Home-Based Care – Home-Based Education FAQs

Home-Based Care – Home-Based Education FAQs

Please take the time to read this document thoroughly so that you understand how this course works and how you can benefit as much as possible from participating in it.

Summary

This course is for family carers or supporters of people living with dementia. The course lasts seven weeks. 

You will need a suitable device, personal computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet to access the course and good WIFI / Broadband.

This will be a Small Private Online Course (SPOC) with approximately 80 learners divided into four groups of 20.

The course is delivered via The Alzheimer Society of Ireland’s Moodle Workplace Learning Platform.

Learners in the course will be encouraged to participate in various activities, including text-based Discussion Forums and Live Video Meetings.

You will be invited to attend a Weekly Video Meeting similar to a webinar. This will be facilitated by a tutor with a technical support person. Up to 20-course participants will attend these weekly video meetings. 

We will send you Joining Instructions once you confirm you would like a place on the course.

Each year courses start in late January/early February, March/April, June, September and November.

See the Questions and Answers below for much greater detail. 

The course will be delivered via The Alzheimer Society of Ireland’s Moodle Workplace Learning Management System. We will use a variety of methods to deliver the course. We will use a selection of short videos to provide information on specific topics. We will also use video presentations with tutor commentary. 

We hope this online course will be participatory, which means we would like learners to interact with each other and our online tutor. We will use ‘Discussion Forums’ to let participants share their experiences. We have found that the course works best if participants are willing to learn from each other by sharing experiences. Other methods of sharing experiences will also be utilised – for example, we will use Questionnaires to invite participants to tell us about their experiences.

I’m not sure if I feel comfortable sharing my experiences in an online environment. Should I still attend the course?

This will be a small private online course with up to 80 participants, divided into 4 groups of 20. Several tutors will work exclusively to support the group on the course. We do hope that you share your experiences with your fellow participants in your group. In that way, the group can build up their knowledge, and very often, participants in the course learn quite a lot from each other. Remember, the only people who will see your posts will be your fellow course participants and the course tutor, not the whole internet! But we also respect your feelings on how much or little you would like to share with other people. The choice is yours.

What do I need to do the online course?

You will need access to a personal computer, a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone. You will need to have access to the internet through a broadband connection or via 3G/4G/5G mobile networks for smartphones. 

You will also need speakers (most laptops and tablets have these inbuilt) or headphones to listen to course videos. You will also need a microphone for speaking during the live video meetings – again, most devices except PCs have these already installed.

You should be familiar with using the internet, and as you may need to type in a text, you should be familiar with using the keyboard and mouse on your computer. 

Is the Course Portable?

As mentioned above, you can also access the course from a smartphone (iPhone or Android). We recommend using the Moodle Workplace app (which is available for free from the App Store or Google Play) if you want to access the course from your smartphone. Once you install the Moodle Workplace app to your device, the address of the site you need to access for this course is: https://moodle.alzheimer.ie 

At present, Huawei phones do not support the Moodle Workplace app.

Please also note that video meetings do not work well on some smartphones due to the small screen size. 

 

How are the live video meetings delivered?

We use BigBlueButton to deliver these live online video meetings. BigBlueButton is similar to Skype or Facetime and is integrated into Moodle Workplace. 

BigBlueButton minimum requirements for iPad are:

  • Default Safari Mobile browser (no app to install) on iOS 12.2+. You can test this at https://test.bigbluebutton.org/.
  • All the features of BigBlueButton are available on iOS except screen sharing (Safari Mobile does not support screen sharing on iOS).
  • Moodle Workplace Mobile app minimum requirements for iPad are:
    iOS 11.0 or later.

How long is the course?

The course lasts seven weeks. There is one live video meeting each week, usually on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. To get the most out of the course, you would be expected to spend about 2 hours per week on course activities. 

The course is mostly asynchronous; you can participate in activities and read through resources and materials at times that suit you. The course is on the Moodle Workplace site, and you can access it 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Once the course finishes, you still have access to the course for 5 years. So you can continue to log on to access resources in the future. This may be especially useful as dementia symptoms change. 

In addition, there will be one synchronous ‘live’ video meeting every week, which you are invited to attend along with your fellow participants and your tutor. You will be advised of the day and time of these meetings.

You can choose to attend and book one of the days/times above once you join the course (these video times are provisional and subject to confirmation depending on numbers and other logistics).

Please note: for data protection purposes, only named participants registered onto the course can participate in the video tutorials. So, siblings, friends and spouses are not permitted in place of those of you who are enrolled on the course.

What exactly is Moodle Workplace?

Moodle Workplace is a Learning Management System popular with a wide range of education providers, including universities, colleges and many employers. It is a website that can be used to upload information and teaching and learning resources. It can also foster communication between course participants and their tutors. 

You can participate in activities at a time that suits you, and you can do this from the comfort of your own home, saving you the time and expense of travelling to a  physical course venue. Moodle Workplace is ‘closed’, so only those who have registered for the course will have access to the course. Other people cannot see any of the activity on the Moodle page.

How much does it cost to attend the course?

The course is free. However, voluntary donations are most welcome. We will use any donations to help us run similar courses in the future.

My computer skills are not great – should I still attend?

You don’t need to be a computer genius to do this course! You should be able to use a keyboard and navigate around websites. In terms of computer skills – if you can book a flight or a holiday online, you will likely have the computer skills to take this course. You also need an open mind and a willingness to share your experience and learn from the experiences of other participants. 

Will I get a certificate when I complete the course?

Yes, you can obtain a Certificate of Attendance when you complete the course and if you have participated in a set of core activities. The set of core activities will be available once you join the course.

How do I enrol on the course?

Once you have applied and confirmed your place, we will email you a link to the course. You will be given a username and initial password, which you will change on your first access to the system. But please note there is a waiting list for the online course, so it is likely that there will be a time gap between when you apply and when you might be offered a place.

Can I attend anonymously?

No. Sharing and discussing your experience is an integral part of the course. To build trust, we all participate with our real names. You must keep information shared on the course confidentially and not share it with any other websites or social media platforms. We also encourage you to create a profile within the learning platform to present yourself to your group. 

Will I need to do all the tasks?

In addition to the video meetings, the course will require about two hours of your time every week. We know you probably have a busy schedule, so we keep it as light as possible.  But it is recommended to go through all the steps chronologically to get the best learning experience. We recommend that if you ‘fall behind’ on the materials in a given week, you continue with work in the current week and catch up on those exercises you missed as time permits. The final week of the course is a revision week, allowing you time to catch up on materials from earlier weeks.

What if I have more questions during the course?

Your tutor will be online regularly throughout each week of the course. So will the other members of your learning group. We encourage and welcome your questions. You are not alone.

If we have left anything out that you are not sure about, please get in touch at [email protected] 

Need help?
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