Content Development Projects

Introduction

Congratulations on deciding to collaborate with Physiopedia! This page will introduce you to the many different types of projects you can initiative with Physiopedia.

This guide will explain how Physiopedia can be used in teaching and learning, and also outlines ideas as to how Contributors can incorporate Physiopedia into the learning activities of their classrooms, clinics or professional organizations.

Physiopedia's reach

Physiopedia is the largest physiotherapy and physical therapy resource in the world. We reach the global community and current statistics indicate that we have:

• 2 million+ visitors per month;
• Are visited by individuals from nearly every country;
• around 25,000 pages on the website;
• are connected to over 100,000 people through social media.

Wikipedia for the physiotherapy community

Physiopedia is a wiki. A Wiki is a website that allows users to easily edit and contribute to that website. Wikis are particularly suited to collaborative group authoring of documents and websites. The most famous example of a Wiki is Wikipedia, a very extensive on-line encyclopaedia that allows anyone to add to and edit its entries.

Wikis in teaching and learning

A wiki can be an effective tool to enhance classroom learning, promote evidence based practice and lifelong learning skills, and provide a means for early-career professional publication.  The nature of wikis allows for a number benefits relating to learning and teaching applications:

• Wikis are ideal for collaborative writing applications.
• Wikis can be edited and entries published without knowledge of specialist web development tools.
• A wiki enables the development history of a document to be explored revealing who contributed what and when.
• A wiki will never be lost along with the efforts that have been made in adding content to them, they can be continually updated and always be referred to.

Physiopedia in teaching and learning

As an open source wiki for physiotherapists, Physiopedia offers Contributors an opportunity to involve their students or colleagues in the creation of this global resource as part of a Content Development Project. Because Physiopedia provides a mean for early-career professional publication, students and professionals alike are motivated to develop quality projects. Knowing that peers, clinicians, future employers and patients can view their work is a motivational influence that cannot be attained in a classroom, clinic or boardroom alone. Physiopedia encourages Content Development Projects from all sources, which include academic institutions, clinics and professional organizations.

What is a Content Development Project?

Content Development Projects have been contributing to the growth of Physiopedia content since it launched in 2009. Contributors (which includes educators, clinicians and the managers of health organizations) have been developing content and running courses for their students and colleagues since the beginning. Physiopedia offers an opportunity to involve your students and colleagues in knowledge creation projects and to positively contribute to the world of rehabilitation knowledge sharing.

Put simply, your project and the involvement of your students and/or colleagues are making a valuable contribution to the content of this professional resource.

Once you have decide that you would like to complete a project, you should first decide what type of project you would like to do.

We have three main types of Content Development Projects:

• Educational Projects - involving educational establishments for pre and post graduate students as part of their formal university or college education.
• Professional Organization Projects - run by professional organisations and involving their members for professional development opportunities.
• Clinical Projects - led by clinics as professional development projects for staff and visiting students.

What does a project look like?

Traditionally, Physiopedia projects began as an existing 'paper based' assignment which was converted into an online assignment in Physiopedia.  Today, our Content Development Projects have evolved to include (but are not limited to):

1. Creating new articles or reviewing / updating existing articles;
2. Developing posts for Physiospot to promote new and exciting topics for physiotherapists;
3. Creating or contributing to course content on Physiopedia Plus.

Or, any other creative outlet which you feel may positively impact the world of rehabilitation.

Educational Projects

Any academic institution, university or colleague, with an accredited physiotherapy / physical therapy program can be involved in an Educational Project. Typically, students are tasked with creating new articles or review and update existing articles.  They are then graded on their output in a variety of was depending on your institutions requirements.

Take a look at the following pages for outstanding examples of Educational Projects (please note some of the projects may be ongoing and the pages may be under construction):

• Des Moines University Student Project
• Bellarmine University

Professional Organization Projects

This is an opportunity for professional organizations to educate students and professionals regarding their cause, or an empowering topic related to their organization. This is an ideal method to showcase their scope of practice through Physiopedia, which reaches hundreds of thousands of students, professionals and patients who may be interested in their topic. For a great example of an Organizational Project, click here to read about working in a culturally diverse setting, presented by the Global Health Division (GHD) of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.

Clinical Projects

Clinical Projects are professional development projects initiated by an accredited health care clinic. This can include a project developed by staff for in-service training, an end of placement project for a student, or case studies, for example. We encourage the topic to be clinically relevant and contribute to the professional development of physiotherapy. Take a look at the PT Central Case Reports Project for an outstanding example of a course developed by physiotherapy interns.

For an in-depth look of past and present Content Development Projects, please follow this link to see some Project Ideas.

