Evaluating the Student Experience in a Newly Developed Online MA in Medical Education: Benefits and Challenges

Annie opened the session by explaining the uniqueness of the online MA in Medical Education. The programme was one of the CARE agenda programmes built to support healthcare professionals who must balance clinical shifts, family responsibilities, and postgraduate study. To make this manageable, the team designed the course as mainly asynchronous, so learners could study in a way that fits their schedules.

Annie described how she worked with Digital Education Studio in using the ABC Learning Design framework to plan a mix of activities—reading, investigation, reflection, discussion, and small production tasks. Suggested weekly timelines help guide study without adding pressure. The programme layout on QMplus was intentionally simple to help learners navigate easily.

She then presented the CODE-funded evaluation, which included surveys and interviews. The findings centred on four key themes:

Instructional Content

• Learners valued the clear link between theory and their own clinical teaching practice.
• Assessments were seen as highly flexible, allowing learners from different professions—doctors, nurses, radiographers, pharmacists, physiotherapists—to shape assignments around their own workplace context.
• Being able to “make it relevant” helped learners apply concepts directly to their day-to-day roles.
• Some learners hoped for more practical case scenarios, which the team saw as a positive direction for future development.

Participation and Interaction

• Reflective prompts supported meaningful discussion in forums.
• Learners enjoyed hearing perspectives from different clinical professions.
• Academic presence played an important role in keeping conversations active and supportive.

Platform and Tools

• QMplus offered a strong base where most materials were in one place.
• Padlet and the QMplus forums were the most widely used discussion tools.

Expectations and Study Patterns

• Flexibility remained a major strength, especially for shift-based clinicians.
• Engagement patterns changed over time, giving the team helpful insights into how to refine year-to-year design.

Annie concluded by outlining next steps, including developing scenario-based cases and considering group interactive activities for learners to encourage collaborative learning. Read her reflection 'Evaluating the MA Medical Education’ in our previous newsletter issue this year.

Watch the webinar recording.