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DISSEMINATION STRATEGY IN THE FRAMEWORK OF TEMPUS PROJECT: "ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SUPRA-REGIONAL NETWORK OF THE NATIONAL CENTRES IN MEDICAL EDUCATION, FOCUSED ON PBL AND VIRTUAL PATIENTS"
1 Akaki Tsereteli State University (GEORGIA)
2 David Tvildiani Medical University (GEORGIA)
About this paper:
Appears in: INTED2014 Proceedings
Publication year: 2014
Pages: 6793-6797
ISBN: 978-84-616-8412-0
ISSN: 2340-1079
Conference name: 8th International Technology, Education and Development Conference
Dates: 10-12 March, 2014
Location: Valencia, Spain
Abstract:
The term “dissemination” has become a familiar part of vocabulary within higher education and it is easy, therefore, to talk about doing it without having a real grasp of what it means. Some authors mentioned, that perhaps the term dissemination can be best described as the “delivering and receiving of a message”, “the engagement of an individual in a process” and “the transfer of a process or product”. If you think about dissemination or what it is you are trying to achieve by doing it – it is quite probable that you have been awarded funding for an educational development project (as in our case EU granted “Establishment of the Supra-Regional Network of the National Centres in Medical Education, focused on PBL (Problem-Based Learning) and Virtual Patients” ) that requires you to disseminate the outcomes of your project to the wider community and society in general. TEMPUS overall objectives, as well as specific objectives, maybe even goals /mission/philosophy all are based on it.

In our case we have considered dividing this issue into two parts:
1) Dissemination at national level with the main objective to promote the most recent and important achievement in medical education which is Virtual Patient based teaching/learning/assessment.
2) Providing the input into the creation of an area of cooperation in the field of higher education between the European Union and the TEMPUS partner countries.

In addition to the above - “popularization” is a broad term and it asumes that interested parties will “know”, “understand”, “acquire methodology”, “implement in practice”, “communicate internationally regarding the issue”, “execute and perform scientific research in medical education” etc. Consequently, in order to plan and perform processes efficiently, it was necessary to clarify the terms like “audience”, “components of dissemination”, as well as identifying stages and means of efficient realization.

The working group achieved contextual understanding of abovementioned terms, developed definitions, defined target groups, objectives and methods related to them, as well as defined criteria reviewing progress and meeting the objectives (questionnaires).
An efficient dissemination strategy will only continue to be effective if we view it as being an evolving and constantly developing process. This means, that we need to put in place suitable mechanisms for reviewing the progress and the extent to which our dissemination strategy in meeting our objectives.
Keywords:
Medical Education, Problem-Based Learning, Virtual Patients.