Since 2013, OB3 has helped Ara Midwifery to “network learners with other learners, with lecturers and experts” and to ensure students can access distance education in provincial and rural areas (Daellenbach et al., 2022, see p. 341)
Head of Midwifery
Department of Health Practice
Ara Institute of Canterbury - Te Pūkenga
Why OB3? "The draw card of OB3 was the ability to have asynchronous contextual discussions within the online created content. OB3 provides the opportunity for students & lecturers to ‘co-create’ emergent understandings, discuss perspectives which are visually linked to the content that the discussion originates from and asynchronously follow discussion threads. It is easy to use and gives us a sense of how students are responding to the teaching materials."
OB3 was chosen to deliver the theoretical component of the programme in response to
student evaluations of the previous technology platform
, in which students consistently identified feeling isolated and unsure of how they were
progressing with their learning.
Outcomes of participatory action research show that students prefer OB3 for sharing experiences
about Midwifery practice placements undertaken in community, hospitals, and virtual reality.
Source of fig. 18.1 and 18.2:
(See Daellenbach et al., 2022, pp. 340 and 341)
“We were attracted to OB3 because we saw [that] it could strengthen learning through that
learner to learner connection, with students being able to post comments and discuss with each
other in a much more flexible and targeted way than when you have a discussion forum separate
from the content.”
Rea Daellenbach and Lorna Davies
Lecturing Staff, Ara Midwifery
Students and lecturing staff speak about OB3’s Benefits
“The beauty of OB3 is students can create discussions in content, reducing isolation and giving lecturers a sense of how students are responding to teaching materials”
“What we find really powerful is all aspects of the delivery and student engagement are seamlessly deployed within the same space”
“Work interactively, contribute ideas and materials that they have encountered by sharing URLs and uploading materials themselves”
Security is an important component of e-portfolios and OB3 security is maintained through
passwords linking courses. Additionally, we were able to close the portfolio when required
through settings controlled by the kaiako [lecturing staff]. Being able to “close” the portfolio
at the due date was a function not easily achieved in the other portfolio platforms.
Lecturing staff, Michelle Prier, on the e-Portfolio Project in
Daellenbach et al. (2022, p. 347)
