ISP1

Project Lead - Rachael Lowe

Tutors - Michael Rowe (University of the Western Cape, South Africa); Aileen Barret (Royal College of Sugeons, Ireland)

Students - fourth year students from University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and foundation year students from Royal College of Sugeons, Ireland.

Project description - elective international collaborative project where students will work together to create new pages within Physiopedia and explore different physiotherapy cultures within the 2 countries.

Introduction

Welcome to Physiopedia and this elective project which is the first international collaborative project to take place in Physiopedia. During this project fourth year physiotherapy students from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa will collaborate with fellow foundation year students from the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland. The project is being organised and supported by Rachael Lowe, the Physiopedia founder, in collaboration with Michael Rowe from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and Aileen Barret from the Royal College of Surgeons.

The project is an elective module where students will be invited to participate.  The students will be allocated into groups of four students (two from each nation) and tasked with working together to build pages/content in Physiopedia.  The topics that the students will work on will explore key skills and cultural differences between the nations.

At the end of this project students should be able to:

• Demonstrate evidence based practice skills such as literature searching and critical appraisal
• Demonstrate scientific writing and referencing skills
• Demonstrate an ability to work in teams, agree goals and timeframes, roles and responsibilities
• Demonstrate web-editing skills

Students will also have:

• An increased understanding of the clinically related topics that they have investigated
• An insight into the cultural differences in the physiotherapy profession in different nations
• Experience of online collaboration
  

Project Plan

Week 0 (start new semester to Feb 14)

• At the start of the new semester in Jan 2010 Michael Rowe will invite appropriate students from the University of Western Cape (UWC) to participate and Aileen will invite students from the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI).
  
• Students will be divided into groups of 4 (2 students from each nation) as numbers allow.  Student names should be added to Table 1 below.
  
• Rachael, Aileen and Michael will create a list of suitable pages for the students to work on which will then be allocated appropriately to the groups.  

Table 1

	UWC	UWC	RCSI	RCSI	Page
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4

Week 1 (Feb 15)

• The project to start on Feb 15 2010 and to run for 12 weeks.
  
• The project tutors will complete a face to face introductory session for their students locally. 
  
• Following this the students can start work on the project.

Week 2 - 11 (Feb 22 - April 25)

• Students will collaboratively create their project pages within Physiopedia. 
  
• Students should follow the student guide.
  
• All content creation will be completed by the end of week 11. 

Week 12 (26 April)

• In week 12 the peer review will take place.  The students will review their colleagues work and select their top three pages.  They will submit their choices to Physiopedia via the contact page.
• At the end of week 12 students will be assessed by their tutors as indicated by their institution.  The assessment criteria will be as shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2

RCSI	UWC
* 20% for compliance/involvement * 50% for a presentation at the end (that will be marked by two examiners here) * 30% to mark how we see fit, maybe a report, reflective piece, etc	To be decided

Students guide

Welcome to Physiopedia and this elective project which is the first international collaborative project to take place in Physiopedia.  During this project you will collaborate with fellow physiotherapy students from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa (fourth year) and the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland (foundation year). You will be supported locally by your tutors, Michael Rowe from University of the Western Cape and Aileen Barret from the Royal College of Surgeons and will also have access to remote support from Rachael Lowe, the Physiopedia founder.

At the end of this project you should be able to:

• Demonstrate evidence based practice skills such as literature searching and critical appraisal
• Demonstrate scientific writing and referencing skills
• Demonstrate an ability to work in teams, agree goals and timeframes, roles and responsibilities
• Demonstrate web-editing skills

You will also have:

• An increased understanding of the topics that you and your colleagues have worked on
• An insight into the cultural differences in the physiotherapy profession in different nations
• Experience of online collaboration
  

Week 0 (start new semester to Feb 14)

• You will be allocated a group to work in by your tutor (see table above)

Week 1 (Feb 15)

• In week 1 your tutor will complete a face to face introductory session for you.  Following this you should spend some time familiarising yourself with Physiopedia.  Start by clicking through the links in the left sidebar and take a look at the User Tutorials.
  

Week 2 - 11 (Feb 22 - April 25)

• Meet and greet - you should first create your profile page in Physiopedia.  Your profile page should include an image of yourself and links to social networking site profiles that you are happy to share with your peers.  This will allow you to practice editing pages and uploading images, and also enable you to 'meet' each other online.
• Agree how you will communicate with each other - You are able to contact each other via the 'email user' link at the bottom of the left sidebar on each users profile page.  You can also use the 'Talk' page related to your project page as an effective means for related discussions throughout the project and this page may be used for assessment.  However it may also be appropriate to communicate with your peers outside of Physiopedia by other means, e.g. Email, Facebook, Twitter.
• Develop an action plan - as a group you should make a plan of action as to how and when you will complete the tasks below.  You should also identify roles and responsibilities for each group member.
  
• Identifying the evidence - you should complete a literature search to identify key research papers relating to the page that you are working on. You should review these papers and discuss them with your group.
• Create the page - to create your page you should allocate each person in your group responsibility for a different section of your page. They should write the initial content for that section of the page and add relevant evidence for what they have written.
• Consider cultural differences - together you should consider the cultural differences pertaining to the page that you are working on and integrate these into your work.  You might like to consider the effects of communication, ethics, working environment etc.
  
• Add media - you might like to think about adding images and video to enhance your page. Images and video that you create as a group will receive extra credit. 
• Review your work - as a group you should review each others work and make any edits as necessary.
• Housekeeping - make sure that you allocate time at the end of the project to complete and tidy up your page.

Week 12 (26 April)

• Once your pages are complete at the end of week 11 you are tasked with completing a peer review of the other groups' work.  You should review the pages that your colleagues have created and select your top three pages.  You should then each individually submit your top three pages to Rachael via the contact page.  This must be submitted by May 2.
  
• In this final week you must also complete the feedback survey. You will be sent further details of how to do this and it must be submitted by May 2.  Once you have done this your work on the project has ended.

Tutors Responsibilities

• Add regular reports and any local developments in the project to the ISP1 progress page.
• Suggest ideas for the topics that the students will work on and add to the list above.
• Recruit students and allocate them to a group by completing the table above before Feb 15.
• Complete a local face to face introductory session in week 1.  This should orientate students to Physiopedia and set up their accounts as well as outlining the project itself.
• Review your students work as the task is completed.  You can do this in a variety of ways.
• Provide local guidance and support where necessary.
  
• Assess  your own students on completion of the project as you prefer.
  

For more guidance see the Educators step by step guide

Rachael's Responsibilities

• Add regular reports and any developments in the project to the ISP1 progress page.
• Provide support to the tutors as neccesary.
• Follow edits made by the students and provide support remotely where necessary.
• Collect feedback and announce the winners of the peer review.

Back to International Student Project Page