My name is Gumisiriza James, a student pursuing Master of Science in Health Professions Education at Makerere University Uganda, in my first year. I pursued a bachelors degree in nursing science at my undergraduate level, and thereafter assumed a position equivalent to that of a preceptor (at one university in Western Uganda) according to the standards employed by certain universities abroad. Since then, my career path has been defined along the lines of teaching undergraduate nursing students both as clinical instructor and other capacities. Makerere University offered us one rare learning opportunity with the modern phylogenetics course—especially for the likes of me whose specialty is neither biostatistics nor any similar discipline. On the outset, it did not appear like something not meant for me but since (as it has been said) “knowledge is not toxic,” I chose to participate. As an aspiring health professions educationist, my hope was that whatever skills gained in the short course can be put to good use. It is in my knowledge that along my professional journey, I can expect to pursue a specialty with a bias in biochemistry or something related to biomedical sciences and so on. The truth of the matter happens to be that in the Ugandan setting (and many others), one has to learn how to teach before pursuing “what to teach.” Why not pursue as many learning opportunities as possible? This question is of course one that everyone in a position like mine gets to reflect upon.
In fact in my self-reflection, I had zeroed on Biochemistry as a most likely field of choice—one in which I should do research and further study following the acquisition of the full credentials of an educationist in health professions. But then (as Vygotsky would have us know), becoming a good educationist requires such a culture as will enable the individual be able to communicate knowledge and facilitate its transfer in the practical skills. That is why I chose to participate in the modern phylogenetics course, thanks to the collaboration between Makerere University and the University of Berkeley. I did not expect to become an expert in phylogenetics or computational biology by merely attending the course. Rather, I hoped to acquire knowledge that might help me hone in my skills. The purpose of attending was to activate latent abilities, not to cement acquired capability. I had been asked by a friend and workmate to read through his thesis on computational biology and could not make meaning out of five words strung together in a sentence. You see, this is the difference between a beginner and a content expert. As an educator, reflecting on the learning process students have to go to so as to make meaning out of the world, has always fired me up. Thus of course I knew that amateur means someone who ‘loves’ (from amare, to love) a discipline, not someone who chooses to hold back from developing skills and competence. I got fired up by this thought too, and chose to dive whole heartedly into the course.
The learning experience
Although I had initially hoped to both discover the world of proteomics and Phylogenetics plus computational biology, I had to settle for the latter with no qualms whatsoever since I was open to learning. The first eye opener was when interactions antecedent to the course began. I noticed quickly that there was besides me, others keen to drink as much as possible from ‘the fountain of knowledge’ opened to us. There was also at the same time a number of skilled colleagues with whom I was set to interact. When Noah Baker introduced the course to us, I began to see a series of possibilities where knowledge gained might be applicable. But this was hardly enough to satisfy my curiosity. It was like a small dose that got me to thirst for more. That very day, I got the confidence to ask my first question knowing that I could after all, string quite a few words from the vocabulary I already possessed to interact with both the facilitators and fellow learners.
Ho! It is only an educationist who can fully understand what a pleasure this gives to a first-time learner. From the constructivist perspective, it means I simply had to fit new concepts into my vocabulary and apply them practically for a more concrete experience. The next facilitator gave us some deeper insights and this was a headstart for the week. Such a rhythm would be our routine for the entire week. But getting to learn new things over a week is like a fish understanding how birds fly. We were given a BIG help when the facilitators gave us reading material which we could browse through at leisure. This way, my curiosity was not put to waste. I made an effort to look through the many documents shared with us time and again. It was an immense help to understand how VS Code and associated extensions can be put to use in computational biology. I deciphered how to utilize Swirly and many other resources which I haven’t figured (but hopefully will). In about three-four days, I had gained valuable insights on phylogenetic trees, data science and other quite helpful concepts. I had furthered my knowledge of the applicability and limitations of AI models and could claim to possess some knowledge of how Large Language Models can be put to use without turning them into an ‘intellectual clutch’ or without making oneself overly dependent on the functionality of the model. It was a rewarding experience.
Collaboration and Community
As a rule, interprofessional education is the way forward for health professions education. In fact, it is a standard ingredient of every successful learning experience. For my own part, I had initially been hesitant on pursuing a discipline many others had mastered so well. It was a matter of consulting in case need arose—I would tell myself. All this changed when I realized the possibilities opened by just one element disclosed by the facilitators: data science. Since we as health professions educators are not called to be content experts at every discipline, I might have considered that I might be ‘cheating’ others by eavesdropping on their cultured and favorite conversation. My experience has since been opened to the possibility of life-long learning. One of my objectives had been to be able to interpret a journal article or participate in journal club discussions in the perspective of bioinformatics. I was rewarded by the experience the students mastering this discipline showed and the insights they shared. Moreover, I managed to strengthen ties with those participants I had met before during one other training or routine university activities besides making new acquaintances. As an aspiring academician, knowing together is a way to increase my ‘social capital’ and I felt enriched more and more as the days advanced.
What next?
If I might disclose some of the experiences I had with a number of the participants, one might describe it as an energizer or booster. My resolve to advance my career as a health professions educator has been strengthened. I now feel more relevant than ever in the academic circles where I belong. I managed to meet professionals from various backgrounds including those with biases in environmental health science, radiology and bioinformatics. I interacted with public health scientists. As an early career researcher and young academician, I have added one more lesson to my curriculum vitae especially on the importance of epistemic sociality. Incidentally, I managed to get a snippet into the experience of a doctoral student and this helped prepare me in advance. If the course was very relevant to this individual, surely it is much more necessary for me. Without doubt I see myself enhancing my career within the next half of a decade as I will not just apply but continue enhancing my knowledge of bioinformatics and data science. I would so much desire to relate data and information when it comes to the foreseeable future, so as to make meaning of various phenomena that I might find myself investigating. Moreover, no learning experience may be taken lightly for an educator. I see myself growing in the ability to teach others what I myself acquired in the short course of five days—even if only at the level of generalities. It is my knowledge that whenever a student asks for my assistance during his or her research, I might have to make use of the insights gained at the phylogenetics/computational biology course. Great thanks to the organizers and facilitators!