Abstract
ABSTRACTIntensive courses (ICs), or accelerated courses, are gaining popularity in medical and health professions education, particularly as programs adopt e-learning models to negotiate challenges of flexibility, space, cost, and time. In 2014, the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL) at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences began the process of transitioning two online 15-week graduate programs to an IC model. Within a year, a third program also transitioned to this model. A literature review yielded little guidance on the process of transitioning from 15-week, traditional models of delivery to IC models, particularly in online learning environments. Correspondingly, this paper describes the process by which CRL transitioned three online graduate programs to an IC model and details best practices for course design and facilitation resulting from our iterative redesign process. Finally, we present lessons-learned for the benefit of other medical and health professionsʼ programs contemplating similar transitions.Abbreviations: CRL: Department of Clinical Research and Leadership; HSCI: Health Sciences; IC: Intensive course; PD: Program director; QM: Quality Matters
Highlights
Medical and health professions educational programs are adopting e-learning as a supplement to existing face-to-face curricula or as a standalone course delivery model [1–3]
Establishing a steering committee that met regularly to discuss the transition processes and formalize lessons-learned as they emerged proved critical to our process of learning and implementation
Even though we initially planned a uniform way of moving forward in program design based upon steering committee interactions, Program director (PD) were allowed flexibility to modify their processes to address the needs of a given program
Summary
Medical and health professions educational programs are adopting e-learning as a supplement to existing face-to-face curricula or as a standalone course delivery model [1–3]. As e-learning gains increasing popularity in medical and health professions education and faculty seek to maximize the benefits of e-learning in intensive online offerings, additional guidance must be provided on how to shorten course length while ensuring comparable levels of learning and student satisfaction in fully online programs of study. In spring 2014, two CRL graduate programs, Health Care Quality (HCQ) and Regulatory Affairs (RAFF), were selected to transition from the traditional fifteen-week course structure (15-week) to a seven-week, intensive format (7-week) This transition was a response to input from outside educational consultants who suggested that our student population, which consists primarily of working adult learners, prefers more efficient learning experiences consisting of shortened semesters with more concentrated, sequential courses. Distinguish quality improvement, patient safety, leadership, organizational, and research theories/standards applicable to healthcare
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