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Open access midwifery education

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Open access in midwifery education programs

Contents

Definitions

Open access: Open, free access to material on the Internet.
Creative Commons: A copyright licensing system that gives the author control over his/her work. It allows the author to give rights for re-use of material to the general public.
Web 2.0: Concept that incorporates online technology in a way that encourages sharing, collaboration and participation.
Social networking: The interactions of a group of people who have similar interests and experiences. The group may use specific software to bring them together ranging from a basic email group to more sophisticated platforms such as Facebook, Ning, YouTube and Flickr.
Blog: A blog is an online journal which can be used for a multitude of reasons from personal reflection to dissemination of information. Blogs encourage community conversations and can be used for collaboration and lobbying.
Wiki: A wiki is an open website that allows people to develop and edit material collaboratively.
Open source: Refers to resources and software that is free to use, edit and re-distribute.

Background

Otago Polytechnic (OP) is a tertiary education and vocational training institution in Dunedin, New Zealand (Blackall, 2007). OP is committed to open access to information and intellectual property and has accepted Creative Commons with Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) as its default position (R. Day, personal communication, March 18, 2008; Otago Polytechnic, 2007). OP has adopted this position to be in line with its strategies around teaching and learning as well as the global move toward open access with initiatives such as Wikieducator (http://www.wikieducator.org/Midwifery), open source learning and software, and self-publishing platforms such as blogs and audio/photo-sharing platforms, otherwise known as Web 2.0.

Otago Polytechnic School of Midwifery has an international reputation for excellence in midwifery education. It has consistently led the way in education innovation for instance, developing the world’s first direct-entry undergraduate degree program. Currently, it is developing New Zealand’s first undergraduate program using a blended approach ie servicing distance students with both face-to-face and online teaching methods. This will allow student midwives to stay in their communities as opposed to moving to Dunedin.

The opportunity has arisen to consider the possibilities of making a number of midwifery courses available to the wider community in an open access format on the Internet. This would be in line with OP policy as well as the School’s plan to increase its national and international profile, and maintain its reputation for innovative education and research practice. In particular, this paper aims to recommend making the following courses open access:

  • M101.1 New Zealand Midwifery for Registered Midwives
  • M206.2 Pharmacology and Prescribing for Registered Midwives
  • Postgraduate Certificate and Diploma

The current situation

M101.1 New Zealand Midwifery for Registered Midwives

M101.1 New Zealand Midwifery for Registered Midwives is a course that is primarily aimed at midwives who are immigrating to New Zealand from another country. This course is designed to prepare these midwives for practice in the New Zealand context. It is a statutory requirement of the Midwifery Council of New Zealand (no date) to complete the course in order for them to receive full midwifery registration in New Zealand.

Currently, this course is delivered online in a closed Learning Management System – all material including assessments are delivered online. The assessments are two summative written assignments consisting of short questions/answers based on scenarios. Only one other institution in New Zealand offers this course. In 2007, eight students completed the course; in 2006 seven students completed. The course was initially offered over three months. However, consistently students have required extensions so the course occurrence time frame has been extended to six months. Whilst this course is not academically complex, students find it challenging. It is an additional demand at a time when midwives are dealing with the challenges of moving to another country, finding accommodation, settling into a new job, sorting out schools for their children and so on. Enrollment is ongoing so only a few students are enrolled at any given time. Consequently, there is minimal interaction between students and lecturer. Nevertheless, feedback has indicated that students find the course to be a valuable means of informing their practice in New Zealand.

M206.2 Pharmacology and Prescribing for Registered Midwives

Like M101.1, M206.2 Pharmacology and Prescribing for Registered Midwives is aimed at midwives who are immigrating to New Zealand and is a requirement of the Midwifery Council of New Zealand. However, it does have a wider appeal to the general midwifery population both in New Zealand and overseas. The course offers information about pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics which underpins midwives’ prescribing practice in New Zealand. Also like M101.1, it is currently offered via BlackBoard to enrolled students only. Assessment consists of five modules of short questions/answers completed and submitted online. Enrollment is ongoing and the length of the course is one year. Student numbers have been low in this course as well. In 2007 there were 14 completed and in 2006 there were 11. The reason for the low level of enrollments is unclear but it may be because two other institutions offer a cheaper option for the study of pharmacology for midwives, which also meet the requirements of the Midwifery Council of New Zealand.

