Chapter 4: Context - What to Consider
Chapter 4 - “Context – What to Consider” aims to support you in answering the questions:
What is the contextual framework of my course?
You, as an educator, are influenced by the setting of your planned course and the characteristics of your learners. Take into account, how different (technical) possibilities concern institutions as well as students all around the globe.
-> As an example, take a look via this link at a scoping review on technologies in home-based Digital Rehabilitation (Arntz et al., 2022).
What are the topic and institutional setting of the planned course?
Define which topic you plan to cover and why this is important for your learners. Align this with the aim or strategy of your institution.
-> As an example, take a look via this link at four short video clips about why and how educators in Sub-Saharian Africa develop a mobile learning course on Digital Rehabilitation for health professionals.
These video clips were developed based on a survey among learners and educators in Sub-Saharian Africa. You can read further into the results of a master thesis (Pietsch, 2022).
How many credits/working hours / which workload would the course enclose?
Consider indicating the minutes per unit for international learners.
What are the characteristics of the learners (and their future client target group)?
Your design will differ depending on whether your health and social care learners are at the “beginners” or “advanced” levels in their Digital Rehabilitation competences, as well as on which setting and clinical fields you focus. This will influence your content and methods, for example, by designing problem-based learning scenarios. In these, your learners apply authentic tasks of using Digital Rehabilitation and reflect on specific limitations and benefits, for example, of assessing gait.
Who are the relevant stakeholders and what do they need?
You may consider what stakeholders (e.g., future employers, technology providers, policy-makers, etc.) should know about the use of digital solutions. Your course may cover one or several of these aspects in higher/continuous education.
- Through the DIRENE consortium, a stakeholder meeting was organised in four countries to identify megatrends and digital tools used in digital rehabilitation. Stakeholders included health and social care professionals, potential users of digital technologies, experts from companies dealing with future trends in rehabilitation, policy-makers, representatives of public health administrations/social and welfare departments at different levels, and representatives of national platforms digitalisation in health and social care) from Greece, Austria, Finland and Germany.
- These stakeholders consider all types of digital platforms (apps, software, video consultation, podcasts, blogs), VR/AR, robotics, 3D printing, and exergaming/serious games as important technologies for Digital Rehabilitation. These technologies are already used in practice. They indicated that the technologies should not be considered separate solutions, rather, they could be used in combination with each other.
- Although participants noted that each group of digital technology was considered relevant for Digital Rehabilitation, Big Data, AI and digital platforms wee most favoured for the future of Digital Rehabilitation. In addition, they pointed out that all technologies had their advantages and disadvantages.
The decision about which technology to use in therapy should be based on the service user’s goals and abilities. For example, stakeholders from Greece and Austria stated that social media (a type of digital platform) could be helpful for psychological/behavioural support. Stakeholders from Greece expressed that digital platforms could bring together people with the same health needs to share their experiences. Participants from Germany considered digital platforms very useful for home-based rehabilitation.
On which framework(s) will the course build?
Further, you may want to read about relevant frameworks in the literature before engaging deeper in your course design. Sources that the DIRENE consortium used: Caena & Redecker, 2019; Carretero Gomez et al., 2018; Punie & Redecker, 2017. A scoping review was conducted by the DIRENE consortium to define the framework of learning Digital Rehabilitation.
What could be the facilitators and barriers concerning your course?
As an example, the DIRENE consortium organised focus groups with students, educators and teachers, as well as working life professionals from Greece, Finland, Germany and Spain discussed several points that could affect the implementation of training in digital rehabilitation.
- For instance, the course structure, schedule and duration may be very dependent on the curriculum of educational levels in different countries and on the organisation of continuing education, in parallel with professional duties.
- Another important aspect to take into account is, if digital rehabilitation is organised as a service of the workplace, what can facilitate (or not) access to technical support and investments in resources? The lack of regulation and the necessity of a legal framework might be a con in the adoption of digital solutions.
The main facilitators and barriers identified were:
- +: Exchange of experiences
- +: Development of education/training with practical application
- +: Promotion of educational opportunities
- -: Lack of resources
- -: Need for constant up-to-date
- -: Time consuming
- -: Lack of communication about offered pieces of trainings
Finally, think again about the institutional framework of your course, including any different organisational and logistical aspects.
Proceed to the identifying competences:
-> Next Chapter 5: “Needed Competences in Digital Rehabilitation”
Go back to Chapter 3: “Use Cases (Learning Scenarios)”
Go back to the Handbook Main Page.