The Health Professions Education Unit advances UKZN’s strategic priorities by strengthening teaching excellence, advancing Africa-centred scholarship, driving digital innovation, and fostering socially accountable healthcare education within the College of Health Sciences.
To inspire transformative change in healthcare education, practice, and scholarship by empowering healthcare educators and trainees and fostering lifelong, reflective learning and growth.
To advance socially responsive Health Professions Education that drives excellence, equity, and innovation in healthcare practice while embedding the College’s core values across clinical, academic, and community settings.
The LOOOP Symposium was held on the 3 April at K1+K2, KRITH Tower Building, Medical School campus.
Learning Opportunities, Objectives and Outcomes Platform (LOOOP) is an innovative online tool that enables educators to visualise the curriculum. This can help identify gaps, redundancies, and areas for improvement, and ensure alignment with national accreditation and UKZN strategic goals.
This symposium showcased presentations from the developers (Charité University, Berlin) demonstrating how LOOOP identifies curriculum gaps, redundancies, and areas needing enhancement, ensuring alignment with both national accreditation standards and UKZN’s strategic objectives. Additionally, there were presentations from two South African universities (University of Pretoria and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University) about their experiences and successes with LOOOP, gaining insights into best practices and innovative approaches to curriculum mapping. 62 attendees from 30 Disciplines attended.
Faculty that attended: 62
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What was your biggest takeaway from this symposium?
HPE Unit world café: Pedagogy in the MBChB curriculum
The HPE Unit hosted a world café entitled Pedagogy in the MBChB curriculum on 13 October 2025 at K1, K-RITH Tower Building, Medical School campus.
The world café session aimed to explore the principles and practices of humanising pedagogy within medical education, to share and discuss innovative and practical strategies for fostering empathy, compassion, and relational learning in the medical programme, and to promote collaboration and exchange of ideas among educators to advance more inclusive, reflective, and person-centred approaches to teaching and learning.
Faculty that attended -19
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this module?
Transforming clinical teaching and training: Unleashing the power of theory in practice: 28 October 2024
The HPE Unit hosted a world café entitled Transforming clinical teaching and training: Unleashing the power of theory in practice on 28 October 2024, at Social Space, Howard College. This world café session delivered insightful discussions and collaborative exploration into the impact of theory in the training of healthcare professionals, and the possibilities and innovations that theories on learning offer to our educational landscape.
Faculty that attended: 11
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
“need for shift in mindset needs to include a shift in the underlying theoretical point of departure”
“A combination of educational strategies are suitable for workplace-based learning.”
“Need for change in our educational environment”
Core MBChB conversations: Shaping tomorrow’s curriculum: 16 October 2024
The HPE Unit hosted a world café entitled Core MBChB conversations: Shaping tomorrow’s curriculum on 16 October 2024 Susser & Stein, KRITH, Medical School campus. This world café session aimed to engage clinical educators to exchange ideas and interrogate the way forward on the core MBChB curriculum.
Faculty that attended: 24
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
“spiral curriculum, IPE, PBL”
“has inspired me to revisit lecture structures into a format that fosters integration”
“contribute to the curriculum renewal process”
Advancing clinical excellence: A world café on workplace-based assessments: 18 July 2024
The HPE Unit hosted a world café entitled Advancing clinical excellence: A world café on workplace-based assessments, on 18 July 2024 at Susser & Stein, KRITH, Medical School campus. This world café aimed to engage health professions educators and clinicians in collaboratively exploring practical, innovative, and equitable approaches to strengthening workplace-based assessments to better reflect authentic clinical practice and support clinical excellence.
Faculty that attended: 22
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED
What is your key takeaway from this event?
Demystifying AI to transform healthcare training: Embracing the future today!: 10 May 2024
The HPE Unit hosted a world café entitled Demystifying AI to transform healthcare training: Embracing the future today! on 10 May 2024 at COMSA Lounge, Westville campus. This world café session aimed to initiate insightful discussions and collaborative exploration into the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in teaching, learning and assessment of training healthcare professionals. Together, the audience delved into the possibilities, challenges, and innovations that AI brings to our educational landscape.
Faculty that attended: 26
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this event?
” Great session and format to stimulate new ideas and discussions”
“We need to change the way we teach”
“I’ve learnt so much about how to incorporate AI in my teaching.”
