Education Institutions' Initiatives

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

Learning English Through Nursing Care Simulation in Quebec City

Project Length: 2014-2018

The DEC Nursing program offered by the Cégep Limoilou Business Services and Continuing Education department is designed for mature students. English courses are available as part of this program but unfortunately are rarely chosen by this clientele. In fact, as it is not a course that is included in the technical training, we have noted a lack of interest on the part of students. The learning by simulation project in English aims not only to better motivate students, but also to actively promote their integration into English-speaking health environments. The learning formula involves developing English courses tailored to the reality of nursing, which includes a theoretical component and a practical component in class as well as online. It means adapting the terminology used in the work environment in English. In addition, during training, students will have the chance to participate in simulation activities in English. These involve creating professional situations that connect with the reality of clinical environments, thereby ensuring appropriate language skills can be acquired. Lastly, the simulations will allow professional vocabulary to be acquired, and clinical administrative tools employed in an English-speaking nursing environment to be used. Finally, the student will have the chance to develop their direct communication skills with the client and various stakeholders working in the health sector.      

 $ 79,974

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

Offering English Vocational Training Programs in the Health Sector in Quebec City

Project Length: 2015-2018

The Central Quebec School board has offered vocational training course called Health, Assistance and Nursing (DVS) in English for the last 5 years through the Eastern Quebec Learning Centre.  This popular program is currently the only health program offered in English in the region.

This project will assist the learning centre to expand its offerings to include Assistance in Health Care Facilities (DVS) and Pharmacy Technical Assistant (DVS) training in English. Key elements of the project will include: research, development and implementation of these MELS programs; building partnerships within the English and French communities; promotion and recruitment activities; as well as the development of English language learning tools for each program.

 $ 60,000

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

Increasing Disoverability of Training Videos Through Cataloguing and Classification With Metadata

Project Length: 2015-2017

In order for the videos or learning objects created by the McGill Health Care Professionals Retention Project to be found on the Internet, they must not only be hosted on a server, they must also be catalogued with relevant information about their content. This allows search engines to find the content among the multitude of other information available to users. The adequate cataloguing of material combined with a propagation framework for the metadata also allows more specialized systems to find this material.

The Cégep à Distance team has developed an expertise in the cataloguing of learning objects using metatagging. By adding meaningful keywords, descriptions and other information on the learning objects within the CERES learning object aggregation database (developed by La Vitrine Technologie-Éducation and the LICEF), these resources become more “discoverable” to search engines and the educational community. This in turn, increases the chances that videos will be referenced and used by educational institutions. The CERES web site offers advanced search capabilities and syndication, which will allow users more flexible options to find and use the learning modules. As part of this project Cégep à distance will catalogue the English videos that were created by the McGill Training and Retention of Health Professionals Project.

In a parallel project, Cégep à distance has proposed the hosting of learning objects on the ENDREA repository. ENDREA is a French acronoym that stands for L'entrepôt numérique à distance de ressources d'enseignement et d'apprentissage (digital warehouse for teaching and learning resources). The ENDREA platform will allow Cégep à distance to integrate the following essential metadata from this cataloguing project*:

° Title

° Description

° Language

° Keywords

° Format

° Copyright and other restrictions

 $ 20,000

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

Hosting of Video Learning Objects on Cégep à Distance’s ENDREA Repository and a Streaming Media Server

Project Length: 2015-2017

In this project, Cégep à distance will make the English videos created by the Training and Retention of Health Professionals Project for the Self-Study Workbooks for Health and Social Service Professionals available to a wider potential audience by hosting the videos on its ENDREA Learning Object Repository and a third-party streaming server. The videos will thus be available to interested parties with a multitude of potential computing devices (desktop, laptop computer, tablets, smart phones and even certain televisions).

Cégep à distance will convert the videos, which were created as companion DVDs to the workbooks, to a format appropriate for streaming on the Internet. An appropriate title and credit screen will be added to the videos to identify McGill as the creator of the content.

The modular nature of these videos will lend them well to micro-learning applications where the end-user can review the appropriate videos just-in-time, at the moment of their choosing. If so inclined, educators from a variety of contexts will be able to reuse these learning objects in the creation of a lesson or program. The use of a streaming server will allow for even greater reuse and sharing of the videos, which can easily be embedded in web pages, or in learning management systems like Moodle.

As part of this project, once the videos are converted and ready, Cégep à Distance will promote the availability of their videos through its website and during other relevant college network events.

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

Interdisciplinary Health and Social Services Educational Approach: Meeting the Needs of the English-Speaking Communities in the Province of Quebec

Project Length: 2014-2018

This project will take an interdisciplinary approach to health promotion and prevention that includes the disciplines of Nursing, Dental Hygiene, Pre-hospital Emergency Care and Youth and Adult Correctional Intervention. Health promotion activities and prevention initiatives will engage with social issues such as youth protection, the rights of victims, substance abuse awareness and youth delinquency, as well as oral health and other health topics.

$80,000

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

Seven French courses for McGill University students in health and social services 

Project Length: 2014-2018

This is a series of language training courses, ranging from basic level to Intermediate II and advanced levels to support students in their internships, help them prepare for the OQLF [Office québécois de la langue française] exams (if needed) and encourage them to work in a French-speaking environment when they graduate.

