A Journey of Global Collaboration – Contribute to PAEA’s Curriculum Exchange
In 2020, soon after COVID impacted face-to-face medical education, most educators worldwide were forced to quickly transition to asynchronous virtual learning platforms. As we are all aware, many lessons were learned, as a result of COVID, about how to implement asynchronous virtual teaching strategies into medical education. Virtual and asynchronous learning has many advantages, including opening up the possibility of connecting our professionals globally. Many PA educators (and their equivalent) worldwide have been interested in connecting and collaborating with international colleagues, and the lessons we learned during the pandemic have helped us achieve this more effectively.
Over the past couple of years, I created an international curriculum exchange with Joseph Kiprop Choge, PhD, a professor of medicine at Kabianga University in Kenya. This collaboration grew out of what we had learned from our teaching experiences during COVID.
Our collaborations started initially as an asynchronous virtual problem-based learning program. People from around the world would either communicate using online resources or meet virtually at the end of the case, where learners from around the world would learn about diseases that they were unfamiliar with in their own country. German students learned about dengue fever, and Kenyan students learned about Lyme disease.
This experience, and my visit to Kenya in July 2022, led us to our collaboration’s next iteration, exchanging curriculum. We realized we had something to gain from each other’s expertise. Dr. Choge is an expert in neglected tropical and global infectious diseases, while I am well-versed in chronic diseases.
We have much to learn from each other globally. The PA, and its equivalent, is one of the only medical professionals who serve rural and underserved communities worldwide. Now more than ever, we must connect, collaborate, and elevate our profession.
We truly believe this is the beginning of future collaborations that will genuinely impact the health care of everyone. Please join us on our journey by contributing your teaching materials.
PAEA members can contribute to the Curriculum Exchange in the Digital Learning Hub (DLH) and have conversations in the new Curriculum Exchange Professional Learning Community (PLC). Questions or need assistance? Please email us at Learning@PAEAonline.org.
We look forward to partnering with you to create a robust library of online resources for PA educators.
