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The University of Southampton
Medical Education

Adapting Faculty Development support during Covid-19

Published: 12 October 2020

In a normal academic year, we would provide face-to-face courses and workshops, designed to support staff teaching on the BM Undergraduate programmes. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated widespread changes to the way in which teaching and our related staff development takes place.

Following government restrictions, lecturers needed to move a vast amount of teaching online and we face an uncertain few months, with additional restrictions to standard teaching delivery.  Over the summer, our staff development team has been busy updating and adapting the resources we provide. 

We ran our first online workshop in June, when we piloted a one-day online version of our 'Introduction to Teaching BM Students' course. This was well-received and we are running the course three more times in the coming months (see below for future dates).

The one day course ‘Engaging Large Groups’ was also originally intended to be a face-to-face event, but thanks to a huge amount of work by the planning team, we were able to transfer it online and shift the focus to encapsulate the changing environment.  The course was a collaboration with the Medical Education Innovation Network (MEIN), education leads and a team of four students, and was designed to inspire lecturers to engage their learners and enhance the learning environment. It was attended by nearly 40 participants who gained a lot from the course.  Positive feedback included: “I really enjoyed the course overall and have learnt a lot” and “I just would like to say this course was a real eye-opener on how to deliver lectures, what the students’ needs are.”

In September, we ran our first online ‘New GP Teachers Workshop’.  The course helps to provide new teachers with a clearer idea of the aims and learning outcomes of primary medical care.  As a result, participants’ confidence, enthusiasm and skills in teaching students, are all enriched.  One participant of the recent session noted it, “…really involved everyone, despite Teams making things less easy than a face to face meeting. Fun session, thank you!”

As well as our online courses, we offer a wide range of helpful resources for those who teach and assess our medical students.  These resources include MEDUSA a repository for interactive e-learning modules, including the new ‘Online Teaching and Learning’ page, useful articles, Faculty information and more.

 

Upcoming Online Course Dates

2020/21

  
     
21 October  An introduction to teaching BM students (online course) COURSE FULL
     
11 November An introduction to teaching BM students (online course) APPLY NOW
     
2 December An introduction to teaching BM students (online course) APPLY NOW
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