Assignment 1| Design a curriculum or educational program related to medical education (group project)
Along with 3-4 colleagues, you have been chosen to join an Educational Task Force assembled to devise a proposal outlining a new curricular component or educational program intended for implementation in your health sciences school. In your proposal, we will ask you to consider the questions below (which we will address in greater detail through interactive teaching/learning sessions throughout the elective). Bear in mind that we are interested not only in how you intend to address these questions, but also in why you have chosen to do so in the manner that you have. You will meet with your supervisor on a regular basis throughout the elective to discuss your progress and obtain ongoing feedback on your work.
At the end of the month, your group is expected to submit a final report (maximum length 15 pages, excluding references and appendices) summarizing the architecture of – and rationale behind – your proposed educational innovation. You will also be asked to present your curricular innovation to the members of the education board who selected you to undertake this important task.
Questions:
- What are the needs that your proposed curricular component or educational program is intended to fulfill?
- What are the expected student learning outcomes?
- What content will be included, and how will it be organized?
- What educational strategies and teaching/learning methods will be adopted?
- How will achievement of the learning outcomes be assessed?
- How will you know that your curricular component or educational program has been effective?
Assignment 2 | Conduct a literature review in health sciences education (individual project)
Research in health sciences education is often sparked by the observation of a concrete educational problem, phenomenon or conundrum in one’s local setting. The investigator’s challenge is then to transform ideas spawned by these observations into researchable questions, and to conduct literature reviews relevant to these questions to determine what is already known about the topic. The ultimate goal of health sciences education research is to contribute new knowledge to the field that has applicability beyond the narrow confines of your own educational setting.
In this individual assignment, you are asked to conduct a literature review aimed at answering a question related to the development, delivery, or evaluation of the curricular component or educational program you are designing for Assignment 1. At the end of the month, you are expected to submit a 300-word abstract that includes the following contents:
- A description of the educational problem, phenomenon or conundrum you are attempting to address
- A single, concise statement of your research question/objective
- A description of the search strategy you intend to employ to answer your research question/objective (note: you are NOT expected to actually carry out the review or summarize the literature in the domain you have selected)
- A description of the broader implications of the potential findings from your research