Flexible Learning Plan Presentation
Tuesday 26 June 2012
Monday 25 June 2012
Activity 12
The flexible learning plan I have put together fits with the Otago Polytechnic Strategy through the humanistic vision statement,
‘Our personalised approach to vocational learning motivates students and
staff to reach their full potential, and to master new skills and knowledge’
(OP 2008-2012)
The organisation promotes learner centered learning and with this approach aims to ‘inspire capability’.
Otago Polytech (2008 – 2012) aims to ‘respect the knowledge that learners bring.’
With the diverse range of learners on the Certificate in Veterinary Nursing course a key element of my plan is to encourage the more experienced class members to share their knowledge and build on it as a group.
The statement in the strategy document that is most important to me is that,
‘Our graduates are sought after/preferred by employers’
For me, the aim of developing the flexible learning plan is to provide a suitably varied and engaging learning environment where it is possible for OP VN students, in all their glorious diversity, can be inspired and motivated to become a Veterinary Nurse. A professional in the industry with best practice standards and a dedication to life long learning. These are the graduates the industry requires.
Otago Polytechnic Strategy 2008 – 2012.
Sunday 24 June 2012
Downloaded from www.careers.govt.nz, Careers New Zealand, 2012
Dr Mason Durie developed the Te whare tapa wha model in 1982. The wholistc model for health and wellbeing may also be applied as approach to education.
The four foundations of well-being in relation to education are:
- Te Wairua - the spiritual aspects of undertaking study
- Te Hinengaro - the mental aspects of undertaking study
- Te Tenana - the physical aspects of undertaking study
- Te Whanau - the social aspects of undertaking study
As Maslow’s hierarchy of needs similarly illustrates, in order for an individual student to realise potential, the foundations of well-being are important.
Maori and Pacific students are underrepresented in the veterinary nursing and animal care courses, Mason Durie’s vision for Māori, ‘To enjoy good health and a high standard of living’ in reality, is less likely to be true for our indigenous students than for the majority. The hangover of colonization means over representation in the statistics relating to poor health and low standards of living. (Ministry of Social Development 2010).
So, what can I do to support indigenous students, to level the playing field. True to humanistic philosophy I can treat all students with empathy, acceptance, and unconditional positive regard. (Sanders, 2002) This works to enable a safe space to learn. To encourage a culturally inclusive learning environment we welcome all students at the start of the year and to block course. We share food. Ground rules around eating and working and sitting on tables are made known and adhered to by staff. Referring Maori and Pacific students to the appropriate student support services and L&N.
My personal experience of supporting individuals is limited being relatively new to this game. I was involved on the periphery of the case last year that Helen blogs about. One thing that struck me about it was a comment made the other day by one of the lecturers who provided a great deal of extra academic support to this girl. She said “As soon as this student realized that we actually cared about her success, that we really wanted her to achieve, it made a huge difference’. She ended up getting 99% in the most difficult exam on the whole course.
The theory that there is unlimited potential in any student given the right learning conditions is illustrated here.
Ministry of Social Development. 2012 The Social Report :Available at:
Accessed on 20.6.12.
Timms‐Dean K. 2011 Indigenous Learners and Flexible Learning. :Otago Polytech
Monday 18 June 2012
Activity Ten
‘Implementing sustainable practice both operationally and in the curriculum undoubtedly poses challenges for any school or department within the Polytechnic’ (Mann & Elwood)
For me the challenge of implementing sustainability is the fact that sustainability means different things to different people and in various contexts. A more sustainable practitioner in terms of lecturing veterinary nurses involves two key aspects:
1. Managing workload, ie: working smarter, making what I do count across courses and across years.
- Using the TED ed resource as a formative assessment in sustainable in terms of workload, once I have set it up (using someone else’s high quality animation of wound healing stages) it can be rolled out in future courses. It may well be a relevant addition to the equine element of the RAT course.
- Adobe sessions reach a high number of students at the time and can be recorded for the rest and perhaps for future years.
