Evaluating postgraduate midwifery students' experiences of a model of blended learning

The Master of Midwifery Practice (MMP) is a newly accredited postgraduate midwifery course offered in a university in Western Australia, and successful completion of the course leads to registration as a midwife with a Master's degree. This is the first midwifery degree at Master's level offered in Western Australia, which offers another route of entry into the midwifery profession, alongside the Diploma of Midwifery for postgraduate students and both the Dual Degree in Nursing and Midwifery and the Bachelor of Midwifery for undergraduate students. Midwifery students enrolled on the 2-year MMP course are registered nurses, who are offered flexible learning options involving on-campus workshops and online learning, as opposed to traditional on-campus lectures and tutorials.

The learning environment in universities has changed a great deal in an aim to cater for the differing needs of the students it now attracts while continuing to fulfil the obligation to industry and registration agencies to produce safe practitioners. Flexible delivery options allow students to plan work and life commitments around studying (Chan et al, 2014). More mature students are enrolling in university courses than in previous years (Kahu et al, 2014; Keogh, 2014; O'Boyle, 2014), and most fee-paying students need to work to support themselves while studying (Ziskin et al, 2014). Therefore, flexible delivery options were designed and incorporated into the new MMP course, which involved rethinking the structure and course content.