Abstract:

Introduction:
International cooperation and collaborative teaching-learning between universities should and will be the future considering the process of globalization. This cooperation and collaboration is challenging our educational methods and it is important to be innovative in creating new teaching-learning paths based on new technologies. This paper describes a strategic course designed in international cooperation to improve clinical reasoning at different levels. The novice levels endure the idea that a person just follows a set of given rules, without any discretionary judgment or analytical situation. When the person starts organizing principles to quickly access the particular rules that are relevant to the specific task at hand, she/he is on the competent level. This is when the active and analytical decision-making begins.

Purpose:
The purpose is to validate the design of an international online course. This course integrates new ways of teaching and learning, in an online setting, considering globalization, new technologies and new ways of communications. The authors design a pilot implementation of an online clinical reasoning course with three International partners and validate the pedagogic materials and the management of the course.

The clinical reasoning course objectives are to enable independent work in expert tasks in the physiotherapy field and as an independent entrepreneur (EQF/NQF level 6). It is focused on assessment skills for physiotherapy expert, as well as for communicator and professional roles described in European Skills and Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO) group of European Network for Physiotherapy in Higher Education (ENPHE).

Approach:
The ongoing idea and a draft of the pedagogical materials for this course was developed by the Facilitating of Learning (FoL) working group during spring seminar held by ENPHE in March 2015 in Madrid. In January 2016 three universities decided to start the project: Ghent University (UG) from Belgium, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (SAMK) from Finland and University of Vic – Central Catalonia University (UVic-UCC) from Spain. 30 students and 3 teachers participated during the pilot considering cooperative work. There were students from 1st to 3rd year of Physiotherapy Degree. In April 2016 the practical implementation of a pilot started by finishing the pedagogical contents and proceeding until the end of that year by doing the course. After the course an ad hoc questionnaire of 5 directed questions was designed and sent it to students to collect students’ perceptions about the course. Feedback from the questionnaire was collected 2 weeks after finishing the course and analyzed. There was a 100% response rate.

Discussion:
In planning and implementing the course the authors have to take into account the selection of the proper activity based on his/her experience level, his/her different curricula’s and different years of studies. Considering these above-mentioned additional literature has to be provided.
Feedback from questionnaires shows that instructions and teachers feedback needs to be very clearly given in an online course, especially when people from different countries are working together.
Collaborative teaching-learning approaches with international peers are good and effective ways of giving and receiving feedback in a foreign language. Also, multicultural approach allows mutual understanding, respecting and coping with differences.

Impact/Implications: Working in an international group with people you don’t know personally prepares you to work in a globalized society.

Keywords:

Clinical reasoning, physiotherapy, internationalization, online course.