BLENDED LEARNING PATTERN IN MEDICAL EDUCATION
Indian Education system had seen many changing trends but for a long period of time, Classroom learning has had been the permanent thing and was anticipated that nothing can replace classroom learning. We understand and accept the importance of classroom learning. It brings the discipline, system in place, physical interaction, and schedule in place. But do we still think a lot of things among these cannot be achieved digitally? If yes, we need to rethink the idea of learning and should grasp the advantages what other developed nations are attaining with digital and blended learning pattern. The time is changing and we should also change certain things accordingly to be on par with the better part of the world.
Change of learning has begun in our country. A lot of organizations have changed the learning and teaching pattern and the learners along with parents have welcomed this change with an open heart. Experiential Learning is one of the great examples of the changing education system. If we specifically talk about Blended Learning, it is a very interesting and practical concept. Management Institutes, Technical Institutes, and Prep Organizations had followed this learning pattern a bit back and understand its importance. Blended Learning means combining the two different learning modes or patterns majorly online and offline. A lot of things are there which can be learned through virtual interaction and there are few other topics that can be understood through physical interaction or observation. Considering that fact, a lot of institutes and organizations to learning have started reaping the benefits of blended learning. Medigrad.com also follows a similar pattern to impart learning.
There are multiple courses available with Medigrad which are delivered in the blended delivery pattern. The courses like Fellowship in Diabetes, Fellowship in Cardiology, Fellowship in Pediatrics, Fellowship in Gynecology & Obstetrics, and a few more are delivered in the blended format. In the initial part, the courses are delivered through the online format where the hard copies of study material are provided to the students and login credentials are generated for the enrolled doctors to access the online study material including E-Books, PPTs, pre-recorded video sessions, live webinars with the senior doctors, along with the Online Simulation modules. The online delivery is designed in such a way that enables the learners to study at their own pace and according to the time availability. As we know, multiple doctors have diverse working hours due to work nature. A few of them practice during the day time while others have their rotations or postings at night. So, suiting the study time availability of each one of them, the self-paced learning method works. They can access the program from anywhere through their laptops, mobile tablets, mobile phones, and also they are given the hard copies of study material, which they can carry with themselves, bookmark the pages, highlight the important things, and study the way they are used to. After the online learning, they then are posted at the hospitals for clinical exposure. We all understand and believe the fact that medical education is one field which cannot be learned completely online, one must have the practical exposure where they can observe and learn by actually seeing and experiencing what they learned during their online tenure. They are posted to their respective departments, attached with senior doctors, take case histories and do in deep discussions with the trainers.
Blended Learning in Medical is very practical and essential as per the current need & time since both the delivery modes, which is an online learning and then practical learning at hospitals makes it perfect blended learning model and helps the young doctors to make the most their time and learn without quitting their clinical practice or post-graduation preparation.
