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| MEDICAL EDUCATION |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 8
| Issue : 1 | Page : 125-132 |
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Using entertainment media to teach undergraduate psychiatry: Perspectives on the need and models of innovation
Suhas Chandran1, Priya Sreedaran1, Johnson Pradeep1, SM Manohari1, Pooja Patnaik Kuppili2, M Kishor3
1 Department of Psychiatry, St. John's Medical College and Hospital, St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
2 Department of Psychiatry, Sri Venkateshwara Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Puducherry, India
3 Department of Psychiatry, J.S.S Medical College and Hospital, Mysuru, Karnataka, India
| Date of Submission | 13-Apr-2020 |
| Date of Decision | 01-May-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 03-May-2020 |
| Date of Web Publication | 20-Jun-2020 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Suhas Chandran
Department of Psychiatry, St. John's Medical College and Hospital, St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru - 560 034, Karnataka
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/amhs.amhs_57_20
Background and Objective: Medical education is undergoing a seminal change with respect to curriculum as well as teaching methods, with students in tune with the current developments in the technology and seeking newer techniques to learn medicine. The rapid pace of progression of medical science, and the breadth and depth of material to be learned, warrants formulation of techniques light on time and learning intensive. In this article, we explore such potential ideas and the principles behind using them for undergraduate (UG) education, with concepts about how they can be integrated into the current UG curriculum. Materials and Methods: Electronic searches of databases PubMed and Google Scholar were carried out to identify and include English language articles from inception till December 2019, and 36 relevant articles were selected for review. Results: The observational/passive methods included music, movies, television shows, radio, and podcasts, whereas the active methods included role play, simulated class press conferences, courtrooms, art, designing posters and pamphlets, games and gamification, Pictionary, tabletop games, and also creative writing – short stories and poetry. Conclusion: A student-centered approach rather than an exclusive technology-based approach would be ideal, and these unconventional and innovative methods provide opportunity to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information rather a process of passive listening.
Keywords: Entertainment media, innovative teaching models, teaching psychiatry, undergraduate education, using technology to teach
How to cite this article:
Chandran S, Sreedaran P, Pradeep J, Manohari S M, Kuppili PP, Kishor M. Using entertainment media to teach undergraduate psychiatry: Perspectives on the need and models of innovation. Arch Med Health Sci 2020;8:125-32 |
How to cite this URL:
Chandran S, Sreedaran P, Pradeep J, Manohari S M, Kuppili PP, Kishor M. Using entertainment media to teach undergraduate psychiatry: Perspectives on the need and models of innovation. Arch Med Health Sci [serial online] 2020 [cited 2023 Mar 31];8:125-32. Available from: https://www.amhsjournal.org/text.asp?2020/8/1/125/287367 |
| Introduction | |  |
India has a significant dearth of psychiatrists, with only 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 population.[1] Only 0.66% of MBBS graduates in India enter psychiatry, and an even smaller number do it with interest.[2] Psychiatry in undergraduate (UG) medical education is earmarked a very small duration of the total teaching hours, with just 20 h of lectures and 2 weeks of clinical posting in the department.[3] As a result, students are hardly exposed to the subject and therefore do not show interest in choosing it as a career choice.
A medical UG student is required to learn a vast amount of knowledge and skill sets in a very short span of time. As such, the time allocated for psychiatry is considerably low compared to that of Western curricula.[4],[5] The ideal solution would be to increase the time allocated to psychiatry, but this has not been implemented despite protracted proactive dialogs with relevant governing bodies. Given the scenario, maximizing the efficient utilization of the available hours seems a more viable option, and keeping this time crunch in mind, we need to devise ways of teaching which can be knowledge intensive but light on time. In order to recruit more students, it is necessary for the teaching faculty in psychiatry to adopt new innovative teaching methods which can arouse interest and provide comprehensive information about subject matter as well as clinical skills within a short period of time. The Medical Council of India (MCI) has recommended competency-based learning for UG education, where each competency is composed of knowledge, skill, and attitude or communication. The Competency Based Undergraduate Curriculum for the Indian Medical Graduate 2018 for Psychiatry consists of 19 topics, 117 outcomes/competencies, and 47 horizontal/vertical integrations.[6] The teaching and evaluation methods, though, are not clearly defined, and this provides an opportunity to incorporate creative techniques in order to fulfill these curricular changes. This is also where the use of innovative methods such as media and entertainment could potentially have a role. “Entertainment” has been defined as: “communication featuring external stimuli; providing pleasure to some people, though not of course to everyone; and reaching a generally passive audience.”[7] For the purpose of this article, we consider “entertainment media” as those forms of communication which are used recreationally, are interactive to a large extent, digital or nondigital; and engage the user with the help of multiple sensory modalities and in this article, we attempt to explore the models and means in which they can be integrated into teaching UG psychiatry.
