To all K2 employees: Welcome to a fruitful new teaching year! We need you, at all the different levels/programs we conduct; from planning, facilitation (administrative or practical) to the actual performing of teaching. Thanks to everyone!

New this year in the medical curriculum is “Elective period”: In these four first full weeks each year (January), students may choose between different courses of two to four weeks duration. These span from molecular biology to cardiac ultrasound, from learning practical pedagogy with student-driven OSCE stations at the Medical Skills Center to Medicine for the Future. Probably the most extrovert (literally out-doors) is the course in Mountain Medicine, where one student definitely ended up in “deep water”; a (voluntary) student jumped in ice water on the Landås mountain to be rescued and taken care of by fellow students! K2 has prepared several exciting courses, but we need more. We would encourage each of our academic communities / research groups to offer one annual elective course.

The annual study day for K1 / K2, aiming to inspire and improve our teaching, will be held on 2 May (AFTER this spring’s most important research application deadline). There we will demonstrate examples of good student activating teaching, learn how to build a teaching portfolio (to document your own teaching experience / competence), and discuss how to make good station examinations (OSCE). Please note the date in your calendar already.

Apropos OSCE: 20 June, the first really qualifying OSCE exam (objective structured clinical exam) will be held for all 3rd year / 6th semester medical students. Then 160 students will pass through 5 parallel stations, which require contribution from the vast majority of scientific employees and teaching administrators at the medical faculty engaged in the teaching within these 6 semesters. We need you! So, neither dissertations, summer holidays nor congress permissions should be planned for this date.

Jone