[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
The Office of Educational Programs is here to provide logistical educational support at \”LIMU\”.
For all students, There\’s is a point of contact for the shared curriculum and Certificate programming as well as other degree programs. serves as the central hub for new academic initiatives.
Additionally, establish and manages policies that support academic programs
And we offers many educational development opportunities designed to support faculty in their quest to becoming effective educators.
Our array of activities include educator development sessions, Program or events sponsored by Individual consults or department-specific sessions are also available[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_tour][vc_tta_section title=\”Problem based learning (PBL)\” tab_id=\”1619453662929-33e5cc71-7d39\”][vc_column_text]Introduction
Due to the changing nature in medical education and its standards, and because there is a need to shift towards more innovative student-centered learning, the Libyan International Medical University has undertaken significant steps to update its educational strategies to cope with the current trends in medical education
Several educational strategies have been adopted by LIMU namely: Problem Based Learning (PBL), Team Based Learning (TBL), Case Based Clinical Reasoning (CBCR), debates and Seminars.
PBL, TBL, CBCR and seminars are used as active learning methods to motivate students’ participation and to develop their critical reasoning, problem-solving and interpersonal , teamwork skills. Students self and peer assessment during PBL tutorials, seminar presentations, assignment, and students/tutors feedback constitute formative assessment and are used for tracking our program’s effectiveness.
PBL is an essential educational strategy that is applied in various faculties in Libyan International Medical University.
Framework of PBL strategy:
Essentially, PBL is a small group discussion. Each group is composed of 8-10 students.
The curriculum is divided into a number of blocks, each centered on a theme.
During each block, one problem (usually in the form of case scenario) is presented per week. The number of PBL sessions depends on the duration of the block. Typically, students are given a challenging problem at the start of the session to brainstorm its issues and to discuss possible solutions. Learners have the chance to be responsible for their own learning by using the problem as a guide to specify the scope of what needs to be taught.
Students are instructed to use the relevant resources and references. These may include the search for online material, texts, educational websites, media, open educational resources, subject experts etc. . By doing this, they acquire knowledge and skills as self-directed learning, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication skills and group dynamics, necessary for personal growth and development.
Characteristics of good PBL problems: (BJ Duch, SE Groh, 2001; Dee Fink, 2009)
The problem must be motivating. It must motivate learners to seek out a deeper understanding of concepts. It must encourage students to make reasoned decisions and to defend them. The problem should integrate the objectives to connect them to previous knowledge. It should be complex enough to provoke students to work it out as a team.
Is it really worth all the extra effort?
Unlike traditional approaches of teaching, in running a PBL Program, the process is more involved: staff from different specialties must firstly come together to develop the learning objectives for the year, write problems (as clinical scenarios) around these learning objectives, and decide upon the types of resources that students will need to address the learning objectives. Classical teaching methods are cheaper and easier to implement. For example, to organize a didactic series of lectures you only need one lecture room, the lecturer/s, and one set of resources (computer, projector etc.). On the hand, a large number of PBL tutors are required to facilitate multiple small groups of students, a large number of PBL rooms are required to accommodate those groups. Tutors must undergo rigorous training before they can take a PBL group and they are required to attend regular refresher sessions thereafter; they are also required to meet each week prior to the new problem to review and prepare for it. Last but not least, students need to be coached in the PBL process and have access to on-going support in attempting to understand and master it.
Advantages of PBL
- It promotes active self-directed learning
- Students are responsible for their own learning
- It enhances peer learning and teamwork
- Helps students to articulate their old and new knowledge
- It encourages learners to practice clinical reasoning and critical thinking.
- It creates a collaborative student community.
- Develops transferable skills.
- Integrates subjects vertically and horizontally.
Limitations of PBL
- Curriculum design is complex.
- Lack of competent facilitators and teachers.
- Increasing students’ number
- Students whose educational background was based on traditional learning, have difficulties in coping with PBL.
- . Requires large number of rooms.
- Requires well-trained tutors.
- Requires continuous multi-faceted assessment.
- Probably more expensive
Assessment methods:
Students are assessed in formative and summative ways. Point and continuous assessment are integrated in such a way to have a valid and reliable judgement of student knowledge and performance. In addition, students self and peer assessment during PBL sessions, and tutors feedback constitute formative assessment. They are also used to monitor the effectiveness of the program.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=\”Case Based Clinical Reasoning (CBCR)\” tab_id=\”1619453662930-dd489174-903b\”][vc_column_text]
Clinical reasoning is the mental process that occurs when a doctor or a medical student confronts a patient, and is expected to make a conclusion about the possible causes and risk factors, which resulted in this complaint, the most likely diagnosis and patient management (Custers, 2018). Case-based clinical reasoning is practicing clinical reasoning.
How CBCR differ from PBL? In CBCR, the class is flipped in that students have already gone through the intended learning material before coming to class. In addition, the facilitators are more deeply engaged in the actual discussion. The objectives of each session are already known to students while students in PBL exert more effort in formulating objectives they have developed themselves.
What do students do in CBCR?
- Practice critical thinking and clinical reasoning
- Evaluate collected data and relate it to the complaint.
- Use basic biomedical, epidemiological, and clinical knowledge in patient problems
- Make a list of differential diagnosis.
Framework of CBCR strategy:
CBCR is a student-centered strategy that, depends on patients’ problems, and integrates disciplines. It is a small group discussion strategy, each group composed of 10 students. The session is of 2-3 hours duration. Students must prepare themselves in advance. During the session they should participate in answering the questions correctly. Each session is composed of two essential elements: students’ elements, teacher elements.
