Curriculum Enhancements for OCOM
The vision for the OCOM curriculum came before anything else. The Curriculum Draft for OCOM was created before we had made a single architectural plan for the facility, written a single job description (other than mine), created an organizational chart, finalized a financial pro forma, created a website, or had really done anything else. This was one of those situations where we started with the end in mind. The vision was to create a curriculum that was evidence-based, modern, focused on training a caring physician, and one where we would have the absolutely best outcomes for our medical students. Refining a curriculum also follows the Ninety-Ninety Rule, where the first 90% of the refinement takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% also takes 90% of the time.
Being the closest medical school to Walt Disney World, we are often inspired by Disney. One of my favorite quotes is from Walt Disney, “Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” I look at our curriculum as one of those things. While the fundamentals of the vision for the curriculum remain steadfast, how we implement and continuously improve it is always moving forward.
As we move into the current academic year and with a new Associate Dean for Pre-Clinical Education, a closely aligned Curriculum Committee, a faculty who cares deeply about our student learning outcomes, and with our inaugural class embarking on their clinical years and the all-important Level 2 of the licensing exams (“boards”) where they actually get a numerical score rather than just P/F and a number that is closely looked at by prospective residency programs, we are advancing upon our original vision of the curriculum with a number of enhancements, without a substantive change:
3,000 Board-Style Questions for Each Level of the Boards
Malcom Gladwell is famous for his “10,000 hours to become an expert” in the Outliers book. I feel strongly that every medical student should do 3,000 board-style questions for each level of the boards. We now have stronger confines to ensure that every medical student must complete 3,000 questions for each level of the boards. Reflection on each of those questions is essential for long-term learning. AI and its strong temptation to just look up the answer rather than the hard work of true learning reflection creates challenges, but an increase in proctored assessments fosters better question-taking hygiene.
Steady Digest of Questions
Questions are a powerful type of active learning. In fact, our neurochemistry is actually impacted by answering questions. One thing that we are working to implement is a daily question that will be sent out to the faculty and staff. While the number of questions are relatively low in terms of overall questions that each medical student will need to answer, it is a bit like that first cup of coffee that can help you get going. Sometimes the smallest catalyst can inspire more learning.
Frequent Assessment & Deep Retrieval
A cornerstone of adult learning is frequent assessments, coupled with deep retrieval. We started OCOM with weekly assessments. To the dismay of our inaugural class, there was an attempt to change the assessment to biweekly, but we were not seeing the learning outcomes that we had seen with weekly assessments and we are returning to weekly assessments. Additionally, we are making all of our subsequent assessments in courses to cumulative assessments that will advance our strong belief in the need for deep retrieval for our adult learners. Additionally, we are increasing the number of diagnostic exams, using evidence-based exams to inform students on their learning outcomes.
Enhancing the Use of Precision-Based Learning
Our curriculum is mapped to multiple learning outcomes. Using technology, we can now let students know exactly where their weaknesses are, down to individual objectives. This will allow every student to know exactly where their individual academic weaknesses are so that their individual learning can be tailored to where weaknesses and blindspots exist and avoid the temptation to study favorite subjects over putting in the hard work in the areas where they need to focus the most. This has the opportunity to train more well-rounded and better prepared physicians.
Advancing the Foundational Aspects of Anatomy and Osteopathic Principles & Practices
The foundations of osteopathic medical education are strongly in anatomy and osteopathic principles and practices. The faculty have worked hard to create enhancements to our Foundations Course, Anatomy Thread, and Osteopathic Principles and Practice training that will improve learning outcomes and advance towards our original vision of the curriculum.
The thing that inspires me most about OCOM is our team and our strong alignment with our core value of Innovation and Continuous Improvement. Medicine and medical education are on the cusp of changes as we have never seen before, and I know that our team will not succumb to the temptations of status quo bias. As an organization, we will do as Walt Disney inspires us to “keep moving forward”.
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