Lotus College of Optometry, located in Juhu, Mumbai is in institution that is special for us. They had included our workshops – PubMed and later Reference Management in their PG curriculum – the Masters of Optometry course, right from the first batch!
Every batch has eight students and this time’s was an extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable one. In one hour I was able to teach them most of PubMed and in another hour almost all of Mendeley. Of course they will need practice. But, they seemed to soak what I taught and they will have a refresher course soon, so it should be fine. The other good thing that happens here is that the faculty also have taken the initiative to learn and do guide them, though I must confess that I do not know how much. Again, knowing that they focus on a constant quest for improvement, things will keep evolving!
I learned something new at this program. That these students did a dissertation during their bachelors’ degree too. Just last week I learned that the bachelor’s degree program in physiotherapy had one too. Which made me wonder why there is no initiation into research in the MBBS program (some institutions do make specific initiatives – but those are exceptions)
Vasumathi Sriganesh
