Using A Community of Inquiry in the Design of Histology Curriculum for First Year Medical Students

Abstract

Histology faculty in the Doctor of Osteopathy (DO) program at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine revised the delivery methodology of first‐year histology content in order to improve student performance, increase social interaction among students and faculty, shift to an all‐distance learning environment, and align curricula across our three campuses. This abstract describes an Action Research approach to implementing a Community of Inquiry (CoI) model of learning during a time of unprecedented change at both the program and the global level. An Action Research approach is a pragmatic methodology for improving medical education practice by incorporating change in a collaborative, reflective, cyclical, planned, and practical manner. We chose the CoI model of learning as it is a collaborative‐constructivist approach to instruction and well suited for online and team‐based learning. This model encompasses three prongs to delivering content: a teaching, social, and cognitive presence. In our curriculum, the teaching presence is composed of curated content in the form of self‐guided learning activities (videos, text, assessments) delivered through the Tophat learning platform and organized to support retrieval, interleaving, and spaced learning; the social presence involves student interactions online and in the classroom through discussion boards and team‐based learning activities (independent and faculty‐led); and the cognitive presence takes place with students interacting with learning modules, posting and responding to discussion threads, taking assessments, receiving feedback from assessments and engaging in problem solving exercises during the small‐group learning sessions. Within this model, students are encouraged to take responsibility for self‐directed learning, allowing for personalized investment in life‐long learning. CoI provides a platform to implement the best evidence‐based practices for histology instruction across three campuses with varying student population sizes and educational needs. Early data suggests an increase in student engagement and an improvement in student performance. We believe our model provides insight into effective curricular design for the ever‐changing face of undergraduate medical education.