ipad app to replace logbook

Aim: One of the key ways on which every UK University is assessed each year by its students, is through the National Student Survey. Feedback received during teaching is often the area that students feel least satisfied with. In Optometry public teaching clinics this feedback process is complicated with the learning experience of the student, competing with the demands of the clinical care. The consistency of feedback can be difficult to maintain and the system requires a paper record to be available on demand with no archive of the feedback given to students retained. Logbooks can be mislaid, forgotten or damaged and audit during a clinical cycle is difficult. During the Academic year 2009-2010 a small pilot study was run using the IPod Touch (funded by CLIPP) where feedback was recorded during the test, discussed and then e mailed to the student immediately after clinics, to aid reflection. Although there was no difference in student rated promptness or detail of feedback between electronic and logbook feedback, electronic feedback was rated as easier to read and understand and was preferred by students. It would appear that this system gives a convenient paperless method of achieving immediate, individual feedback to students. Students appear to like the use of innovative technology to enhance their learning environment. However, the keypad on the IPod touch is small and the typing system is easier on the IPad. The aim would now be to implement an Immediate and Paperless Feedback System in Optometry Public Clinics by the creation of i pad apps that would help deliver this process. This would need to have the ability to replace the logbook but also allow the supervisor to send personlised feedback to the student and to a centralised database.