Innovation in electronic learning

Completing a PhD in education while working full time and raising two young children is no ordinary task, but then again, Lynn Casimiro is no ordinary woman. Casimiro, who graduates this spring, has amassed more than two dozen publication credits and many awards for her leading-edge study of how technology is used to teach professional-development programs in health care.

The Ottawa native was most recently recognized for an outstanding paper on the use of e-learning in continuing education. The paper outlines Casimiro’s design of an online workshop to foster team-working skills among health-care providers, and ties in closely with her previous work as project coordinator for the University of Ottawa-based Consortium national de formation en santé (CNFS), which supports French-language training for health-care professionals in Francophone minority communities across Canada.

Casimiro now directs the Champlain region’s Academic Health Council, which promotes interprofessional learning among academic institutions offering health-care programs. “As a mature student, I was really attracted to the Faculty of Education’s flexible approach to graduate studies,” says Casimiro, who works closely with e-learning expert Professor Colla Jean MacDonald. “It has allowed me to combine my academic research with the work that I love.”