Utilization of an online module bank for a research training curriculum: development, implementation, evolution, evaluation, and lessons learned

ABSTRACT

Background: Students enter Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine’s required research program, Embark, with variable levels of experience. Recognizing this, Embark allows for progression through the individual research project with flexibility. Since 2014, student self-directed curriculum personalization is promoted through a menu of online modules.

Objective: This evaluation sought to understand student usage of the modules, identified strengths of the modules and preferred attributes of the modules. Gaining this evidence will provide information on how to best meet students’ needs in a just-in-time format.

Methods: A retrospective mixed methods analysis of the module library was conducted. The library was constructed using best practices as an educational tool. The retrospective evaluation included analysis of students’ viewing patterns and answers to required course evaluations during the fall semesters of 2014 to 2017. Students’ preference for modules was determined by viewing records and conjoint analysis.

Results: Students’ milestone preparation was not negatively impacted by relocation of curricular content from lecture to modules. Changes in module implementation within the course (2016) resulted in an increase of students viewing modules beyond only the minimum course requirements (71% (2016) from 10% (2014)). Data from both quantitative and qualitative evaluation questions show an increase in students’ identifying the modules as a strength to individualize the course. The identified module strengths include content individualization, just-in-time access, while identified needs included a desire for additional modules. Students preferred modules that were animated, shorter in duration and curated from an external source.

Conclusions: Online modules provide students with a rich set of resources allowing for individualized learning. Lessons learned in the implementation of the online modules may be transferable to many educational topics. When implementing similar technology projects, usage rates, learner feedback, and effect on appreciation of the content are important to frequently monitor.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical education
• online module
• educational technology design
• scholarly concentration
• medical student research

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Kathleen Doyle for her assistance with the SoftChalk software. Additionally, the authors would like to acknowledge the faculty of OUWB for their contribution of module content as well as allowing their recorded lectures to be converted into online modules and Julie Baxa for her valuable review and comments on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Institutional Review Board

The Oakland University Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects determined this work did not meet the definition of research under their purview according to federal regulations (OU IRB Reference #984,476-1).

Previous presentations

Portions of this work were previously presented as an Innovation Abstract at AAMC Learn Serve Lead 2017, Boston, MA.

Supplemental material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here