Project
Murroe is a small, picturesque village in southeast County Limerick on the border with County Tipperary. The village is surrounded by the Slieve Felim mountains. Many senior residents of Murroe reside in six local nursing homes. A news video initiative exists to provide a link for these residents to their local community. This initiative needs to be redesigned based on an evaluation of what nursing home residents would like to see included.
We regularly produce a 40 minute video which contains local news items (interviews, sports Results, music & song). While this project has been running successfully for the past four years, it now requires renewal and a survey of the target audience to elicit the views of residents of what they would like to see on a news video from the area.
Murroe community group and Abington Enterprise Centre, Murroe, Co. Limerick and four care of the elderly residences in the local area.
A key objective is to give community groups and organisations the opportunity to access resources in their local university. We support our community partners to effectively engage with faculty and students. Community members are provided with information and resources. Evaluation of their experiences of engaging with UL faculty and students and meeting project expectations is undertaking at specific timelines throughout the practicum. Community Evaluation of the project is designed into the project from start to finish. As part of their assessment, students present a briefing to their community partner setting out the outputs and outcomes of the project.
Learning
The students would undertake a survey with the residents of four nursing homes to identify topics they would like to see included in the video. Students would also explore other ideas for the video newsletter including involvement of nursing home residents in the videos and aspects such as duration of the video. One video production will be developed based on students findings.
This practical experience enables students to learn how to evaluate the needs of local residents of nursing homes. They will have opportunities to learn, interviewing and video production skills. It also offers a learning platform which will enable students to facilitate the development and self-assessment of graduate attributes. Students will also be supported to articulate their ideas to a range of audiences within different cultural frameworks and settings and be provided with opportunities to make substantial and positive contributions to a target population in society.
Practicum students undertaking this project local members of the community and residents of five nursing homes in the surrounding area.
Both formative and summative assessment methods will be used. Assessments will be designed to complement the interactive teaching and learning approaches. In particular, methods conducive to workplace assessment will be employed. These will include weekly reflection diaries, a group presentation, a reflective assignment and self-assessment activity.