Article
Effective curriculum mapping – precondition for workplaced based learning, teaching and assessment
Search Medline for
Authors
-
Felix Balzer
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Anaesthesiology – LOOOP project, Berlin, Germany
-
Simon Drees
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Anaesthesiology – LOOOP project, Berlin, Germany
-
Kirsten I. Heiss
- TU Munich, Munich, Germany
-
Ara Tekian
- University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine, Department of Medical Education, Chicago, United States
-
Olaf Ahlers
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Anaesthesiology – LOOOP project, Berlin, Germany
| Published: | March 7, 2017 |
|---|
Outline
Text
Introduction: Alignment of objectives for knowledge, skills and attitudes with national catalogues, such as the "National Competence Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Undergraduate Medical Education – NKLM", as well as teaching methods, assessment, and intended outcomes is a challenge in development of both under- and postgraduate medical curricula. Workplace-based learning, teaching and assessment - as a competency or an entrustable professional activity (EPA) - utilizes and synthesizes these curricular components and therefore depends on an effective alignment of the curriculum. Web-based curriculum mapping is one way to facilitate this alignment.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of each of the ten "windows" for curriculum mapping, which have been described in AMEE Guide No. 21.
Methods: In total, 3068 users of the international web-based LOOOP platform for curriculum development (Learning Opportunities, Objectives and Outcomes Platform) [www.looop-projekt.org] were asked to participate in an online survey for evaluation of usefulness of each of the implemented "windows" for curriculum mapping using a 5 point Likert scale: "strongly disagree", "disagree", "no opinion", "agree", "strongly agree".
Results: The questionnaire was completed by 697 resulting in a response rate of 23%. Agreement ("strongly agree" and "agree") to the usefulness of the different windows varied between 81% for the window "schedules" and 58% for the window "curriculum content". All five windows related to organizational aspects of curriculum mapping were evaluated higher than windows representing content aspects, such as "learning outcomes" or "assessment".
Conclusion: Web-based curriculum mapping is highly accepted by users. Organizational mapping is as essential as content mapping to ensure an appropriate alignment of the various parts of the curriculum. To improve and further evaluate the usefulness of the organizational parts of the curriculum map, our international LOOOP research network started a cooperation with "OpenCampus", an open adaptive campus management system, to further refine this platform.