| Materials and Methods | | |
Search strategy and study selection
Electronic searches of MEDLINE, PubMed, and Google Scholar were carried out from inception till December 2019. We used the following search terms which included combinations of MeSH or free text terms – “psychiatry teaching in undergraduate medical curriculum,” “innovative teaching strategies in undergraduate medicine,” “entertainment in undergraduate medical teaching,” “movies and psychiatry,” “art in psychiatry teaching,” “drama in undergraduate psychiatry teaching,” and “role play in undergraduate psychiatry.” Reference lists of generated articles were also hand searched in order to ensure completeness. Inclusion criteria were English language articles with full text which discussed about nontraditional methods of teaching psychiatry to UG students. We excluded articles without full text and which did not specifically mention UG psychiatry education. Searches were done by all authors independently, and the final list of articles was decided by discussion and consensus. The initial search yielded 1455 articles, of which relevant English language articles with full text were examined, and 36 articles were chosen for this narrative review.
Data extraction
We categorized the existing literature based on methods used for teaching UG psychiatry, into arbitrary groups of observational and participational, and extracted data pertaining to author names, year of study, techniques used, and outcomes of different methods.
In addition to the information obtained from various articles, other novel ideas have been incorporated into the present article, gleaned from personal experience of the authors in UG psychiatry education.
| Results | | |
The age of the digital native
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, the “digital native” is a person born or brought up during the age of digital technology.[8] It is a term that closely applies to the current generation of medical students who are comfortable with and even prefer using technology, familiar with the computer and Internet right from an early age.
For educators, this poses a great challenge. Considering the penetration of digital technology into the realm of education in the last decade, these are students who now enter medical college after finishing their preliminary education being so used to getting their information in various digital formats such as audio/visual, virtual simulation, and online notes. Therefore, the questions facing us are: Is there a prospect to use this to our advantage? Is it possible to incorporate some of these digital elements into an official medical curriculum?[9]
There are many unconventional teaching methods, and the constantly evolving technology can be amalgamated with inventive ideas to design interesting teaching aids and solutions. These methods can be arbitrarily segregated for ease of understanding and implementation into observational /implicit/passive methods or participational/explicit/active methods. The observational methods include music, movies, television (TV) shows, radio, and podcasts, whereas the active methods include role play, simulated class press conferences, courtrooms, art, designing posters and pamphlets, games and gamification, Pictionary, tabletop games, and also creative writing – short stories and poetry [Table 1] and [Table 2].
The passive/observational methods
Eliciting psychopathology, being able to understand, or to unravel the antecedent causes for the current behavior or mood states is an integral part of learning UG psychiatry. This process involves good communication, building rapport, listening to the patients' words, in addition to understanding the nonverbal cues and reading between the lines in order to make accurate observations and inferences, which is of paramount importance. This also requires training the brain to sustain attention throughout the interview. Watching or designing activities around films and TV shows, and exposure to music, would be good exercises to build these skills and utilize them in learning psychiatry in the clinics [Figure 1].
Various movies have been used to teach different aspects of education, professionalism, and other competencies to students in a step-by-step manner.[10] “Cinemeducation,” the art of using cinema to teach medicine, through a narrative approach, serves to develop self-awareness, altruism, compassion, and empathy.[11] Films have long been used for educational purposes, and have previously been reviewed extensively in relation to teaching psychiatry and related aspects.[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18] Therefore, in this review, we will focus on other methods that have been less discussed in literature.
Television shows
TV shows have also been used in a similar manner to movies for UG teaching. A university hospital offered a seminar course for teaching medicine using the TV show House MD. It was found to be useful in teaching valuable soft skills such as teamwork, communication, as well as generating discussions about bio-ethical issues and professional interactions.[19] McNeilly and Wengel conducted the “ER Seminar,” where clinical vignettes from the show ER were used to illustrate encounters with emotional patients, personality disorders, boundary setting, and breaking bad news. It was seen that the seminar helped them gain insight into their own ability to tolerate emotional exchanges with patients, and they were better able to recognize their own counter-transference.[20]
How this could be translated to academics
For instance, a lecture on psychopathology can be preceded by relevant movie clips, followed by a discussion based on students' observations, before delving into the theoretical aspects, with audio/video clips integrated into the regular classroom slides to demonstrate practical examples for students to observe and learn.