Postgraduate Certificate and Diploma

The Postgraduate Certificate and Diploma programs are made up of four and eight courses respectively. The nature of the programs have changed recently to more fully meet the needs of practicing midwives ie place the focus more on to clinical issues. The rationale for this has been to encourage greater enrollments as the number of student enrollments have dropped significantly in the last few years. At the moment, viability of the postgraduate programs is assessed on a yearly basis. The majority of courses are offered online through BlackBoard to enrolled students only.

Open Access education and Otago Polytechnic

Otago Polytechnic Open Access Policy

Otago Polytechnic has developed an Intellectual Property Policy that aims to foster participatory research and collaboration.

The Polytechnic

  • has a preference for the open sharing of information, knowledge and resources
  • recognises that intellectual property (IP) is owned by the creator, unless there are specific agreements to the ownership of IP by others, and
  • wishes to foster the empowerment of individuals in their endeavors in a protective and/or promotional framework for individual creators associated with Otago Polytechnic (Otago Polytechnic, 2007).

This commitment to Open Access is underpinned by a desire to support creativity and less restrictive practices (R. Day, personal communication, March 18, 2008). It encourages spontaneous networking between staff, students and the wider community, as well as removing barriers to developmental work by staff. In turn, this has added to OP’s reputation as a provider of quality education. There are a number of examples of education courses being delivered by OP in an Open Access format including therapeutic massage, horticulture, vet nursing, hospitality, tourism and education. Further details can be found: http://www.wikieducator.org/Otago_Polytechnic

Feedback from students who have participated in OP Open Access courses has been very positive. Flexibility and access to material that would otherwise be restricted has been greatly appreciated. It has been demonstrated by EDC that accepting informal learners in open access courses does to lead to actual enrollments as formal students. The other thing that has been found to be hugely beneficial is the participatory and collaborative nature of open access (Stewart, 2007; McIntosh, 2007). Open Access facilitates networking with visitors and ‘experts’ who join courses as mentors, which is prohibitively difficult in a ‘closed’ course.

Concerns about Open Access education

Concerns about Open Access tends to focus on the commercial implications for an educational institution. Theoretically, there is nothing stopping another institution taking OP’s Open Access courses and running them in competition with OP. However, the Creative Commons 3.0 license that is attached to OP material ensures that it must be attributed to OP. In reality, there is little stopping another institution in New Zealand from ‘stealing’ one’s ideas and material even if a course is ‘closed’, if that is what it is determined to do. OP feels it is much better to work in collaboration with other institutions than against them (R. Day, personal communication, March 18, 2008). The onus is for OP to develop its reputation for quality education/facilitation, so that when students are faced with identical courses provided by multiple institutions, they will choose to enroll with OP because they can access and see the quality.

There is some concern that if one is using a wiki to deliver open access material, people are able to tamper and change the information. Should this happen, alerts are sent to the lecturer who can easily undo changes by reverting to a previous version. In reality, malicious tampering with wikis has not happened in any of the developments that EDC has supported, while networking and collaboration with other experts has. In fact, having educational material freely accessible means that it is open to challenge and critique. This is hugely valuable because it allows one to develop and fine tune one's information and resources to ensure that it is of high quality and accuracy. It also allows for ongoing development of educational resources by external participants.

Why the School of Midwifery should offer Open Access midwifery education

To the authors’ knowledge, there is little or no midwifery education courses offered in an Open Access format which would give the School an opportunity to be a ‘world first’ yet again. This will further enhance the School’s reputation and give it the ability to lead the world in discussions about open midwifery education. It would increase the School’s opportunities for networking, research and collaboration which goes in line with the School’s business plan.

