Massive Open Online Courses: Concept and Implications

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are currently the buzz word in the field of e-learning. By definition, MOOCs are massivecourses considering the number of participants enrolled across the globe per course, are open accessed, and are available online.MOOCs have evolved along the trajectory of correspondence courses, radio- and television-broadcasts, and e-learning. Thoughvarious taxonomies to classify MOCCs exit, two types – Connectivist Massive Open Online Course (cMOOC) and Extended MassiveOpen Online Course (xMOOC) have distinctly emerged. cMOOC promotes creativity and interaction among participants, while xMOOCis used merely for knowledge dispersion. With increased and unrestricted use of internet, and with ease of developing new onlineplatforms, MOOCs are proving to be an evolutionary phenomenon. Many universities and institutes of higher learning are using MOOCsfor knowledge dispersion and skill development. Their role in faculty development, capacity and capability building in medical educationarena is unequivocal. Potential of MOOCs can be well-tapped for conduct of continuing medical education programs, and programs forimproving soft-skills and research skills in medical field for faculty development. This review details the concepts of MOOCs and theirapplication in education field, particularly in medical education, and feasibility of developing MOOCs in India

Flipped Classroom: A Concept for Engaging Medical Students in Learning

Technological advances have created immense pressure on our younger generation to keep themselves abreast with the newerdevelopments in medical sciences. Educators have to evolve innovative pedagogy to help prepare this generation for future challengesas the training periods are getting relatively shorter. Flipped classroom or Inverted classroom is one such innovation that can empower alearner to develop critical thinking skills and master ways to imbibe vast information by engaging students in active learning process.Reading and understanding are carried at home, and the class-time is utilized for higher levels of learning like analyzing, evaluating, andapplication of the basic information. This review article is aimed to guide the educators in applying the concept of flipped classroom intheir teaching learning armamentarium.

Interprofessional Education: An Approach to Improve Healthcare Outcomes

Interprofessional education (IPE) approach allows learners from different health professions viz. – medical, dental, nursing,physiotherapy, psychotherapy, psychology etc., learn from, learn with, and learn about, each other. The scope of learning depends uponthe requirements and curriculum. Interprofessional education can help in creating a workforce that learns to perform collaborativepractice thereby ensuring better health-care outcomes. Medical educators’ and practitioners’ understanding about teaching, learning,and assessment of IPE is rudimentary. Strategies to incorporate IPE in regular curricula need to be debated and barriers associated withits implementation require to be identified. This review highlights the teaching-learning and assessment tools for IPE and discussespotential challenges in its implementation.

Cultivating Lifelong Learning Skills During Graduate Medical Training.

Lifelong learning is referred to as learning practiced by the individual for the whole life, is flexible, and is accessible at all times. Medical Council of India has included lifelong learning as a competency in its new regulations for graduate medical training. Acquisition of metacognitive skills, self-directed learning, self-monitoring, and reflective attitude are the main attributes of lifelong learning; and all of these can be inculcated in the students by using appropriate instructional methodologies. It is time to deliberate upon the instructional designs to foster the lifelong learning skills and behaviors in medical graduates. In this communication, we aim to debrief the concept of lifelong learning, particularly in context with medical training and detailing the process that can be explicitly used to cultivate the attitude of lifelong learning in medical graduates.

Nonspecificity of 35 kDa protein: A proposed marker for the differential diagnosis of M. avium infection in the Indian population.

Objective: The subunit vaccine strategies and development of various diagnostic reagents for Mycobacterium avium infection relies on the presence of secreted, species-specific mycobacterial antigens. The M. avium 35 kDa protein has been suggested as a candidate for vaccine/diagnostic reagent, specifically for M. avium infection. The present study was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic specificity of the M. avium 35 kDa protein in the Indian population. Materials and Methods: Culture filtrate proteins were isolated by growing the bacilli in modified Youman's medium. The 35 kDa protein was purified by high-resolution preparative sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and a blast search was carried out. Western blotting was performed with either monoclonal antibody CS-38 or serum samples of tuberculosis (TB) patients. The 35 kDa-specific immunoglobulin G antibody titer was estimated in the sera of TB patients and healthy individuals by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: Despite the absence of gene for the 35 kDa protein, the sera of TB patients and TB patient's contacts nonspecifically recognize it. Of 109 TB patients tested, the sera of 84 patients in ELISA (percentage recognition = 87.5%) and 27 of 29 TB patients tested in western immunoblotting (percentage recognition = 93.10%) recognized the M. avium 35 kDa protein, while with sera of TB patient's contacts, the recognition was 50%. Conclusion: Contrary to Western studies, the M. avium 35 kDa protein does not seem to be a good candidate for the specific diagnosis of M. avium infection in the Indian population.

Operational difficulties in M.B.B.S. 2nd professional course due to MCI regulations: Is MCI listening.

Students of 1st professional if failed during final exams are not allowed to attend classes of 2nd professional according to MCI rules. These students appear in supplementary exams of 1st professional and after clearing them, join 2nd professional late by 4-6 months. Here lies the operational difficulty: conducting separate supplementary batch for them in 2nd professional is not feasible; and asking them to attend classes with regular batch is a cruelty to them as they will not gain anything when one-third syllabus and basic concepts in 2nd professional subjects have already been covered. Moreover, these supplementary students often rush to courts to have remedial measures-to allow them to appear with regular batch in 2nd professional exams. Sometimes their plea is allowed, sometimes it is dismissed. This paper discusses all these difficulties faced both by faculty and students and also suggest some remedial measures for kind consideration by MCI.

Hyperinsulinemia in subjects with and without coronary artery disease: a preliminary study from North India.

BACKGROUND: Hyperinsulinemia has been associated with obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery disease. However, it is not clear whether hyperinsulinemia by itself is a risk factor for coronary artery disease in the absence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. Therefore, we conducted a study to evaluate the role of hyperinsulinemia in coronary artery disease in the absence of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 80 cases and 50 controls were studied. Only non-diabetic, normotensive, nonobese men (body-mass index < or = 25) were included. The presence of valvular heart disease or an acute coronary event in the past 6 weeks were exclusion criteria. Serum insulin levels were measured in fasting samples by ELISA assay. The mean fasting insulin was 17.0+/-16.5 microIU/ml and 13.3+/-12.9 microIU/ml in the control and study groups, respectively (reference range 1.5-15.6 microIU/ml). There was no significant association between coronary artery disease and the surrogate markers of insulin resistance, namely, fasting insulin (p value 0.367) and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (p value 0.589). CONCLUSIONS: A high-normal fasting insulin level was present in non-diabetic, nonhypertensive, and nonobese men in the Indian population. We suggest that insulin resistance may not per se be an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease. It may be an innocent bystander in coronary artery disease in an obese, hypertensive, and diabetic population. However, due to our small sample size, further studies are required in this direction.