A formal movie club could also be instituted with interested members of student and faculty groups, and regular screening of movies could be done in the department itself. This would ideally follow a discussion of the themes and psychiatric symptoms depicted in the movie, with a follow-up discussion focusing on real-life clinical scenarios related to the movie themes [Table 3].
Exercises such as writing a critique or a summary would be more beneficial as it would force the student to think of all sides of the story and also identify mistakes, and thereby help them learn better and contextualize them into their own clinical practice.
Strengths
TV shows have the advantage of being able to cater to a large group of students at the same time. They also are able to sustain attention through a multimodal sensory experience.
Challenges
The artistic liberties taken while depicting medical or psychiatric symptoms or consequences may be misleading, and care has to be taken to address these shortcomings in the ensuing discussions as well. They may also not be universally applicable to different cultures, for instance, the depiction of homosexuality and its challenges in Western movies may be different compared to that in the Indian society. Interpretation and application into regular clinical practice, therefore, needs care and discretion from the faculty as per the prevailing cultural norms.
Art
Using artwork by well-known artists to teach psychopathology to UGs is an interesting premise, and would help understand many difficult topics with relative ease and quickness, and can be used as an add-on brief class to help clarify the basics.
How this could be translated to academics
For instance, if we consider Vincent van Gogh, the work Starry Night could be used to explain perceptual abnormalities, and Cemetery in the Rain for depressed mood, and Poppies with Butterflies to explain mania. The Scream, Melancholy, Anxiety, and Self-Portrait in Distress byEdvard Munch, Polka Dots which depict obsessions by Yayoi Kusama, and The Madman which show schizophrenia by Picasso, are all works which can be used in UG teaching, as they assist students to visualize the theoretical explanations given in books and taught in classes about different psychiatric illnesses and phenomena.[21]
Strengths
Art transcends cultural boundaries and helps students visualize abstract ideas easier than paragraphs of plain text.
Challenges
The subjectivity of interpretation may cause difficulties, but when properly addressed in discussion, it could potentially assist students in learning to see the same problem from different perspectives.
Photography
Hugh Welch Diamond, a British psychiatrist, took the first picture of a psychiatric patient 3 months after the positive and negative processing of photographs was invented, with the aim of diagnosing, treating, and cataloguing patients.[22] These records can be used to introduce the history of psychiatry.
How this could be translated to academics
A seminar on psychiatry through art and photography could be conducted, with many artworks, photographs projected onto the screen to explore general appearance and behavior, objective affect, symptoms, illness, and phenomenology, leading to the understanding of the psychopathology. Real pictorial representations of various cases, to which students might not get the exposure in their short postings, can be shown.
Strengths
Compared to art, photography has the advantage of displaying the exact event or image without any distortions. It provides an objective method to identify and interpret signs, facial expressions, and body posture. The rich, engaging format and uniform emotional legibility make photography an effective way of teaching.
Challenges
Consent needs to be obtained from the participating patients.
Music
Subtle parallels have always been drawn between music and medicine. In the recent past, artists have created music about issues, which have significant relevance to the current mental health practice.[23]
van Roessel and Shafer used a classical music composition to demonstrate the complexity of each encounter – the depth of cues and elements expressed during the interview. This was done by encouraging the student to consider pitch, rhythm, voicing, and repetition in music, reflecting the complex interplay of behaviors and attitudes of patients, caregivers, and their interactions, each of which would impact the illness presentation in ways relevant to the practitioner in order to prepare a comprehensive management plan.[24] Another study noted that listening to a difficult piece of music through to the end would impart the skill of attention, which could be easily transferred to the consultation room.[25]
How this could be translated to academics
The particular exercise explained above would be hard to replicate, but the selected music could be shared with the class before lectures and audio clips can be played in class with active discussion based on the individual elements of the composition correlating to different aspects of patient care.
