How practical application of research provided an ‘Aha’ moment for students

Find out how Kate Lamble, a Nurse Educator in the Social Care and Health Cluster, created active, applied and authentic (AAA) learning activities to help students in her Diploma of Nursing course, translate theory into clinical practice.

This snapshot shows how RMIT’s signature AAA pedagogy manifests in a vocational education (VE) course through intentionally designed learning activities and assessments that actively engage students, apply 'real-world' problems or scenarios and have an authentic, meaningful purpose

Background

The Context

Kate Lamble was faced with a common challenge - how to help students make the connection between theory, data, and research, and its application in real world practice?

The Design

Kate grounded the course learning activities and assessment in a common yet critical clinical practice - hand hygiene, and designed learning activities that built students' understanding of how hand hygiene research translates into clinical policies and practices and informs the decisions they make on a ward.

The Learning Activties

Students actively researched the importance of hand hygiene in clinical practice and were shown how to collate and analyse data on hand hygiene. They put this knowledge and skills into practice by undertaking a practical, real-world work task. Teams of students collaboratively drafted a set of criteria and conducted an observational audit of other students using hand hygiene as they went about clinical work in a simulated work environment.

The Assessment

Each team of students analysed their observations and the data they collected then presented their finding in a poster which was shared with classmates in an online forum, where students asked questions and gave feedback.

Active, Applied and Authentic spotlights

Active

Students were active partners in their learning as they analysed hand hygiene data and research together then collaborated to create posters which they presented and discussed with the whole cohort.

Applied

Practical learning activities assisted students to develop relevant, transferable skills for applying research knowledge to clinical practice.

Authentic

Learning activities were challenging, collaborative and involved authentic tasks that scaffolded students’ knowledge and skills for completing the assessment - which was held in a simulated workplace setting to allow students to gain real-world application of skills and knowledge.

How did the AAA pedagogical design impact the student?

Student growth

According to educator, Kate Lamble, "what I absolutely love about teaching this subject is that you take something that is very theoretically based and you give it a clinical context and you watch the students have these 'aha' moments all the way along - and from my perspective that is what makes it all worthwhile."

The active collaborative learning activities engaged and connected students and the practical application of knowledge made the learning experience real and built transferable knowledge and skills. According to student, Emily, "my initial opinion of research was how is this going to be relevant in the clinical environment? But the practical exercises really showed me how it all connects"

What technologies, space and foundational components supported this AAA snapshot?

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Support

The following tools, technologies, spaces and resources enabled and supported the application of AAA Pedagogy:

IPL: Career Development Learning supported by Industry Embedded Activities
Tools: Canvas LMS, SharePoint posters
Digital learning spaces: Canvas, Teams Meetings

Physical F2F Spaces: Clinical Lab workspace, collaborative meeting rooms, tutorial rooms.

Foundations

The following pedagogical foundational components helped inform the development of this AAA Pedagogy:

Course and Program policies, procedures and instructions
Assessment Framework
Academic Integrity Framework
IPL Framework and CDL Framework

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