The Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences (SMIMS) located in Gangtok is, for QMed a dream institution!
They were amongst the first institutions, which subscribed to our ELearning courses, when we had them hosted with Mediknit. At that time, they were the only institution that ensured that majority completed all courses. At the end of one year, they took a break. Later when we launched our courses on www.qmedcourses.in, they came back to us for two whole years.
Some of the feedback we received by participants of the program:
- I highly appreciate the initiative as this would largely enable researchers to utilize their time efficiently
- This course has provided me with the information on some minute details of research and the searching process
- I learned the skill of teaching along with learning PubMed!
- I liked how the questionnaire had different attempts so that we can go back and find the answer
- The most interesting part is the distribution of timing for each subtopic
- I have been using PubMed for about 5 years and I have now learnt many features from this course that I never knew before.
Why do we call SMIMS a Dream Institution? Two of their Professors who were the main coordinators made the effort to ensure that the institution made full usage of the learning opportunities we offered. When we asked them what all they did to ensure full usage, they responded:
- They made a single point of contact in every department. This person was responsible to motivate people in the department to register and complete the course.
- They sent reminders for completion to: The specific person in every department; Next – individually to all participants; Third – asked QMed to send to all
- They made it mandatory to submit the certificates for various purposes
We at QMed now want to share these methods with all colleges, showing SMIMS as a role model.
That is a great story, but….
The other side is that SMIMS, after two years of subscription have not decided to renew their access. We are waiting to discuss it further, but it brings us back to our regular challenge – “Why do institutions not consider this learning to be a must for every new batch of students and all new faculty? We are waiting to find out more from SMIMS. Once we learn, we will have to figure out more answers and rework our communications.
Till then:
We ARE very grateful to SMIMS for having been a model institution and for sharing their methodology with us.
We still hope they will change their minds and renew their access once more; this time ensuring that the undergrad medical students will also be made to do the courses.
We continue to be in the quest of finding the best way to ensure every institution’s acceptance of the reality:
“Literature Searching & Referencing are skills that need to be taught in a structured manner and must be made compulsory in the curriculum”.