CHSE (Centre of Health Sciences Education)

Annual Academic Day 2011 Prize winners

From left to right: Prof M Clarke (Adjudicator), Prof M de Villiers (Deputy dean: Education), Dr K von Pressentin (First prize: Oral presentation), Dr AJN Louw (First prize: Poster presentation), Ms J Voges (First prize: under 35 years oral presentation), Prof BB van Heerden (Chairperson), Dr F Cilliers (Adjudicator), Absent: Prof S Reid (Guest speaker and adjudicator)

SoTL Conference 16 and 17 May 2011

The Centre for Health Sciences Education (CHSE) was the department with the most presentations at the recent Annual Conference on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The conference was held on 16 and 17 May this year and the CHSE presented sixteen of the total of 60 presentations. The CHSE staff and co-workers, whose research projects were supported, contributed to the success of the conference with their oral and poster presentations. On the photograph are Profs Ben van Heerden (Director: CHSE); Marietjie de Villiers (Deputy Dean: Education) and Juanita Bezuidenhout (recently appointed as Deputy Director: Research in the CHSE). In front are San Schmutz (Physiotherapy), Adele de Villiers, Estelle Smuts and Dr Stefanus Snyman. Behind them are: Prof Stefan du Plessis (Physiology), Dr Alwyn Louw, Elize Archer and Martie van Heusden. Absent: Prof Hans Strijdom (Physiology) and Dr Steve Walsh (Medicine).

At the recent SoTL conference (16 -17 May 2011) merit certificates for presentations were awarded to two lecturers from the Faculty of Health Sciences, namely Prof Dana Niehaus (Psychiatry) and Dr Stefanus Snyman (CHSE).
Here Dr Stefanus Snyman is displaying the merit certificate that he received for his presentation, A community service-learning approach to destigmatise student perceptions about psychiatric patients.

MPhil students

The 2010 intake of students for the MPhil in Health Sciences Education have spent the week of 31 January to 4 February in the CSHE for their annual contact week. On the photograph Ms Lorraine Louw (who administers the programme)and two of the lecturers, Dr Alwyn Louw and Prof Ben van Heerden are in the first row with the group of students.

End of year function CHSE

The CHSE team decided to act as tourists in their own city. A red tourist bus was boarded in the Waterfront and took them to Kirstenbosch. There they enjoyed a picnic in the peaceful atmosphere of the Botanical Gardens. Everyone was relaxed and enjoyed the day. The home journey took the team via Hout Bay and Llandudno. This was an unique and enjoyable team building venture that capped a successful year.

CHSE Director receives National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award

Prof Ben van Heerden received special recognition for his exceptional contribution to teaching and learning, when he was recently selected as a recipient of a National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association (HELTASA). He is the director of the Centre for Health Sciences Education at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University.

HELTASA, in collaboration with the Higher Education Quality Committee, awards academics at Higher Education institutions for their excellence in teaching and learning on an annual basis. Prof Van Heerden is one of four selected out of a total of 24 candidates from across South Africa.

The handover ceremony took place at the Annual HELTASA Conference in Tzaneen on 23 November 2010.

Photo (from left to right): Dr Lis Lange (CHE); Prof Vivienne Bozalek (UWC, recipient); Dr Brenda Leibowitz (Convenor of the Award Committee); Prof Ben van Heerden (SU, recipient); Dr Elizabeth Brenner (Wits, recipient); Prof Melissa Steyn (UCT, recipient) and Dr Matete Madiba (Heltasa chairperson)

Poster receives third place at AMEE-congress

The poster, entitled "The Show MUST Go On" of Prof Juanita Bezuidenhout, from the division of Anatomical Pathology and chairperson of Phase I of the MB,ChB-programme, received third place at the recent AMEE-congress (Association for Medical Education in Europe) at Glasgow, Scotland. The poster pertains to how aspects such as the promotion of critical thinking, an holistic approach to patient care, ethics, time management, language- and communication skills and much more, are demonstrated through roleplay to health sciences students when these students attend their first class at the Faculty of Health Sciences.

CHSE hosts a successful session at the Faculty of Health Sciences Annual Academic Day

The CHSE hosted a successful session with the focus on Health Sciences education during Academic Year Day on 11 August 2010. From left to right: Proff Jimmy Volmink (deputy dean:Research) Marietjie de Villiers - (deputy dean: Education) who was the guest speaker on this occasion, Elize Archer (Manager: Clinical Skills Centre) - main organiser of the CHSE session, Proff Ben van Heerden (Director:CHSE) who acted as chair person of the CHSE session and Razeen Davids (Nephrology), the winner of the 1st prize of R10 000, 00 for his presentation: "Development and usability evaluation of a web-based simulation for teaching electrolyte and acid-base disorders". An engaging e-learning resource to help students and clinicians develop expertise in this area was described and demonstrated. The evaluation of this "Electrolyte Workshop" included usability evaluation against principles of interface design as well as evaluation of conformance with principles of instructional design based on cognitive load theory.

Prof Stefan du Plessis (Division of Medical Physiology)was awarded a prize (R500 gift voucher) for the best poster presentation of "Teaching spirometry with the PowerLab� LabTutor� System: the Physiology experience." The R500 gift voucher prize for the best oral presentation by a young researcher (under 35) was awarded to Hugo Botha and Gerhard van Schalkwyk (both MBChB V students) for their discussion of "The discourse of final year medical students during clinical case presentations."

Dr JP Bosman presents paper at eLearning Africa 2010 Conference (Lusaka, Zambia)

Dr JP Bosman, one of the co-workers of the CHSE, presented a paper, Mobile learning in African rural health care settings for undergraduate medical students, at the eLearning Africa 2010 Conference which was held in Lusaka, Zambia from 26 - 28 May 2010. This was the 5th International Conference on ICT for development, education and training held on the African continent. JP reported that from planning and abstract submission, to pre-conference information, and of course the smooth running of the conference itself - everything went smoothly. Apart from logistics, the general quality of the presentations, plenaries and other sessions was high and one had the feeling that being there was personally, academically and professionally worthwhile. Connecting with colleagues from South Africa, discovering new colleagues from Africa and networking with academics and professionals from abroad made the journey to Zambia an important one.
To quote from the conference website: "eLearning Africa marked its fifth anniversary with a celebration of new ideas and inspirations - as well as a record number of 1778 delegates from 78 countries. Staged in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, Africa's largest conference on technology-enhanced education and training once more brought together senior governmental decision-makers, leading international organisations, universities and companies. With 86% of the participants coming from Africa, the gathering again proved to be a truly pan-African event."

Dr Johan Dempers (FHS Division of Forensic Medicine), project leader and Prof Juanita Bezuidenhout (FHS Division of Anatomical Pathology) co-investigator, have reason to look so pleased with themselves! Dr Dempers was awarded first prize for his presentation "Hey, Tarantino, show me your pituitary!" at a recently held conference on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (11 and 12 May 2010) in Stellenbosch. He reported on educational research investigating the way in which post-graduate students specializing in Forensic Pathology are currently assessed. The audience watched in awe while he screened a video demonstrating his innovative suggestion that post-graduate students could be assessed using video based portfolios produced by the students themselves of specific procedures demonstrating learning outcomes and technical skills acquired. The project was funded by FIRLT and the prize money has to be used for presenting a paper abroad at a conference on teaching and learning. Dr Dempers is also a SAFRI fellow. The other two co-workers on the project were JJ Janse van Rensburg and M Verster.