Developing Expert Educators for Healthcare Professions (FutureLearn)

You will use the latest evidence around effective learning, instructional design, assessment, feedback and the learning environment to reflect on your own practice.

By connecting to a global network of multi-professional educators in healthcare, you will gain new perspectives on your teaching and values as an educator, and be encouraged to share your teaching experiences with others. You will also be empowered to begin making evidence-based improvements to your teaching in the future.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1

- What factors affect motivation and why motivation is so important for effective learning?

- What are effective learning strategies?

- What is reflection and how does it relate to ‘thinking about thinking’?

Week 2

- What are the most effective approaches for designing teaching?

- What is cognitive load theory and why does it matter for teaching?

- What does effective instruction actually look like?

Week 3

- Why does validity matter?

- Why is reliability important?

- What frequently used assessment methods are there?

Week 4

- What comprises ‘good’ feedback?

- What does a ‘good’ feedback relationship mean?

- Why is feedback utility important for learning?

Week 5

- What is a curriculum statement?

- What does constructive alignment mean?

- What should educational governance mean for teachers?

Week 6

- What is the impact of the teacher on the educational climate ‘in the room’?

- What is ‘psychological safety’ and why is it important for teachers to know about it?

- What is the influence of group dynamics on the learning environment?

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

- Reflect on and articulate the meaning of effective instruction in the healthcare professions context

- Justify the validity and reliability of a given assessment or programme of assessment

- Explain the core elements of ‘good’ feedback

- Describe the rationale for ensuring constructive alignment across a curriculum

- Explore the influence of group dynamics on the learning environment

- Identify the role of motivation in effective learning

- Identify appropriate evidence-based learning strategies for use in the classroom or clinical workplace

- Identify common methods and approaches to assessment used in healthcare professions education