Best Practice 1

Title : Comprehensive Faculty development as Cornerstone of Institutional development
The context that led to initiation of practice
Credibility and Reliability of any HEI depends on quality of its products and one cannot deny the enormous role of a teacher’s skill in professional development of a learner. In consonance with perceived need to reimagine faculty development that goes beyond teaching performance and classroom outcomes, more so, aligning it to social, financial, and competitive demands from students, university administrators and society, DMIHER has evolved a model of comprehensive Faculty Development.

Objectives of practice

1. To establish a standardized centralized approach of FDP that ensures that every faculty of the University is trained in educational principles and practice, instructional pedagogy,  assessment technologies and larger themes of research abilities , leadership, collaboration , educational networking and accreditations.
2. To ascertain uniform and robust academic architecture in all academic programs of the University.

Process :

1. Significant milestones
2. Medical Education Unit to School of Higher Education and Research (SHER): A small hamlet of Medical education Unit in 1997 was upgraded to  department of Medical education (DOME) in 2007. As the University transformed from Uni-disciplinary to multi-disciplinary , centre of HPE was created in 2012, metamorphosing to School of Health Professions and Research in 2013, Centre of Excellence in 2015 and subsequent rechristening to SHER in 2021. SHER presently has education Unit of 10 faculties and five departments under its ambit. It has three academic programs viz. Diploma, MEd and PhD in HPE. SHER , through its five departments and education units, organize faculty development programs periodically which are elaborated in fig 1.

3. Department of Medical Education to NMC Nodal centre for National FDP to AMEE Nodal centre for International FDP : Significant contribution in faculty development lead to the recognition of DOME as Regional centre for FDP in 2009 and subsequently Nodal centre  in 2014 (out of 10 such centers in the country) , by National Medical commission (erstwhile MCI). Presently Nodal centre conducts FDP for 21 allocated Medical colleges for Basic course in Medical education technologies, Curriculum implementation Support Program & Attitude Ethics Communication skills sensitization and Advance course in Medical education for 65 allocated Medical colleges spread across the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and North-East. Sharing of meaningful work and profound experience with International community of Medical Educators led to tangible collaboration of Nodal centre with Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE). The centre was included in Faculty development committee of AMEE since 2020, only one in the country. It was later recognized as one of the four AMEE nodal centres for FDP in 2021. In 2022, JNMC found its maiden place in the organizing committee of AMEE 2023 International Conference in Glasogw , Scotland themed “Inclusive Learning Environments to Transform the Future”.

1. Ayurveda Education Unit to Regional centre for FDP by CCIM : Ayurveda Education unit was granted status of ‘Regional centre for FDP in Ayurveda’ in 2016 by CCIM.
2. SVL recognition by American Heart Association as International training centre : School of Experiential Learning, one of the constituent units of SHER recognized by American Heart Association in 2015 as International training center for training ‘Instructors’ in BLS, ACLS and PALS.

DMIHER has established a centralized and standardized Faculty development ecosystem (DMIMS Perspective development plan template for faculty development in medical education , Reg no : L-78547/2018). Faculty development initiatives are undertaken by above mentioned centers in co-ordination with each other. NMC Nodal center for FDP organizes workshops at the center for in-house and faculties of allocated Medical colleges viz. BCME, AETCOM sensitization, CISP and ACME. The reports of all such conducted and observed workshops are submitted to NMC, New Delhi. Education units of DMIHER, under guidance and monitoring of SHER and Nodal centre, conducts similar courses for other faculties in health professions, Allied Sciences, Pharmacy and Engineering. NMC also deputed Nodal centre faculty, to monitor such courses being conducted at allocated medical colleges.

The five departments of SHER, Curriculum, Teaching Learning, Assessment, Competency and Educational Research conducts FDP in Curricular design, revision & evaluation, Assessment reforms, Outcome based education, Teaching methodologies , Educational research, Educational scholarships, Technological skills, Educational Networking to name a few. School of Experiential Learning periodically conducts AHA accredited ‘Instructor course’ for Basic Life support , Advanced Cardiac Life support and Pediatric Advanced life support. The reports of such workshops are submitted to AHA.

The functioning of FDP centers are reviewed along with analysis of participants perception and learning gain college council and joint college council meetings.

Fig 1 : Faculty development ecosystem and FDPs conducted by various units

The purpose of evaluation of FDP is to support accountability, guide decision making, improve the program and disseminate effective practices. It must also align to larger goals and outcomes of the institution. The Evaluation Blueprint of a Faculty development program (FDP) in Indian Medical Education L-72212/2018 of DMIHER is based on ‘Kirkpatrick model’ for evaluation of FDP whereby the performance of the faculty is measured in terms of the larger impact on the performance of the institution. Various levels of evaluation and tools used are (table 1);

Outcomes and Impact of Practice :
The various outcomes arising out of FDP at DMIHER are depicted as

1. 100% in -house faculty trained in Educational technologies and principles, Educational scholarships, Educational research and accreditation. 7 FAIMER and 1 AF – AMEE fellows.

The total number of FDP and beneficiaries are as depicted in Table

1. NMC recognition for training more than 1000 faculty, 2018
2. National award for Substantial contribution in Medical education, 2020
3. Educational scholarships arising out of FDP (fig 2) :

4. Consortia Project funded by European Commission on Capacity Building in higher Education with 14 other Indian Universities.
5. In house journal for educational research – Journal of Health Sciences Education
6. DMIHER FDP reports available on Public domain and official websites :
7. https://www.nmc.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/FDP-initiative-UG-Med-Education.pdf
8. https://www.nmc.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/CISP_I_First_year_Report_2019_final_for_uploading11.09.2020-converted.pdf
9. https://www.nmc.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CISP-II-paper-17-05-2021.pdf
10. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28208883/
11. Decade report NMC Nodal centre for National faculty development (2007-2018) submitted to NMC and UGC