Design and development of an arena blended connected learning model for faculty development in health professions education: A step forward.

Current medical education and clinical practice has led to a need for advanced faculty development for medical teachers to effectively play the role of educators, researchers and administrators. There is large variability in the teaching programmes across countries, which range from a one-time activity to regularly scheduled workshops and seminars, to a highly advanced course spanning a few months to a year. Several healthcare institutes around the world offer faculty training programmes in health professions education, where the curriculum varies in design as they are developed and implemented by their own institutional body or education unit.

Public Health Dentistry as a Career Choice - Attitude of Dental Undergraduate Students in Puducherry.

Background: To pursue further education in a particular specialty of dentistry, it is important for dental students to be aware of the "expectation" associated with any specific specialty in dentistry. Therefore students 'attitudes' towards 'expectations' of various specialties, to a large extent enables a meaningful understanding that facilitates appropriate planning in the dental sector for the community.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire based survey was conducted, which included, final year and dental interns studying in two dental institutions, in the State of Puducherry.

Educational Research and Scholarship in India: The Way Forward.

Medical education research (MER) aims to improve the practice of medical education by applying the theory of educational research. Internationally, medical education research has grown exponentially and has established itself as a distinct field. In contrast, in India, the medical faculty is either bogged down by clinical responsibilities, or is busy with biomedical research.

Assessment of Self Perception of Competencies among a Group of Dental interns in Pondicherry, India.

Context: The general dentist must not only have a broad biomedical and clinical education but also be able to demonstrate professional and ethical behavior as well as effective communication and interpersonal skills. In addition he or she must have the ability to evaluate and utilize emerging technologies, continuing professional development opportunities, and problem-solving and critical thinking skills to effectively address current and future issues in health care. But the extent to which the core competencies are taught and the students' level of proficiency in these competencies in Indian scenario is to be explored at large.

Effectiveness of problem-solving exercises in radiology education for undergraduates.

Background: The teaching of radiology to undergraduates in India is largely didactic. We incorporated innovative methods including problem-solving exercises in teaching to assess the impact on the outcome with respect to knowledge and interpretive skills in radiology.

Methods: We enrolled all students of the 2014-15 MBBS batch.