Health professional educators’ needs regarding strategies in the implementation of a learning management system

Abstract

The University of Pretoria (UP) implemented an upgraded version of the institutional learning management system (LMS) (called “new clickUP”) from June 2011 to December 2012. The purpose of the study is to determine the levels of use (LoU), stages of concern (SoC), and perceived expressed needs of health professional educators (HPEs) in the Faculty of Health Sciences as they adopt and implement the new LMS in their teaching. The rapid development of educational technology for teaching and learning is a cause of constant change in higher education institutions. In particular, regular upgrades to an LMS put pressure on lecturers, forcing them to learn to implement upgraded versions. Although LMSs are viewed as an essential part of technology-enhanced learning, the literature seems to be silent about widespread fidelity of use and how this may be achieved, particularly in a medical education context. The study follows an eclectic research design utilising the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) with its diagnostic tools (SoC and LoU) to evaluate both the concerns of HPEs and the extent of implementation of the LMS. The perceived expressed needs of HPEs in this context were explored further through interviews. The rationale for the study is that the levels of implementation of the LMS could be improved if professional staff development interventions address specific training and support needs of lecturers. The results of the study show that HPEs at UP have not yet completed the journey across the bridge of implementation. Based on the results of the SoC and LoU instruments, HPEs consistently rated concerns at the Unconcerned stage as the highest, and Management concerns as second highest. Informational and Personal stage concerns were rated not much lower than Management concerns. Detailed information regarding the context-specific needs of HPEs was collected from the perceived expressed needs interview, to supplement the needs obtained through the SoC questionnaire. The results reveal some variation from the SoC, as well as additional needs HPEs have with regard to the implementation of an LMS. Four core needs of the HPEs were identified: (i) to know the reason for the change to the new LMS; (ii) to have time available to learn, practice and implement the system; (iii) to have access to training and support resources; and (iv) to understand the functionalities available and associated possibilities for application in their teaching practice. By integrating the results of research question 1 (SoC) and research question 2 (LoU), the fidelity of implementation was ascertained, utilising a fidelity matrix based on the highest SoC and LoU achieved by HPEs. To accomplish the stated rationale (i.e. to facilitate the journey across the implementation bridge) the study recommends that attention should be paid to the Unconcerned and Management stages of concern. Specific training and support interventions should address these concerns, without neglecting Informational and Personal concerns that are still prevalent.