In his address to the gathering, Chief Guest, Lt. General (Dr.) MD Venkatesh, Vice Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education highlighted the need for the curriculum change and how the revolution poses challenges. He emphasized the four components required to bring this change: regulation, administration, faculty and students. 

Continuous upgrade of the curriculum is a way to keep the stakeholders, including the students, faculty, alumni, abreast with the recent concepts of education technology and produce graduates who remain relevant to the present requirements of Health Care delivery. Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore, organized their 5th edition of Curriculum review titled "Curriculum Conclave 5.0" on 15th and 16th September 2022. The programme was conducted in a hybrid mode and included international speakers experienced in competency-based education delivery and assessment system in their Universities.

The inaugural session commenced with a soulful invocation followed by a welcome by Dr. Ashita Uppoor, Dean, MCODS, Mangalore. She invited the resource persons and emphasized the need to revamp of Dental education in line with the NEP 2020 and essential guidelines given by ranking agencies. 

In his address to the gathering, Chief Guest, Lt. General (Dr.) MD Venkatesh, Vice Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education highlighted the need for the curriculum change and how the revolution poses challenges. He emphasized the four components required to bring this change: regulation, administration, faculty and students.

Dr. Dilip G Naik, Pro Vice Chancellor of MAHE, reiterated the role of MAHE in the conceptualization and implementation of Outcome Based Education by Choice for the dental colleges making us the pioneers. He pointed out the need of a dynamic and robust curriculum process with feedback mechanisms for bringing out graduates of the highest order in our profession.

Dr. Junaid Ahmed, Associate Dean, MCODS, Mangalore, gave a brief overview of the journey of MCODS, Mangalore, through the series of 5 curriculum conclaves and the programme outline. The inaugural concluded with the vote of thanks delivered by Dr. Premalatha K, Associate Dean, MCODS, Mangalore,

Dr. Ciraj, Director of FAIMER institute and Coordinator of CCEID, Manipal Academy of Higher education, introduced the participants to the basics of "competency" under the Competency based education system. He emphasized the methods to develop assessment framework based on competencies.  The assessment of the highest order of "what learners can do?" is to be designed, keeping the crucial competencies needed for the profession.  Prof. Ciraj also touched upon the role of competency domains (lifelong learning, communication, teamwork), degree of assessment, and alignment with the type of teaching that defines the professional identity of the dentist.

Dr. Pushpanjali,  Professor and head department of Public Health dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Ramaiah University, spoke on the topic "Assessment in Clinical Dentistry". She gave clinical demonstrations and conducted an engaing session on the importance of aligning the outcomes/competencies to teaching and assessment. She introduced the gathering to the various criterion involved in developing objective competency-based assessment.

Dr. Ajay Telang, Dean, Penang International Dental College Malaysia spoke about the "Programmatic assessment" with examples in the field of dentistry. He emphasized the importance of developing an apt checklist, and feedback in improving the assessment. He quoted "Best assessment is to assess when the student is not aware that he is being assessed" ,  indicating the importance of formative assessment.

At the end of Day 1, Dr. Gagan Bajaj, Associate Professor, Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore engaged the audience on the writing of course outcomes. He appraised the participants on the blooms taxonomy and conducted a workshop on writing a course outcome in the cognitive domain with a relevant question framed at that competency level.

Day 2 of the curriculum conclave started with a very interactive lecture on Workplace Based Assessment by Dr. Anand R, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Coordinator of Medical Education unit, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. He highlighted the importance of alignment of teaching and assessment with the demonstration of the Mini CEX, DOPS and Multistage Feedback system techniques.

Simulation-based assessment and teaching is in the rise now. Dr. Lulu Sheriff, Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, and Director of Simulation Center, Father Muller Medical College, showed the participants the various types of simulation used in medical education. She emphasized the need to be creative in developing assessment modules in competency assessment in dental practice.

Dr. Rashmi Kusurkar, Associate Professor and research Programme Leader, Faculty of Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, touched upon a very pertinent yet under-emphasized concept of motivation. Using her research, she discussed the factors that bring about autonomy and intrinsic motivation among students.

This session was followed by the second workshop component on Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), by Dr. Srikant N, Professor, Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, MCODS, Mangalore, Dr. Supriya Nambiar, Profesor, Department of Orthodontics and Dr. Nanditha Sujir, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology. The various types of stations possible in OSCE was discussed with an onsite exercise on a model OSCE station designing.

The Grand Finale of the Curriculum conclave 5.0 was the Panel Discussion. The panelists were Dr. Pushpanjali, Professor and head department of Public Health dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Ramaiah University, Dr. Betsy Thomas, Periodontist, Mahsa University, Malaysia , Dr. Anand R, Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, KMC Mangalore, Dr. Sharada Rai, Professor and Head in the Department of Pathology at KMC Mangalore, Dr. Monica Solomon, Dean, MCODS, Manipal and Dr. Ashita Uppoor , Dean MCODS, Mangalore. Deliberation on the various regulatory and administration barriers and probable solutions were discussed. Dr. Betsy and Dr. Pushpanjali gave perspectives of the other Universities abroad and in India. The need for training of faculty, students and members or regulatory bodies was discussed to implement the Competency based assessment system.

The programme was attended by 189 participants from all over India, encompassing the various stakeholders involved in BDS curriculum delivery, including faculty, BoS members, alumni and peers. The workshop was attended by 40 participants who got a hands on experience on outcome development and planning an objective structured practical examination.