Between July and September of 2014 as part of my internship as Education Projects Assistant I completed a report on the Educational Projects that we have run in Physiopedia. The report is divided into 5 parts that I have briefly introduced below. I invite you to explore the report and recommend that you download the pdf version in order to access all the links.
1. Educational Projects inside Physiopedia
The first part explains what an Educational Project is and the ways in which Students, Teachers, Universities and the Physiopedia community can get involved; how easy it can be to promote Educational Projects inside Universities all around the world, and on how and where to start. This part also explores the Educational Projects and Partnerships that have been conducted in the past, what is currently ongoing and Projects to be held in the future. You will see that there are already a lot of Universities and professional organisations from all over the world getting involved.
2. Physiopedia and Wikipedia
Secondly, I explored Wikipedia and what can we learn from their Educational Projects. I also tried to compare Physiopedia with Wikipedia, the similarities and differences, and how can we improve our Educational Projects.
3. Educational Projects Assistant Internship
Next I expose that among others, I have learnt that Physiopedia is more than just a website; it is more a Physiotherapy community where everybody shares their knowledge and thoughts, all around the world. And that is simply amazing. It is important that everyone accesses the latest reviewed information; specially students, that need to learn what is now the “gold-standard” Physiotherapy, what methods and treatments are effective and what is more used and why it is used. These are questions that can be answered in Physiopedia, but there is much more that the Physio worldwide community can do; and in my opinion Educational Projects are the way to do it.
Why should a students work be lost in a filing cabinet? In this way their work can get exposed, used and corrected not only by the teacher but by everyone. If every university got involved in projects in Physiopedia not only does the Physiopedia content grow but the university also gets their students work published and known by this community. All support for running an educational project is provided by Physiopedia and there are no fees to run a project. So why shouldn’t Universities get involved?
4. Getting Universities Involved
The next part shows what universities are already collaborating with us and how to approach new universities, in this I have proposed a message/letter to Universities that briefly explain what Physiopedia is, what Educational Projects are and how everyone benefits from them.
5. Conclusion and acknowledgements
In my opinion this internship was very important not only in my professional but also in my personal development, I think that Educational Projects is a new and original project that every university should be involved because it can not only benefit the students and teachers directly involved but also the University Physiotherapy Department/School. It is also important for Physiopedia that everyone contributes so the updated and rigorous literature is always available in this worldwide physiotherapy website.
Looking at the future I think that these projects are going to get gradually more and more adherence, and one day most universities are going to share their works inside Physiopedia. It is time to change Education methodologies and share your valuable work online.
I want to thank Rachael Lowe for the opportunity of this internship and her great support through it. I also want to say thank you for the whole Physiopedia community for their valuable efforts and work in developing this great website; every day Physiopedia is growing thanks to everyone involved.