Fostering teamwork for health care professionals in the online learning environment

The inclusion of group assignments as part of teaching and learning in the education of health professionals is an expectation of registration bodies and health care stakeholders. Effective teamwork skills are seen as essential for productive working relationships in multidisciplinary teams and contributing to better health outcomes for staff and health care consumers. The translation of traditional approaches to teaching health care professionals to the online learning environment requires course coordinators to re-examine the relevance, design and assessment of group work. This presentation showcases the development of online group assessments that applies these education principles to the development of an assessment initiative in a multidiscipline health curriculum. It is anticipated that this translation of group work in higher education to the online learning experience will enhance the learning outcomes and experience for health care professionals and better meet the needs and expectations of students and key stakeholders.