E-Tutor of the Year

Four UCL academics have won the award of Higher Education Academy/Times Higher Education Supplement e-Tutor of the Year 2005.

The team, from UCL Primary Care & Population Sciences (PCPS), garnered the award for their work on an MSc programme within the department. The MSc focuses on international primary healthcare, covering the subject from a range of cultural perspectives and bringing together people from across the world. The team have been running their programme for seven years.

The award entry was prepared by Trisha Greenhalgh, Professor of Primary Health Care within PCPS. She nominated Dr Geoff Wong, Dr Petra Boynton, Ms Jill Russell and Dr Deborah Swinglehurst for the award. The judges praised the MSc for its orientation towards the pedagogical process, and for how student experience had influenced the rationale and design of the course.

Developments in the MSc have influenced how other institutions structure their courses, with others adapting to take the UCL approach. The team has now started to run a workshop for other online course teams across the country.

Participants on the MSc programme have so far come from 11 countries across the world, and from nine different occupations, including those of doctor, nurse and pharmacist. The e-format of the course has many benefits for the participants, who may often work in geographically isolated positions, and who gain the opportunity through the MSc to interact with other healthcare practitioners from across the globe, and learn from their experience.

The winners will receive their award, and a cheque for £1,000, at the Association for Learning Technology, held at the University of Manchester, 6 to 8 September 2005.

The team has recently been granted funding from the Association of Commonwealth Universities to provide free scholarship places for selected students from Walter Sisulu University, South Africa.

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Links:

• UCL Department of Primary Care & Population Sciences MSc in International Primary Health Care