Project Proposal to Specialty Board of Study in BMI

So finally I presented my idea to the Board:

• They were interested and positive about it.
  
• Asked some questions:
1. The criteria for selecting nurses
2. The problem with the pre and post cohorts
3. The curriculum validity
4. Finding time for the nurses
   
5. How to select the lessons for the LMS prototype
• They had some suggestions
• For Issues 1 & 2 they suggested that I do what we had discussed to send nurses who had done the old system through the new one in order to have some uniformity in the results.
• For issues 3 and 5 They were for using the curriculum approved by NAITA and felt I could do the communicable diseases part so I dont think I can modify it. Also they mentioned to do less instructional material design and concentrate on the system functionality and end user experience. This would also help the nurses to actually formally a follow a smaller section. Perhaps I should stick to:
• Section 2-5: Communicable diseases spread via the RS
• Lessons: 
• Common Cold
• Measles
• Mumps
• Rubella
• Chicken Pox
• Small Pox
• Pertussis
• Diphtheria
  
• Herpes
• Pulmonary TB
• Or is the above also now too much?
  
• I suppose now my questionnaire will be more about the nurses experiences in both courses...
  

I have been tardy in the last few weeks but now with the BOS giving me the green light I will get back to it InshaAllah.

Time to meet Dr G!

Further Delays

Could not meet Dr Gominda this week. That is not a good thing but this week there was Moodle and I had some WI work as well. Next week must get back to the habit. Plus the curriculum analysis is still due. The last thing I need is to get lazy!

Adjusted Schedule

Well according to my schedule I am supposed to have delivered a feasibility report! But there are a few problems.

• The project is still not fully clear - I am getting very close to it now with Dr Gominda
• No project officially sanctioned for me - That is at the end of the month

So I thought to take try to finish a feasibility report by the end of this week and then read up about a work breakdown structure and finish that by the mid of next week. UML & SRS documents will come one week later and that is a big hope and then I get back on track InshaAllah. But submissions will only start once I know what has been officially said and I think that is wise!

Feasibility, Work Breakdown, UML & SRS all delayed by a week! Boo!

Objectives & Parameters

Two things learnt from Dr G...

1. Objectives of the charter should reflect the project ones and not only about the system you are creating. This makes a lot of sense and the new objectives look a lot better.
2. Parameters of measurement of success:
• See if you can do a pre vs post study for that is best
• In order for this to happen the two cohorts need to be similiar
• If not the best you can hope for is a survey from the previous cohort and a feedback from the new one
  

Meeting with Dr Gominda : Further refining of Project Idea

It seems like this project is like a fat man on a diet! Losing a lot of weight. So today:

• Even 28 lessons looked too much of the respiratory system module
  
• Lessons looked a little confusing
• So we thought to divide the subject into "Communicable and Non Communicable"
• And only take Communicable!
• I asked this from my colleague Dr D as well and he agrees!

So I need to restructure this further!

Stay tuned...

Respiratory System Module

Well I managed to convert the lessons concerned with the respiratory system into one "Respiratory System" module. In my humble opinion.

• Lessons look a little better than what is in the NRC syllabus.
• 28 Lessons
• 5 Instructional Videos
• Some funny areas when you slot the topic in

Not to mention the quiz and other Web 2.0 features needed to be added. Looks like Dr Gominda was right about doing one system. I hope he says this is OK. Then I need to ask a bigwig.

Meeting with Dr Gominda

Met Dr Gominda for the 2nd time again. We had an detailed chat. Some highlights:

• The target remains to make pilot a learning management system for senior nurses in the private sector
• We agreed that perhaps system design would be more important than the content itself in an IT project but you suggested I check with someone higher up before coming to this conclusion and especially before the presentation. I shall do so with Dr Vajira.
• The existing curriculum of the available refresher course:
  
• It has both system and topic based content
• Not very clear to just follow what has been given
• Far better to create system wise topics inside the framework of the present curriculum and show to you. I shall do so before Thursday evening Sir.
• I thought to start with the Respiratory System.
• LMS System Design:
• Each system will have disease (modules)
  
• Each disease will have lessons
• Each lesson will have sections
• Each section can comprise of the following
• Instructional material designed by me with guidance from WI nursing sisters to avoid going above/below the required scope
• Use of Web 2.0 features to highlight interactivity in system design
• Hover over images where relevant to the text
• Sound clips (e.g. rhonchi) where appropriate in the lesson
• Pictures
• Instructional video
• How much to do
• If system design is more important and we can showcase everything then its better to do one system like the respiratory system which is also quite a bit of work
• If content is more important then more system modules may have to be added.

