The teaching and learning activities of the Master, developed in the distance modality, conceived and designed for the autonomous learning of the student, will use the following means and forms.
1. STUDIES OF LEARNING UNITS
The basis of the distance learning is the reading, study and reflection on the learning units configured as didactic units, articles and texts, study guidelines and self-assessment tools, all materials prepared and selected by teachers with a high level of competence and practical knowledge in the field.
In each learning unit, grouped by thematic blocks, links to texts and study materials will be included. A good part of these will be Didactic Units prepared specifically for the Master, and which are available in open access in the Espacio UNED Platform (Collections of the National School of Health), or in a new publication, the GAPS Journal, which will include review and dissemination articles for specialized teaching, specifically commissioned for the courses on the general subject of "Government, Administration and Health Policies" that are developed in the ENS and the UNED. LINK LIST OF COLLECTIONS
The course guides contain the following information for each Teaching Block: a brief introduction; an outline of the Teaching Blocks (objectives and contents), and instructions on study and evaluation. To this information will be added later the scheme of Learning Units, ordered by weeks.
The Learning Units are built on the platform - virtual course. In each Learning Unit the teachers-coordinators of the thematic block will make a brief introduction and will indicate the essential readings that allow to cover the learning objectives; they will also provide a series of items or questions that facilitate the identification of these objectives. Finally, they will provide links and further reading, as well as open-ended self-assessment questions. All the material or links necessary for learning will be specified and accessible from these Units.
Each subject will be able to count on Video-lessons, dedicated to :
Introduction to the didactic block of each subject.
Synthesis of the compulsory contents.
Practical cases.
2. GENERAL COURSE FORUMS
The accompaniment to the study of the Units is essential, and it is developed through the Virtual Classroom of the course; in it appears a Work Plan structured in chronological sequence to stimulate the sequential follow-up of the study; there is a General Forum where the students can communicate with the Academic Direction of the MUAS any doubt, question, suggestion or problem that arises in the course. Along with this instrument a Student Forum is provided, where at the beginning of the course students are encouraged to make a brief self-introduction, and which remains as an arena for horizontal communication of students (among themselves), and with their student representatives of the course.
3. WORK AND TUTORING FORUM OF THE COURSES
Within the Virtual Classroom, and in each Subject, an essential instrument of communication between the students and the Coordinating Professors of each Subject is established. In each Block there will be two Professor-Coordinators who will dynamize the Work and Tutoring Forum; these forums are much more than mere "doubt forums" and are promoted as a place where the Professors launch ideas, propose activities, bring current topics, and rely on questions or comments from students to encourage new discussions and work; the ease with which documents or links are now incorporated into these platforms and forums, creates an enormously creative and enriching dynamic.
The aLF-UNED Platform Forums are designed to send to the internal internet address of all professors and students (and also other external addresses) immediately or periodically, the communication and transcription of new messages incorporated to the discussion threads.
From the initial impulse (as has been observed in all previous editions of the MUAS) the function of the Professor-Coordinator becomes more of a moderator and synthesis of the contents that have been emerging; the closing of the course also allows the Forums to reach some conclusions in the threads of debate and work that have been developed.
4. TUTORIALS AND DIRECT COUNSELING FOR STUDENTS
As a complementary means of support to the students' non-attendance study, the possibility of connecting via email with the Academic Direction and with the Professors-Coordinators of the Subjects is offered; for purposes of greater academic control, this is done through a unified email address, although emails of the Academic Directors are also provided; telephone consultation with the MUAS Secretariat is easy and available every morning; and a call can be arranged with the teaching staff. This direct channel can be particularly useful for very specific problems or difficulties of the student (with the course or with some subject) whose resolution is preferable to be done bilaterally and through direct interaction.
5. ELABORATION OF CASES AND ESSAYS
This activity, framed in Subject number 10 (Case studies and applied experiences) consists of the elaboration by the students of a Case or Essay on a health problem, health services, organization of services, management, or development of health policies, which combines the student's interest with its importance from the health and management perspective, and its academic projection. Specific instructions will be given in the Guide, and in the first classroom session training will be provided on how to develop a case study or a thematic essay; and finally, a collection of the best cases and essays from previous promotions will be made available to the students to serve as a guide and model for their development.
At the beginning of the course, a sequence of presentation of the cases and essays will be established, and in the Virtual Classroom there will be a tool to upload the work, which will be located in an area of the Classroom accessible to all other classmates, so that everyone can share and learn from the work of others.
