Integrating portfolio and mentorship in competency-based medical education: a Middle East experience | BMC Medical Education

Faculty development

It is already known that successful implementation of portfolios in medical undergraduate programs requires a concerted effort from both professors and students [40]. Faculty development appears to be paramount, as instructors must fully understand the educational value of portfolios and embrace the project [40]. Through participating in relevant training, mentors must learn the essentials, including how to effectively guide learners through the portfolio maintenance and assessment process, and how to provide constructive feedback and support their academic and personal goals. Mentor training programs must also focus on maintaining effective communication, establishing and aligning expectations, addressing diversity within mentoring relationships, and promoting mentees’ professional career development [25].

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At DMCG, the terms “mentor” and “academic advisor” are used interchangeably, reflecting the dual role assigned to each mentor within the mentorship and portfolio program. While academic literature differentiates these roles based on their objectives, methods, and relationship dynamics, DMCG combines their functions to offer holistic support to students. Mentors at DMCG are tasked with fulfilling traditional mentoring responsibilities, including providing emotional support, serving as role models, and guiding personal and professional development [3, 26, 32]. Additionally, they assume the role of academic advisors by overseeing portfolio grading, assisting students in navigating academic requirements, and fostering decision-making skills [7, 18, 38].

This integrated system aligns with the developmental focus of the portfolio program’s initial phase, during which mentors prioritize fostering reflective practices and professional growth. In the second phase, as the portfolio becomes graded, mentors continue to share responsibilities traditionally associated with academic advisors, blending academic oversight with their mentoring roles. However, in the program’s proposed final phase, a clearer distinction between the two roles is envisioned. While mentors will continue to provide holistic guidance, academic advisors may be assigned based on the student’s chosen specialty, enabling more targeted academic support and feedback [20, 22, 33].

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This evolving approach seeks to enhance the mentorship and portfolio system by acknowledging the distinct yet complementary contributions of each role to student development. Transitioning to a dual-role framework in the final phase, DMCG anticipates delivering a more specialized and effective support structure that meets both the academic and professional aspirations of its students.

At the beginning of the journey driven by the idea to establish an effective portfolio and mentoring system, college administration referred to consultants experienced in this area. A series of online meetings and face-to-face meetings was held for future portfolio administrators and mentors to help design our own contextualized approach. We proceeded with in-house faculty training by allocating mentors and delivering face-to-face orientation to mentoring and portfolio assessment. In our college, we decided that nominated mentors will perform portfolio evaluation. The first cohort of student mentors consisted of teachers who had greater knowledge and ownership of the newly designed MD curriculum to be implemented. Additionally, we considered research evidence that suggests that personality plays a vital role in the mentoring relationship, emphasizing the need to consider individual characteristics of mentors [19]. Two structured training sessions were conducted for mentors at strategically chosen intervals. The first session, held at the start of the academic year, aimed to familiarize mentors with the objectives of the portfolio and mentorship system, as well as to develop their communication skills and understanding of feedback and assessment strategies. The second training session took place two months later, prior to the first portfolio assessment. Its purpose was to ensure a shared understanding of expectations for the upcoming assessment and provide an opportunity to address any lingering questions or uncertainties.

The DMCG mentor guide was prepared to inform and prepare relevant faculty members. The content of the 23-page document included mentorship objectives, clarification of duties, outlines of the structure of each session, and other potentially relevant information.

Interpersonal and ethical considerations

The mentor–mentee relationship in various fields, such as clinical microbiology, nursing, and academic medicine, emphasizes the importance of ethical credibility, empathy, trust, and interpersonal skills [10, 28]. These values are crucial to fostering a supportive and empathetic environment, which is essential for effective mentorship. In our opinion, to ensure that technology does not diminish the personal and relational aspects of the mentor–mentee relationship, it is essential to integrate human and social values into technologically enhanced mentorship. Furthermore, the literature highlights the importance of self-disclosure in developing and maintaining close interpersonal relationships, indicating that technology should be used to facilitate open and honest communication between mentors and mentees. To address these considerations, it is crucial to implement mentoring programs that prioritize the human and relational aspects of the mentor–mentee relationship, using technology to facilitate meaningful and supportive interactions [36].

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Furthermore, the protection of confidentiality and the balance between personal and professional lives are essential considerations in maintaining the integrity of the mentor–mentee relationship [16, 35]. This underscores the importance of respecting boundaries and creating a supportive environment that acknowledges the personal well-being of both mentors and mentees. Therefore, it is essential to address concerns about privacy and confidentiality through secure digital platforms and to encourage a culture of openness to technology among mentors and students to successfully implement the system [24]. To minimize potential tension regarding the data students may choose to provide—particularly when such data carries both personal and professional implications—the DMCG approach emphasizes informing learners in advance about the assessed components of the portfolio. This approach allows students to selectively display or withhold data points, depending on the specific purpose or intention for including the information.

Student orientation

For students, they also received comprehensive training on personal portfolio design. A series of four targeted meetings over the course of two months were provided by the core team of portfolio managers at DMCG. The content of such sessions aimed to introduce the platform used for portfolio maintenance, to clarify all required documentation to be submitted, to familiarize students with the portfolio submission process, to teach them how to categorize their evidence effectively, to provide guidance on reflective writing, and to educate students regarding the principles of self-assessment. Upon enrollment in the Portfolio Course on LMS, students acquired access to detailed checklists that outlined all the necessary components for upcoming submissions (two checklists per semester). These checklists served as a roadmap, helping learners understand what is required for a successful portfolio evaluation and ensuring they stay on track throughout the course. Subsequently, the mentee guide was prepared to help learners understand the purpose and benefits of the program and to facilitate building of the necessary skills required to effectively utilize the data and to monitor individual progress in the development of professional competencies throughout the program.

It is noteworthy that according to our observations, there are certain important conditions that make the practice described truly beneficial. First, students must be taught the essentials related to twenty-first century skills. Second, students must be trained in reflective writing and setting SMART goals. In semester 1, DMCG freshmen are offered a twenty-first century skills course that addresses these needs. In addition, portfolio administrators deliver a session on how to write study and self-improvement plans. The mentors, in turn, also complete the relevant orientation to the task. Finally, we agreed that it is better for beginners to use templates designed by portfolio administrators to guide them in writing and to facilitate standardization of the assessments.

It is worth mentioning that we believe that the training of stakeholders in an integrated portfolio assessment should never be a one-time event. Regular communication, including obtaining feedback from all participants and responding by introducing improvements and solutions, should be ongoing to facilitate continuous improvement of the system.

Facilitation of portfolio assessment and mentoring

During the implementation, both mentors and mentees received reminders about upcoming assessments, containing links to the LMS course, guidelines, and checklists. It is important to mention that this communication occurred at least one week before the deadlines to ensure that both stakeholders have enough time to complete the task. Additionally, the meetings were secured on faculty and student timetables as a guarantee of their availability. Portfolio administrators also took responsibility for booking the venues for face-to-face assessment encounters. All mentors were provided with the EmiratesMEDs competency attainment reports of their mentees prepared by the college assessment team.