Hi ,
Welcome to the GIC.
The APLS Generic Instructor Course (GIC) is a 3 day program that offers a practical structured approach to teaching and also immerses you into the culture of the APLS faculty.
Your invitation to join this program was because of key skills and attributes which are foundational for instructors who support APLS programs. These include your clinical credibility, ability to work as a team, communication skills, supportiveness and openness to learning.
The GIC program includes:
You will be allocated into a group of four during practice sessions, where you will demonstrate facilitating each of the course teaching modes. Feedback and coaching will be provided following each practice. This is aimed at supporting you achieve the required skills for instructors on their first APLS course. The feedback matrices/ expectations are included in the resources.
All formative assessment will be taken into consideration prior to an invitation to join APLS faculty as an instructor candidate.
The GIC is a practical course where you will deliver or facilitate the following sessions:
Your audience will include instructors and fellow candidates. Instructors will role play a candidate amongst the group you are teaching. Another instructor will provide you with feedback according to the feedback matrices.
These practice teaching sessions are a way of allowing you to put the principles of learner centred facilitation into practice. You will be demonstrating to the faculty that you are capable of achieving the educational aims of your sessions in the allocated time frame.
Please allow 6-8 hours preparation time.
This 5 minute survey is aimed to help GIC faculty adapt to your aims and build on your prior teaching experiences.
Look at what set of resources you have been allocated so that you can prepare your presentations. Save your presentation and resources for the small group discussion to a USB for use via the APLS (Windows Microsoft v16) laptop computers.
Practice sessions are on every day. Your first practice will be on Days 1 and 2. Day 3 is for repeated practice sessions (same content) with modifications you make following your self-reflection and suggestions from your peers and faculty.
Please read the following guide to practice sessions. There are also filmed demonstrations within the Pre-course online learning to help you prepare.
Over the years, some candidates have arrived at the course unprepared for the active role expected of them facilitating practice sessions. Each of the five practice sessions have different resources and they are numbered 1-5 to correlate with the face to face program.
You will be contacted by a member of the GIC faculty in the 1-2 weeks before the course to check in and see how you are going with your preparations.
Please make use of their support so you can enjoy the opportunity the GIC gives you to practice learner-centred facilitation, in a time-limited setting for multi-disciplinary peers over a range of teaching modes.
Following the GIC, learners who continue to demonstrate APLS instructor skills and behaviour will be invited to join APLS faculty, initially as Instructor Candidates. Some candidates will be given extra support to achieve this. After two courses as an Instructor Candidate (IC1 and IC2), learners who continue to display instructor attributes will be formally invited to become a full APLS Instructor.
As an APLS faculty member, continuous development takes place via coaching, peer review, support from our Education team and Instructor Development events held annually. Our philosophy is that there is always more to learn about being an educator, and we encourage and support our faculty members to stay curious.
If you are unsure about anything please ask. I can be contacted via +61421612217 or Jane..Stanford@apls.org.au
I look forward to meeting you and participating in this course with you.
Jane Stanford
Course Educator
APLS uses the REALITi simulation units on GIC and APLS courses. If you're new to using this software, find our user guides and resources here.