Abstract
Abstract Objectives Nowadays universities face ever-increasing demands on quality of education, which is crucial from perspective of future graduates. In face of the need of constant quality improvements of medical curricula, it is important to seek strategies for their efficient management. The general trend is to develop electronic support tools to streamline the curricular design, analysis and harmonization. Methods Based on the requirements we have identified by the needs analysis among curriculum designers, teachers and managers at five universities involved in the Building Curriculum Infrastructure in Medical Education (BCIME) project, and evidence published in literature on curriculum development, we have developed methodological guidelines on curriculum innovations and a software-based tools that help manage, map and analyse curricula in the medical and healthcare study fields. Results In this paper, we share our experiences with building and implementation of EDUportfolio, an online platform developed within our consortium and intended to facilitate harmonisation and optimisation of medical outcome-based curricula. Its functionalities and outputs were verified by pilot mapping of Anatomy curricula as taught at partner universities in five European countries. Conclusions The visualisation and the analysis of described curriculum data using natural language processing techniques revealed both the hidden relations between curriculum building blocks and a set of overlaps and gaps in curricula. In addition, we demonstrate both the usability of the platform in the context of the involved academic environments and the capability to map and compare curricula across different institutions and different countries.
Highlights
Medical education incorporates a mixture of theoretical and clinical issues that should be well combined and applied in various learning and teaching strategies to ensure the medical students will be competent and best prepared for everyday clinical practice
Based on the requirements we have identified by the needs analysis among curriculum designers, teachers and managers at five universities involved in the Building Curriculum Infrastructure in Medical Education (BCIME) project, and evidence published in literature on curriculum development, we have developed methodological guidelines on curriculum innovations and a software-based tools that help manage, map and analyse curricula in the medical and healthcare study fields
The survey was divided into two sections: (i) general information with questions relating to the identification of institutions and relevant staff members and (ii) curriculum management with questions relating to the curriculum development and management
Summary
Medical education incorporates a mixture of theoretical and clinical issues that should be well combined and applied in various learning and teaching strategies to ensure the medical students will be competent and best prepared for everyday clinical practice. A curriculum should be developed in a way that is clear and understandable to the school management and teachers, but to the learners too. While inexperienced observers often consider the curriculum is merely a list of courses offered by the school, the truth is it refers more in depth to the knowledge and skills management the learners are expected to master upon graduation. This includes various learning standards, objectives, outcomes, learning units, study materials, different assessment methods etc. This includes various learning standards, objectives, outcomes, learning units, study materials, different assessment methods etc. used in the education process
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
