e-Learning at KCN

The term e-Learning has a broad reference to how technology can be used to enhance the education process. It can start from the provision of teaching materials in an electronic form that can be accessed at anytime, to complex multimedia simulations, and fully distance based education.

Kamuzu College of Nursing is committed to embracing the use of technology to benefit all staff and students. There are a number of e-Learning approaches that have already been adopted here at KCN.

· Provision of Programme and Module information in an electronic form

     o Curriculum Management System o Using PDF files

· Access to electronic versions of Teaching resources

     o Lecture notes

     o Tutorials

     o Reading resources, etc

· Interactive Tutorials

     o Engaging materials that can be used to support learning, and aid revision

  · Videos

     o Highly detailed videos of teaching sessions that can be viewed in addition to face-to-face teaching

e-Learning is not a replacement to any teaching at KCN, it is purely an approach to give students more control over the way that they learn. By providing additional supporting materials students are possible to strengthen their knowledge of a subject prior to a lesson, or review materials that they might be finding particularly tricky to understand.

Working with the University of Edinburgh

Since 2007 KCN has been working in partnership with the University of Edinburgh to explore the benefits and approaches that e-Learning has to offer. In this time KCN staff have had the opportunity to attend many different workshops to get hand-on experience of the benefits that e-Learning has to offer.

The results of this partnership include:

· the creation of the Curriculum Management System as a delivery mechanism for materials and community

· the creation of hundreds of high quality interactive and multimedia educational materials

· access to over 400 resources from the University of Edinburgh curriculum

· a channel of communication to share ideas on e-Learning between Scotland and Malawi

More information on this project can be found at this website: http://malawi.mvm.ed.ac.uk

The CMS

The Curriculum Management System is a website where staff and students can get access to course information, timetables, important KCN news, and even participate in discussions with peers. The aim of the system is to create a single location to find materials that might include, lecture notes, module packs, and information relating to other good resources to aid teaching and learning.

The CMS relies on all staff and students to use the system as a hub for this wide range of information. By using the CMS a community is created online and this can help KCN continue to meet the needs of all faculty and students alike.

Every faculty member and every student has their own login details for the CMS, this can be used to access materials that a related to the individual person.

Materials have been organised in the context of the curriculum so resources can be very easy to find again and again. The fact that the CMS is on the internet means you can access your materials at anytime from anywhere in the world.

Learning how to use the system is simple, and there are a number of tutorials that can be used to help you to pick up the basics of how to use the site.

· Tutorial - Introduction to the CMS

· Tutorial – How to use the CMS

Interactive Resources

There has been a big push in recent years at KCN to create additional supporting course materials that are interactive and engaging. The benefit of these resources include the ability to take new perspectives on the content and breaking up materials in easy to understand sections to help students to understand the subject in their own time.

These resources can also be a fun way of learning. Before or after a face-to-face teaching session a student may wish to revise some materials using an interactive resource. They are different from simply viewing a PowerPoint or writing some notes as the resource may ask the user for their input.

Our experience shows that by providing these resources the face-to-face teaching can be optimised by focussing on the areas that students have the most difficulty with.

In addition to the new course materials being created in KCN, there are over 400 existing resources that have been provided by the University of Edinburgh. These can be searched for using the electronic search tool and viewed from the college campus.

The internet is also a valuable source of interactive education resources. Sometimes links will be provided to such resources in the CMS.

Videos and Audio

Other types of resources that are being introduced in the KCN curriculum include Video and Audio materials. These multimedia files are useful for showing particular scenarios in high-detail and can be a great accompaniment to tutorial teaching.

Future

Technology is always changing, and this is no different with e-Learning. The use of e-Learning will change and evolve over the coming years to meet the needs of both staff and students to create the best educational experience possible.

New approaches might include:

· Community activity

     o Discussion Boards

     o Blogging & Personal websites

     o Sharing and Collaboration with peers or groups

· Electronic assessments

     o Continual assessments

     o Final examinations

· Video-links to other institutions o Guest lectures/seminars

     o Virtual Classrooms

· Surveys and Voting tools

· And many more…