The Keele Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence (KIITE) has worked with Keele Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Keele’s Information and Digital Services Directorate (IDS) to develop an online platform for the delivery of a new Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education.

Medical Education at Keele University can be studied at three levels; Postgraduate Certificate (PgCert), Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) and Master’s - developing health professional’s skills in teaching and supervising students. The General Medical Council has recognised that there is a need for greater professionalism and accountability as clinical teachers, and the Medical Education programmes at Keele allow health professionals to gain the necessary skills and development - as determined by the GMC - to successfully teach in a variety of medical settings.

The educational design and content creation for the new online course was developed by KIITE, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the School of Medicine, using Microsoft Teams as a platform for delivery.

The PgCert course has two pathways, either face-to-face or via distance learning, the online delivery is via Microsoft Teams, designed specifically for this course by Educational Technologists within KIITE, specialist staff in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and academic specialists from the Medical School. The course is taught through subject–centred presentations and seminars and virtual small group activities. Learning and teaching methods include webinars (both live and recorded), blogs, interactive discussion forums, narrated short presentations, animated videos and video presentations.

Matthew Street, Leaning Technology Manager within KIITE commented:

“Using Microsoft Teams offers the opportunity to really focus on how to create an engaging learning experience.”

Students who successfully complete the 60 credit PgCert course are able to opt to proceed to a Diploma in Medical Education, which is a further 60 credits that can then lead to a Master's in Medical Education (180 credits in total) - both of which have the option of online delivery.

Clive Gibson, Postgraduate Director of the Master’s in Medical Education, commented:

“The postgraduate certificate is available in two routes, students either select face-to-face or via distance learning. The face-to-face is seven days of teaching at Keele, whereas distance learning is entirely online, which is particularly suited for busy clinicians who find it more difficult to allocate time out of practice to come to Keele for the face-to-face teaching days.”

The first cohort of 25 students on the distance learning PgCert has just started, with a further 10 places available for the February 2020 face-to-face course. For more information, visit the Medical Education website.