Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings

Customer:

Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS)

Industry:

Healthcare Education

Challenge:

Provide a shared mobile service that enables remote access to real-time information by students and assessors in a clinical setting; manage mobile access to five universities’ information systems with a single integrated online platform

Solution:

Sybase Afaria

Benefits:

Maximised student learning opportunities through access to Virtual Learning Environment; improved student assessment process; increased IT manageability and security.

Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) is a collaborative programme between five higher education institutions with proven reputations for excellence in learning and teaching in health and social care – the University of Bradford, the University of Huddersfield, the University of Leeds; Leeds Metropolitan University, and York St John University.  Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, ALPS’ primary goal is to ensure that students graduating from courses in health and social care are fully equipped to perform confidently and competently at the start of their professional careers.

The Challenge

Graduating better trained doctors and health care professionals has been the driving force behind the ALPS programme. Hundreds of students across the five participating institutions are required to train in a wide range of general and specific skills in a clinical or hospital setting.  To maximise learning opportunities for these students, remote access to their universities’ learning systems in between patient visits and procedures was deemed a necessity.  Mobile devices would allow students to access up-to-date medical and educational information whenever and wherever it was needed. In addition, the handheld devices would also be used for evaluation by practice assessors.  To achieve this, IT administrators faced the challenge of developing a shared mobile service that would allow students and assessors to connect with each university’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). For part of the service, students and assessors needed an easy-to-use mobile application that provided remote access with real-time information updates.  At the same time, IT administrators required a reliable, flexible, scalable solution that would permit them to manage the mobile application, devices and access to five separate information systems through a single integrated online platform.  This mobile solution would also have to provide a high degree of security.  ALPS turned to mobile software specialists Ecommnet and Sybase to provide a mobile application and platform solution that meets the programme’s ambitious goals.

The Solution

To address the mobile learning and assessment aspect of the ALPS programme, Ecommnet developed a custom software application for mobile devices.  This application relies on Sybase Afaria‘s File Sync, a highly automated information distribution, updating and retrieval tool that enables students and their assessors to access up-to-date information. “Sybase Afaria’s Device Management and File Sync capability has proven to be a solid underpinning for our application,” explained Robert Campbell, Managing Director, Ecommnet. “It provides the essential communications protocol between the handheld devices and the backend infrastructure at the various universities. This allows the assessment application we developed to work seamlessly for both students and assessors.” To meet the requirements for managing the mobile application, devices and access to five separate university systems through a single integrated online platform, Ecommnet recommended Sybase Afaria Device Management.  The Sybase solution is highly flexible and scalable, and supports a wide variety of mobile devices and operating systems.  Sybase Afaria Device Management functionalities include remote device configuration, application management, asset collection, help desk, theft-loss protection and recovery.  According to Gareth Frith, mobile technologies project manager for ALPS, Sybase Afaria Device Management was a critical component to the success of the service. “Device management has allowed us to put a true shared service in place.  For example, one of our partner universities has implemented a help desk and is taking the lead role in supporting all of the users across the five institutions.  While at the same time, the Nokia solution allows us to delegate some degree of control to the local institutions, so they can manage their own users.  The level of flexibility and scalability offered by Sybase Afaria Device Management has made it possible to centrally manage a multiplicity of users across all five of our institutions.”

The Benefits

Currently, the mobile assessment program has been rolled out to 850 students and tutor/assessors.  Using mobile devices equipped with the Ecommnet application and the Afaria solution, students can complete customised assessment questionnaires, as well as access learning resources from a central virtual learning repository while they are in the clinical setting. Tutors are also able to use mobile devices to securely log onto their university’s VLE to record the student assessments. Afaria Device Management has been critical in maintaining the security of confidential information – G FrithBecause the results of these assessments are typically a component of a student’s grade, they must be securely maintained.  The Sybase Afaria File Sync application ensures that assessments are rapidly uploaded to each student’s respective e-portfolio. Frith adds that Sybase Afaria Device Management has been critical in maintaining the security of confidential information.  Students can utilise the multimedia capabilities of their mobile devices to take pictures of a patient, as well as record audio or video of a patient who grants legal consent to do so.  Due to concerns over patient confidentiality, the ability to transmit this information securely has been vital.  Additionally, should a device be lost or stolen, it can be remotely locked or wiped clean, preventing confidential patient information from being compromised. “The Sybase solution has proven invaluable in maintaining control of mobile devices, as well as allowing us to make the user experience simple and seamless.  Sybase and Ecommnet have provided us with a robust solution that is allowing the five universities to pursue a very cutting edge approach to learning that we feel is improving the quality of our doctors’ and health care professionals’ education”, concluded Frith.

Customer Profile

• Company: ALPS CETL
• Headquarters: Leeds, England
• Founded: 2006
• URL: www.alps-cetl.ac.uk
• Primary Business: Healthcare Education