Signapps

This App is currently being piloted at Oxford University and will work poorly elsewhere. Please bear with us whilst we trial.

Unlock learning opportunities with REAL-TIME, personalised notification of teaching opportunities with feedback loop.

Teaching is fundamentally difficult to organise.

It is EVEN more difficult to organise in the hospital environment, where bedside teaching with patients is so crucial.

A thorough history and examination have been shown to provide the correct diagnosis in as much as 90% of cases depending on the problem. Current estimates at the percentage of the course which comprises bedside teaching range from 8-19%, compared with 75% in the 1960s. Median time spent at the bedside was 2.5 minutes compared with 69 in the classroom, along with this there has been a correlated decrease in clinical skills observed.

This problem is not only for bedside teaching, but for all teachers who are trying to assimilate adult learners and organise around their hectic, full and varied lives.

Currently, people will email their tutor group or message them when they feel there is an opportunity. This is restricted to those you have already met, know and teach regularly and it has to be thought of ahead of time. Often with only 30 minutes to spare, the method of alerting learners of your willingness to teach is over-complicated.

There are huge inefficiencies in studying, and hundreds of opportunities for learning being missed across the hospital/university site.

40% of teaching is thought to be ad hoc.. Ad hoc teaching is not evidenced. This does not help towards career progression and is done out of a passion for teaching. Similarly, the students cannot show that they have attended and progressed in the curriculum. People do sometimes carry around paper feedback forms, but this is rare and cumbersome.

SIGNAPPS is a mobile phone application that connects teachers and learners in a unique way; It allows real-time, personalised notification of teaching/learning opportunities with compulsory feedback loop.

SIGNAPPS will allow teachers who have identified opportunities, whether in the immediate future, or in the coming days to ‘create an opportunity’

Here’s how it works:

• A teaching Opportunity is identified e.g. Patient with excellent clinical signs

• Teacher states parameters for teaching i.e.location, time, no. of students etc.

• A Push notification goes to learners in the hospital/university as whole or subject specific:
• Learners can accept or decline

• Learners are registered on arrival
• Learners receive brilliant teaching (User dependent!)
• A Feedback form pre-populated with lesson specifics must be filled out to proceed to next opportunity - incentivise the teachers.
• Finally, feedback can be downloaded as a PDF to show at interviews, etc.

This is an exciting and crucial learning tool which will rely upon the creation of a community of enthused teachers and students. Let’s do it!

Please get in touch if it isn’t available in your area and we will try to expand to you next!
Email: info@signapps.co
website : signapps.co/contact-us
Terms: signapps.co/policies