- Students’ role in case-based learning is: to analyze the case, to ask further questions, to brainstorm information, to list differential diagnosis, and to construct and propose a management plan. All students are expected to be prepared and show active participation in the sessions.
- Teacher’s/ tutor’s role as a facilitator of the session is to moderate the discussion, and to provide students with constructive feedback, either in written form or diffused to the whole class.
Students are instructed to use the relevant resources and references. These may include the search for online material, and books. By doing this, they acquire knowledge and skills as self-directed learning, problem-solving, critical thinking skills, communication skills and group dynamics, necessary for personal growth and development.
Assessment methods:
During the session, self and peer assessment is applied as a method of formative assessment. In case-based clinical reasoning, assessment is done by student self-assessment and self-reporting regarding individual contribution, and how teamwork works. Additionally, peer assessment is also applied. Each student assesses his/her peers according to their contribution inside the class, how they support team members, and their preparation for the topic (Bandranayke & Harden, 2013).
The tutors assess the students individually and as a group, according to their attendance, participation inside the class, sharing their ideas, and their preparation for the session (Bandranayke & Harden, 2013). By the end of the course, in summative assessment, case-based clinical reasoning is assessed in written and OSCE format.
the form of modified essay questions, extended matching questions, and in OSCE.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=\”Team-based learning (TBL)\” tab_id=\”1619454165112-52c1f40f-5f04\”][vc_column_text]Team-Based Learning is a well-defined educational strategy. The TBL allows a single facilitator to conduct multiple small groups simultaneously in the same classroom. The structure of TBL prepares students to work in teams, and communicate with each other. The aim of TBL is to enable students for greater participation, discussion and collaboration (Burgess et al., 2019).
TBL requires students to be responsible to both their teammates for the quality and quantity of their individual work, and for the quality and quantity of their work as a unit.
Advantages of TBL:
- Enhancing problem-solving skills
- Better engagement in learning
- Deeper understanding of concepts
- Replacing or reducing lecture time
- Ensuring that students are prepared and on time to class
- Creating a remarkable amount of energy in the classroom
- Promoting team work, and a sense of responsibility towards teammates
- Encourage critical thinking.
- Suitable for teaching multiple small groups simultaneously.
Disadvantages of TBL:
- Limited time to complete problem solving activities.
- Run by subject experts.
- More modular.
- Low assurance on the student-centered approach involving clinical reasoning among student groups.
- Simultaneous facilitation and assessment of multiple groups can be tedious.
Team formation
The TBL sessions are held once per week. The session is of two hours duration. Students were allocated to teams consisting of either five or six students. Teams remained together for each teaching block. Each group should contain a mix of student characteristics, for instance, gender and educational level. The goal here is to prepare groups to succeed by populating them with members who will bring different perspectives to the task.
There are four essential elements of TBL
- The groups must be properly formed and managed.
- Students must be responsible for the quality of their individual and group work.
- Students must receive immediate feedback.
- Group assignments should induce both learning and team development.
Pre-class activity
Before the session, students were allocated compulsory readings. students must
study assigned materials because each unit begins with the readiness assurance
process (RAP)
In-class activity
Including the Individual Readiness Assurance Test (IRAT), Team Readiness Assurance Test (TRAT), immediate feedback, and Clinical problem-solving activities.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=\”Seminar\” tab_id=\”1619454172999-dea529b3-5fa9\”][vc_column_text]A seminar is a gathering of people for the purpose of a multi-perspective discussing a topic. Such gathering is usually an interactive session where the participants engage in discussions about the topic. The sessions are usually headed by one or two presenters who serve to steer the discussion along the desired course.
Objectives of seminars
- To engage the participants in a discussion of an academic subject for the aim of gaining deepera better understandingknowledge ofinto the subject.
- To transferee some skills or knowledge to the participants.
Advantages of Seminar:
- Seminar gives motivation and learning experience.
- Help to measure the learn-ability of learners.
- Develop self-confidence.
- Enhance socialization.
- Students’ participation in teaching learning process.
- Enhances the ability of the students learning.
- Seminar is theme specific, sufficient knowledge about the subject will be acquired.
- Develop questioning skills.
Limitations of Seminar:
- Setting up of a seminar for every subject is not feasible.
- The taught subject area must be relevant to the seminar’s theme.
- This method found fit for higher learning only.
- Only competent teachers can make this method successful.
- Time management is difficult.
Types of Seminar
seminars are classified in to four types:
- Mini seminar
- Major seminar
- National seminar
- International seminar
Evaluation of Seminar:
- The seminar can be evaluated using formal and informal evaluation methods.
- The evaluation is made to get the immediate feedback from the speaker and participants regarding the details of seminar.
- Questionnaires among others are used as evaluation tools.
References:
Bandranayke, R. C., & Harden, R. M. (2013). A Practical Guide for Medical Education, 176–181
BJ Duch, SE Groh, D. A. (2001). The power of problem-based learning: a practical\” how to\” for teaching undergraduate courses in any discipline.
Burgess, A., Haq, I., Bleasel, J., Roberts, C., Garsia, R., Randal, N., & Mellis, C. (2019). Team-based learning ( TBL ): a community of practice, 1–7. BMC Medical Education.
Custers, E. J. F. M. (2018). Training Clinical Reasoning: Historical and Theoretical Background.
Dee Fink, L. (2009). Editorial. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, (119), 1–7.
.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_tour][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]