User-Driven Service Design in Health and Social Care

The importance of applying design approaches in health, social and care services is increasingly accepted with growing recognition of the need for health, social and care service sectors to embed user-centred and design thinking approaches. Health, social, and care service design is a relatively emerging interdisciplinary research area bringing together fields such as design, health, social and care services, service management, computing, engineering, ergonomics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and social research. This course highlights the importance of user-driven design in value creation, driving innovation and improvement in health, social and care service delivery and planning and delivering service user care and support.

Outline Content

This course will introduce user design and value creation within the health and social care ecosystems. In later weeks, developing an understanding of user needs and service design and development will be covered. Finally, the course will focus on the implementation and deployment of user services. User-Driven Service Design in Health and Social Care.

This course is for anyone working in health or social care or computational roles who is interested in starting a career in data science OR graduates who are seeking to develop data science skills that can be applied in health, social and care services.

As this course is designed mainly for health and care professionals, we expect our students to have qualifications or work experience in such environments (e.g. NHS National Services, Acute/Community/Public health), Third sector organisations, Social Services, Nursing homes, pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic laboratories, etc.).

You should be educated to a degree level as this course is catering for those seeking postgraduate academic credit. However, professionals who are involved with managing services and caseloads and have 5 years of work experience may also apply even if they do not hold a degree qualification.

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

Entry requirements by country 

You must be comfortable studying and learning in English if it is not your first language.

1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of user-driven design principles and processes and their theoretical concepts in health, social and care service ecosystems.
2. Evaluate and apply the different types of user-driven methods and techniques for identifying, and collecting and integrating digital, analogue and qualitative data information to improve health, social and care services.
3. Investigate and evaluate the conceptual design challenges and opportunities of new and emerging technologies and interaction paradigms in health, social and care services and their interaction with analogue data.

This is a 5-week online course, comprising a total of 100 hours of study.

Assessment is 100% coursework

Academic year 2022/23, Available to all students

Course Start Flexible

Learning and Teaching activities

Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 5, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 1, Online Activities 35, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 5, Formative Assessment Hours 5, Revision Session Hours 1, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 46 )

Assessment 

Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %

Additional Information (Assessment) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %

Feedback Feedback is information provided to the students about their learning relative to learning outcomes. Feedback is also important to identify areas for improvement; for example, course feedback surveys will be an integral component of course development. The two main types of feedback are formative and summative. Formative feedback involves feedback given during an assessment, while summative feedback is provided after an assessment has been completed.

Formative feedback will be provided throughout the course, for example, during live question and answer sessions, quizzes, and on discussion boards. A formative task will also be offered before the student submitting their summative assessed course work. All assignments will be marked, and feedback is provided within fifteen working days (where possible).

Course fees for 23/24 are £1,065 but funded places are available for people employed or unemployed in Scotland (residency requirements apply).

Funding

Through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Upskilling Fund, a limited number of fully-funded places are available on Data Upskilling Short Courses at The University of Edinburgh.

Eligibility

Funded places are available to those who meet SFC fee waiver criteria:

“Courses/provision is open to all Scottish-domiciled/’home fee’ students, which is consistent with SFC’s policy for core funded student places. Students from the rest of the UK (rUK) are not normally considered eligible for SFC funding. If however a university is working with a Scottish/UK employer which has a physical presence or operating in Scotland, rUK employees of that employer would be eligible.”

If you are from outside Scotland, you need to have settled status in the UK and meet other residency criteria:

1. be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for the three years immediately before course start date, and
2.  have ‘settled status’ in the UK (as set out in the Immigration Act 1971) at the course start date, and
3.  be ordinarily resident in Scotland at the course start date.

You can find out more about residency criteria on the SAAS website  or in this summary 

Funding eligibility will be assessed at the point of each application for each course; you may be asked to provide further information if you do not meet the general residence conditions. You can check your likely fee status here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/tuition-fees/fee-status/work-out Please email us at upskilling@ed.ac.uk if you would like to discuss your funding eligibility before applying.

Please note that full-time students (including full-time PhD students) are not eligible for funding.

You will receive a certificate of completion after the final assessment date if you have submitted your coursework.

Data Ethics in Health and Social Care 

Health Data Science

Systems Thinking in Health and Social Care 

This course is offered as part of Data Science for Health and Social Care, an innovative online programme looking to equip students with the data science skills, capabilities and competencies to realise the value of data in a healthcare setting. You can use credits achieved on this course towards postgraduate study on this programme (MSc, PG Diploma or PG Certificate), subject to approval by the Programme Director.

You may also be able to use credits achieved on this course towards other University of Edinburgh postgraduate programmes, subject to the approval of the relevant Programme Director.

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