Mapping Medicine
by Frank Sullivan'Webucation' is sweeping the land, and the undergraduate medical course in Dundee is no exception. The entire curriculum is being electronically mapped, linked to outcomes and made available to our students, wherever they are. Our students are no longer tied to the dissecting bench or the wards in Ninewells. Many of them are learning in patients' homes, cottage hospitals and in acute hospitals as far away as Middlesborough or Perth. There have been reports of some students wanting to study in their flats or even access material from home in what used to be known as holidays.
Most UK medical schools already see educational and economic advantages of curriculum mapping. The traditional curriculum provided a single linear path of taught learning opportunities but it tolerated a 'hidden curriculum' and very diverse final outcomes. The current medical curriculum has a more diverse structure of multiple learning opportunities in a variety of contexts but with very clearly defined outcomes. An increase in learning support to blend electronic with traditional face to face and bedside teaching has evident educational advantages. If every teacher and every student can see where they are within the curriculum, and where they are going then the learning journey is likely to make more efficient progress. A key feature of the process in Dundee, which few other virtual learning environments possess, is the ability to define the intended outcomes at 4 levels of specificity and then link the knowledge, skills and attitudes developed in the earlier phases of the course to the clinical contexts in years 4 and 5.
The mapping process started in Dundee three years ago with work by the medical education unit, the computers in teaching unit, the medical school database (MESMIS) the medical computing unit and the medical computing committee. Their contributions are being co-ordinated within a single medical computing centre from January 2002. The medical school is investing money from the NHSiS additional costs of teachin budget in software development, support, training and hardware provision. Existing staff will be joined by a web developer and a secretary. They will make current curriculum material available on MESMIS and help staff and students to develop innovative approaches to education. The nursing and dental schools in our own faculty will also be able to share material. 40 laptops have been added to the complement of computers in fixed clusters to allow students who are away from Dundee to continue to access material.
Predictions about the future development and use of electronic tools in medical curricula include increasing miniaturisation of hardware and globalisation of software. SHEFC have supported a feasibility study of IVIMEDS: an international collaboration of medical schools. In time these institutions may share expertise and curricular material throughout the world. When that time comes the University of Dundee medical school will be ready because we are preparing for it now.
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