Time to meet Dr Vajira and get this thing sorted out. First I have to design a system module and see. I need to divide into text lessons, audio, video and gauge the numbers before approaching anybody.

Presentation to BOS in BMI

The Board of Study in Biomedical Informatics has instructed us to 'pitch' our project with a 4-5 slide presentation. 15.10.10 @ 1000. Hope for the best! At least I will soon know if the idea is OK or not and then the healing can begin!

Update: Awaiting confirmations, Moodle class & other stuff...

The highlights of the past 7 days:

• Got some news from Dr Pandula that he felt the literature review was good which made me happy but of course the BOS in BMI has to say green before I hand it over to anyone. The fact that my coordinator is a literature surveyor as part of his profession makes me a bit queasy!
• No idea at all about the Project Charter status. I have decided nevertheless to keep on giving my deliverables to Dr Pandula (who will forward it I suppose to the relevant people) and from 14.10.10 start meeting Dr Gominda weekly even if it be for a short meet. If not its 'mallai pol'. 1st deliverable is feasibility report on 10.10.10 (A numerologist's dream!)
• 6.10.10 Had a good session on Moodle with a technical officer Roshan Dikkumbura who did a good job of introducing us to the basics of Moodle. My installation was successful but I want to work on this straightaway online as I feel its waste to do this on a local server. Perhaps just experiment till 14.10.10? No clue at the moment.
  
• I have it in my mind to finish lesson development by the end of next month InshaAllah. This would include the post-lesson quiz which I will implement in a simple way. Hopefully Moodle will allow me to lock lessons with a quiz! In order to do this of course I must first know what my lessons are going to be and for order in this to happen the BOS BMI must approve my idea to do only 50 hours of the 100 hour section so I can work on this systematically methinks.
• Will my project schedule be accepted / rejected / amended... Only God knows...

SkyDrive setup

Alhamdulillah after thinking about it I thought of keeping most of  my submitted documents regarding this project in cloud storage. Made a lot of sense in case anybody wanted to see it at a moments notice and also I suppose for safety.

So again its SkyDrive to the rescue.

Drafts Documents of LR and PC sent!

So finally after 96 excruciating hours of work a Project Charter that I feel is workable and a Literature Review I can say I tried to do scientifically is complete. I used the following guidelines for my literature review:

Assessing online nursing courses: a review of the literature

Rikaz Sheriff*

*Senior Medical Officer, Western Infirmary

Correspondence to: Dr. Rikaz Sheriff, Western Infirmary, Colombo, Fax +94 773 063419; rikaz.sheriff@gmail.com

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Interpretation

Introduction

General information

History

Current situation

Purpose

Objectives

Methods

Search terms to include

Search terms to exclude

Article selection criteria

Inclusion (include articles which match your objectives)/Exclusion criteria for your articles

Results

Discuss what you found after the search, selection and exclusion. Break the information down into groups of knowledge and analyze. Just give the numbers and figures.

Conclusions/Recommendations

What you feel about the results. Which results are relevant and which were expected and which were not.

Acknowledgments

Thanking people

Footnotes

References

Check your submission guidelines for how to reference. There are too many but we use Vancouver I think.

Whilst people can agree or disagree there is no set way to say that this IS the way to do a LR unless a certain faculty has strict guides about it. All I can say is LR seems to be more of an art form which gets better as you ‘paint’ more review if you know what I mean. My supervisor Dr Gominda is slated to speak in the SLMA about literature survey next Saturday so if he likes the final review I can safely say its ‘peer accepted’.

Now comes the hard words I have to ask myself: " You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk"

May Allah make it easy on all of us!