Kirsti Hulkari & Seija Mahlamaki-Kultanen

Quality Development Tools for Work-based Learning in Social and Health Care

Quality of course is subjective, related to context and relative and the different players in workbased learning have different emphases.
This study emphasised the students as the clients, and looked at various methods for gathering data about quality of WBL.
Project tookplace in a small rural vocational institution. The students were student nurses and other health care workers. The findings were that the 3 players had different aspects of quality - students, teachers and workplace tutors. Students were concerned about the personal relationships, support, tasks and trust.

Various evaluation tools were used and then evaluated for their usefulness in evaluating workbased learning. 360degree, web survey, web discussion boards, focus groups were all trialled. And the winner is... a combination that is integrated into the learning process, rather than being separate. Indicators that were developed have been found to be relevant.

Evaluation is timed later in the courses of study, when they start to prepare for their first workplacement - has required some education of the learners about abstract notions about quality. During their first week in the workplacements, web discussions are held where they can discuss their experiences ad the opportunities for learning that existi in their worplace. Also there will be a one on one discussion between the learner and the teacher - this is a feedback loop after the grades are issued

Q: role of the workplace tutor?
workplace tutors offered a course to learn about their role and evaluation of student's performance.

Q: could this be transferred to higher education? yes

Q: summary of results time demand? This is why internet survey is now used to simplify the data gathering and basic analysis.

Focus group/ interviews are not vital. After the project ends, it is likely this could be dropped and still be able to monitor the quality of WBL. For the students and the workplace tutors, the threeway discussion with the teacher is the key point of feedback and evaluation.