The HPE Unit hosted the third SWAT Training workshop for postgraduate trainers on 14 and 15 August at K2, K-RITH Tower building, Medical school campus. 25 participants from 13 Disciplines attended.
Faculty that attended: 25
DISCIPLINES REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this module?
The HPE Unit hosted the second SWAT Training workshop for postgraduate trainers on 10 and 11 July 2025 at Susser & Stein, K-RITH Tower Building, Medical School campus. 20 participants from 10 Disciplines attended.
Faculty that attended: 20
DISCIPLINES REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this module?
The HPE Unit workshop entitled: Concept to Practice: Using Theory in HPE Research was held on 20 May 2025 at K2, KRITH Tower Building, Medical School campus. 22 attendees from 4 schools attended this full-day event.
Faculty that attended-22
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What is your biggest takeaway from this workshop?
Making Sense of Frameworks and Models in HPE
Confusion to Clarity: Making Sense of Frameworks and Models in HPE was held on 19 May 2025 at K2.
Faculty that attended-23
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
LOOOP Training Workshop was conducted on 4 April 2025 at the Senate Chamber, Westville campus.
The LOOOP Curriculum Mapping Workshop provided an orientation to the online LOOOP platform regarding users, roles and access, and instructions for uploading, importing curriculum, mapping, analysis and reporting. The HPE Unit hosted 36 attendees from 18 Disciplines at this three-hour workshop.
Faculty that attended: 36
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What was your biggest takeaway from this training workshop?
The HPE Unit, hosted the first SWAT Training workshop for postgraduate trainers on 26 and 27 March at Susser & Stein, K-RITH Tower Building, Medical School campus. 22 participants from 13 Disciplines attended all the sessions on both days.
Faculty that attended: 22
DISCIPLINES REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this module?
LOOOP online training: 11 March 2026 and 18 March 2026
The HPE Unit hosted two online training workshops for faculty on the LOOOP (Learning Opportunities, Objectives and Outcomes Platform)—an innovative online curriculum mapping tool that enables educators to visualise and analyse the curriculum comprehensively. This training session provided details on how to navigate the platform, update modules, and utilise the additional catalogues, and understand how curriculum mapping strengthens teaching, learning, assessment, and accreditation processes.
Faculty that attended: 29
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What was your biggest takeaway from this workshop?
The HPE Unit Journal Club featured an Author in Conversation session with Prof Nyna Amin, co-author of “Generative AI Governance in Higher Education: A Case Study from Africa” (Frontiers in Political Science, 2025) and member of the UKZN AI Task Team. Prof Amin reflected on the development of the UKZN AI Academic framework and the broader governance considerations shaping the responsible integration of generative AI within higher education.
Faculty that attended: 21
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED
What is your key takeaway from this session?
Manuscript Peer Review webinar
The HPE Unit, in collaboration with Taylor & Francis publishers, hosted a webinar on Manuscript Peer Review on 30 September 2025.
The webinar session covered the essentials for researchers on how to be an effective peer reviewer, including:
LOOOP online training workshop
The HPE Unit hosted a LOOOP online training workshop on 23 September 2025.
The LOOOP Curriculum Mapping Workshop provided an orientation for novice LOOOP users or refresher for current LOOOP users on the online LOOOP platform regarding users, roles and access, and instructions for uploading, importing curriculum, mapping, analysis and reporting.
Faculty that attended -33
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
LOOOP online training workshop
The HPE Unit hosted a LOOOP online training workshop on 23 September 2025.
The LOOOP Curriculum Mapping Workshop provided an orientation for novice LOOOP users or refresher for current LOOOP users on the online LOOOP platform regarding users, roles and access, and instructions for uploading, importing curriculum, mapping, analysis and reporting.
Faculty that attended -33
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
An anonymised evaluation form was provided to the attendees in which they were asked to evaluate this HPE Unit activity and provide comments or suggestions.
What is your key takeaway from this module?
The HPE Unit hosted the Lecturio webinar on 22 September 2025. The aim of the webinar was to introduce health sciences faculty to innovative digital learning approaches using the Lecturio online platform and study tools, and how they could integrate resources from this platform into their teaching, learning and assessments. 18 faculty attended.
The CMSA and SACOMD are in the process of embedding workplace-based assessment (WBA) within postgraduate medical education. The SWAT training aims to provide clinical supervisors with the knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions required to conduct high-quality workplace-based assessments and deliver meaningful feedback.