Strengths
Using music to teach aspects of psychiatry is novel, and may intrigue teachers and learners alike. Attention apart, music has also been found to strengthen cognitive functions such as abstraction and verbal learning and has been found to significantly increase frontal and temporal electroencephalography power and coherence. Along with this, affective mediation of cognitive processing also helps improve memory and other cognitive functions.[26]
Challenges
Tastes in music are not universally similar, and may not have equal impact or arouse the same amount of interest in every student. It may, therefore, be difficult to translate it into a uniformly effective teaching form for all students.
To summarize, observational methods provide a good opportunity for departure from the traditional didactic methods and allows students to listen to emotional narratives, which would broaden the students' perspectives and augment lateral thinking. It serves the dual purpose of improving the understanding of mental health as well as enhancing abstract thinking.
Active methods
Active participation of students in various activities which would utilize skills necessary in regular psychiatric practice is an interesting way to captivate attention, increase engagement and motivation, provide a deeper understanding, assist in visualizing the theoretical models, and apply them into clinical contexts [Figure 2].
Role play
Role plays are especially helpful in discussing difficult topics such as suicidality, sexual history, somatization disorders, or disclosing difficult diagnoses, where students might feel awkward and apprehensive. Role plays can be conducted by students playing the roles of both patient and health professional, or by using the standardized patient (SP) approach. In the SP approach, a trained professional plays the role of an SP. This brings uniformity and repeatability to the training which ensures that all students are exposed to a similar level of difficulty. The Medical University of Vienna has communication training with SPs in psychiatry, where the SP plays different patient roles, and the students receive constructive criticism at the end of the session.[27]
Another study uses a slightly modified approach in contrast to the regular one-on-one interaction in the traditional setting. Here, the role play is conducted with the class as audience and participators, followed by group discussion about the skills exercised and the clinical entity per se. These situations give the opportunity for students to identify their own responses and feelings toward the SP and learn to check themselves from making spontaneous comments and to maintain a nonjudgmental neutral countenance.[28]
How this could be translated to academics
Role play can be conducted as part of the UG clinical posting. The role play of an interaction with a suicidal patient could teach subtle things which would not be picked up through books, in terms of body language, approach to patient, and empathy.
Strengths
These can be easily conducted in classrooms with minimal resources, which provides students with hands-on learning.
Challenges
Needs preparation and could be expensive if an SP is used.
Social media
Social media can be used in medical education without compromising professionalism, and has received positive feedback from users.[29] It has correlation with student affect, by enhancing learner engagement and experience.[30] However, Pander et al. note that there is no conclusive evidence in terms of achieving higher student competence levels by using social media for education.[31] Distraction and compromise in privacy are some of the drawbacks noted. When social media use was compared between medical students and medical educators, it was found that students preferred certain posts such as quizzes and revision files, whereas educators focused on posting videos, articles, and explanatory comments, which created a digital divide.[32]
How this could be translated to academics
Easy sharing of resources in multiple formats, such as infographics, educational videos, soft copies of books and scientific articles, audio clips, and website links, and engaging in active discussions in a dedicated online community are distinct advantages. Implemented thoughtfully, this can overcome the barrier of limited time allocated to psychiatry clinical posting and academics, as students can involve themselves in active discussions in their free time, even after completion of the posting.
Participating in Facebook groups at the national and global level is also easy, and can provide fresh perspectives and varied cultural nuances coloring clinical presentations and differing interpretations and management aspects. In addition, in keeping with the students' preference of quizzes and interactive formats, educators can upload sets of questions on different topics, with educators providing answers and explanations after student participation, ensuring accurate information from trusted sources.
WhatsApp/Telegram groups are also an easy way of networking and learning, where students from different institutions from all over the country discuss and share material and network. A pan country network could be formed through these groups to share academic materials and brainstorm on research ideas.
Strengths
Along with studies and learning, social media goes a long way in networking and building career connections, even with overseas experts in the field. Students can even initiate discussions on specific topics through “hashtags.” The Bring Your Own Device policy, where students bring internet-enabled devices to class, using them for learning, can improve engagement in lectures. The ubiquitous nature of Facebook and WhatsApp use makes them prime choices as pedestals on which innovative educative formats can be built with ease in a cost-effective manner.
Challenges
The one major drawback with social media use is the numerous opportunities it provides for distractions, due to pop-ups of suggested videos/images, which can effectively derail the learner. These can be avoided by incorporating blocks, but needs significant streamlining in order to work as efficient learning/teaching tools.
