Introduction: The use of e-learning in healthcare education is being increasingly advocated and used, but can prove challenging. The need to explore educator’s experience and student perspectives in relation to this area of pedagogy was identified as a relevant area of study Study Aim: To explore and critically analyse the perspectives and experiences of healthcare educators and students regarding e-learning. Design: A mixed methods exploratory case study of one HEI’s use of e-learning. Methods: Quantitative descriptive data was collected through educator and student questionnaires from 34 academics and 127 students across four university departments delivering undergraduate healthcare related programmes. A sample of 12 module web spaces and associated documentation was reviewed. The data sets were considered in relation to the thematic analysis of 16 semi-structured educator interviews and 6 healthcare student focus groups. Results: Educator and student needs are interwoven during undergraduate healthcare provision. Differing educational philosophies, practices and culture across the cases created opportunities and challenges with e-learning. Two differing, yet potentially complimentary definitions of e-learning existed within and across the four departments which produced either congruence or conflict toward the varied e-learning approaches. Student respondents selectively engaged in what was primarily educator controlled e-learning. Conclusions: The findings highlighted the need for agreement and understanding of philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings which define and shape e-learning by educators and students, along with an awareness of differing professional cultures across which e-learning is required to operate. Originality / Value: The findings of this study offer a deeper understanding of the effect on educator and student engagement in e-learning of differing higher education and professional practice education cultures. A model is offered as a response to particular issues faced by the study respondents; whilst non-generalisable the model may serve as an enlightening guide for educators who are introducing or applying constructivist e-learning practices within undergraduate healthcare provision and benefit the student experience.

This thesis contains the findings of a qualitative research project that addressed the question 'why collaborate'? Focus was on the experiences of academics in health and social care collaborating to develop interprofessional and interdisciplinary initiatives, including interprofessional education (IPE). The project was based upon the premise, first, that academics need to collaborate effectively if interprofessional initiatives like IPE are to develop and be sustained and secondly, that theory building in relation to collaboration will assist our understanding of why collaborations are formed and why some are sustained and some are not. Research focus in this field has, mostly, focussed on student experiences and the desire to identify the impact of IPE. The project aimed to address the under researched area of collaboration between academics. Data was generated from individual interviews and focus groups with academics from six universities. Respondents shared their experiences of collaborating with colleagues from a range of professions and disciplines. The project utilised a Charmazian constructivist grounded theory methodology and the writings of Pierre Bourdieu were used at the data analysis stage. The thesis details the emergent categories: motivation-dispositions; career trajectories; personal-relationships; leadership and field change, which assist our understanding of what helps and what hinders collaboration. The inter-relationships between the four emergent categories are outlined and a theory of collaboration between academics in health and social care is presented.

Background: Self-assessment is widely used across the health professions for a variety of purposes, including appraisal, CPD and revalidation. Despite numerous reported short-comings, the use of self-assessment is increasing, frequently on the requirements of regulatory bodies. Traditionally it has been a paper exercise, but in recent years self-assessment has appeared in electronic portfolios – a medium often used to collate assessments and other educational requirements. This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of self-assessment, in particular delivered via an e-portfolio, to determine if it: ? Improves the accuracy of perception of learning needs ? Promotes appropriate change in learner activity ? Improves clinical practice Methods: This thesis is comprised of two systematic reviews and a case study. The first of two systematic reviews examines the evidence for effectiveness of self-assessment in the three research questions. The second evaluates the effectiveness of portfolios as a medium for postgraduate healthcare education. Both reviews are notable in that they employ systematic review methodology on non-clinical questions and amalgamate quantitative and qualitative data. The final research component is an exploratory case study that tests the questions against a large data set (an entire training year of Scottish Foundation doctors) collated by the NHS ePortfolio. The case study provided the opportunity to separate groups of self-assessors identified by the literature, and compare the groups’ self-scores against those of their supervisors and peers in the first and final post rotations; additionally, the groups’ behaviour was matched against the literature for related educational activities recorded by the ePortfolio such as personal development planning. The case study also allowed the medium of e-portfolios to be itself evaluated in practice as an educational infrastructure. Through the comprehensive and iterative examination of the large dataset it became apparent that quantitative analysis was of limited value and qualitative analysis of elicited the richness on the data in context. Results: With both reviews, the original research questions were unable to be fully answered due to the paucity of evidence of sufficient quality; however, both did discover relevant related evidence. The self-assessment review found competent practitioners are the best able to self-assess whilst the least competent are the least able to self-assess. Peer assessment was found to be more accurate than self and better aligns with faculty/supervisor assessment. Feedback and benchmarking can improve self-assessment accuracy, especially for the most competent, and video can be seen to enhance this. There is no conclusive evidence that gender or culture effect self-assessment ability. Practical skills are better self-assessed than knowledge-based or “soft” skills. The portfolio review found summative assessment reliability improved with multiple raters and discussion between the raters. Evidence on whether portfolio use aided reflection was mixed, possibly because it was dependent on individual conditions. The engagement and support of supervisors is key to portfolios being used properly, and there is some evidence portfolio learners are less passive then non-users. The time required to effectively use a portfolio is rarely considered. Although many of the literature’s findings were born out by the case study, the data also revealed (often by omission) many flaws in the use of self-assessment and related activities, many of which can be ascribed to the training year examined Much of the qualitative examination of text corresponded with the wider literature with low self-raters being over-critical of their often superior skills and high self-raters being over confident. However, there was some dissonance with the literature in the final component in that supervisor scoring conflicted with expectations whilst there text comments continued to match the literature. Conclusions: Assessment in post-graduate health care is high stakes and resource-intensive. Self-assessment, and its use within an electronic portfolio, is demonstrated to have enormous potential if properly implemented.

The thesis investigated the use of combination of sections using learning steps in the development of courseware presentation in the 3D Virtual Worlds platform. The technical objective of the study is to present the design of multisection strategy in developing healthcare course in 3D Virtual World online environment. The main aim of this study is to know the effects of multisection [objective, tutorial (with or without video), quiz and test] sections incorporation in an online 3D Virtual World towards the usability. The empirical research described in this thesis comprised three experimental phases. In the first phase, an initial experiment was carried out with 21 users to explore the usability and learning performance of courseware created using 3D the Virtual World platform of Second Life. The second experiment phase involved an experiment conducted with 30 users to investigate their perception, satisfaction and performance of the role of each main section involved in Virtual World courseware. In the third phase, a total of 30 users experimentally examined a unique approach to the use of video segment added in the Tutorial section of the OTQT framework. The overall obtained results demonstrated the usefulness of the tested multisection to enhance the development of healthcare course in an online learning of 3D Virtual World program. These results in three experiments provided a set of unique and empirically derived guidelines for the design and the use of three multisection frameworks to generate more usable courseware in the 3D Virtual Worlds of an online learning interface. For example, when designing avatars as animated virtual lecturers in e-learning interfaces, specific facial expression and body gestures should be incorporated due to its positive influence in enhancing learners' attitude towards the learning process.