Capturing the wisdom of the crowd: health professions’ educators meet at a virtual world café

Perspectives on Medical Education

article

McKimm, Judy¹  Ramani, Subha²  Kusurkar, Rashmi A.³  Fornari, Alice⁴  Nadarajah, Vishna Devi⁵  Thampy, Harish⁶  Filipe, Helena P.⁷  Kachur, Elizabeth K.⁸  Hays, Richard⁹ 

[1] Swansea University Medical School;Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School;Faculty of Medicine, Vrije University Amsterdam;Faculty Development, Northwell Health System;International Medical University;University of Manchester, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health;College of Ophthalmology and Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon;Medical Education Development;James Cook University

关键词: Virtual;    Online;    Speed mentoring;    Faculty development;    World café;   

DOI  :  10.1007/s40037-020-00623-y

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: Bohn Stafleu van Loghum B.V.

【 摘 要 】

Background Conversations about educational challenges and potential solutions among a globally and culturally diverse group of health professions’ educators can facilitate identity formation, mentoring relationships and professional network building. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more important to co-create and disseminate knowledge, specifically regarding online and flexible learning formats. Approach Based on the principles of social learning, we combined speed mentoring and world café formats to offer a virtual Zoom™ workshop, with large and small group discussions, to reach health professions’ educators across the globe. The goal was to establish a psychologically safe space for dialogue regarding adaptation to online teaching-learning formats. Evaluation We aimed to establish psychological safety to stimulate thought-provoking discussions within the various small groups and obtain valuable contributions from participants. From these conversations, we were able to formulate ‘hot tips’ on how to adapt to (sometimes new) online teaching-learning formats while nurturing teacher and student wellbeing. Reflection Through this virtual workshop we realized that despite contextual differences, many challenges are common worldwide. We experienced technological difficulties during the session, which needed rapid adaptation by the organising team. We encouraged, but did not pressure, participants to use video and audio during breakout discussions as we wanted them to feel safe and comfortable. The large audience size and different time zones were challenging; therefore, leadership had to be resilient and focussed. Although this virtual format was triggered by the pandemic, the format can be continued in the future to discuss other relevant global education topics.

【 授权许可】

CC BY