Rajalakshmi M1, Kalaiselvan G2

1 – Assistant Professor, 2 – Professor & Head

Department of Community Medicine, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical college and Hospital Puducherry.

Email-id: [email protected]

9043726153

Background:

Competency based medical education (CBME) curriculum in India has introduced many new concepts like foundation course, early clinical exposure, and self-directed learning. The concept of self-directed learning has great importance. Sometimes SDL simply means self-study. Self-directed learning as defined by Knowles is a process in which individuals take the initiative with or without the help of others in diagnosing their learning needs, setting own learning goals, identifying appropriate learning resources, and selecting appropriate learning strategies.

Objectives:

To develop and assess the effect of SDL module in Community Medicine for Phase -3MBBS students.

Materials and Methods:

Study design: It was a program development and evaluation design. The program development consists of free listing and Nominal Group Technique (NGT). The evaluation design consists of formative assessment, end of module assessment and feedback from undergraduate students, postgraduates, and faculties.Data collection procedure:SDL module was developed, validated and implemented among undergraduates of Phase – 3MBBS students.

Results:

Free listing was conducted among undergraduate students those completed phase 3 MBBS examination and Nominal Group Technique was conducted among the faculties (n=7) and Postgraduates of Department of Community Medicine (n=2) to explore the appropriate topics for SDL in Community Medicine.The topic with highest ranking and which was finalized for preparation of SDL module was “National Health Programme”. Formative assessment showed significant improvement in knowledge on National Health Programme. Three fourth 118 (75%) of the students scored ≥ 50 % in summative assessment. Manual content analysisfor the feedback were categorized in to three themes such as facilitating factors, challenges and solutions.

Conclusions:

To conclude SDL can have a very high impact role in medical education.