PPI2015 course guide

1. Overview

This course will introduce the course participant to the principles and practice of involving patients and the public in research.

Patient and public involvement is when members of the public are actively involved in research studies, working with researchers on the development, conduct, dissemination and governance of clinical research. Patient and public involvement does not mean recruiting patients as participants in research studies.

Patient and public involvement is firmly established in health research policy in the United Kingdom and many (but not all) countries internationally. Including patient and public perspectives in the research team, it is claimed, improves the quality of research and ensures research is relevant to people who use health services. Public engagement is a related area, which incorporates communicating with the public about research: what researchers do, why they do it, what it contributes to society. Effective involvement and engagement of patients and members of the public in research requires researchers to reflect on their own values and practice, including their views of ‘expertise’. This course will enable participants to analyse and debate the value of patient and public involvement in research and develop their skills in implementing it in their own practice.

Patient and public involvement in research is a developing field. The course may challenge some of your understandings of what constitutes an expert, how you interact with patients and your ways of working. Keeping a reflective diary which incorporates your learning and perceptions is essential and one of the assessed assignments (IP IV) is based on your reflections.

Aim

The lessons and activities on this course have been developed for course participants to gain an understanding of the rationale for and nature of patient and public involvement in research. In addition, course participants will practice and develop skill in applying the principles of patient and public involvement in clinical research.

2. Learning outcomes

After completion of this course, course participants should be able to:

1. Critically appraise the theory and key principles of patient and public involvement in clinical research
2. Critically assess their own practice/place of work in relation to the level of patient and public involvement in research.
3. Evaluate the barriers to effective patient involvement and strategies and techniques to overcome such barriers.
4. Design a patient and public involvement strategy for a clinical trial
5. Demonstrate the skills to explain the role of patient involvement in a clinical trial to a lay person
6. Demonstrate understanding of the role of public engagement in clinical trials.

3. Core readings

All core and partner readings will be available from the Resource list, located on the Moodle course homepage (left-hand menu).

In addition to the readings for each unit, you are advised to consult

a) the INVOLVE website regularly throughout the course. INVOLVE is a UK government funded programme which supports patient and public involvement in health research. The INVOLVE website will give you a comprehensive introduction to the field; you will find definitions, guides to involvement, discussions of evidence/impact and much more.

INVOLVE website: http://www.invo.org.uk/

b) In addition also read this patient involvement blog once a week to stay informed of current hot topics.

Simon Denegri’s lay review: http://simondenegri.com/

4. Graduate attributes

Graduate attributes are the academic competencies, personal qualities and transferable skills the course participant should develop during their time at a Higher Education Institution. Within the work to be undertaken, this course will provide course participants with the opportunity to develop or further develop the key graduate attributes below which are informed by the four 'Clusters of skills and abilities' held within the Edinburgh University's overarching Graduate Attributes Framework which spans these three areas:

1. Enquiry and lifelong learning
2. Aspiration and personal development
3. Outlook and engagement

(available from http://www.employability.ed.ac.uk/Clustersofskillsandabilities.htm)

The MSCCT Graduate attributes are:

• In-depth knowledge of specialist discipline
• Develop new understanding by exercising critical judgment and challenging knowledge
• Be a self-directed and curious learner
• Solve problems effectively taking ethical, professional and environmental issues into account
• Use information responsibly in a range of contexts
• Engage in reflective practice and self-development
• Collaborate with others, capitalising on their different thinking, experience and skills
• Communicate (written, oral, online) effectively respectful of social and cultural diversity
• Application of numeracy
• Application of IT

5. Student representative

As you know each course at the University of Edinburgh must elect one student representative. Your student representative is Gibbi Sey.

The representative can raise academic, welfare, resource and any other issues of general and particular concern on behalf of class members with the Programme Director (Prof. Stuart Ralston) through the programme's Academic e-facilitator (Dr. Christina Mainka, c.mainka@ed.ac.uk). Furthermore, there will be two online staff/student liaison meetings per academic year via a dedicated Adobe Connect meeting room which the student representative is expected to attend.

