Insight into the MHPE and the new curriculum, by two coordinators of Period 1

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The new curriculum of the Master of Health Professions Education (MHPE) keeps on running according to plan. Flexibility and authenticity are the guiding principles of the new curriculum. On October 15, we concluded the online Period 1, which started on June 21. This period has been baptized “Analyze” in allusion to the central competence targeted.

In this period, three designer tasks, two researcher tasks, and two leader tasks have been made available to the students as electives, next to a common task they all have to complete. Overall, a good range of choice for a variety of interests and focus competences. Flexibility and authenticity have been two guiding principles for the confection of this new curriculum. The curriculum builds on the work of our preceding colleagues and implements programmatic assessment via intermediate and portfolio feedback. 

Changes tend to be challenging but for us taking an active role for the first time in the new MHPE curriculum, it has been a great time for jumping in. Together, we have collaborated in the careful design of the learning tasks and now we are experiencing what works well and what can be fine-tuned. The curriculum is new not only for us but also for everyone involved. Some unknown variables in the process were/are, for example, how many students would sign up for each learning task, what problems students would face, and quite importantly, how much time students could dedicate to the program due to their potentially increased (clinical) workload in times of a pandemic, and other unforeseen circumstances.

In addition, our planning group has been working together for the first time, although it has felt like we are old colleagues. The decision-making process is joint, we learn from our more experienced colleagues, and the discussions are open and engaged. Implementing a flexible program requires staff members to adapt dynamically to students’ choices (obviously within a limit), distribute workload fairly, strive to provide timely, constructive, and actionable feedback; and keeping track of discussion fora and students assignments being delivered in our online platform, Canvas. We continue to encourage students to engage more with their peers, to reap the benefits of collaborative learning, and to further develop their “Communicate & Collaborate” competences.

The rewards have been also high and harvested in the short term. The work in the program has helped us to strengthen our sense of belonging to SHE community and to understand much better the work of many colleagues and their expertise. 

On October 18, we will pass on the baton to our Period 2 “Design” colleagues. We hope they enjoy the revamped MHPE journey as much as we have in Period 1. Spoiler alert, colleagues, there are some highly motivated students! We will hear from them in the next SHE Communicates.

On behalf of Team “Analyze”, Carolin Sehlbach & Héctor J. Pijeira-Díaz

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