The Foundation Degree programme is characterised by:
- High incidence of work based learning
- High degree of workplace and job role contextualisation
- Delivery by blended learning
Thus when embarking on the BSc you will have studied for 2-3 years on a highly vocational higher education programme and be familiar with blended learning methods. By virtue of your employment or placement, you have ample opportunity to observe health and social care in operation.
However, your exposure to informatics may be limited and is likely to be different to your fellows and constrained by your job role. In order to broaden your horizons and aspirations, the BSc programme seeks to:
- Facilitate formal and informal interaction with like-minded people outside the constraint of organisation, workplace and job role
- Assist you to think 'outside the box' of existing procedures and protocols
- Empower you with knowledge and skills so that you can influence the design and deployment of informatics in a variety of health care scenarios
- Provide opportunities to explore emerging technologies and techniques that may have utility in health care.
It is likely that, as a Health Informatics student, you will have to balance your study with workplace and other commitments. There may be pressures that could make it difficult for you to attend university, or even to study at specific times, every week. The BSc programme's learning, teaching and assessment strategy is designed to be cognisant of these characteristics and constraints but nevertheless to develop your capacity to:
- Benefit from interaction with honours undergraduates studying the same and other programmes and disciplines
- Explore alternatives to the methods and approaches found in your particular job role and workplace
- Integrate the concepts and techniques learned in the modules of the Foundation and Honours degrees
- Explore the theoretical and/or practical aspects of a heath informatics topic of significant complexity and size by means of a dissertation project.
To achieve a smooth transition from the work-based, workplace-focused, blended learning approach of the Foundation Degree to an approach that effectively delivers the BSc's goals, a carefully crafted strategy of progression has been devised:
- Two modules use the familiar blended learning method of delivery, and are unique to this Health Informatics programme. However, they are not specific to a workplace or work role. They require you to acquire and demonstrate Level 6 knowledge, understanding and skills.
- The other two taught modules are delivered conventionally (i.e. by weekly face-to-face classes) and as a Health Informatics student you study in parallel with other Level 6 undergraduates. These modules address topics of particular relevance to health and social care informatics but with broader application and deeper conceptual significance.
- The Dissertation provides an opportunity to demonstrate a substantial degree of self-management and a rigorous approach to practical and theoretical activities, and encourages innovation and originality.
The BSc continues the development of Key Skills to enhance your ability to transfer to new situations, meet new challenges, and broaden your horizons. The skills are classified according to the University's framework of key skills, namely:
- Communication
- Use of information technology
- Application of number
- Working with others
- Improving own learning experience
- Problem solving
Why study Health Informatics at Chester or Warrington?
The aims of the BSc Programme in Health Informatics are:
- To provide a progression route from the Foundation Degree (FdSc) in Health Informatics
- To promote the academic, vocational and personal development of students
- To encourage a critically and theoretically informed and reflective approach to academic study
- To empower health care workers to be more effective and efficient as users of informatics, and extend their horizons to identify and contribute to exploiting its potential
- To think proactively and constructively about current informatics issues within and outside the employing organisation
- To develop skills and knowledge appropriate to entry onto postgraduate study or to do relevant research.
On completion of your study you will be well placed to make a significant input to the planning and operation of informatics in any health care job role, and transfer into, or progress within, a role in information management, knowledge management or the development of information systems.
Features:
Graduates commencing this course with a Foundation Degree in Health Informatics may complete their study for a BSc (Honours) in Health Informatics in one calendar year of part-time study.
Programme Structure:
This is a 'top-up' programme, enabling graduates with a Foundation Degree in Health Informatics to gain a BSc Honours degree.
The programme is modular and conforms to the nationally recognised credit structure adopted across the university sector. It comprises one level of study (FE/HE Level 6) at which you must gain 120 credits. This is made up of four taught 20-credit modules and a 40-credit dissertation.
Normally, you study two modules during the summer by blended learning:
- Systems Analysis for Health Informatics
- Web Database Connectivity
and the other two modules in parallel with the dissertation during the academic year:
- Project and Change Management
- Dissertation
- Intelligent Technologies
Each 20-credit module has an allocation of 200 notional learning hours.
Two modules are designed specifically to facilitate progression from the Foundation Degree and are delivered by blended learning. Each involves 48 hours of face-to-face and on-line contact between tutor and students, and 152 hours of tutor-directed and self-directed study. In the blended learning approach face-to-face classes are every 3 - 4 weeks.
The other two modules each involve weekly attendance over a period of 24 weeks. Each involves a total of 32 hours of contact time, and tutor-directed and self-directed study of 168 hours.
During the dissertation you will have 16 hours of contact in briefings and group tutorials with the dissertation coordinator and 4 hours of individual tutorial with your dissertation supervisor, spread through the year. You will undertake approximately 380 hours of individual study.
When you graduate from this programme you should be able to:-
- Analyse and synthesise ideas in the discipline of health informatics
- Apply independent enquiry and a wide range of skills appropriate to a health informatics professional
- Formulate a coherent design and implementation strategy, derived from a range of reading and/or practice, and comment critically upon such strategy
- Undertake project work in such a way that it is planned, implemented and interpreted with due regard for evidence, appropriate modes of enquiry and the communication of its outcomes
- Solve problems and communicate solutions across a broad range of areas within health informatics, and evaluate and analyse alternatives from a number of theoretical models
Formal ('summative') assessment is designed to confirm that you have acquired the appropriate mix of knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to achieve these graduate characteristics, and, to achieve this, a blend of assessment methods is employed:
- Knowledge and understanding: unseen examination, appraisal of literature and systems, projects, presentations
- Thinking or cognitive skills: unseen examination, coursework exercises, projects/dissertation, presentations
- Practical skills: coursework exercises, project work
- Transferable/key skills: reports, presentations, reflection on work based and work related learning
Subject to the overall pattern of assessment conforming to this strategy, each module is assessed by the most appropriate types of assessment, suitably weighted. Assessment and reassessment methods are detailed in the module outlines. There are clear assessment criteria and a marking scheme for every assessment. Marking schemes identify levels of performance against specific learning outcomes. They indicate how the final mark will be derived, and are designed to facilitate second marking and constructive feedback to you from the tutor.
The Health Informatics Dissertation
The Dissertation is a double module (40 credits) and on a topic specific to health informatics, as agreed between you and the Dissertation Coordinator.
The Dissertation demands a substantial degree of self-management but you must also attend periodic briefings and tutorials with the Dissertation Coordinator, and you should make contact, at least fortnightly, with your Dissertation Supervisor.
You must adopt a rigorous approach to planning, research, development and evaluation, and you are encouraged to demonstrate innovation and originality.
The Dissertation generally involves developing a 'product' (possibly a software product) but, as an alternative, the Dissertation may be research-based if you can agree a clear strategy for
- literature searching
- an appropriate empirical study, and
- a sound approach to testing the hypothesis.
Students on this course have enjoyed continuation of the promotion and career progression that commenced during their foundation degree studies. For example, one student has progressed from Grade 5 Clinical Governance Assistant at the start of the foundation degree to Conformance Manager for a strategic health authority in the area of clinical risk.
Single Honours Level 6 Top-up
This current Level 6 ‘top up' is designed for students who have successfully completed one of the following Higher Education Level 5 qualifi cations and who now wish to progress to a fulltime BSc (Honours) in Health Informatics:
- University of Chester's Foundation Degree in Health Informatics
- Other Foundation Degree or Higher National Diploma (HND) in Health Informatics
- Diploma in Higher Education (240 HE credits) in Health Informatics
