This case study like others, and the questions they ask seem simple at first but once you dive down into the details, it becomes evident the problem is more complex and several solutions may arise. The task then is to try and determine which solution is best for the situation and sometimes there is not just one solution but several or a hybrid. One has to make several assumptions to come to a solution and these assumptions may be right or wrong depending on your perspective. In a case study situation, there is no opportunity to ask questions or clarify the assumptions that you make. For example in this diabetes case study, one might assume that all seniors would have access to a DVD player, or access to the Internet or be comfortable watching videos on a computer. Without the knowledge and experience of working with seniors, we have no way to validate or reject these assumptions.
This is where the social aspect of constructive learning adds value. Whether through a group project or through posting your unique solution in a discussion forum, different perspectives come in through contributions and discussions with our classmates. You can then make adjustments to your understanding based others perspectives, the questions they ask, comments they make and assumptions they have made. The purpose of the exercise is not to come up with an ultimate solution but to think about all of the possibilities and complexities to solving a problem.
Below are the case study and my response.
Case Study: diabetes education
Anju is a dietician in Port Alberni, BC. She works part-time at both a nearby senior’s home and a community centre. “Port” as it’s known locally, is an ethnically diverse community whose economy is largely resource-based.
One common community health issue she provides care for is late onset (or “Type 2”) diabetes. In fact, among South Asian and Chinese new Canadian women over age 45 in Port there is a diabetes epidemic. An integral part of self-care for adult diabetics is about diet: eating healthily and understanding the role different foods play in maintaining blood glucose levels.
All of Anju’s clients are fluent in spoken English, but struggle with materials written in English. Those who attend her one-hour workshops say they help a lot… but it’s difficult to remember all the information afterwards.
Anju thought she might videotape her next workshop and then create a DVD. That way clients could rewatch her talk whenever – and as often – as they wish. She’s bought a video camera and has a laptop.
Now what?!?
Discussion question
You are Anju’s neighbour. As a teacher, she wants your advice – would a DVD be a good idea? What should she include in it, particularly for an ESL/EFL audience? Post your estimation in weeks in the Diabetes DVD discussion thread. Be sure to explain how you came up your answer.
My Response to this Case Study
I would ask Anju a few questions to try and get my head around the problem a bit better. Producing the DVD is one process but deciding how to host the videos is a different challenge. I think producing a video or a series of videos is a great idea to capture her presentations so her clients can replay them as much as they need. However, there may be existing multimedia available already that she could tap into on the Internet: videos and audio pod casts. This would save a lot of her time creating her own; however she does have a video and a laptop and may want to experiment with the technology.
So she wants to produce a DVD, however I would ask her if hosting the videos on U-Tube would be an option, perhaps both would be potential solutions. Also there could be existing videos on U-Tube that would complement or reduce what she wants to produce. Seniors like familiarity, so they might want to see Anju again, rather than a different person or voice, this could cause some confusion. She would need to find out if the senior’s homes that she visits have the technology to show DVD’s and U-Tube videos. Some could be limited to just DVD’s, but some may be able to show U-Tube videos. Also, would the seniors homes show the videos or would each senior be expected to have a DVD disc and player or a computer to access U-Tube. I have an 88 year old Aunt who has neither, instead her TV and stereo/tape deck is all she needs. “I never got into this DVD and computer stuff!” The answers to these questions should provide some insight into which way Anju should go.
Anju would also need to find out if seniors are comfortable watching a “movie” on a computer whereas they may prefer to watch movies on what they are used to: television. If they have a computer, then they probably have a DVD player, maybe they have Internet access also? As more and more baby boomers come into seniors homes, the acceptance of U-Tube and computers should increase. So Anju would need to do some research by asking her senior’s how they would prefer to watch the movies.
A DVD is fairly quick to burn, I did the DVD exercise in the e-learning toolkit and it took about 5 minutes to setup and about 5 minutes to burn the DVD with a couple of videos and over 500 images totalling about 75% of a DVD capacity. This one off process was easy however burning one at a time could be time consuming, so the number of seniors that Anju needs DVD’s for would be a factor. Burning 50 DVD’s based on my trial would take her over four hours. Uploading this much information to U-Tube would take much longer than 5 minutes, perhaps an hour, but it would only need to be done once. If Anju wanted to update her videos or add more, then she would need to burn new DVD’s, so she should not stock pile too many.
So to DVD or not to DVD? Anju would need to do some research by asking some key questions to her seniors and the administrators of the seniors homes that she visits plus look at existing resources available to help her decide if this is the right way to go.