Dissemination Activities
Introduction
AHEAD, Assessment in Healthcare EducAtion goes Digital, is an applied research project that is being funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The project aims at enhancing digital assessment in the field of healthcare education across four European countries, namely Ireland, Germany, Georgia and Poland.
Promoting the dissemination of the project results are fundamental in communicating to stakeholders the benefits and positive impact of the AHEAD project. Furthermore, dissemination is a key objective of the Erasmus+ programme.
AHEAD Project Poster
Team Charter and Project Poster
Disseminations activities started since the beginning of the project. A particular emphasis was placed on creating a Team charter for the project, which outlines common goals, objectives and possible threats to the project, and how to overcome them should they arise. This was a really useful activity as it supported a common understanding and a sense of pride in the project. In addition to the team charter, a Poster was also developed, where the project aims, and Intellectual Outputs were included. The team charter (Figure 1) and project poster (Figure 2) are shown in the respective participant institutions and serve as means for disseminating the AHEAD project.
Talking Research Seminar
In March 2022, an oral and virtual presentation of the project was given at the Talking Research Seminar in the Centre for eIntegrated Care (CeIC), in DCU, Dublin.
The target audience was local and international, and included researchers and educators from within the higher education domain. The project poster was used as a dissemination tool.
Nordic Forum for Nurse Educators (NFNE)
In May 2022, an abstract has been accepted for the Nordic Forum for Nurse Educators (NFNE) that will be held in November 2022 in Turku, Finland. The target audience will mainly be educators, researchers and students. The dissemination at this event is international/EU with a focus on Nordic countries. The presentation at NFNE will focus on our journey from traditional skills assessment to assessment using video-based and AI technologies. NFNE was chosen as a dissemination channel as DCU has existing Erasmus staff / student exchanges with the host organization, Turku University of Applied Sciences.
Social media: Facebook and Twitter
Partners from MUL (Poland) have created a local Facebook page, which they use for disseminating information of the AHEAD project to local Polish audiences. The link to Facebook is as follows:
https://www.facebook.com/profile/100007990034158/search/?q=AHEAD
A twitter account (@DCUAHEAD), accessible to all project partners and visible internationally by educators, researchers, students and the public has been created as well.
Workshop
A seminar, as pilot workshop for IO 1, was carried out at MUL partner on 6th April 2022, where the project aims and planned results of the project were disseminated to local teachers and learners:
http://projektymiedzynarodowe.umed.pl/warsztaty-co-creation-w-projekcie-ahead/
Website
The AHEAD public website serves as an important tool for project dissemination, partner communication, monitoring work progress, and for establishing engagement with stakeholders.
A public website with project information is under development. One objective of the public website is to make sure that non-confidential information about AHEAD and its results are disseminated to an audience as wide and relevant as possible, ensuring the highest possible impact within the consortium and beyond.
The AHEAD website can be found at https://www.dcu.ie/ahead. The website can be updated via secure access by members of the project team.
The public section features general project and partner information, news on upcoming activities, as well as contact details of the project coordinator and a reference to the funding agency.
There are discussions at the moment to include a restricted area or intranet for the AHEAD partners, that will provide, besides the shared Google drive, with a secure place for discussions of all ongoing action items and issues of the project.
The AHEAD website will be a lively online platform with up-coming events, news, and information to be included. This website will be updated regularly.
Survey
A bespoke survey, which forms the baseline for the first project results (Co-Creation), served also as a tool for disseminating the project, while collecting information from school-based teachers (lecturers, tutors, etc.), practice-based teachers (clinical teachers / educators / facilitators, mentors, preceptors, etc.) and learners (students, trainees, etc.) about their experiences with digital assessments.