Why did the partners initiate the STUDICODE project?
Due to population ageing, dementia is a top health and social challenge across Europe. For an appropriate management of dementia, knowledge, skills and collaboration of several professions are needed. This requirement is not met in many countries, and students of relevant occupational disciplines are not being prepared to perform these tasks.
The gaps regarding interprofessional shared learning, mutual understanding and networking can be closed by modern learning methods such as e-learning or online courses, particularly in times of social distancing such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, such digital learning methods have not yet been applied to dementia education in South-Eastern Europe and are not available in local languages.
On this background, a group of researchers and educators who have been successfully working together on previous transnational projects in dementia education have joined forces to strengthen the digital competence of educators and students in the field of dementia.
The aims of STUDICODE are to create, implement and evaluate a digital online course on dementia as a complement of regular curricula and existing educational activities. The course is planned to simultaneously address students of various disciplines which play a key role in dementia care: medicine, psychology, nursing, social work, occupational therapy as well as speech and language therapy.
STUDICODE starts by developing a didactic concept for the online course. Then, a production manual will be created. Supported by experts in media didactics and web design, the content of the online course will be produced by lecturers at the partner sites. Educational formats comprise texts, infographics, interactive modules, case studies, quizzes and videos. The content will be translated into local languages. Local additions to the content will be made to best fit individual study programmes and national requirements including dementia plans and strategies.
The course will be piloted and evaluated by approx. 50 students from different fields of study at each partner institution (overall 200 students). This evaluation includes pre-post self-assessments of digital competence and knowledge tests, standardised questionnaires of usability, and acceptance of the online course. The evaluation will be complemented by an evaluation of digital readiness of the lecturers who built the course in order to assess how their competence improves through setting up the online course.
The dementia online course and the results of the evaluation will be presented to persons responsible for the education and training of professions involved in dementia care (e.g. Deans of Study), representatives of Ministries of Health and Ministries of Education, and other relevant stakeholders including national and international patient organisations with the aim of implementing the course in regular curricula of higher and vocational education.
At project termination an online course on dementia will be available in several languages. The course will nicely complement traditional educational formats such as lectures or face-to-face workshops at the partner sites as well as at similar institutions nationwide. It may serve as a template for digital-based education in other fields of healthcare. By participating in the production and evaluation process, educators at each partner institution will increase their competence for creating and using digital media. By contributing to quality monitoring during the production phase and to testing the final product students will improve their skills in assessing digital learning formats and incorporating them into their individual learning practice.
STUDICODE will improve the competence and potential for collaboration of key professions involved in dementia care by providing shared person-centred and holistic concepts and skills already at the pre-graduate stage. In this way, the project ultimately aims to contribute to improving the quality of life of people with dementia and their carers in South-Eastern Europe and to support national dementia plans and strategies.