Education has evolved dramatically since the digital revolution ten years ago. Today, Indian MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) students studying abroad in various countries, such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia, and the Philippines, have been able to leverage the internet and its capabilities through online educational coaching services. However, one of the questions that Indian students studying MBBS abroad are often faced with is whether or not online coaching is beneficial for them. Therefore, in order to give Indian MBBS students studying abroad a clear understanding of the online coaching process, we have developed an extensive guide that takes into account all of the different components of online coaching and how they could potentially assist medical students in completing their studies overseas.
It’s now important to understand what online coaching means for medical students studying outside of India. As previously mentioned, online coaching for medical students includes everything from virtual classrooms to prerecorded lecture videos, live interactive sessions with instructors, digital study resources (books and PowerPoint presentations), hours of online doubt-clearing (one-on-one) sessions, and virtual mentorship (one-on-one) programs via the internet available worldwide. Each of these different types of components will have various uses when it comes to MBBS students who are studying abroad.
Online coaching for MBBS students also serves many functions for students studying outside of India, including assisting them in their everyday university education as a supplement to their current education, providing specialized FMGE/NEXT exam preparation in addition to the regular ongoing courses of study; providing subject-specific coaching for the courses that the students struggled with in their current university classes; providing students with language-specific instruction (in this case for students studying in a non-English-speaking country); and connecting students with trained Indian faculty persons who can help them understand and navigate the Indian system of medical examinations.
The Challenges MBBS Abroad Students Face
Many medical schools outside India are organized quite differently from the way medical schools in India are arranged. For example, the types of subjects or content that may be emphasized at a Russian or Chinese medical school may not correspond with the subject matter of the licensing exam that India administers. Therefore, Indian students must learn material to fill this void.
Another major challenge that exists is the inability to communicate due to language issues. For example, during clinical rotations, students enrolled in English-medium medical programs will encounter medical terminology that is in the respective language used by the country where they are studying. For example, students who are studying medicine in Russia or another country may be required to learn some basic conversational Russian in order to communicate properly while completing their hospital rotations. Thus, these students are going to have an additional burden placed on them in addition to their normal heavy academic workload.
The looming threat of the FMGE/NEXT examination continues to be an ever-present concern for all foreign medical graduates wishing to practice in India. The low pass rates established historically make this examination all the more daunting for foreign graduates. Students must not only be able to pass the Indian licensing examination, but they will also have to prepare themselves for a very different test format that will focus on Indian medical standards.
The implications of cultural and geographical isolation are significant in the lives and educational success of foreign medical graduates. Being thousands of miles away from home, without the comfort of their typical systems of support, is very likely to negatively affect the mental health and academic success of the majority of foreign medical graduates.
Why Online Coaching Can Be Highly Effective
The advantages of online coaching for MBBS students studying abroad are strongly supported by substantial evidence supporting its effectiveness in that environment. One of the main reasons for its positive effect is the flexibility offered by online platforms that reflect the unpredictable timelines that exist throughout the course of a medical student’s education. Medical students often have limited available time due to their rigorous lecture-and-practical-hospital-rotation-examination schedule.
The ability to receive direction from a knowledgeable teacher who has successfully coached hundreds of students to FMGE success can allow overseas students to implement effective strategies irrespective of the teacher’s location.
Class recordings are another great advantage of using an online platform for coaching. Unlike a traditional classroom setting, where an instructor can only explain information once during a session, an internet-based platform will allow students to review the session as often as necessary in order to gain a complete understanding. The complexity of some subjects, such as embryology and neuroanatomy, means that students may need to review the material multiple times for complete comprehension, and online coaching platforms can help manage these complexities.
Students will find cost-effectiveness to be an attractive advantage of online coaching. Many traditional coaching providers incur additional costs in maintaining a physical location that are then passed on to the student in the form of higher tuition and fees. An online coaching provider does not incur these costs; thus, the price of quality education delivered via internet-based coaching is significantly lower than that of traditional coaching providers.
The ability to create customized learning paths enhances the effectiveness of online coaching even further. Many online coaching platforms currently utilize analytics to assess the weaknesses of individual students and to create personalized development plans to target areas where students are struggling.
Limitations and Challenges of Online Coaching
While there are positive aspects associated with using online coaching for students pursuing an MBBS degree overseas, an accurate appraisal of its effectiveness will be incomplete if the drawbacks to this method are not taken into account. For example, it takes a great degree of motivation and self-discipline for medical students to engage with the content provided by online coaching.
Many medical students are already fatigued from the rigors of attending classes at a university; therefore, it may prove difficult for them to sustain this level of motivation on an ongoing basis. Another major drawback to using online coaching is the ongoing connectivity problems associated with unreliable internet access in certain parts of the world.
Students living in rural areas of Russia or the Philippines, for example, will have difficulty joining their coaching sessions live, if at all, due to a lack of internet connectivity. As far as medical education is concerned, there is minimal exposure to clinical skills until such time that a student has been accepted into a formal residency program, and the teaching methodology of online coaching does not provide adequate opportunities for students to gain exposure to clinical skills before commencing their clinical experience. Furthermore, many medical students prefer to learn in person through face-to-face interactions with their instructor and classmates.
Many of them experience a sense of isolation when deprived of this type of interaction with their teachers and classmates. Students’ ability to learn may be significantly decreased without the ability to receive real-time feedback from their instructor and to read their peers’ body language. There are also time zone issues that create a scheduling conflict for students who live in countries with large time zone differences. Students in those countries may be required to attend a coaching session in the middle of the night (e.g., a student in Russia or the Philippines attending an online coaching session held at 7:00 pm Indian time). Consequently, such issues can negatively impact a student’s ability to acquire the requisite amount of sleep necessary to support them both academically and personally.
EOCL India
This EOCL India blog post (Is Online Coaching Effective for MBBS Abroad Students?) is essential for all students. When students go abroad to pursue their MBBS degree at a university, they have several questions, and one of them is about online coaching. We ensure that we provide all the information students need. We provide transparent guidance to both students and their parents.
