ACADEMIC WORKSHOP AND IT’S IMPACT ON LEARNING

Abstract

Objectives: Academic workshops have drawn much interest as a potential instrument to improve medical education and fi ll the knowledge gap between theory and practice. This study investigates how academic workshops aff ect the learning of medical graduates. Materials and Methods: This institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Medicine, Khyber Medical College/Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar. A workshop on "Artifi cial Intelligence (AI)" was organized on May 17, 2023. A total of 25 workshop participants took part in this study. Ethical approval from the institute was granted for this study. The study duration was two months. Participants in our study comprised willing undergraduate medical students of Khyber Medical College (KMC), House offi cers (HO’s) of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) Peshawar, and Postgraduate (PG) trainees of KTH Peshawar. These participants have already enrolled themselves in this Artifi cial Intelligence workshop, organized as part of a prequel for the upcoming annual conference of the Pakistan Society of Physicians (PSP). Pre-test and post-test during this one-day workshop, and then an online evaluation after one month was conducted to determine the impact of this academic event; ANOVA and t-test were utilized for this purpose. All the pertinent data were recorded on R-Data analysis and were then analyzed accordingly. Results: Out of 25 participants, there were 18 males and seven females. The baseline knowledge of medical undergraduates regarding artifi cial intelligence was better compared to that of HOs and PGs. This trend remained persistent in post-test evaluation. However, evaluation after one month showed a good learning impact on medical undergraduates and HO's. PG's documented a decline in their learning impact as evidenced by t-test, ANOVA, and posthoc analysis. Conclusion: Academic workshops narrow the knowledge gap between practice and theory by integrating active learning methodologies, adhering to learning theories, and encouraging skill development. Motivation and practice are the key factors in this learning process.