IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education (IOSR-JRME) e-ISSN: 2320–7388,p-ISSN: 2320–737X Volume 1, Issue 2 (Mar. –Apr. 2013), PP 09-11 www.iosrjournals.org www.iosrjournals.org 9 | Page Outcome Based Education (OBE) - Trend Review RashaEldeeb and NishaShatakumari Department of Physiology, Gulf Medical University (GMU), Ajman, UAE. Abstract: The reform in the health services that stresses on professionalism had brought the necessity to adopt outcome based education (OBE) in medical education. It is an approach of education that clearly identifies its intended final product – students’ competencies by determining the final curriculum outcome - a head of planning the framework of the curriculum. The unambiguous outcome is used to plan the curriculum, monitor its implementation, evaluate it and assess student’s achievement. The present paper is review of the origin, advantages, disadvantages, pitfalls and guidelines in implementation of outcome-based education. It is an attempt to provide a comprehensive coverage of a very popular current trend in medical education. Key words: outcome-based education, medical education trends, curriculum planning I. Introduction With contrary to the fact that most teachers put the center of their attention too much on what they teach rather than on what their students learn, OBE emphasizes on what is expected from the student to finally achieve when they complete their courserather than how they achieved it. Outcome based education is defined as an approach to education in which decisions about the curriculum are driven by the outcomes the students should display by the end of the course- professional knowledge, skills, abilities , values and attitudes- rather than on the educational process. It highlights the fact that you have to know the final destination of your journey before you start voyaging [1, 2] II. Origin of the outcome based education (OBE) OBE has been adopted for more than a century when educators brought to light the importance of appreciating students’ individual variation in the learning process, believing that education is best measured by encouraging individual students’ achievement that could occur at different rates for different students. OBE allows the students of different abilities to learn at their own rates with an emphasis on programmatic outcome in professional medical knowledge, skills and attitudes [3, 4]. The concept of OBE was also encouraged by the reform in the health care system that stresses on establishing a common set of standards for doctors with highlighting the fact that professionalism should be an essential competency achieved by the medical student before graduating [5]. With the increasingly global marketplace for higher education , OBE has been adopted by many medical schools with a great interest to ensure that the degrees granted to their students are competitive and accredited internationally and their graduate are competent practicing physicians [6,7]. III. Nature of the outcome based education (OBE) Outcome-based education approaches the curriculum decision making based on the competencies students should demonstrate at the end of their educational program, thus the outcomes or competencies dictate the curriculum content and organization, the teaching methods and strategies, the course offered, the educational environment and the assessment strategies [8]. All curriculum and teaching decisions are made based on how best to facilitate the desired final outcome [9, 10]. Steps for planning and implementing outcome based curriculum: 1. Deciding on the outcomes: the educational outcomes are clearly identified and unambiguously specified regarding the content, context and competence. The US Accreditation Council on Graduate Education [11],lumps the outcomes into a set of general competencies addressing patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, system-based practice, interpersonal and communication skills and professionalism [12]. 2. Demonstrating outcomes: the expected outcome should be defined by setting ‘benchmarks’ for each level of the program. Each benchmark is a skill that must be demonstrated by the student. Benchmarks should tackle and define specifically the goals of the curriculum and verify ways to assess whether students have reached these goals at that level of study. 3. Deciding on contents and teaching strategies OBE can be implemented as a ‘Whole-class’ models which aim to bring all learners in a classroom up to high levels of learning before proceeding further or by the