What is this online journal club?
What will be covered in this course?
What is the time period of this course?
How do I participate in the course?
What CME credits will I receive?
Do I need any prerequisite computer skills? What are the computer requirements?
Are there tutorials on using the online platform of the course?
Who can access and view the journal club discussion?
What is my time commitment to the course?
Is there course evaluation that I have to complete?
What is the cost of the course?
How do I register for this course?
What is this online journal club?
This Specialist Journal Club in Internal Medicine is brought to you by UBC Continuing Professional Development (UBC CPD) and Rural Continuing Professional Development (RCPD).
An online journal club is like a traditional journal club, with the added advantage to you of being able to participate at any time, from anywhere. A weblink to the chosen article will be available ahead of time. At your leisure, you can go to the site from any computer (NO login required) and submit your comments, participating in the general discussion. We will be using UBC Blog, a user friendly interface. Once you are registered, we will send you the URL (weblink) of the journal club. Even though no username and password is required, the journal club will be a secured website only visible to journal club members that have been provided the URL; the site cannot be found through search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo Search, etc. Therefore your discussion will be private and will not be seen by anyone outside of the journal club group.
To obtain study credits, you are required to submit two posts/comments per discussion cycle. Each discussion topic and selected article will be available for discussion for a five week period. The moderator of the journal club will select the article for discussion, however the discussion topic will be chosen ahead of time by the participants. There will be a cycle of 5 discussion topics over the year.
What will be covered in this course?
This is a specialist journal club in Internal Medicine. It is aimed at the general internal medicine practitioner, and could cover all aspects of internal medicine, including acute and chronic care, and both office and hospital topics. The participants are internists, both urban and rural from across the province. The moderators are internists in rural practice.
What is the time period of this course?
The series of topics will run over the fall 2013 and spring 2014. The first session starts in October 2013 and it is an introduction to the course platform and participants. Each of the subsequent topic sessions will run for five weeks. The following are start dates of the sessions:
Introduction session: September 30, 2013
Session 1 – October 14, 2013
Session 2 – November 18, 2013
Holiday Break – December 21 to January 12 (No Journal Club)
Session 3 – January 13, 2014
Session 4 – February 16, 2014
Spring Break – March 14 to April 1 (No Journal Club)
Session 5 – April 2, 2014
How do I participate in the course?
Once you register the course, you will receive a URL of the journal club website. Upon putting the link into your web browser, you will see the current session activities and have access to the full text of the selected journal articles via the hyperlinks of UBC library and CPSBC library. As a member of this journal club, you participate in the course by responding to the moderators’ and other club members’ posts/comments, and adding your own posts. To encourage group discussion, ‘conversation starters’ will be assigned for each journal club session.
What CME credits will I receive?
You will receive 2.0 study credits for the course introductory session, which is based upon learning how to use the platform, and 2.0 study credits for each topic discussion cycle in which you participate. Thus you can achieve a total of 12.0 of Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons MOC Section 1 study credits for taking part in the full series. Also, you can claim additional credit hours for documented further learning activities, under Section 2. Please note that you are required to submit at least two posts/comments per session topic to obtain the Section 1 study credits for that topic.
[Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Program: click here to learn more about the credit system.]
The UBC CPD Specialist Journal Club in Internal Medicine is a self-approved group learning activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Do I need any prerequisite computer skills? What are the computer requirements?
Computer skills needed for this course are minimal, and include basic word processing, emailing, and using common web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, etc to search and view web pages. You will need a computer that has internet access, and can open .pdf and .avi files. Any tech support you might need will be provided to you.
Are there tutorials on using the online platform of the course?
Yes! There will be a live webinar orientation at the beginning of the course that you can follow the instruction, surfing around the website; you can ask questions during the webinar. In addition, tutorials are also available in the format of screen shots and short video clips, on the course website. You can visit them at any time to remind yourself how to navigate through the journal club site. And remember, you can always contact us for any questions via email and telephone, during daytime working hours.
Who can access and view the journal club discussion?
The interface of the journal club is hosted and maintained by UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT). It is a safe environment for your discussion. Even though you can directly open the website without login, the site will be only visible to the journal club members; it cannot be found through search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo Search, etc.
What is my time commitment to the course?
To get maximum benefit from the discussion, we suggest visiting the journal club site approximately twice a week.
Is there course evaluation that I have to complete?
An evaluation of the journal club will be done at the end of the course, and shorter ones will be done following each of the session topics. All evaluations are anonymous and aggregate data will be reviewed for course improvement and possible publication.
What is the cost of the course?
$150.00 for the course period (non-refundable).
How do I register for this course?
You may click here to complete the registration online.