The Medical Education Development Center (MEDC), Gifu University hosted "The 79th Online Medical Education Seminar & Workshop" at Gifu University on Saturday, May 22 and Sunday, 23, 2021. A total of 184 participants and lecturers attended six virtual workshops, symposium and webinar.

From Friday, May 21 through Sunday, 23, the 22nd training session for administrative staff working for the faculties of medicine and dentistry at national and private universities, was also held as part of a teaching and administrative staff collaboration program. Thirty-six people from 27 universities took part in the session.

Firstly, at the online workshop called, "e-Workshops," participants exchanged their views on the following themes; "Individualized Support for Students," "Online Education through Teaching and Administrative Staff Collaboration," and "Practical Education for Enlightenment." Under the title, "Individualized Support for Students - Importance of Mental Healthcare," participants learned the mental state of students who are forced to take online classes due to the pandemic, and how to deal with students who have mental issues. They were split into small groups and discussed measures to support students. The seminar ended with the group presentations.

At a webinar, Professor Noriko Hirasawa from the Professional Schools for Teacher Education gave a lecture titled, "Teaching and Administrative Staff Collaboration at Schools and Education Board." She spoke about the important roles of Professional Schools for Teacher Education in training highly skilled professionals, and the necessity of collaboration among schools, education board and universities in this pandemic crisis.

Many opinions were exchanged among participants after they viewed a newly developed educational video clip ("starter kit for medical staff" which was developed as part of "Third-term Project" of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). Impressions of the participants on the clip were very positive such as "quite easy to understand," etc.

As a collaboration center for medical education, MEDC continues to hold seminars and workshops for promotion, development and improvement of medical staff education. The next 80th seminar and workshop is scheduled to be held at Seirei Hamamatsu General Hospital (Shizuoka Prefecture) on Saturday, November 13 and Sunday November 14, 2021.