Fachhochschule Campus Wien

Internationalisation of the curriculum of the Bachelor's degree programme in Orthoptics at FH Campus Wien

The degree programme has been increasingly internationalised as part of the curricular development. The aim is to deal with interculturality, diversity and global contexts in orthoptics.

Objectives

For the Orthoptics degree programme, the internationalisation of the curriculum and teaching is becoming increasingly important. The aim is to prepare students for the requirements that globalisation and the increasingly multicultural society bring with them. The associated effects on the health sector, the labour market, health behaviour as well as health care are of particular relevance for the discipline. The degree programme therefore set itself the goal of anchoring internationalisation more firmly in the curriculum in the course of further curricular development. The starting point for the further development of the curriculum were the goals of the university of applied science's internal Strategy 2025 and the internationalisation strategy of FH Campus Wien, as well as the embedding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the curriculum. The revised curriculum conveys an understanding of the different ways of dealing with health, illness and pain as well as the acceptance of visual aids. This understanding forms the essential foundation for respectful and appreciative interaction with patients, relatives and colleagues, and for recognising and classifying different approaches in diagnostics and especially in therapy.

Background

As one of the overarching strategic topics, internationalisation is an integral part of the curricular development that FH Campus Wien degree programmes undergo every 5-7 years. Within this setting, the degree programme deals with the analysis and reflection of the existing curriculum and the (changed) requirements of the professional field as well as developments in the discipline. Based on the guiding question of which global, international and inter-/transcultural competences students should acquire in the course of their studies, the international perspective on the discipline is discussed and integrated into the learning outcomes of the degree programme. In the curriculum, the legal requirements for the occupational profile are to be fulfilled (above all the so-called “Verordnung über FH-Studiengänge für die Ausbildung in den gehobenen medizinisch-technischen Diensten” - regulation on FH degree programmes for training in the upper-level medical-technical services): The orthoptic service includes the autonomous execution of preventive measures as well as the examination, assessment and treatment of visual disorders, strabismus, amblyopia and ocular motor disturbances by medical prescription. Within the framework of the degree programme, technical-methodical competences, social-communicative competences, self-competences and scientific competences are taught.

(Implemented) Activities

The stronger anchoring of internationalisation in the curriculum was based on the examination of the specific requirements of orthoptics as well as on the following questions: > What is the purpose of internationalisation in the curriculum? > How is internationalisation reflected in the learning outcomes? > What is already available? > What is needed in addition? When revising the learning outcomes of the curriculum at course and module level, care was taken to place greater emphasis on the international dimension in existing learning outcomes and to formulate new/supplementary international learning outcomes where these were identified as necessary. In the area of student mobility, the existing mobility window in the form of an internship semester (located in the 5th semester, 23 ECTS) and the cooperation with Kitasato University Tokyo, in which the processing of intercultural and interdisciplinary case studies is planned, were retained. In terms of staff mobility, visits to international internship providers are planned in order to maintain contacts with colleagues abroad and to establish and maintain internship opportunities. In addition, relevant vocational training abroad will be made possible.

Results

The revised curriculum ensures that students develop an appreciative attitude towards others, knowledge in dealing with diversity and an understanding of global contexts in the field of health. The examination of intercultural topics and the development of foreign language skills are made possible for all students. The implementation of the further developed curriculum started with the winter semester 2022/23.

Lessons learned

It is advisable to address the following questions: > Why do we want to internationalise? > How do we want to proceed? > Who is involved or/and affected? The use of the networking and continuing education opportunities at FH Campus Wien proved to be helpful for the qualitative revision of the curriculum: > Participation in the International Day of FH Campus Wien 2019 on the topic of "Global Learning for all students" with international internationalisation experts. > Exchange of ideas at various events, use of existing in-house expertise > The guidelines of FH Campus Wien (guidelines of the accompanying procedure for the further development of the curriculum, FH Strategy 2025, Internationalisation Strategy 2025) > Internal continuing education offers for internationalisation, e.g. workshop with Jos Beelen "Making teaching and learning relevant through internationalising learning outcomes" 2021

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