A GOOD Samaritan Sister who pioneered an ‘online classroom’ to help remote students overcome the tyranny of distance has received an award for innovation from The University of Notre Dame Australia.
Sr Jennifer Farrell SGS, a senior lecturer at the School of Nursing at UNDA’s Broome campus, and her colleagues Sally Clark (Associate Dean) and Donnelle Perry (Sessional Lecturer and Tutor), received the inaugural Vice Chancellor’s Award for Innovation in Curricula, Resources and Approaches to Student Learning in April.
The team developed a web-based classroom facility called Elluminate Live, which enables students to interact with other remote students and teaching staff.
Sr Farrell said the programme is a revelation, especially for the unique needs of the Broome campus, which serves a population of around 350,000, of whom 47 per cent are Indigenous, in the vast, remote Kimberley region.
Elluminate Live enables students to access education from their own residence or community setting by using a computer, web connection, video camera and microphone.
Sr Farrell said before the programme was developed, there were no tertiary education centres in WA delivering nursing education to remote and regional students unless those students were able to leave their communities and families for extended periods.
The former rural midwife said the programme had been developed on growing evidence that an accessible and inclusive approach to education is necessary for people in the Kimberley and Pilbara regions – especially Aboriginal people.
“People living in remote areas like the Kimberley often have limited ability to engage in education and in particular to gain qualification in nursing,” Sr Farrell said.