The Adobe Connect staff-student liaison meeting room URL is:

http://edinburghcrf.adobeconnect.com/mscct_staff_student/

Course participants may raise issues with their student representative in private (via email, Skype, phone which the student rep will share once elected) or on the dedicated Moodle Student rep forum to which course tutors and leaders do NOT have access.

The private Student rep forum can be found here.

Student representative forum

6. Teaching & support team

Introducing the MSCCT teaching & support team. Find out more about who we are in the Welcome WIKI on the course homepage.

	Prof. Stuart Ralston MSCCT Programme Director
	Dr Allison Worth Course leader
	Michelle Evans Programme leader Personal tutor (PT)
	Christina Mainka Academic e-facilitator Personal tutor (PT)
	Susie Fong Course administrator [Part-time: Mon - Wed - tbc]

7. Help

Moodle

• For help with Moodle and the use of its tools from within Moodle and for problems of a more technical nature, ie, logging on, viewing videos, pop-ups blocking, firewalls, email or EASE access contact the IS Helpdesk at

IS.Helpline@ed.ac.uk or +44 (131) 651 5151

• Follow the IS Help service alerts twitter feed at IS Service alerts twitter feed for service interruption information

Adobe Connect

The Adobe Connect online meeting rooms are NOT supported by the IS Helpdesk. Adobe Connect have a 24/7 help line for in-session support as follows

• Tel: +44(0) 2082884433
• Email: websupport@intercalleurope.com

[Further international telephone listing available at

http://helpx.adobe.com/adobe-connect/adobe-connect-phone-numbers.html]

Library & e-resources

• School librarian, Marshall Dozier, at marshall.dozier@ed.ac.uk

Course materials or assignments/discussions, instructions, course navigation

• Please let the course teaching team know in the (Not just for) problems forum if you have a question regarding the course lessons, assignments and assessments.

Personal problems & enquiries

• Course participants can reach their personal tutor, Michelle Evans, at michelle.evans@ed.ac.uk

General MSCCT Programme enquiries

• For administrative questions about the programme timetable, structure etc. consult the Programme handbook or contact the Programme coordinator, Danielle Wilson-Marlow, at mscct@ed.ac.uk

8. PPI2015 Course planner update

The updated course planner is available below. The updated course planner replaces the one sent in an email.

PPI course planner

9. Programme handbook 2015

Please find the MSc in Clinical Trials 2015 programme handbook below.

MSCCT2015 Programme handbook (PDF) 

10. Snapshots

Dear Course participants,

We know that studying online can sometimes make you feel distant from other students, but you are by no means alone! You are part of a diverse community of over 2,400 other online learners at Edinburgh, each with their own story, which we hope to capture through ODL Snapshots.

ODL Snapshots - http://odl-snapshots.is.ed.ac.uk/index.php/snapshots/

We wish to capture a snapshot in time of Online Distance Learning and the people that make up the community – you, the students! This is your chance to introduce yourself while explaining what led you to the path of Online Learning and what it means for you to be an Online Distance student. We’d love for you to get involved and leave a mark on your University.

Instead of just giving you an online form, we would like to hear from you directly. Simply send in your unique ‘Snapshot’ - an audio recording of you speaking, along with an optional photo from where you are studying. Your Snapshot will be shown alongside Snapshots from other ODL students for all to enjoy and share.

• The project is open to students enrolled at any stage of their online study
• It’s Quick – It can take just a few minutes to create and upload your Snapshot (less than 60 seconds for your audio would be perfect)
• It’s Simple – You can do it all through the website from your computer, phone or tablet
• Snapshots will be kept anonymous

See the website for more details and advice on how to create your Snapshot: http://odl-snapshots.is.ed.ac.uk/

or just create your snapshot here: http://odl-snapshots.is.ed.ac.uk/index.php/how-to-create/