Twelve Tips to implement Curriculum Changes in times of Economic Austerity.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Curriculum change is a recurring challenge facing most educational teams. Economic austerity has an impact on these processes in that clinical workloads increase and additional funds to drive curriculum change are lacking. We faced significant challenges having to implement substantial changes to the Year 3 and 4 undergraduate curricula in a large teaching hospital in the United Kingdom. The changes are now implemented successfully and we have taken the opportunity to identify factors that allowed us to drive change and achieve our aims. Much has been written about curriculum change as an academic challenge but comparatively little is known about how to drive such change on the ground and strategies to drive curriculum change during times of ongoing financial austerity are lacking. Here, we reflect on our experience and provide tips for educational teams on how to turn change into an opportunity, despite economic austerity and ever-increasing clinical workload.

Twelve tips to revitalise problem-based learning.

The role of the problem-based learning (PBL) facilitator has seen different interpretations ever since PBL first gained widespread use. What has remained unchanged is the challenge for facilitators to use their knowledge and expertise sparingly and to use their interpersonal skills to improve group dynamics. Medical undergraduates attending PBL sessions have also changed in their skill sets, expectations and the use of technology. Based on the published literature and a recent faculty workshop, we provide PBL facilitators and institutions with 12 tips on how to make PBL more vibrant and interesting. We discuss our tips with reference to published literature and International Academy of Medical Education (AMEE) guidance. Our tips help students to engage with PBL, avoid monotony and make this teaching format more vibrant and fun for all involved. Introducing greater variety to the PBL process may also help with group dynamics by catering for a broader audience with different learning styles.