- Forums reach many students but can be monitored as a once daily email digest.
Lockwood (2005) warns against generating over long courses, the problem is one I struggle with. Currently, Veterinary Nurses in NZ are permitted to practice with a Certificate in Veterinary Nursing (one year). Internationally Veterinary Nursing is a two or three year course. This is a problem with the course design of the National Certificate. I have had the tendency to try to cram in Diploma level material to the Certificate course, this is of course a mistake and causes students to feel overwhelmed and disengage. Being aware of this and leaving out more advanced material will certainly improve sustainability of workload for both myself and students.
2. Working with students to understand and introduce sustainable ideas around veterinary practice.
- Health promotion and preventative healthcare, nutrition, parasite control, weight management, exercise.
- Reduce reuse and recycle.
- Educate about the preventable health problems bred into pedigree dogs.
Lockwood, F. (2005) ‘Estimating student workload, readability and implications for student learning and progression.’ Manchester Metropolitan University. Available at:
Accessed on 19.6.12
Mann & Elwood (No Date) A Simple Pledge. Available at:
Accessed on 15.6.12
Activity Nine
The reality of today’s fast changing world is that,
‘People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to’. (NMC.2012, p4)
As education providers we are challenged to keep one step ahead of the game. The School of Veterinary Nursing has been pro- active on this and as a result is well placed for the next round, the move towards mobile learning.
Most of our students use either laptops or iphones in class. There are positive and negatives of this. They can sign in to moodle, and follow the course notes, they regularly google answers to curly questions that come up and find you tube videos to share. The disadvantage I notice mostly is the capacity for the disengaged to distract those around them and I have had class members asking others to turn it off as they can’t concentrate.
With so much information at our fingertips now the real skill in using it is the ability to sift and rate information.
‘Sense-making and the ability to assess the credibility of information are paramount.’ (NMC.2012)
The Y generation are much more media savvy than my own generation, but still require guidance through the maze of veterinary information out there. Drug companies pushing, internet forums offering questionable advice, facebook friends answering questions, it is all available and accessed by our students.
A current trend technology to work with this freely available and often excellent information is TED ed. This is a new platform through which teachers can build short lessons around short videos. After, or while watching the videos on TED Ed students answer multiple choice and short answer questions about what they're seeing and hearing, they get instant feedback on the multi choice questions.
This site allows me to hand pick use the fantastic resources that are available on youtube, I could even make and use my own videos (workload allowing) and structure an appropriate lesson around it. The format is fairly simple and it has been criticized for this. I see joy in its simplicity.
Take the tour @
The New Media Consortium. 2012The Horizon Report. Available at:
Accessed on 18.6.12.
Sunday 17 June 2012
Activity Eight
The learning theory that sits well with me personally is humanism. The humanist educator believes there is unlimited potential for human growth given the right circumstances, encouraging self actualization and autonomy lies at the heart of the theory.
Veterinary Nursing is what they would call in Northern Ireland (where I have lived for most of my adult life) a vocation, a calling. The profession is notoriously poorly paid, the hours are terrible (many VN’s are allow themselves to be on call un-paid) it is not a glamorous job, eau de tomcat being a familiar scent on the VN’s uniform. We do it for the good of the animals. So the humanist assumption that , “people are inherently good and strive for a better world’ (Merriam & Cafella, 1991, p 132.). Seems apt to VN education.
Introducing students to reflective tools can open up a whole new aspect of practice. Traditionally, Veterinary Nurses have been taught the skills, and the theory of the job and been left to their own devices to work out the rest along the way. This is not an ideal situation, Veterinary Nursing practice can be highly emotionally charged, we nurse welfare cases involving neglect and cruelty, we routinely assist with euthanasia, intensive farming is facilitated by the veterinary profession, we may be involved in the care of laboratory animals, the list of issues is long…… In order to offer high standards of care to patients and their owners, a nurse requires a sound understanding of her own ethical stance and emotions. A VN must be equipped with coping strategies. Reflective practice is a core nursing skill that adapts to many aspects of practice. An ability to assess, reflect and improve contributes to wellbeing and encourages self development. Nursing theory and models of nursing practice adapted from human nursing are relatively new ideas in Veterinary Nursing, it is only just coming to the fore overseas with the advent of VN degrees in the last decade.
