Teaching of an integrated human nervous system course in the Sultanate of Oman

The College of Medicine at Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman has opted for the credit system that makes the designing of an integrated, multidisciplinary course a challenging proposition. The human nervous system course is no exception to that. The aim of the course is to guide students to understand the structure and function of the brain and to learn about the disorders afflicting it. There are 4 major problems encountered in this course. First, due to the relative weighting of different subjects in the course, the students tend to ignore the topics that have less credit hours and contribute fewer marks to the total marks. Secondly, students make minimal effort to analyze and synthesize information. Thirdly, poor knowledge of the English language hampers comprehension. Finally, it is felt that in its present form the course is too long. We are trying to evolve a version of hybrid problem-based learning that suits our local needs and resources.