Over the past week I have been immersing myself in as many of the live and recorded sessions of the MALAT 2022 Virtual Symposium as I was able to. There has been so much great information that I find myself exhausted from trying to absorb it all, and yet simultaneously energized because, through the vast amount of knowledge shared during these sessions, I know that I can already find ways to implement innovative ideas into my practices and organizational processes at my work.


I started this program with an intent to bring my learning back to the hospital at which I work, and also with a conscious mind to make a concerted effort to be open to experts, which includes my fellow classmates, that work in other sectors, because I have found in the past one of the failures health care in general, but especially in terms of education, has been not challenging the status quo. There were two main themes that I found woven through many of the presentations that I kept coming back to as essential in relation to education technology in health care: ensuring privacy, and focusing on the learners’ needs.


Many of the presentations touched on the importance of privacy as it relates to learning through technology, which in health care is particularly important. As Christy Boyce (Royal Roads University [RRU], 2021a) identified, it is vital to set standards on what can be shared in virtual environments, right down to details like information stored on personal platforms like Google Calendar. We have privacy policies ingrained into our workflow, such as the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), but COVID-19 has changed so much in how we do business. It really struck me that it is best not to assume PHIPA and other privacy principles are implied in virtual work just as they were in the workflows pre-pandemic. I have already started to work on some education around how to ensure privacy protection as we continue to utilize virtual care environments.


The other major theme I took away from many presentations was that it is essential to focus on the learners’ needs. This concept is often only applied at my workplace when looking at learning outcomes, but not in terms of learners’ needs when it comes to accessibility of educational initiatives. Both Christiana Jones (RRU, 2021a) and Melanie Meyers (RRU, 2021b) spoke to the importance of ensuring accessible learning environments and the attention that should be paid to make sure we are considering learners’ challenges and adapting our approaches when it is required, particularly when it comes to connectivity or impairments that might impede learning outcomes in virtual environments.


After only a week in the program, and having already made note of so much valuable information, the MALAT Virtual Symposium solidified that my undertaking in this program is going to be incredibly valuable to me in my professional as well as my personal journey.

References:

Royal Roads University. (2021a, October 6). Top trends emerging in learning and technology [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4v9f_g7Ws

Royal Roads University. (2021b, December 1). Instructional design in & after COVID-19 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJKfV4QphYc