REFLECTION ON THE EXPERIENCE OF CONDUCTING AN ONLINE BROADCAST OF THE AMEE 2023 CONFERENCE AT URMIA UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

Letter to the Editor
The Association of Medical Education of Europe (AMEE), which is the European regional association of the World Federation for Medical Education and one of the six members of the executive council of this federation, was established in 1972 in Copenhagen to facilitate communication between medical science teachers and promote the national medical education associations of countries in Europe. Every year, this association organizes international conferences on various topics of medical science education hosted by one of the European countries. This year the international conference also held in Glasgow, Scotland (1). With the efforts of the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education of Iran, and especially, the Smart University of Medical Sciences, this international conference was broadcast online from August 28 to 30, 1402 in 15 universities of medical sciences in Iran, including Urmia University of Medical Sciences. In this article, we will reflect this event.
Reflection is described as a group of effective intellectual activities in which people explore their experiences to gain new understanding. Reflection is a process of learning from experience (experiential learning) whereby new understanding and knowledge are developed through action (2). The reflection of any occurrence and experience can be written in the form of a reflection paper (3). This universal conference, which was held both online and in person, included various educational programs in the field of medical education. In its online broadcast, we saw the active participation of faculty members at Urmia University of Medical Sciences. In terms of access to conference content and programs, it was possible to use online broadcastings of symposiums and plenary plans. Programs were executed and displayed on the platform of Swapcard software.
Although it was not possible to interact directly with the conference venue, However, the topics presented in the conference were explained and explained to the academic staff members participating in the conference during the breaks and opportunities during the programs by medical education specialists, and at the same time as the conference, they answered the professors' questions and clarified the subjects.
Based on the reflection and criticism of this educational event, as well as the survey conducted by the participating faculty members, it seems that this conference has had beneficial achievements, despite the limitations, especially in accessing the content. Among them, this need was felt by the faculty members present at the conference that they should empower themselves more in terms of educational aspects and the science of medical education as well as in terms of English language skills. Another critical issue is the need to establish scientific communication and interactions with the world. Even if this communication is limited and virtual, it will still show positive and effective results. Simultaneously, by rethinking this educational event, we realize that educational problems exist everywhere in the world; even in many cases, these problems are similar and therefore it is necessary to examine and evaluate them in order to think of solutions for them.
Another issue that emerges from reflection of this event is that in conferences and similar events, the importance of interaction and communication is much stronger and more mandatory from the learning aspect. Although learning is a principle, learning how to communicate with the world, observing the way of behavior and educational and moral patterns, the interest of faculty members in education, and observing the way of presenting content and the skills of expressing the content are all subjects that are unconscious and tacit knowledge that is learned. The important points of holding this educational event can be used as a model for holding other similar events at Urmia University of Medical Sciences.
Another effective and informative outcome of this conference was understanding the necessity and methods of documenting events and experiences. At this conference, all the executive and scientific activities and processes in the university were documented and recorded, and in a way, it became an exercise for the future. The documents included photos and videos from the venue of the conference in the university, survey forms, attendance and interview forms with the participants, correspondence, letters and emails, etc., all of which were recorded.
The experience of this international educational event showed how much the science of medical education requires expertise, interest, and deepening. While there are educational challenges everywhere, the solution is not to give up on them contrary to strive and become more aware. Establishing communication is a vital principle in learning, whether it is the connection at the classroom level between a teacher and a student or at an international level during a conference. For this reason, it is necessary to extend and generalize the lessons of the conference to more and other levels consequently that we can finally ensure the quality of our education, which will subsequently lead to the improvement of health and the quality of patient care, which is the ultimate goal of medical education.