Medical Education and Informatics
  • About Medical Education and Informatics
  • Staff Development
  • Assessment
  • Curriculum Development
  • Clinical Skills Lab

Mission
The mission of the Medical Education and Informatics Department will be to raise the standards of medical education in the College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, by developing expertise and educational programmes tailored to the needs of the Country.

Aims
The medical education Department will oversee the process of medical education in the College and will provide educational services to support, evaluate and thus enhance the educational role of the medical school. Its activities will include research, teaching and providing educational support in the areas of curriculum development, assessment, and, methods of teaching and learning. The context will be undergraduate and postgraduate health professions education.

In particular, we aim to:

provide full preparations, including logistics support, for health professional development courses and workshops, and maintain and improve the quality of the teaching in the College;

provide a realistic simulated clinical environment in which clinical skills can be taught and assessed at all levels of clinical education;

provide students with skills, knowledge and attitudes to correctly and effectively utilize medical informatics in the delivery of healthcare;

provide emotional and educational support to students to empower them to reach their goals, thereby enabling them to become self-aware students and healthcare professionals; 

support the quality of education and research by providing latest IT awareness, high quality services, tools and support for better and competent graduates.

The Medical Education Department has conducted several educational workshops for faculties.  The Certificate in Health Professions Education (CHPE) has run annually since 2003, and the Student Assessment Workshop has run annually since 2005.

Our objectives in staff development are to:

1- Identify the needs of staff in the areas of teaching skills, course and curriculum planning, instructional material design and assessment.

2- Respond to these identified needs by helping staff to acquire the necessary skills.

3- Conduct staff development programmes, e.g. short course, seminars and workshops to assist staff to improve their teaching skills. A current example of such activity is the Certificate in Health Professions Education course and the Workshops on Student Assessment.

4- Conduct introductory programmes for new staff.

5- Alert staff about important issues in medical education.

6- Inform the staff about the unit’s role and activities and promote the availability of its services.

7- Facilitate access to external experts and expertise on medical education.

8- Develop careers of more junior members of staff.

9- Provide award-bearing programmes at the Masters and Doctoral levels.

10- Circulate a medical education newsletter to all College staff and affiliated teachers.

The Department is involved in two broad areas of assessment:

• Supporting online assessment through the University’s e-learning system (Moodle)
• Contributing to and using the International Databank for Enhancement of Assessment and Learning (IDEAL) data base.

 

 

The Department has established the IDEAL (International Databank for Enhancement of Assessment and Learning) office which houses the IDEAL secure assessment databank, liaises with the IDEAL Consortium office in Hong Kong, and offers the service of item analysis. The IDEAL office is in the College Main Building, 2nd floor, room #2064 ext: 3490

Our objectives in the assessment are to:

1- Develop and maintain a data bank of exam questions that have undergone validity and reliability tests.

2- Work with the examination committee to standardize the assessment process in the College.

3- Provide specialist advice on assessment.

4- Provide the College with information about recent trends in assessment.

5- Work towards implementing best practice evidence-based assessment methods.

 Assessment

Online Exam Regulation

 

1. General Conduct of Candidates
1.1 Candidates must not indulge in any behaviour or conduct which may disturb other candidates or disrupt the smooth progress of an examination.

1.2 Candidates are not permitted to smoke in any part of the examination room.

1.3 Candidates must obey the instructions of any invigilator and their attention is drawn to the regulations for the invigilation of examinations governing admission to and departure from the examination room.



2. Conduct of Candidates before online examination


2.1 Candidates are forbidden to take into the examination room any unauthorized books, manuscripts, notes, bags, cases or any means whereby they may improperly obtain assistance in their work. All such materials, including handbags must be placed on a table outside the examination room.

2.2 Candidates are forbidden to take into the examination room electronic transmission device such as Mobile phones, pagers, PDA etc, or any digital storage media such as Flash drives, CD, Floppy disc etc.

2.3 Candidates are forbidden to take into the examination hall paper of any sort. A wipe-able writing slate (or similar material) shall be provided in the examination hall should any candidate require it.

2.4 Candidates must be at the venue of the examination at least 10 minutes before the exam commencement.

2.5 Before the commencement of the examination, the candidate must place on the top right hand comer of the desk, their ID card for inspection by one of the invigilators.