The HPE Unit, hosted the first SWAT Training workshop for postgraduate trainers on 26 and 27 March at Susser & Stein, K-RITH Tower Building, Medical School campus. 22 participants from 13 Disciplines attended all the sessions on both days.
Faculty that attended: 22
DISCIPLINES REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this module?
The HPE Unit hosted the second SWAT Training workshop for postgraduate trainers on 10 and 11 July 2025 at Susser & Stein, K-RITH Tower Building, Medical School campus. 20 participants from 10 Disciplines attended.
Faculty that attended: 20
DISCIPLINES REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this module?
The HPE Unit hosted the third SWAT Training workshop for postgraduate trainers on 14 and 15 August at K2, K-RITH Tower building, Medical school campus. 25 participants from 13 Disciplines attended.
Faculty that attended: 25
DISCIPLINES REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this module?
The LOOOP Symposium was held on the 3 April at K1+K2, KRITH Tower Building, Medical School campus.
Learning Opportunities, Objectives and Outcomes Platform (LOOOP) is an innovative online tool that enables educators to visualise the curriculum. This can help identify gaps, redundancies, and areas for improvement, and ensure alignment with national accreditation and UKZN strategic goals.
This symposium showcased presentations from the developers (Charité University, Berlin) demonstrating how LOOOP identifies curriculum gaps, redundancies, and areas needing enhancement, ensuring alignment with both national accreditation standards and UKZN’s strategic objectives. Additionally, there were presentations from two South African universities (University of Pretoria and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University) about their experiences and successes with LOOOP, gaining insights into best practices and innovative approaches to curriculum mapping. 62 attendees from 30 Disciplines attended.
Faculty that attended: 62
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What was your biggest takeaway from this symposium?
LOOOP Training Workshop was conducted on 4 April 2025 at the Senate Chamber, Westville campus.
The LOOOP Curriculum Mapping Workshop provided an orientation to the online LOOOP platform regarding users, roles and access, and instructions for uploading, importing curriculum, mapping, analysis and reporting. The HPE Unit hosted 36 attendees from 18 Disciplines at this three-hour workshop.
Faculty that attended: 36
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What was your biggest takeaway from this training workshop?
Making Sense of Frameworks and Models in HPE
Confusion to Clarity: Making Sense of Frameworks and Models in HPE was held on 19 May 2025 at K2.
Faculty that attended-23
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
The HPE Unit workshop entitled: Concept to Practice: Using Theory in HPE Research was held on 20 May 2025 at K2, KRITH Tower Building, Medical School campus. 22 attendees from 4 schools attended this full-day event.
Faculty that attended-22
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What is your biggest takeaway from this workshop?
The HPE Unit hosted the Lecturio webinar on 22 September 2025. The aim of the webinar was to introduce health sciences faculty to innovative digital learning approaches using the Lecturio online platform and study tools, and how they could integrate resources from this platform into their teaching, learning and assessments. 18 faculty attended.
LOOOP online training workshop
The HPE Unit hosted a LOOOP online training workshop on 23 September 2025.
The LOOOP Curriculum Mapping Workshop provided an orientation for novice LOOOP users or refresher for current LOOOP users on the online LOOOP platform regarding users, roles and access, and instructions for uploading, importing curriculum, mapping, analysis and reporting.
Faculty that attended -33
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
LOOOP online training workshop
The HPE Unit hosted a LOOOP online training workshop on 23 September 2025.
The LOOOP Curriculum Mapping Workshop provided an orientation for novice LOOOP users or refresher for current LOOOP users on the online LOOOP platform regarding users, roles and access, and instructions for uploading, importing curriculum, mapping, analysis and reporting.
Faculty that attended -33
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
An anonymised evaluation form was provided to the attendees in which they were asked to evaluate this HPE Unit activity and provide comments or suggestions.
What is your key takeaway from this module?
Manuscript Peer Review webinar
The HPE Unit, in collaboration with Taylor & Francis publishers, hosted a webinar on Manuscript Peer Review on 30 September 2025.
The webinar session covered the essentials for researchers on how to be an effective peer reviewer, including:
HPE Unit world café: Pedagogy in the MBChB curriculum
The HPE Unit hosted a world café entitled Pedagogy in the MBChB curriculum on 13 October 2025 at K1, K-RITH Tower Building, Medical School campus.
