Dear editor

We thank the reviewers for their constructive review of the manuscript. We agree with the anonymous reviewer that many of the educational methods and learning modalities we had described are being practice in certain medical schools but are novel in the context of Aruba. Once we implement these ‘innovations’, study them and obtain student feedback we will be in a position to share our experiences with other workers. We thank Professor V Bedin for his constructive comments and appreciation of the manuscript. To answer Dr. Yahaya’s question the college is appointing four new faculty members who have postgraduate qualifications in their respective subjects. Dr. Shankar has long experience in medical education and is a fellow and faculty of the PSGFAIMER Regional Institute. Dr. Coffey an expert in problem-based learning is helping us with the PBL programme. We are also getting help from other visiting faculty and from the online community of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER). A separate room for small group learning has been created with all required facilities. Training for faculty members in these learning methods is being conducted and working groups have been formed under the curriculum committee to oversee the different innovations. We plan to measure student perception about the educational environment at XUSOM using the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) and also measure their readiness for self-directed learning using the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) at regular intervals. We also plan to obtain student feedback about the newer learning methods.  

Regards

Dr. Shankar & coauthors