The Academic Direction of the MUAS and the Professors-Coordinators of Subject 10, will be available to support in the realization (and to evaluate through the court the cases and essays for grading purposes of the subject).
6. ELABORATION OF THE MASTER'S THESIS (TFM)
MUAS students must develop an original work of study and research, which may have different modalities: it can be an original research work with primary or secondary information, elaborated according to the usual characteristics of an article for a scientific journal; it can also be a practical case of management and organization of services, in which a management problem and its improvement alternatives are documented in a sufficiently broad and deep way; It can also be a project of reorganization or transformation of a center, service, unit, technology or service, in which the situation of a given organizational structure is analyzed and documented and the necessary transformation processes are developed (planned or carried out); an essay with a broad and in-depth review of a management or research problem in health services can be an interesting alternative. Given the practical orientation of the Master, the course allows other formats of TFM (portfolio of description and strategic analysis of a health service, map and analysis of care processes, evaluation of interventions, etc.) always with the prior agreement of the Professors-Coordinators of the Subject 9 , and also of the Academic Direction of the MUAS.
As resources for the realization of the TFM, students can count on the support of "external" tutors (experts in the methods of the study or close to the object and data of the research), and "internal" tutors (academic guidance provided by MUAS, ENS and UNED professors who may be familiar with the specific contents of the TFM).
In Subject 9, the guidelines for the TFM are set out more specifically; however, already from the first year (although this subject is in the second year), information and guidelines will be provided, encouraging students to outline their work and identify in advance the relevant information they will need (and, as far as possible, to collect it).
7. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF THE MASTER'S THESIS
The TFM will be submitted for evaluation according to the teaching guide of this subject; students may present and publicly defend their work in face-to-face mode or in non-face-to-face mode (submission of the TFM and oral presentation).
In Subject 9 the guidelines for the development of this activity of presentation and discussion of the TFM are set out more specifically.
The activities carried out in face-to-face mode (at the headquarters of the National School of Health, or at the Faculty of the UNED indicated as appropriate), which involve all subjects, will be the following
1. PRESENTATION OF THE MASTER'S DEGREE
At the beginning of the Master (first year), a session will be held either at the headquarters of the National School of Health, or at one of the UNED Faculties in Madrid, to present the course, the teaching guide, the virtual classroom, the teaching dynamics, and the contact and tutoring tools.
It will also seek the mutual knowledge of the participants, as a motivating element and also as a facilitator of exchange and subsequent communication. In addition, in this session the academic direction and coordination will introduce the contents, seeking the integration of the vision of the Master as a whole, and will also give the appropriate advice so that the students assume the difficulties involved in the distance study components, and are able to program their stable and sustained effort for the study that is programmed in the Work Plan.
2. LECTURES, ROUND TABLES AND THEORETICAL FACE-TO-FACE CLASSES
In the face-to-face sessions, of two days duration, lectures, round tables or face-to-face classes are incorporated on contents of deepening or updating of the subjects already studied, allowing to build on the basis of the personal study at a distance, new cognitive competences or of application of knowledge, and supporting the extension or diversification of the learning carried out. The formats and contents must be adapted to the aspects developed in the subjects studied or those to be studied, and will be subject to a specific programming by the Academic Coordination of the MUAS to ensure currency and adaptation to the aspects discussed in the Forums of the course, and which concentrate the greatest academic interest.
3. FACE-TO-FACE SEMINARS
Also in the face-to-face sessions, seminars are developed coinciding with the subjects (and Thematic Blocks that compose them) where the Professors-Coordinators who have led the Forums and have developed the tutoring function, have the opportunity to interact face-to-face with the students, to comment on what has been learned, to resolve doubts, and to introduce additional contents for updating, application and extension; these seminars can last between one and two hours.
4. FACE-TO-FACE WORKSHOPS
The face-to-face sessions will also include workshops for the acquisition of practical skills and competences, which will complement personal study in those subjects that are not very susceptible to distance learning; practical aspects, calculation exercises, analysis of cases and problems, development and application of methods, etc. They may be between two and three hours long, and students will have a high level of participation and interaction.
5. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF CASES AND ESSAYS.
Of the cases and essays described in the previous activity, the Academic Direction of the MUAS will choose for each classroom session some of them, which for their quality, interest, and fit with the subjects under study, will be presented publicly through a brief presentation by the student, followed by comments from classmates and faculty. This activity bonuses the score obtained in the previous activity, allowing to raise the grade in the case that such presentations add value to the learning process.
