This document summarizes the use of wikis to support action learning sets for multi-professional healthcare practitioners in a continuing professional development module. Wikis facilitated asynchronous communication, collaborative learning, and the development of a community of practice among participants. Evaluation found the module exceeded expectations and students enjoyed the relevance of action learning and use of wikis. Benefits included matching pedagogy to practice context and enhancing the student and tutor experience.

1. Learning &Teaching Conference 2010: Re-thinking the Curriculum
Dr Stephen McKinnell
Director of e-Learning
Denise Prescott
Director of CPD
Faculty of Health & Life Sciences

2. National agenda plus a direct request from the SHA.
First delivered - 2007/08
No use of wikis
 Difficulties for action learning sets communicating/meeting
Serendipity – a chance conversation
Suggestion– use a wiki

3.  Multi-professional Health Care Practitioners:
 Nurses, Physiotherapists,OccupationalTherapists,
Radiographers, Radiotherapists, Paramedics, Social Workers.
 Working in advanced roles…senior, experienced staff.
 May or may not have recent educational experience.
 Most are not IT natives.
 Working within the “IT” constraints of the NHS.

4.  “Experiential Learning is the process
of consciously learning from
experience in order to improve future
practice. Action Learning is an
approach to the development of
people in organisations which takes
the task as the vehicle for learning.
It is based on the premise that there
is no learning without action and no
sober and deliberate action without
learning”
Pedler (1997)
Professor Reg Revans

5.  Usually groups of 4-8
 May or may not be facilitated
 Meet to discuss issues which need to be current
 The owner of the problem must want to resolve
it.
 The process works for problems rather than
puzzles.

6.  Identify & clarify the problem
 Identify and list all possible actions
 Select which action to take
 Action
 Reflect & Review

7.  Driven centrally by government
 Patient centred care…in teams (High Quality Care for All,
(DoH 2008))
 “Two issues are emerging in health care as clinicians face the
complexities of current patient care: the need for specialised
health professionals, and the need for those professionals to
collaborate” (Hall &Weaver, 2001)

8.  In cooperative learning, students work in heterogeneous groups to
support the learning of their members.
 Wikis facilitate computer-supported collaborative learning, i.e., the
development of collaboration by means of technology to augment
education and research (Augar, Raitman, & Zhou, 2004).
 Enhances peer interaction and group work, and facilitating sharing
and distribution of knowledge and expertise among a community of
learners (Lipponen, 2002).
 Enhance asynchronous communication and cooperative learning
among students, and promote cooperation rather than competition
(De Pedro et al., 2006).

9.  Collaborative learning
becomes even more
powerful when it takes place
in the context of a
community of practice.
 A community of practice
consists of people engaged
in collective learning in a
shared domain.Thus,
learning becomes a
collaborative process of a
group.

10.  Wikis can serve as a knowledge platform for a community of
practice where members can share their knowledge with the
group, put up interesting pieces of information, work together,
discuss issues, etc. (Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006).
 Wikis are characterized by some elements fundamental to
successful communities of practice, including a virtual
presence, a variety of interactions, easy participation, valuable
content, connections to a broader subject field, personal and
community identity and interaction, democratic participation,
& evolution over time (Schwartz, Clark, Cossarin, & Rudolph,
2004).

11.  Websites that allow easy creation and editing of any number of
interlinked web pages via a web browser;
 Ward Cunningham “the simplest online database that could
possible work”;
 Hawaiian for “fast”;
 Backronymed by some to “what I know is”

19. Page Views Edits Contributors Comments
11.6.09 16 1 1 0
18.06.09 23 3 1 1
Action Learning Set Minutes
(14/09/09) 17 1 1 0
Ambulance Induction Logbook 18 1 1 1
Home 151 3 1 3
meeting 17.08.08 1-2pm 22 1 1 0
meeting dates 31 2 1 2
Minutes 16.07.09 27 1 1 0
minutes format 22 1 1 0
minutes format structure 20 1 1 0
Minutes from Meeting
17/08/09 24 1 1 2
The rules group 1 18 1 1 0
Topic 1 63 2 1 6
Topic 2 47 1 1 8
Topic 3 33 1 1 7
Topic 5 15 1 1 2

20. Page Views Edits Contributors Comments
Group A rules 24 4 4 0
Home 148 9 4 0
Meetings 35 4 3 2
minutes 3rd June 24 6 2 4
Minutes from 19/3/10 Case
scenario 2 21 5 2 0
scenario 1 - 11.3.10 34 6 4 0
Scenario 3 64 10 3 12
Scenario for 3rd June 30 1 1 6

21.  “The teaching methods helped me to learn”
 SA = 3, A=5, N =1
 “The module content and delivery prepared me for the
assessment”
 SA = 3, A = 5, N = 1
 Which aspect of the module did you enjoy most?
 Relevance of action learning to practice = 7
 Use of wikis = 4
 “The module exceeded my expectations and the action
learning element was positive”

22.  Matching pedagogy to practice.
 Recognition that the delivery of teaching has to fit the context.
 Sometimes when something doesn’t feel right it isn’t right
(even if student evaluations are okay)
 Positive experience of using wikis
 Support action learning
 Support collaborative learning
 Support the development of Communities of Practice
 Enhanced student experience
 Enhanced tutor experience

23.  Augar, N., Raitman, R. & Zhou,W. (2004).Teaching and learning online
with wikis. Proceedings of the 21st AustralasianSociety for Computers in
Learning inTertiary Education (ASCILITE)Conference, Perth: December 5-8,
95-104.
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/pdf/augar.pdf
 De Pedro, X., Rieradevall, M., López, P., Sant, D., Piñol, J., Núñez, L., et al.
(2006).Writing documents collaboratively in Higher education (I):
Qualitative results from a 2-year project study. Congreso In- ternacional
de DocenciaUniversitaria e Innovación (International Congress of University
Teaching and Innovation), Barcelona:July 5-7.
http://uniwiki.ourproject.org/tiki-
download_wiki_attachment.php?attId=98&page=Uniwiki-Congressos

24.  Department of Health (2008) High Quality Care for All, Stationery Office,
London.
 Lipponen, L. (2002). Exploring foundations for computer-supported
collaborative learning. Proceedings of the Computer-supported
Collaborative Learning Conference 2002, Boulder, CO:Jan 7-11, 72-81.
http://newmedia.colorado.edu/cscl/31.pdf
 Pedler, M. (1997) Action Learning in Practice, Gower Publishing, Surrey.
 Schaffert, S., Bischof, D., Buerger,T., Gruber, A., Hilzensauer,W. &
Schaffert, S. (2006). Learning with semantic wikis. Proceedings of the
FirstWorkshop on SemanticWikis – FromWikiTo Semantics
(SemWiki2006), Budva, Montenegro: June 11-14, 109-123.
http://www.wastl.net/download/paper/Schaffert06_SemWikiLearning.pdf

25.  Schwartz, L., Clark, S., Cossarin, M. & Rudolph, J. (2004). Educational
wikis: Features and selection crite- ria. International Review of Research in
Open and Distance Learning, 5(1).
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/163/692