Podcasts
Podcasts are audio files which can be broadcast over the Internet. Topic discussions are facilitated by students, with faculty guidance, consisting of summaries of the day's learning of psychiatry. These are open to student callers, who can call the speakers and ask for clarifications during the podcast. At the end of the session, visual infographics are also made available, which would help in further consolidating the knowledge gained. Video podcasts are also being attempted in few institutions. Podcasts can also help in building a rapport with medical students, which could be beneficial in recruitment and retention of students into psychiatry.[33]
How this could be translated to academics
They can be conducted as live audio interactive sessions, open to callers, with the whole session being recorded and shared with students along with the visual info graphics. Few minutes at the end of the day could be dedicated for it, with a recording setup installed in the department. The sessions can form a database of concise summaries available for perusal wherever needed. It can be conducted with students divided into sets of 4–5, with each set responsible for the week's podcasts.
Strengths
The major advantage is time management, as students can listen to them “on the go,” for instance, while commuting.
Games
Games are increasingly being used as teaching supplements in medical education, and are based on skill, learning, and strategy.[34] Thinking games are those with clinical decision-making pathways, whereas simulation games simulate real clinical scenarios with the player as the doctor and various others.[35] Pictionary is another game where each player is given a topic, and has to help his/her teammates guess the topic by drawing pictures related to that particular topic. This can be used to make connections between terminologies and concepts, especially to understand psychopathology and visualize textbook models into practical scenarios.
How this could be translated to academics
Games, in general, are simple enough and can be incorporated into any schedule or curriculum, as they have flexibility and can be used according to the students' needs, in their own time, at their own pace. They also have appealing graphics which helps reduce boredom, ensuring that students continue playing even when they reach harder levels. Gamified course modules can include video and audio lectures, slideshows, quizzes, virtual patient simulations with resources for further detailed reading, and various tasks and assignments integrated into the game.[35] They are mainly used as an adjunct to other standard teaching methods.[36] Game-based learning platforms such as Kahoot! can be easily incorporated into daily classroom learning, where teachers can custom-create quizzes, games, and interactive tasks based on new or review material.[37]
Strengths
They enhance analytical thinking, and rewards and appealing graphics motivate students to learn extensively, due to the step-wise increase in complexity. The added advantages improve retention and recall, and simulation-based learning makes use of these gamified modules a highly useful one, and can be provided in the form of websites or mobile phone applications.
Challenges
If used with the exclusion of prescribed reading material, it may lead to inadequate knowledge on a particular subject.
Story-telling and film making
Here, students learn by creating a story or a film, where they are encouraged to think of a particular illness, various possibilities and outcomes based on the actions of different individuals involved, and thus various story arcs which follow. This helps the student to understand a particular condition and all its facets. It would also increase interest and engage students' creatively. The story could be created with the use of multimedia such as video, photographs, audio, and others, with the aim of stimulating reflection through the creative process. It involves a step-wise approach, with reflective learning occurring at each step of the process, right from choosing the topic, which enhances deep learning.[38]
How this could be translated to academics
It can be used in a similar approach as in podcasts, with each group of students creating a digital story about a particular illness and sharing with the rest. These stories can be further put to use to teach future students, with a progressive expansion of the digital story library, which itself has the potential of being a storehouse of information for quick learning.[39] For instance, a difficult concept to understand is psychosis, but UGs come across multiple situations where they interact and treat psychotic patients, with the most common being in the emergency setup. A digital story about psychosis could include a video about the biological aspects of psychosis, and what conditions it occurs in. It could also include audio clips of patient interviews, where delusions or hallucinations can be explored. This could be followed by a video of hallucinatory behavior, and then a theoretical discussion about these themes, with a basic introduction to antipsychotics.
Strengths and challenges
It requires digital knowhow and may be time-consuming, but help participants gain in-depth knowledge of the chosen topic.
Print media: How they could be translated to academics
Newspapers
These could be used as a noncurricular active learning source, illustrated by the following examples. Newspaper clubs can be conducted to connect theories learned in classroom with real-life events, for example, the eleven suicide deaths in the Burari family in Delhi, presumed to be caused by a delusional family member.[40] This particular topic could be used to initiate discussion about delusional disorders, induced delusional disorders, etc.
Books
Interested students can join the book club and choose a book for the month. At the end of the month, a discussion on relevant topics can be conducted, which would provide deeper insights into medical as well as social aspects. Examples of such books are Brain on Fire and The man who mistook his wife for a hat. To describe a specific example, the novel Sharp Objects can be used to initiate a discussion about deliberate self-harm, which is quite commonly encountered by the medical UG.
