Supplementary File 1: Excerpts from free-text feedback

On the conduct of discussion:

“I like that the topics were divided for each student to ensure that everyone participates. There were also other topics where anyone who was interested could participate. I think the role of the moderator was important. The idea of small questionnaires in between and the summarising and narrative writing was really good.”

“Good to know various perspectives of other people, and different approaches people have to same problem”

“I’d like to thank the pharmacology department for this different type of experience and to expose us to different types of study materials and also because I never really got a chance to take part in debate competitions in school because at that time I was not in a very good school and would like to thank them for this chance of getting exposed to some form of debate”

On AETCOM training:

“Helpful to take decisions in real life and it’s a reminder that we need to stick to being ethical and honest.”

“This AETCOM group activity has taught me a lot more about the problems that doctors face in the clinical practice, and this group discussion showed me that how all of us have different opinion and different solution for the same problem and it is hard to decide which one should be labelled ethical or unethical”

Drawbacks and suggestions:

“Since the discussion was online there were some technical issues and network issues. Otherwise the discussion was good.”

“More resources could have been used and more topics could have been covered”

“Topics are sometimes favourable to only one side. So topic selection should be looked (into)”