SLMC College of Medicine hosts FACTS 2.0 to help faculty excel amid online learning challenges
SLMCCM ensures its faculty and staff are equipped with the right knowledge and skills to help provide premium quality education amid online learning.
St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine William H. Quasha Memorial (SLMCCM-WHQM) recently held its Faculty Academic Continuity Training Series (FACTS 2.0) on June 7,9,11,14 and 16, 2021. FACTS is a five-day workshop managed by the SLMCCM Curriculum Committee that provides advanced educational training for the College’s faculty, support staff, and selected students.
Similar to last year’s FACTS 1.0, the College focused on redesigning education to overcome the new academic challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic — most notably online and blended learning.
While FACTS 1.0 focused on redesigning course modules, utilizing learning resources, delivery strategies, and online learning assessments — the second run this year expanded more on addressing challenges in skills development, attitude formation, and assessment of student performance amid the new normal.
College Dean and Chief Academic Officer, Susan Pelea Nagtalon, M.D., MSPH — believes that a second run to address online learning challenges will be vital in defining the success for the College’s near future.
“Through FACTS 2.0, we aim to continue raising the bar in medical education, placing full support behind the SLMCCM faculty as they design and deliver instruction, and prepare our students to serve their patients as the physicians of the future,” Dean Nagtalon said.
To start the five-day seminar, FACTS 2.0 opened day one focused on how to design courses based on the Outcome Based Education (OBE) framework — a method that measures the success of learning based on goals achieved by the students.
Day two taught the faculty and staff about the importance of humanism as a core value in education, an extremely important aspect that is constantly brought up as a challenge in online learning due to the nature of digital communication and the lack of face-to-face interaction.
A humanistic approach to education amid the shift to online learning is one of the highlights of the seminar.
The next three days of FACTS 2.0 delved into the technicalities of effective teaching strategies for online learning. The third day was about writing systematic educational processes and materials, also known as instructional design. The fourth day featured writing course guides, while the fifth and final day was a workshop on how to develop grading rubrics to better assess student performance.
“FACTS 2.0 is guided by the principles of outcome-based education, and aligned with the SLMCCM’s commitment to the formation of healthcare professionals who are clinically competent and ethical, academic and research-oriented, collaborative and patient-centered, socially engaged and compassionate,” added Dean Nagtalon.
To ensure the overall success of the seminar, FACTS 2.0 was structured to create the best-possible learning space for the faculty. The lessons were managed by esteemed educators and resource persons from academic institutions both here and abroad.
After each session, Department Chairs and Subject Heads led the body in reflections about the topic. Afterwards, the faculty engaged in workshops and learning activities to help apply the principles to concrete teaching scenarios.
SLMCCM’s vision is to be a globally-recognized innovator in medical education. SLMC President and CEO, Arturo S. Dela Peña, M.D., FPCS, FACS — believes FACTS 2.0 will help the College in providing the best-possible education for its students amid the disruption caused by COVID-19.
“Education is one of the core foundations to be an excellent and patient-centered physician. We believe hosting FACTS 2.0 for SLMCCM is a necessary course of action to ensure that our students receive the best-possible education during these challenging times brought about by the pandemic,” Dr. De La Peña said.
With two FACTS seminars under its belt in the past two years, the College hopes its faculty members and staff continue to champion humanistic and innovative teaching for its students.
For inquiries on enrollment and student-related matters, please call St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine at 8-8723-0101/ 8-8727-7609 or email [email protected].