Interview with Katrin Clausnitzer, principal of the
Medfachschule in Bad Elster.
BWS:
Dear Ms. Clausnitzer, as head of school, you ensure that
over 300 prospective physiotherapists, occupational therapists and masseurs /
medical bath attendants are trained daily with teaching content at the
Johannesbad Academy. This requires a high level of commitment and efficient
organization.
How do you manage to coordinate 300 students and over 25
teaching staff?
KC:
Hello dear Medplattform team, of course it is of great
importance to me that I have a team of teachers at my side who are in constant
exchange with me and thus master the daily school routine.
In order to be able to organize this everyday life with all
its ups and downs well, both experience as a leading force, but also a
respectful contact with each other is necessary.
With a good connection to colleagues and students, it is
easier to experience feedback and to implement suggestions for improvement
after adapted error management.
BWS:
This initial situation at the Johannesbad Academy, from
which you benefit, was developed over years. Now there is currently an
unforeseeable situation that has forced you to rethink since the beginning of
2020.
What have you put in place since then to still maintain your
good initial situation and educate the students?
KC:
The Johannesbad Academy has been using the anatomy learning
platform with digital learning content, which was founded and realized by
former students of the Medfachschule, for quite some time. The learning
platform developed by the two founders, which is now newly online as
Medplattform®️, forms an important part of our everyday school life.
It supports us particularly well in that it, with its many
organizational functions, considerably simplifies data exchange &
communication among each other.
Thus, in addition to the content of knowledge transfer, the
students also benefit from smooth processes and an efficient exchange during
the arranged homeschooling.
EWS:
A changeover or introduction of a new digital method or
platform always brings with it a variety of challenges. How was the
"changeover" to Medplattform® in terms of handling for teachers and
students?
KC:
Through the project week "digital teaching", the
platform was well implemented by the management and implementation of
BWS-Education.
Teachers and students were able to quickly learn how to use
the platform and other digital methods and thus gain many new impressions and
experiences from which we now benefit.
Especially profitable was the permanent evaluation of the
experience reports from all participants, which led to a perfect adaptation to
our needs and wishes.
EWS:
Often headlines are made about numerous negative reports. We
would like to break with this and focus on the positive developments during
this time.
What development has the school or everyday school life made
and what advantages result from the digital development?
KC:
Through the DigitalPakt, we were able to set the basic
requirements in terms of a digital infrastructure.
In addition to interactive whiteboards in our classrooms, we
now have new devices such as Meeting Owls, a 360-degree conference camera, and
large interactive screens that greatly enrich our teaching.
Furthermore, all teachers are trained for digital video
presence so that face-to-face instruction can be given one-to-one by teachers.
In addition, the variety of functions offered by the
Medplattform makes it much easier for us to organize our day-to-day work,
the organization of everyday school life and the
documentation of teaching content.
BWS:
Purely digital communication with people is often seen as
impersonal or matter-of-fact.
How do you keep in touch with your trainees or how do you
receive information and content?
KC:
As I mentioned earlier, the Medplattform makes it much
easier for us to organize and thus communicate with each other and with the
students.
For example, we use the "virtual classrooms" as a
space for exchange.
This allows students to chat and send files with each other
or with the relevant teachers.
The news page and the calendar function help us a lot to
present important events quickly and directly. The trainees receive a live
notification and are thus always Up To Date.
The centrally well-structured filing function is also
essential for the uncomplicated provision of documents, scripts and other data
relevant to teaching.
However, the main component of our daily school routine is
the transfer of knowledge via the various knowledge boxes with their 3D anatomy
models, elaborated texts and the teaching videos. Thus, we try to keep the
contact with our trainees as good and often as possible in a direct way.
BWS:
It is important to further develop and secure the trainees'
level of knowledge.
What opportunities do instructors have to review or
consolidate knowledge?
KC:
By means of the digital test quizzes, it is easy to retrieve
what the trainees have learned. These can be created independently by
colleagues and published for the relevant students. Automatically, they are
then corrected after completion, an evaluation is forwarded to those tested,
and the grade is created.
BWS:
What do you find unique about the platform or how does it
differentiate itself from other platforms?
KC:
In addition to the things I mentioned, it's the ability for
my teachers to provide their own digital knowledge boxes with their individual
content for students. By means of the clear design and uncomplicated
functionality, instructional videos, technical texts, 3D animations and much
more can be individually created and adapted to the lessons.
BWS:
We are pleased with you that with the help of Medplattform®
you are able to conduct the lessons, during homeschooling, well for the
trainees.
What happens after this time, when the students are allowed
back into the classrooms? Will it still be digital?
KC:
We look forward to the day when our trainees can go back to
school. Our training branches thrive on practical activities that can only be
taught digitally with a lot of effort. These experiences in particular are
enormously important for therapists, along with social components in the group,
which are also focal points of the training. Nevertheless, we will continue to
use and promote digitalization in our company. For students, it is an enormous
added value to be able to work with instructional videos, animations and
specialized texts from home. This allows them to revise and consolidate their
knowledge and prepare for exams in the best possible way. My teachers also use
the vivid 3D models and numerous instructional videos from the knowledge boxes
to make their lessons even more attractive. Another positive effect from the
technical development is that it is easier to establish contact with the
student who is on the practical course. Thus, questions can be clarified
directly as well as techniques can be viewed and reviewed live.
BWS:
This is good news from Vogtland and we are pleased about the
already two and a half years of cooperation as well as the constant further
development. We wish you all the best and a lot of energy for the next time.
KC:
Thank you very much and all the best to you as well
For better readability, the generic masculine is used. Feminine and other gender identities are explicitly included where this is indispensable for the statement.