Wound management is an ideal subject to introduce reflective tools. It is an ongoing process and the VN’s involvement in the process involves a clear requirement to assess, analyze, reflect, plan, act and reassess…
So the humanist idea of working to facilitate development of the whole person is the idea, creating a ‘safe space’ to learn and develop through reflective practice is my goal. My flexible learning plan aims to increase my ability to connect with the distance students. This is the real challenge. I hope the increase in online contact through adobe and forum activity if managed carefully may improve the chances of achieving genuine connections with students as individuals.
‘it’s not just enthusiasm for our subject that matters. Learners are quick to pick up the vibrations of our enthusiasm for themselves as people. Lecturers who come across as really liking learners- and respecting them and treating them accordingly- do much to inspire learners to learn’.
(Race 2010: p132)
Chapman, A. 2005 Kolbs Learning Styles. Available at:
Accessed on 16.6.12.
Merriam, S.B. & Caffarella, R.S. (1991). Learning in adulthood. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Race, P. 2010 Making Learning Happen. 2nd Edition. Los Angeles: Sage
Pollard,A. (2005) Reflective Teaching 2nd Ed. New York: Continuum
Activity Six
Wound management is an advanced nursing skill, both an art and a science. In my opinion this assessment would be better placed in the diploma course. There are more relevant rudimentary wound management topics that would be more suited to the certificate course, recognising complications for example, removing sutures, advising owners about wound care, the physiology of wound healing, and the appropriate use of dressings. None of this is assessed as far as I know and all of this is essential at this level.
Currently the way the assessment for wound care is conducted is as a task out on its own. The students have to either provide video evidence or be assessed in person choosing and gathering the right equipment setting it up and flushing a wound or simulated wound. There is no requirement for them to prove that they understand the rationale, how often it is recommended a wound be flushed, what types of wounds would require flushing or what type of dressing would be recommended to promote healing.
This promotes surface learning, “the intention to get the task out of the way with minimum trouble while appearing to meet course requirements” (Biggs 2003 p14).
The students know exactly what they are being assessed on and study only that. The unit standard system encouraging and rewarding mediocrity. This coupled with some students in work placement of questionable value, and most students in placement for a very short amount of time means that the likelihood of students gaining valid real life experience in this area is limited.
Reflect on the strengths of your plan so far.
With a quality work placement a student would witness real wound management cases and this background knowledge would be picked up from senior nurses and interest stimulated for the student to engage in deep learning. This would happen in some cases and many of our students would employ deep learning on the subject. The aim with activity on the moodle forum would be to encourage these students to share their experiences with the rest of the group, with the use of photos and case studies. Hopefully some passion for the subject would come across.
Where are the gaps in your plan?
The main concern have is finding time in my own schedule to set this up and monitor the forum, additional adobe sessions mean evenings at work, finding valid case photographs. Concerns about student’s permission to photograph patients.
The crux of wound management in practice and the core nursing skill I promote across all subjects I teach is the ability to assess, reflect, plan and apply evidence based nursing interventions.
Although there are excellent youtube videos to use on TED ed for the underpinning knowledge of wound physiology and stages of healing, applying the basic skills of reflective and evidence based practice are not prominent in my plan. Yet….
Set some goals for what you still need to do to develop your plan.
A guest speaker adobe session from one of the big dressing companies might be a valuable addition.
Look at a strategy to connect the basics of the nursing a hospitalised patient unit and tie it in here.
Look out for appropriate case photos.
Biggs, J. (2003) Teaching for quality learning at University 2nd ed. London: The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.
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