Formats and levels in a learning programme
A learning programme combines formats with different amounts of explanation, practice and discussion, at levels appropriate to its participants. Session length, group size, preparation and feedback shape what each format can offer.
Participation and interaction
A half-day open-floor presentation format announced for EMWA’s 2014 Budapest conference provided for ten minutes of slides followed by ten minutes of questions and discussion. Any participant could propose a medical-writing topic, including a controversial issue, new guideline, technology or professional experience. A subcommittee was to select presentations from abstracts of up to 200 words, notifying successful applicants before registration opened so they could plan to attend their slot.
AMWA’s 2011 programme illustrated three interaction formats: small groups solving real medical-writing emergencies; onstage interviews with three leaders in health literacy and patient education; and rotating one-to-one speed-networking conversations about professional interests. Its call for the following year distinguished a practical one-hour how-to session from a breakfast roundtable, where a leader guided interactive discussion with up to nine attendees.
Five formats introduced in AMWA’s 2013 programme offered different kinds of participation.
| Format | Duration and participation |
|---|---|
| Intensive Seminar | Two and a half hours, limited attendance and a separate nominal fee, intended for a more substantial learning experience. |
| Topic Seminar | One hour on a critical issue, technique or process. |
| Hands-On Demonstration | Thirty or 60 minutes with opportunities to practise while learning. |
| Pro/Con Debate | Ninety minutes discussing two sides of an issue. |
| Encore Presentation | Ninety minutes in which an invited speaker repeats a presentation from another association’s meeting. |
The 2014 programme specified Intensive Seminars lasting two hours and 45 minutes, including a 15-minute break, for 40–50 attendees, with subjects including presentation design, global virtual working and online health content for readers with limited literacy.
A plenary can collect questions, comments and poll answers through audience-response devices: at EMWA’s 2013 opening session, handheld keypads let delegates interact with the chair and panel.
Poster presentations can combine original research with practical how-to ideas. AMWA’s 2007 selection committee assessed abstracts for relevance, practicality, originality and organisation; plans included displaying posters throughout the conference, scheduling time with the authors and publishing abstracts afterwards. EMWA’s 2017 poster session similarly selected abstracts relevant to medical writers and offered a snapshot of current thinking and research.
Learning through experience and reflection
A chapter tour of an anatomical exhibition used three anatomy professors as guides; they eased initial unease by directing attention to anatomical relationships visible in differently posed preserved specimens. The specimens were preserved by plastination, a polymer-preservation method.
A bioethics workshop aimed to provide food for thought rather than definite answers. Its post-workshop assignment asked each participant to choose a case study, discuss it with family, friends and colleagues, and report back, bringing a broader range of perspectives into the discussion.
Levels, specialist tracks and complementary formats
EMWA’s 2025 regulatory-writing training descriptions distinguished foundational workshops linked to documents such as clinical study reports, protocols and nonclinical study reports; advanced courses; professional-techniques workshops; and a separate medical-device offering. Seminars addressed current topics of interest, with examples including ICH E6(R3) and prompting practices for medical writers.
An emerging medical-device programme in 2018 separated classification, clinical evaluation and literature reviews into workshops, with a clinical-investigation workshop being prepared. Expansion of the device offering was intended to complement established pharmaceutical subjects.
A webinar can provide preparation for a workshop: a July 2023 medical-device-software webinar formed part of the pre-workshop assignment for a workshop under development, with a recording and slides to be shared with participants. An opening poll found attendees with basic knowledge, newcomers and people with a solid background in software classification.
A 2024 nonclinical-writing expert seminar referred a participant’s question about a module 4 report template to an associated workshop for further discussion. The seminar programme had been assembled by the regulatory special interest group.
Plans for visual-communication teaching in 2024 included expert seminars for experienced writers, department heads and industry leaders, and workshops on graphical abstracts and data visualisation. The proposed seminars covered perception, data visualisation, graphic medicine and real-time graphic recording. One graphical-abstract workshop aimed to teach writers the terminology used by graphic designers rather than to turn them into designers, and workshops also addressed software tools.
Advanced discussion and participant feedback
EMWA’s Expert Seminar Series was intended to complement its workshops, symposia and smaller events. Its inaugural 2015 programme targeted experienced medical writers, department heads and industry leaders, with two topics in each seminar.