The world café session aimed to explore the principles and practices of humanising pedagogy within medical education, to share and discuss innovative and practical strategies for fostering empathy, compassion, and relational learning in the medical programme, and to promote collaboration and exchange of ideas among educators to advance more inclusive, reflective, and person-centred approaches to teaching and learning.
Faculty that attended -19
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this module?
The LOOOP Symposium was held on the 3 April at K1+K2, KRITH Tower Building, Medical School campus.
Learning Opportunities, Objectives and Outcomes Platform (LOOOP) is an innovative online tool that enables educators to visualise the curriculum. This can help identify gaps, redundancies, and areas for improvement, and ensure alignment with national accreditation and UKZN strategic goals.
This symposium showcased presentations from the developers (Charité University, Berlin) demonstrating how LOOOP identifies curriculum gaps, redundancies, and areas needing enhancement, ensuring alignment with both national accreditation standards and UKZN’s strategic objectives. Additionally, there were presentations from two South African universities (University of Pretoria and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University) about their experiences and successes with LOOOP, gaining insights into best practices and innovative approaches to curriculum mapping. 62 attendees from 30 Disciplines attended.
Faculty that attended: 62
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What was your biggest takeaway from this symposium?
LOOOP Training Workshop was conducted on 4 April 2025 at the Senate Chamber, Westville campus.
The LOOOP Curriculum Mapping Workshop provided an orientation to the online LOOOP platform regarding users, roles and access, and instructions for uploading, importing curriculum, mapping, analysis and reporting. The HPE Unit hosted 36 attendees from 18 Disciplines at this three-hour workshop.
Faculty that attended: 36
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What was your biggest takeaway from this training workshop?
Making Sense of Frameworks and Models in HPE
Confusion to Clarity: Making Sense of Frameworks and Models in HPE was held on 19 May 2025 at K2.
Faculty that attended-23
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
The HPE Unit workshop entitled: Concept to Practice: Using Theory in HPE Research was held on 20 May 2025 at K2, KRITH Tower Building, Medical School campus. 22 attendees from 4 schools attended this full-day event.
Faculty that attended-22
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What is your biggest takeaway from this workshop?
The HPE Unit hosted the Lecturio webinar on 22 September 2025. The aim of the webinar was to introduce health sciences faculty to innovative digital learning approaches using the Lecturio online platform and study tools, and how they could integrate resources from this platform into their teaching, learning and assessments. 18 faculty attended.
LOOOP online training workshop
The HPE Unit hosted a LOOOP online training workshop on 23 September 2025.
The LOOOP Curriculum Mapping Workshop provided an orientation for novice LOOOP users or refresher for current LOOOP users on the online LOOOP platform regarding users, roles and access, and instructions for uploading, importing curriculum, mapping, analysis and reporting.
Faculty that attended -33
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
LOOOP online training workshop
The HPE Unit hosted a LOOOP online training workshop on 23 September 2025.
The LOOOP Curriculum Mapping Workshop provided an orientation for novice LOOOP users or refresher for current LOOOP users on the online LOOOP platform regarding users, roles and access, and instructions for uploading, importing curriculum, mapping, analysis and reporting.
Faculty that attended -33
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
An anonymised evaluation form was provided to the attendees in which they were asked to evaluate this HPE Unit activity and provide comments or suggestions.
What is your key takeaway from this module?
Manuscript Peer Review webinar
The HPE Unit, in collaboration with Taylor & Francis publishers, hosted a webinar on Manuscript Peer Review on 30 September 2025.
The webinar session covered the essentials for researchers on how to be an effective peer reviewer, including:
HPE Unit world café: Pedagogy in the MBChB curriculum
The HPE Unit hosted a world café entitled Pedagogy in the MBChB curriculum on 13 October 2025 at K1, K-RITH Tower Building, Medical School campus.
The world café session aimed to explore the principles and practices of humanising pedagogy within medical education, to share and discuss innovative and practical strategies for fostering empathy, compassion, and relational learning in the medical programme, and to promote collaboration and exchange of ideas among educators to advance more inclusive, reflective, and person-centred approaches to teaching and learning.
Faculty that attended -19
SCHOOLS REPRESENTED:
What is your key takeaway from this module?
