A student-centred approach to undergraduate course design in occupational therapy

Abstract

Undergraduate education is competitive. User experience is important to course design because it can improve user-satisfaction and learning. Action research methodology was used in our practice-oriented case study about the application of human-factors methods to re-design an undergraduate second-year occupational therapy course. A cognitive task analysis provided an empirical method to develop this framework. A mixed-method quality improvement process was undertaken. This was influenced by grounded theory to consider the experiences of the students and teaching staff. The methods included past curriculum review; cognitive task analysis; and seeking feedback from subject matter experts, including a student focus group. Six student roles were identified for this course: a generalist student, a mock client, a mock therapist, an evaluator of standardised assessment tools, a clinical documenter, and a case conference presenter. The student roles were detailed per nine cognitive components: knowledge, skills, abilities, tactics, decision-making, situation awareness, heuristics, interpersonal skills, and intrapersonal skills. Ninety-one elements that could influence performance were identified by this dissection. A student-centred approach to course design provided an empirically sound and practical method to determine important aspects: the student experience and role demands, effective instructional aids and teaching practices, and assessment to support role competence.