Creating tableaus or living pictures
Tableaus are still pictures which communicate the meaning of a concept using physical poses, gestures, facial expressions, and props, but without the use of sound or speech. This could be used to depict movement disorders such as chorea, catatonic signs, and dissociative motor disorders. Tableaus of different signs of catatonia, such as mitmachen or mitgehen, perseveration, and negativism, could help drive home the identificatory points. These help students better relate to theoretical concepts and help commit them to memory.
Simulated press conferences
This involves conducting a mock press conference in the classroom, by choosing few students to prepare for a topic, and for the rest to prepare questions for the same. The effort invested to prepare questions in itself can help understand the topic better. This method ensures that all students are involved in the learning process, rather than few students preparing and others passively listen.
Simulated courtrooms can also be conducted on similar lines, for instance, a simulation of a courtroom interview of a doctor, where questions about ward observation reports and documentation could help sensitize UGs to the nuances of forensic aspects of psychiatry and medicine.
Limitations of using entertainment media
The entertainment media can be used as an effective resource for UG psychiatry teaching. They have often been used as a means for health promotion activities, by improving the knowledge and attitude. However, few issues have to be carefully addressed while utilizing entertainment media in teaching.
Many a times, the content is misrepresented, and this is commonly encountered in the movies and TV shows. For example, electroconvulsive therapy is often portrayed as a method of torture and the procedure is not aptly depicted, leading to faulty learning among the students.[41] In addition, the causes and clinical features of psychiatric illnesses have often been wrongfully discussed in the media. Furthermore, psychotropic medications have been depicted to cause devastating side effects, thereby can lead to the students harboring negative beliefs regarding it.[42] Lastly, mass media, at times has been a source of structural stigma by labeling the patients as dangerous and thereby, strengthening the stereotypes of patients suffering from psychiatric illness. This can lead to fear, discrimination, and hostility toward the patients.[43] Furthermore, mental health professionals have been often shown in a bad light as “crazy,” “jesters,” which can affect the attitude of the UGs toward psychiatry and psychiatrists. Hence, it is imperative to carefully monitor the content of the educational media and ensure that it is in tandem with the psychiatry curriculum.
| Conclusion | | |
Medical education is currently at a crucial crossroads and there is a need for radical reinvention of time-saving teaching strategies, which also captivate trainee interest. These methods need to provide opportunities to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information rather than involving students in passive listening. They also need to generate a positive regard for psychiatry and inspire students to take up psychiatry as a career choice. Digital media, which has become an inseparable part of modern life, must be harnessed in education too, but with an audience-centered rather than technology-centered approach.
Being in the midst of a global pandemic, the coronavirus disease 19, learning from home and distance learning has become a grave necessity, in keeping with continued education in times of social distancing. The digital methods are especially useful in this regard, where students can access content; discuss with teachers and peers on online forums; have virtual classrooms, games, and activities to boost interest and motivation; and continue learning at home without disruption. However, unless backed by theoretical understanding, it can be detrimental to education, and many techniques discussed here are novel, and as of yet, not studied scientifically and lack evidence-based practices. Further exploration is needed into the use and effectiveness of these methods before they can be incorporated into the regular UG curriculum. That said, carrying on with old methods of teaching alone could also be counterproductive, and educators need to effectively employ a creative approach to integrate new approaches into standard tested methods in an innovative manner.
Summary
- Students prefer integration of technology into teaching methods, which need to be interactive, learner centered and time saving
- Novel teaching methods can lead to either active or passive learning. Active learning occurs through role play, participating in podcasts, digital storytelling, games and gamification, and simulation-based learning. Passive learning occurs through observation of movies, TV shows, music, art, photography, and drama
- MCI-recommended Competency Based Undergraduate Curriculum for the Indian Medical Graduate 2018 for Psychiatry has specified multiple topics for integration into UG curriculum, which can be potentially effectively conducted through these methods
- The authors agree with the notion that an audience-centered approach rather than an exclusive technology-based approach would be ideal. i.e., we need to focus on what would help the students instead of using technology just because it is available. The suggestion is therefore only to supplement the existing teaching models with these methods where feasible
- These methods, however, provide opportunity to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information rather than involve students in passive listening.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
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[Figure 1], [Figure 2]
[Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3]
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