Building a Medical Education Research Community

Acknowledgement

• Funding: Higher Education Academy Teaching Development Grant (£6944)

“[I felt] isolated in study – I happened to meet someone also on the course just as I was losing the will to continue. This helped as he had similar difficulties and together encouraged each other” [ECE, 2010/11]

“I felt isolated never meeting and discussing course with peers” [ECE, 2009/10]

“More interaction either with other students or tutors. I completed this in isolation. motivation got harder and harder.”

Students report feeling isolated in distance learning and would like to have more student-student and student-tutor interaction

Membership of a learning community, grounds learners in a social network to which they can

return regardless of location providing opportunities to create

sound knowledge syntheses (Wheeler et al 2008)

Structured learning communities can lead to better student

engagement, improved self-reported outcomes and overall

satisfaction (Zhao and Kuh 2004)

This project aims to build the research capacity of our research students through the formation of learning communities

Benefits • improve the overall quality of research

outputs during the Masters

• enhance the overall student experience

• increase student engagement with peers and education

• reduce feelings of isolation and reliance on supervisor

• develop social networks of medical education researchers who share resources and support each other

Monthly synchronous webinars - Student selected topics - Active discussion & interaction

Website with up to date resources & other students work Ability to link to student blogs Live twitter feed @r_ajjawi @CME_Dundee Ability to connect to others Vimeo channel CME Dundee https://vimeo.com/user14447584

9 educational research seminars 70 plays

Publications with Masters students Including links to article

Webinars

• Monthly webinars commenced in Feb with 4 hosted so far

• 1 of those led by a student with 2 more planned in June and August

“Your observation is correct. I have had an isolated journey since I started with Introduction to Medical Education up to the Research Project level currently. I believe this will help me complete my current project urgently”

Challenges

• Server and website

• Time zones

• Difficulty logging in

• Lack of microphone access makes discussion stilted

• Changing culture and building critical mass

Contacts

Rola Ajjawi

r.ajjawi@dundee.ac.uk

@r_ajjawi

@CME_Dundee

University of Dundee CME

https://vimeo.com/user14447584

www.blogs.cmdn.dundee.ac.uk/meded-research

References

Wheeler S et al (2008). The good, the bad and the wiki: Evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(6), 987-995.

Zhao CM & Kuh GD (2004). Adding value: Learning communities and student engagement. Research in Higher Education, 45(2), 115-138.

Questions & suggestions welcomed