Samar Yahya

Saudi Gazette

 

Medical college students educating people through YouTube

JEDDAH – A group of medical girl students at King Abdul Aziz University (KAAU) launched a YouTube program titled, “It’s Your Choice” with hopes to educate people on health.



The idea came out last year, when a number of enthusiastic students who were still in third year at (KAAU), faculty of medicine decided to do something to help others, even though they were still students. It  all started when the faculty organized two medical days within its campus, during which Alaa Bin Salman and her colleagues presented educational and awareness videos.



“By the end of the academic year, we (180 girl students) had a meeting with all our colleagues who are now studying their fourth year in medicine and had brainstorming sessions on how to collaborate and do something in accordance with our studies and at the same time, provide people with correct information. Then, we came out with the idea of a YouTube medical program,” said Alaa Bin Salman, director of the program.



The main idea of the YouTube program is dedicating an episode of not more than 10 minutes to give health tips. The program team depends on 10 permanent members who meet every fortnight and discuss the idea of the new episode, with guidelines from their medical professors, especially on the latest most vital medical topics.



“We also get information about the latest topics from our families, relatives and friends. We always receive the same questions and queries on health and medical tips, this helps us to generate a new story,” said Nawal Al Keubaidi, head of the translation team.



It is worth mentioning that all work is done voluntarily, and every student in their fourth year has a role. Work is distributed according to who has free time or has the ability to do it.



Taking care of every detail, a subtitle is added to all episodes, with the aim of eyeing a wider spectrum of viewers and not limiting it to Arabic speakers only. In addition, assessment, comments and viewer feedback is taken into consideration when preparing for the new episode.



The program seems to receive viewership from different parts of the world. Highlighting its success, the team members expressed their delight to see some episodes airing on an Indian website. They also analyzed viewers’ locations and found out that some of them were from non-Arab countries such as Spain and Japan.



“It’s your choice” aims to disseminate medical culture in a manner far from narration, making it clear to everyone, explaining what happens in our bodies, how it happens and then leaves people to decide, as the name of the program indicates, “it’s your choice” to follow or not to follow the advice given.



The program uses simple and everyday language which reaches everyone. The team follows the same simple language professors’ use when teaching.



So far, the program has nine episodes. The process begins with choosing the topic with the help of professors, then angles of discussion, collecting data in English, translating the chosen data into Arabic, writing the script in simple Arabic, choosing who (from the 180 students of fourth year college) will present the episode, the choice is always done by one of the 10 permanent members. The chosen presenter gets two to three days of reviewing and studying the script by heart, this is followed by the video shooting which is done by Bin Salman, the next step is editing (montage) and translation, when all is done well, then comes uploading the episode.



The team depends on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp to notify fans that the YouTube channel has uploaded a new episode.



According to Bin Salman, one of the main obstacles they face is financing, which is needed to help in marketing and promoting the show. The lack of promotion is reflected on the medium range of viewers. They all work as volunteers and they can’t hire someone to help in marketing.



Although the whole team contributes money, it is still inadequate, especially with the high cost of production and the need for an advanced camera and lens. Also, a producer is required to help in the final editing and montage procedure.



It is worth mentioning that the name of the program came after brainstorming sessions, where the team came out with more than 30 different titles. They were searching for names that didn’t have an explicit or clear indication of health or well-being. Thus, the name came from the main concept that the program delivers medical information to viewers, then it remains their choice to work it out, that’s why “It’s your choice”.