The Medical Education Unit of MGMCRI took initiative to organize a Medical Education Conference on 29-30th June 2018. The theme of the conference was “Authentic learning innovations for 2st Century Medicos – Let’s strive to make a difference” (I-CON 2018). This is fourth in the series of medical education conferences hosted by MGMCRI since 2013.
The main objective I-CON 2018 was to provide a common platform for medical educationists, policy makers and medical faculty, from all over the country to deliberate on the meaning and concept of authentic learning, and think of innovations that are based on the needs, motivation and the style of learning of the 21st century medicos.
The Conference was attended by 145 delegates from all over the country including 79 from MGMCRI and 9 from SSSMCRI.
Pre-conference Workshops
I-CON 2018 included seven pre-conference workshops, that provided extensive hands on experience to the participants. The themes and the resource persons were Designing digital learning experiences (Dr. Ravishankar, Dean, Dr. K.A. Narayan, Professor, Community Medicine and Dr. Jagan Mohan, Head, Medical Informatics, MGMVRI); Teaching & Assessment of Professionalism (Dr. BV. Adkoli, Director, CHPE, and Dr. P.F. Kotur, Dean, SSSMCRI), Authentic Assessment Practices (Dr. N. Ananthakrishnan, Dean – Research & AHS, SBV and Dr. Shivasakthy. M, Reader, Prosthodontics, IGIDS), Tailoring Personalized Professional Development for Faculty – Strategies to Lead and Empower by Dr. Krishna Seshadri, Visiting Professor, Medical Education, SBV); Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills (Dr. K. R. Sethuraman, Vice Chancellor, SBV); ‘Devices are not enough: we need Teachers to bring in 21st century learning – Creating Authentic Curriculum for 21st century (Dr. Sanjiv Lewin, EX Convener, MCI Nodal Centre, St. John’s Medical College Hospital, Bangalore, Dr. Nachiket Shankar, Associate Professor, St. John’s Medical College Hospital, Bangalore and Dr. VN. Mahalakshmi, Vice Principal, MGMCRI); Simulation Based Assessment (Dr. Ismail Mohd Saiboon, Senior Consultant Emergency Physician, University Kebangsaan Malaysia; Dr. Dinkar Pai, Director Simulation Centre, MGMCRI; Dr. Hemanth Kumar V.R, AHA Co-ordinator, MGMCRI).
Inaugural Session
Dr Vedprakash Mishra, Chairman, Academic Committee of MCI inaugurated the conference in a glittering function held in the evening of 29th June 2018. In his thought provoking address, he appreciated the theme of I-CON 2018. He argued that only authentic teacher can make a difference to the lives of students and collectively we can bring desirable changes in the system.
Another highlight of the inaugural function was awarding of ‘Key person in medical education’ to Dr K.R. Sethuraman the Vice Chancellor of Sri Balaji Vidya Peeth (DU) for his immense contribution to medical education for over four decades.
Day 2 (30, June 2018)
Key-notes and lead talks by experts
The morning sessions were devoted to the following key note presentations made by various speakers on different facets of authentic learning innovations.
EBM as a tool for Authentic Teaching and Learning (Dr. P.F. Kotur, Dean, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute); Disruptive innovations in medical Education in 21st Century (Dr Vivek Saoji, Vice Chancellor of KLE University, Karnataka); Promoting student growth thru Personalized, Inquiry based learning (Dr. Sanjiv Lewin, EX Convener, MCI Nodal Centre, St. John’s Medical College Hospital, Bangalore); Creating Teams; Fostering Innovations (Dr. K. R. Sethuraman, Vice Chancellor, SBV, Pondicherry);
This was followed by a Symposium on “Creating a collaborative Learning environment” chaired by Dr Gitanjali Batmanabane, Director, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar;
This symposium included presentation made on specific issues such as ‘Design learning spaces that matter’ (Mr. Krish Ramachandran Head – Strategy, Alliances & Macro Initiatives, 361 Degree Minds, Chennai); ‘Making Academic Schedules SMART’ (Dr. V. N. Mahalakshmi, Vice Principal, MGMCRI); ‘Giving students a voice in their learning thru innovations’ (Dr. Sitanshu Sekhar Kar, Associate Dean – Research, JIPMER, Pondicherry); ‘Creating a culture of Professional Learning’ (Dr. Leena Dennis Joseph, SRMC, Chennai)
Parallel Sessions:
I-CON 2018 witnessed active involvement of most of the participants in the form of four parallel sessions, viz., powerpoint presentations, e-posters, video-stories and Pecha Kucha. These small group sessions enabled every participant to share his/her experience and obtain a constructive feedback to gain an insight in to the issue.
The Judges of PowerPoint presentation were Dr. Prabu. V, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College, Pondicherry; Dr. Brig Zile Singh, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Science, Pondicherry; Dr. Jagan Mohan. R, MGMCRI, Pondicherry. The judges for e-posters were Dr. Jayasree. M, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College, Pondicherry; Dr. Kavitha Vasudevan, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry; Dr. Sivaprakash . B, MGMCRI, Pondicherry. The judges for Video-stories and Pecha Kucha were Dr. Sitanshu Sekhar Kar, JIPMER, Pondicherry; Dr. Seetharaman. N, MGMCRI, Pondicherry; Dr. Seetesh Ghose, MGMCRI, Pondicherry.
The I-CON 2018 was sponsored by MCI and ICMR. The conference was awarded 15 Credit points by Tamilnadu Dr. MGR University. I-CON 2018 team was led by Dr M Ravishankar, Dean, Dr V.N. Mahalakshmi, Vice Principal and Dr Seethesh Ghose, Coordinator, MEU in cooperation with Centre for Health Professions Education.