One attendee found the MedDRA and client–freelancer sessions too similar in content and delivery to ordinary workshops and questioned pairing such different subjects. Group exercises helped with MedDRA content, but he thought outsiders would have difficulty following it; the client–freelancer session was more interactive, possibly because the audience mostly belonged to those two groups. He found only a short agenda description without a participant profile, objective or slides, and welcomed having no preparatory or follow-up assignment or credit requirement. He wanted discussion of specific topics with greater speaker–audience interaction.
The post-conference survey reported that 25.7% of delegates attended at least one expert seminar, with content scores no lower than 4.19/5 and format scores no lower than 4.27/5. The session that attendee criticised received the highest scores, 4.36 for content and 4.42 for format. The organising team nevertheless planned more discussion time, better room arrangements for participation and improved audio, and sought topic suggestions directly from members for the first few years.
EMWA’s 2024 Expert Discussion Group design specified eight to ten participants for 1.5–2 hours with a selected moderator; the format had been introduced in 2023. Its 2024 requirements included more than ten years of professional medical-writing experience, interest and experience in the specific topic, preparation using advance questions and active contribution; moderators set experience requirements to maintain the discussion level. The three 2023 pilots covered artificial intelligence, the patient voice in publications and authorisation pathways, with further groups planned on rare diseases and lessons from master protocols.
Curriculum and online resources
AMWA’s content strategy, developed in late 2019, mapped content to member interests and organisational goals and prioritised regulatory writing, scientific publications and health communication because most members worked in those areas. Its curriculum outline covered the following areas.
- Regulatory writing: documents required for approval of medicines, biologics and devices.
- Scientific publications: manuscripts, posters, abstracts, presentations, conference summaries, and medical trade news and features.
- Health communication: patient education, decision aids, public health, news, releases and public relations.
- Writing and editing mechanics: fundamental skills across professional focus areas.
- Core knowledge and skills: ethics, visual communication, research methods and statistics, literature, terminology and technology, including Word, document management systems and artificial intelligence tools.
- Career development: soft skills, teamwork, networking, emerging opportunities, leadership and freelance business.
- Education for professionals: continuing education for physicians, nurses and other health care professionals, and training for pharmaceutical and biotechnology staff.
- Promotional writing: marketing and advertising for diagnostic or therapeutic products or medical and health institutions and organisations, including corporate communication.
- Grantsmanship: writing and developmental editing of research funding proposals.
Regular review removed or revised out-of-date activities, while learning assessments were being added and consistent catalogue terms improved searching. Archived live webinars continually added on-demand videos to the catalogue.
In 2020, AMWA’s 88-activity catalogue comprised the following.
- Two Knowledge Builders.
- Seven fast, interactive training activities.
- Eight resource documents.
- Eleven interactive learning activities.
- Sixty on-demand videos.
Knowledge Builders combined multimedia and print with the following learning sequence.
- Listen to a narrated slide set.
- Complete exercises to develop understanding.
- Use a handout summarising key points.
- Review recommended reading for deeper exploration.
- Record learning through a knowledge check.
Mini Tutorials provided focused high-level overviews; their review included updating five priority resources in 2020.
Programme selection and learner preferences
In its 2016 webinar programme, EMWA selected topics using audience feedback and attendance, balanced medical-writing topics with broader subjects such as statistics and project management, planned updates on guidance and aimed for one disease-specific webinar each year. Presentations were peer-reviewed and speakers checked for subject expertise. Webinars could update basic skills for new and experienced members, cover topics unsuitable for conferences and respond to emerging issues, with schedules adjusted as needed.
AMWA’s June 2013 needs assessment had 1,043 starters and 944 completed responses; percentages were based on respondents to each question. For a single preferred continuing-education format, annual conferences or national meetings and on-demand online events each received 23%, followed by regional or chapter meetings, self-guided print material and live webinars at 15%–16% each.
Likelihood of using online formats was highest for ten-minute video tutorials (82% very or somewhat likely), web-based self-study modules (81%), one-hour on-demand webinars (76%) and downloadable text (71%). Twenty-minute podcasts, one-hour conference-presentation videos and one-hour live interactive webinars received 65%–66%, while almost half were unlikely to use an app or online study group. Written responses made participation conditional on content quality and cost.
The shares very or somewhat likely to attend a webinar were 78% for software tips, 76% for new field information, 68% for clinical trials and 67% for epidemiology or statistics; getting started in the profession and basic science were less popular, with 57% and 48% respectively unlikely to attend. Regulatory writing, omitted from the fixed choices, was prominent in written responses alongside software tips. The shares very or somewhat likely to attend full-day paid intensives were 49% for regulatory writing, 42% for freelance business and 41% for essential skills, while 53% were unlikely to attend workshop-leader training.