MEU Activities

The Medical Education Unit (MEU) was formed in 2008 following the first curriculum revision workshop under IRQUE.

The functions of the Medical Education Unit are listed below.

  1. Curriculum development – The MEU takes part in the Curriculum Development and Evaluation Committee and arranges activities such as workshops and seminars to improve the curriculum of the faculty periodically and facilitates these activities.
  2. Staff (Faculty) development – design and conduct seminars, workshops etc. for medical teachers (academic staff in the faculty and extended faculty) to help them implement important aspects of medical education including modern teaching, learning and assessment principles and practices.
  3. Conduct educational research regarding teaching/ learning activities, assessment, professional development and ethical development and encourage the adoption of evidence based educational practices.
  4. Quality improvement of the curriculum, teaching/ learning activities and assessments by conducting evaluations and obtaining regular feedback from the teachers, students and stake holders and provide guidance for necessary measures for improvement through the Curriculum Development and Evaluation Committee (CDEC).
  5. Assist the departments in design, development and implementation of high-quality educational material.

Past activities of the MEU

Workshop on Problem Based Learning

A workshop on Problem based learning was held on 21.09.2012 and 22.09.2012. Prof. P. T. Jeyawickramarajah was the resource person for the workshop. Following this workshop, we introduced PBLs to Phases I and II of the curriculum. Since then, we have periodically conducted half day workshops to prepare our demonstrators and academic staff to facilitate PBL sessions.

Curriculum revision workshops

We have periodically arranged curriculum revision workshops to assist the faculty to update the curriculum of our medical course. In these workshops opportunities are provided to the departments to discuss the changes that they propose to make and arrive at conclusions that could be implemented in the curriculum.

Workshop on learning, communication and assessment

This workshop was held on 21.12.2012 and 22.12 2012. The resource person for the workshop was Dr. Prashanthie Vivekananda-Schmidt from the Academic Unit of Medical Education, Medical School, University of Sheffield.

Soft skills development workshop

On 23/11/2013 a workshop was conducted to identify the gaps in the current Medical and AHS curricula in soft skills and including them in the curricula. The participants included all the academic staff and resource persons who take part in teaching in the personal and professional development stream. In addition, discussions on portfolios and clinical audit were also included.

ALERT course

As part of the collaboration between Anglia Ruskin University and the Faculty of Medicine, Jaffna, a four day programme was conducted from 16.03.2015. ALLERT is a course that is aimed to assist doctors, ward nurses, and other staff (e.g. physiotherapists, paramedics) to recognise the ‘at risk’ patient and to initiate the simple treatment required to prevent the spiraling cascade of multi-organ failure, and to improve the communication skills required to facilitate further care. Three resource persons from Anglia Ruskin University took part in the workshop.

Joint session of MEU with College of Medical Educationists

A joint academic meeting between College of Medical Educationists (CME) and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna was held on 21st of October, 2016 at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna. The program included presentations on the current trends in assessment, ensuring reliability and validity of assessment, and outcome based education.

Assisting the faculty in quality assurance and accreditation procedures

The MEU also takes part in activities to ensure quality assurance and accreditation. One such activity conducted by the unit is facilitating peer and student evaluations of the academic staff of the faculty and providing reports to the staff and for filing.

Producing educational material

The unit also produces educational material. The unit staff edit the curriculum book of the faculty and help the Dean’s Office in updating the faculty hand book. The photography unit produces images and videos for educational purposes as well as recording events that occur in the faculty. One such project is assisting the department of Psychiatry to film and edit their lectures and uploading them to the LMS to assist in conducting flipped classes. The students could learn the theory during their own time and could take part in active discussions during the teaching sessions.

Reports of conducted workshops