Practical tips for a fast and successful transition to an online curriculum.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the following lockdown forced educational institutions to transform their face-to-face curriculum into an online programme in a matter of weeks. In this article, we present 12 tips for a successful transition based on the challenges that we faced in the Bachelor of Medicine at Amsterdam Medical Centre. These tips are divided in four main themes: infrastructure, faculty development, student engagement, and teaching activities.

Which social accountability competencies make a good physician? A qualitative investigation of the patient perspective on social accountability.

Objective: Social accountability is an emerging theme in health care education. In previous literature, the perspectives of patients regarding the competencies that they think are required for physicians to demonstrate in this domain are scarce. This study aims to get insight into the competencies in the domain of social accountability that, according to patients, should be demonstrated by physicians.

Opening the black box of team-based learning (TBL): A study of verbal interactions in online application sessions.

Context: In team-based learning (TBL), an instructional strategy that encourages in-depth team discussion and deep learning, interactions in terms of sharing, co-construction, constructive conflict and procedural interactions are important. Since TBL has also been applied online in recent years, the question is whether these interactions are sufficiently present in an online setting.

Aim: Gain insight into the nature and extent of these types of interactions in online TBL application sessions and to what extent these vary between teams and sessions.

An evidence-based roadmap to integrate planetary health education into the medical curriculum.

The urgency for action on climate change is regarded as the defining issue of our time. Planetary health education prepares future healthcare professionals to promote the health of the planet, including sustainable healthcare. This has potential benefits for the healthcare system, patients, community, and the environment.

Team-based learning (TBL): Each phase matters! An empirical study to explore the importance of each phase of TBL.

Context: In Team Based Learning (TBL), it is, based on theory, assumed that knowledge development in each phase contributes to the subsequent phase and to learning performance. However, there is no empirical evidence for this assumption.

Aim: In order to find support for the relation between TBL and the underlying theory, we determined to what extent each phase of TBL is associated with the knowledge development in the next phase and with the total learning performance.

Enhancing the effectiveness of flipped classroom in health science education: a state-of-the-art review.

Background: In a flipped classroom, students acquire knowledge before class and deepen and apply this knowledge during class. This way, lower-order learning goals are achieved before class and higher-order skills are reached during class. This study aims to provide an overview of the factors that contribute to the effectiveness of the flipped classroom and how these factors can be stimulated.

Dealing with emotions: medical undergraduates' preferences in sharing their experiences.

Context: Patient care evokes emotional responses such as uncertainty, grief and pride in medical students. There is a need for opportunities to share and express such emotions because they influence students' professional development and well-being. There is a trend towards introducing mentor programmes into medical curricula.

International survey of veterinarians to assess the importance of competencies in professional practice and education.

Objective: To determine the perceived importance of specific competencies in professional veterinary practice and education among veterinarians in several countries.

Design: Survey-based prospective study.

Sample: 1,137 veterinarians in 10 countries.

Evaluating clinical teachers with the Maastricht clinical teaching questionnaire: how much 'teacher' is in student ratings?

Background: Students are a popular source of data to evaluate the performance of clinical teachers. Instruments to obtain student evaluations must have proven validity. One aspect of validity that often remains underexposed is the possibility of effects of between-student differences and teacher and student characteristics not directly related to teaching performance.

Developing an online professional network for veterinary education: the NOVICE project.

An online professional network for veterinarians, veterinary students, veterinary educationalists, and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) educationalists is being developed under the EU (European Union) Lifelong Learning Programme. The network uses Web 2.0, a term used to describe the new, more interactive version of the Internet, and includes tools such as wikis, blogs, and discussion boards.

Peer group reflection helps clinical teachers to critically reflect on their teaching.

Background: Student evaluations can help clinical teachers to reflect on their teaching skills and find ways to improve their teaching. Studies have shown that the mere presentation of student evaluations is not a sufficient incentive for teachers to critically reflect on their teaching.

Aim: We evaluated and compared the effectiveness of two feedback facilitation strategies that were identical except for a peer reflection meeting.

Students' and teachers' perceived and actual verbal interactions in seminar groups.

Objectives: This study set out to examine how much time students and teachers devote to different learning-oriented interactions during seminar sessions and students' and teachers' perceptions about the occurrence and desirability of these interactions.

Methods: Students and teachers participating in eight seminar group sessions in Year 4 of an undergraduate veterinary curriculum completed an 11-item questionnaire which asked them to rate, on a 5-point Likert scale, the frequency of occurrence and level of desirability of three learning-oriented types of interaction: exploratory questioning; cumulative reasoning, and handling of conflict about knowledge. The questionnaire also invited positive and negative responses to aspects of group interactions and an overall mark (1-10) for the seminars and group interactions.