3. Conduct of Candidates during online examination


3.1 Candidates shall only display the examination page throughout the duration of the examination. No other pages should be simultaneously open.

3.2 Candidates must “submit” their examination before leaving the exam venue. This is done by clicking on the “submit” icon at the end of the examination. Failure to submit will result in loss of marks for that examination.

3.3 Candidates must not use any means whatever to communicate or obtain, directly or indirectly, assistance in their work, or give or attempt to give, directly or indirectly, assistance to any other candidate

3.4 Candidates are permitted to use only personal non-programmable electronic calculators in an examination provided they are silent in operation and have independent power supply.

3.5 Any suspected breach of the foregoing Regulations will be the subject of investigation.




4. Guidelines for staff


4.1 Course Coordinators

4.1.1 Any course coordinator planning to conduct an online examination must be familiar with the online examination software. Specifically they,

must have attended online examination workshops conducted by the IT section of the Medical Education Unit. Staff may not conduct online exams if s/he did not attend this workshop

should, independently, be able to set up the examination including uploading of questions

should upload exam questions as close as possible to the day of the examination and preferably not earlier than 24 hours before the examination date

should ensure that security features are activated

should ensure a password protection is applied to the examination access page. Only the course coordinator should set the password.

should ensure the removal of examination questions from the server when the examination is finished


4.1.2 Course coordinators planning to conduct online examinations should inform the Assistant Dean/Examination Office about the type of exam (whether written, online or other) and other required information before the beginning of the semester so that a timetable is formulated and room booking is ensured.

4.1.3 The Examination office will, in turn, inform the Medical Education Unit with regard to times and dates of online exams to ensure the availability of technical help.

4.1.4 No online exams will be entertained nor will technical assistance be provided if the MEU is not informed of online exams ahead of time.

4.2 Invigilators
4.2.1 There must be at least two invigilators in every room where online examination is taking place. The Invigilators assigned should ensure smooth conduct of examinations.

4.2.2 Invigilators should ensure sufficient spacing between candidates during the examination. As a guide, there should be a minimum of 1 meter between any two candidates in the room.

4.2.3 In the unusual case of a student having to leave the examination room temporarily; such a student must be accompanied by an invigilator

4.2.4 Invigilators should ensure that examinations are submitted by the candidates before leaving the examination room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our objectives in curriculum development are to:


1- Maintain a curriculum database that contains all courses objectives, content, course outlines, methods of assessment, recommended reading, handbooks, etc. produced by course coordinators.

2- Respond to specific curriculum needs and assist in the development and evaluation of a core curriculum.

3- Work with the curriculum committee in the planning, implementation and evaluation of a curriculum of a high standard.

4- Promote and become involved in innovations within the curriculum that reflect international best practice.

5- Provide professional and evidence-based educational advice to the College staff.

 

 

 

The College’s Skills Lab has been recently redesigned and reconstructed in order to meet the increasing demand by different departments of the College and SQUH in addition to trainees from OMSB. 

 

The Skills Lab contains the following facilities:

-Clinical Training Material: The Lab contains many videos, audio-visual simulators, computer programmes, models, manikins, Harvey etc. It is also equipped to utilize simulated and real patients for student training. 

 

- Multi-Purpose Room: A multiple purpose room that can be used for teaching, training and workshops with 60 seats and audiovisual aid, IT equipment and cameras.

- Skills Practice Rooms: There are ten of these rooms. Each is equipped with a couch, a curtain, a full set of wall-mounted vital signs measuring equipment, seven seats, an x-ray box, a computer, 2 cameras,2 LCD monitors, a white board and a washing basin with all its facilities. These rooms are usually used for small group practice, self-practice and for conducting practical examinations (OSCE). 

- Display and Control Room: This is the main room for models, simulators and other equipment which are available for use/training. It also contains the main control panel of all the audio-visual system and the internal network of the clinical skills lab which is used to monitor/record any activity in any part of the Lab through the available cameras in the rooms. Videos can be transmitted to all monitors of the Lab.

 

Skills Lab Booking Form

For more information please contact: 

Mr El-Sayed Nassar, 

Superintendent of Clinical Skills Lab, 

Phone: 2414 3449/3451 

Moble: 97756410, 

E mail : synassar@gmail.com