At the moment, the material that has been developed in these closed courses is only available to a small number of midwives. The hard work and initiative of those who have prepared these courses is therefore being undervalued. Midwives in New Zealand and overseas are being denied access to valuable learning resources. The contribution that OP would make to the international midwifery community by making these courses openly available is immeasurable. Making midwifery knowledge freely available, particularly to midwives in developing countries, sets the standard for being a global citizen in the midwifery community. In a small but very positive way, this would also contribute to the sustainability of midwifery. The School would be supporting the education of midwives in countries where educational resources may be scarce and but very necessary.

Financially, the School has nothing much to lose. Student numbers are very small: the traditional way of delivering these courses has only attracted a small number of students. It is a good opportunity to ‘test the waters’ and see how this type of learning package works and is received. Giving midwives the opportunity to see what the courses look like and allowing them to work through them at their own pace may attract a greater number of students to the courses.

Midwives who immigrate to New Zealand find it stressful to complete M101.1 and M206.2 for the reasons already cited. By giving them access to the courses whilst they are still living in their home country, they can work through the material whilst they are waiting to move. Once they get to New Zealand, it will take them no time to enroll and officially complete the courses. This will take away some of the stress of immigration process.

The process of making these courses open will lend itself to a small research project. This in turn will provide opportunities for presentations and publications which will increase the School's profile and PBRF outputs.

Making these courses open access sits in line with the wider strategic direction of OP and its open access policy.

At the moment there is little or no interaction between the students and lecturers in M101.1 and M206.2 because of the way the enrollments are ongoing and because of the small number of students. By opening up all the courses to a wider audience, it is hoped that wider participation will be encouraged which may ultimately result in the formation of midwifery communities of practice.

How to do it

Open access process

In an open access course, formally enrolled students work their way through the course material as they would in a closed environment. Informal students work when and how they wish. These students may then enroll if they wish to complete assessments and gain qualifications. In effect, OP is being paid for its facilitation rather than course material.

Moving courses into open access environment

These courses already are delivered in an online format so putting them into an open access format can be straight forward. There are a number of models in OP to follow as regards to the format and use of technology.

Support to move into open access

Support will be required to move into an open access environment. Technical support will be provided by EDC.

Additional support will be required to check current copyright restrictions, especially on images. It is hoped that the library will be able to provide a service to deal with this issue. If the images that are being used currently cannot be moved into an open access environment, they will need to be re-developed under the OP CC By license.

Similarly, consultation will be required about Maori course content to ensure that Maori preferences are respected.

Evaluation

The authors would like to recommend that this project is monitored and evaluated over the course of a year, with the aim of producing a report that can be presented and published. Funding may be applied for from the various OP funding sources as well as external education sources.

Possible avenue for investigation:

  • opinions of current students,
  • opinions of students who have shown an interest in the courses but have not enrolled
  • opinions of formal and informal students who have undertaken OP open access courses
  • formal enrollments in open access midwifery courses
  • participation of informal students and observers in midwifery open access courses
  • feedback from staff responsible for 'facilitation' of open access courses

Conclusion and recommendations

With the development of its open access policy, OP has provided its staff with exciting opportunities for educational development. It is now up to the School of Midwifery to take a grasp of these opportunities to explore innovative and alternative ways of delivering education in a way that not only addresses its financial obligations, but contributes to the sustainability of the wider midwifery community.
This will raise the School's national and international profile and will increase opportunities for collaboration and participation.

This paper recommends that M101.1, M206.2 and Postgraduate Certificate and Diploma Papers (starting with the 'Reflection on Practice' course due to commence in September 2008) are delivered in an open access environment. This project should be monitored and evaluated for one year and the results disseminated in academic midwifery and education arenas.

References

Retrieved from "http://wikieducator.org/Open_access_midwifery_education"
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