enhancement, which should reflect in improved credentialing success rates.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University