Premiere in Dubai: The first AOSpine Faculty Education Program (FEP)

 

Being the first of its kind in AOSpine the one day Faculty Education Program (FEP) in Dubai aimed to improve the educational skills, knowledge, and expertise in prospective AOSpine faculty members.

Led by experienced spine surgeons and leading AOSpine faculty members Sohail Bajammal and Abdulaziz Al-Mutair, the one-day faculty development program focused on advancing the practical skills needed at every level of the teaching process. Designed as a hands-on experience the FEP gives the participating faculty members the opportunity to put their lecturing, discussion-facilitating, and practical exercise-leading skills to the test.

 

Training practical skills

At the first AOSpine FEP on October 10, 2014 in Dubai the participants eagerly practiced their educational skills while being videotaped. These videos serve as a self-evaluation tool, but the participants also receive feedback from their peers and the educators in a personal feedback session after each performance.

 

With their videos and the practical advice on presentation design, technique, and style from the group the participants are well equipped to evaluate their own skills and work on improving them for their future faculty assignments.

 

Online precourse

In addition the participants have the theoretical material from the online precourse that they can always go back to when preparing for their next faculty assignments. Each FEP face-to-face event is preceded by 5 weeks of online activities that lay the conceptual groundwork for the onsite program. The participants of the Dubai FEP did online studies on the topics of adult learning theory, lecturing, group discussions, and practical exercises. Each module included articles, checklists, and interactive learning modules for the participants to test their knowledge. There were also online discussions with the educators that gave the participants the opportunity to share ideas, advice, and past experiences.

 

Small course = personal attention

As the FEP usually only accepts 16 participants, the educators had enough time to personally reply to all the participants' online posts. During the face-to-face event attention was given for personal questions, discussion, and feedback. The high educator-participant ratio at the FEP ensures that the participants can get the most out of the one-day training program.

 

The FEP is new to AOSpine, but Sohail Bajammal has previously led similar successful programs for AOTrauma. The response from these events has been resoundingly positive. The feedback from the Dubai FEP shows that this program meets the needs of AOSpine faculty members as well..

 

 

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About Sohail Bajammal

Sohail Bajammal is a Consultant Spine Surgeon & Head of Department of Spine Care, at King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. He is also an assistantprofessor of Orthopaedics at Umm Al-Qura University, an experienced presenter and educator and a certified ATLS instructor. During his 8-year orthopaedicand spine surgery training in Canada, he obtained a MSc in Health Research Methodology and currently a PhD candidate in medical education. He has taught at numerous faculty development courses for AOTrauma as well as presenting and lecturing at many spine surgery symposia and conferences.