Of note, all projects can receive Certificates of Contribution from Physiopedia as recognition, which always looks great on a resumé.

Application examples

• Group assignments. A group of students or clinicians could be tasked with creating a new Physiopedia article. During and after the authoring process, the article's associated history page allows the Contributor (main organizer) to monitor contributions and observe the development of the article.
• Group debates can be held in the dedicated Talk pages related to each page in the wiki.  Opposing positions can be argued and evidence presented.
• Lecture preparation on particular topics can be completed in Physiopedia. Each individual could be assigned with a different topic to research which should then be either edited or added to Physiopedia with supporting evidence.  These can then be viewed by all students, discussed in the lecture and then edited further if necessary following the lecture.
• Case studies can be added by students as part of an assessment or learning task.  Once added to Physiopedia they will be available for all to view and learn from.
• Individual portfolios can be created from an individuals profile page. The flexible nature of wiki's allows an individual to be very creative in their personal portfolio creation and also allows for very flexible portfolio mentoring.
• Online journal articles through Physiospot or Voices. Discuss important or controversial topics to the field of rehabilitation.
• Creating new online courses for Physiopedia Plus for other members to enjoy.

See more examples on the Project Ideas page.

Who can be a Contributor?

A contributor is anyone who would like to spearhead a project for an academic institution, a clinic or a professional organization. They are responsible for developing the parameters of the project with Physiopedia. The project can be for students, clinicians, colleagues or all of the above. Physiopedia simply provides the platform for your creative project and a means to share your projects with knowledge-users.

Any educational establishment, accredited clinic or professional health organization providing physiotherapy or physical therapy education is suited to running a Content Development Project with their students and/or colleagues.

See who else is getting involved and examples of projects

The Benefits of a Content Development Project:

Projects can provide opportunities for:

1. Practice in reviewing and disseminating professional literature related to current evidence-based practice (EBP) guidelines;
2. An interactive forum between clinical instructors (CI’s), students and academic faculty for collaborative learning in contemporary practice topics;
3. An ongoing forum to present contemporary clinical practice standards and expectations;
4. Exposure to international clinical practice;
5. Academic institution support and appreciation to CI’s for contributions to the training of future clinicians;
6. Opportunities to enable collaborative learning;
7. Understanding of and practice in basic page editing functions using wiki syntax;
8. International learning opportunities in physical therapy through wiki use;
9. Initial peer publication and review for students as well as clinical instructors; and
10. An opportunity to gain experience writing and have physiotherapy specific content to add to their Curriculum Vitae (CV).

Your students and / or colleagues will:

• Learn key skills related to the use of online resources;
• Learn online professionalism;
• Understand the benefits of contributing to professional resources;
• Utilise evidence based practice techniques;
• Get involved in an international professional project;
• Learn website editing skills;
• And learn about specific topic related to their assignment.

Previous projects have demonstrated that:

• Student performance improves when assignments take place in Physiopedia;
• Students and clinicians enjoy contributing to a professional online resource;
• Students and clinicians appreciate the opportunity to be involved in a project for our profession;
• Contributors (educators in particular) are able to satisfy requirements to involve students in e-learning.

Pedagogy

• Collaborative working is easy to undertake in wiki based projects.
• Peer learning projects can be undertaken for both clinicians and students. For example, third year students and first year students or post graduate and under graduate students could work together where the older students mentor the younger students in clinical and academic skills.
• Peer review can be added to any project by getting students to review each others work at the end of the project.
• Inter-professional projects could also potentially take place in Physiopedia.

Why get involved

• Student involvement in creating, reviewing and updating Physiopedia content is an excellent activity for developing academic skills such as reflection, critical assessment, writing and referencing skills.
• Encouraging students to become actively involved in Physiopedia early in their careers will encourage them to interact professionally with colleagues from the start.
• Being involved from the initial stages students will continue to contribute content to Physiopedia to assist in the development of the profession in the future.
• Know that your institution has been a part of the development of this valuable global collaborative effort.

How does it work?

Once you have decided that you would like to get your students or coworkers involved in a project with Physiopedia, you should contact us to get things started. We will then:

1. Discuss your requirements with you to create a project that suits your needs;
2. Set you up with your own project page that describes your project and links to the work that your students and/or colleagues are doing in Physiopedia;
3. Provide you with advice to help your students and/or colleagues ease into the project minimising technical barriers;
4. Support you in supporting your students and/or colleagues throughout the project.

See the step by step guide

How to go about setting up a Content Development Project?

If you would like to find out more about getting your students and/or colleagues involved in collaborating with Physiopedia please contact us directly by email: [email protected]

Useful Links

• Projects Page
• Contributors: Step by Step Guide.