UGM Continues DISCERN-DSS Capacity Building through Local Training in Indonesia

Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) continued its involvement in the DISCERN-DSS project through a series of local training activities conducted at Indonesian partner universities between October 2025 and January 2026. The activities were designed to expand the capacity of local academic teams in implementing Digital Scenario-Based Learning (D-SBL) for health professions education.

The local training was part of DISCERN-DSS, an Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education project that aims to strengthen digital soft skills education through co-creative practices and scenario-based learning. The project brings together Indonesian and European partner institutions to support digital transformation in health higher education.

For UGM, the local training phase represented an important continuation of the previous international training held at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). Knowledge and skills gained from the international forum were further shared with broader institutional teams to ensure that project capacity could grow beyond the initial group of participants.

The activities involved educators, technologists, content experts, and academic staff from Indonesian partner universities, including UGM, Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS), and UMY. Through these sessions, participants strengthened their understanding of D-SBL principles, scenario development, digital soft skills integration, facilitation strategies, and the preparation of digital learning resources.

The training also encouraged participants to reflect on how digital soft skills can be embedded into existing health education curricula. These skills include communication, collaboration, ethical reasoning, adaptability, professionalism, evidence-informed decision-making, and responsible engagement with digital health technologies.

UGM views this capacity-building process as a strategic step toward preparing future health professionals for the realities of digitally enabled healthcare. As health systems increasingly adopt telemedicine, electronic health records, digital platforms, and other technology-supported services, students need learning experiences that help them practice professional judgment in digital contexts.

The local training activities also strengthened collaboration among Indonesian partner universities. Each institution contributed its own educational context and implementation priorities, while working toward the shared goal of developing relevant and high-quality D-SBL resources for Indonesian health education.

Following the local training phase, UGM will continue to contribute to scenario co-creation, review, technical development, and future piloting of digital learning resources. These stages are expected to support the development of D-SBL materials that are pedagogically strong, contextually relevant, and suitable for use in health professions education.

Through its participation in DISCERN-DSS local training, UGM reaffirms its commitment to advancing educational innovation and international collaboration. The project is expected to support the preparation of health graduates who are digitally competent, ethical, adaptive, collaborative, and ready to respond to the evolving demands of modern healthcare.