 $ 235,300

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

Nursing Students Peer Mentorship Program (NSPMP)

Project Length: 2014-2018

Studying Nursing at McGill University can be challenging for many of our students. This project targets three groups identified as having a higher risk for experiencing stress and anxiety: young out-of-province students admitted to the Undergraduate Program; out-of-province students admitted in to the Direct Entry Master Program; and students who have completed their studies in French-speaking educational institutions, but chose to come to McGill to increase their English proficiency.

The Nursing Students Peer Mentorship Program has the goal of: maintaining and /or improving the mental health of nursing students at the Ingram School of Nursing (ISON) during their years of study by engaging them in a nursing peer mentorship program; decreasing students’ perceived level of stress and anxiety; developing and implementing strategies to support students with low French proficiency skills; increasing the nursing student’s sense of belonging and sense of support, which ultimately will have an impact on their self-confidence, learning and academic success; and increasing the retention of out-of-province students in the province of Québec upon graduation.

 $ 65,000

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocated

Integrating Visual Translation in Nursing Courses to Promote Acquisition of French/English Language Skills.

[Special Project]

Project Length: 2015-2017

As an adjunct to an existing Health Canada funded language acquisition project involving a series of language workshops for nursing students, this visual translation project will involve translation of key nursing/medical terminology and phrases used in select core nursing courses so that students will be exposed to bilingual terms during the teaching and learning activities in the courses. Course coordinators in selected nursing courses will be solicited to submit their course materials, including PowerPoint presentations, so that key nursing and medical terms already being used/taught in their courses can be translated for distribution and presentation to nursing students.

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

Improving access to practice for English-speaking Internationally-Trained Physical Therapists

Project Length: 2014-2018

This project is designed to facilitate licensure of English-Speaking internationally-trained physical therapists (ITPTs) seeking employment for servicing English-speaking populations across Quebec.  This project has two parts:

Part 1

Part 1 seeks to create a 2 day/week position for a Coordinator to oversee the planning and coordination of the equivalency program offered to ITPT students and interns registered at the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy.  Securing this position will allow the school to continue the program, which would otherwise be in jeopardy.  The second activity will be to translate a series of existing Ordre professionel de la physiothérapie du Québec (OPPQ) French documents into English to facilitate the equivalency process of ITPTs seeking licensure in Quebec

Part 2:

Part 2 seeks to secure a dedicated half-day/week Faculty position to oversee the equivalency program at the School for Physical and Occupational Therapy and to develop clinical internship opportunities for ITPTs in various Quebec regions.  Activities will also involve the creation of clinical supervision workshops for clinicians who will supervise ITPT students completing an equivalency diploma at McGill University in order to obtain licensure in Quebec.  The project will use the Digital Chalk Media platform to facilitate training across Quebec.

 $ 147,400

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

The West Quebec Health and Social Services Professionals Retention Program

Project Length: 2014-2018

This project entails the enrichment of French language training for ECCE (Early Childhood Care Education) and Nursing students, to encourage their retention after graduation within the francophone institutions of the Outaouais region. Eligible students in the ECCE and Nursing programs will have their general French instruction replaced by an enriched course that is designed to address the needs of their respective professions and the specific locations of their clinical placements.  Learning activities will happen in three places: within the classes taken as part of the curriculum; through conversational groups that use situational and simulated scenarios; and in the clinical setting, where students will be observed in action.

The college also plans to develop and share its tools with other ECCE and Nursing students from Anglophone colleges through asynchronous and synchronous online learning, using an easily accessible web-based exchange platform, like OMNIVOX community, Moodle or another.

 $ 44,464

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocation

Professional Second Language Training for Students in the Health and Social Services Sectors

Project Length: 2014-2018

Champlain College Saint-Lambert currently runs two Cégep-level programs in the health and social services sector: a DEC in Nursing as well as an AEC in Special Care Counselling. Both programs require students to complete internships in healthcare and/or social services settings, therefore it is imperative that students be able to work in French-language environments and understand the vocabulary of the health system in both official languages. This project will ensure that the terminology used in the field will be provided to students through the development of an online bilingual reference library.

In order to increase the recruitment, retention and success of students in these high-demand fields, the College will also adapt and build on its English language training program for health professionals. The goal is to continue to offer the professional language training to students in the healthcare and social services fields even after the project is completed.

 $ 77,425

Project Title

Project Description

Budget Allocated

Building success for new internship supervisors in French hospitals

[Special Project]

Project Length: 2014-2016

Champlain Saint-Lambert, unlike most of the English–speaking colleges, faces the challenge of having the vast majority of its internship placements in French-speaking hospitals and institutions. This has created some difficulties for attracting and retaining qualified nursing personnel to fill internship supervision positions, thus putting additional pressure on the existing instructors. The purpose of this project is to develop tools which will assist internship supervisors in their integration into a French milieu, and to support their ongoing development as clinical instructors.  Support will be provided both through an online platform that will provide tools, tips and information that can be referred to any time, and through coaching that will be provided by more senior instructors. In the second and third years of the project, it will be extended to Champlain College’s Lennoxville campus.