Using Competency-Based Digital Open Learning Activities to Facilitate and Promote Health Professions Education (OLAmeD): A Proposal

Abstract

BackgroundTraditional learning in medical education has been transformed with the advent of information technology. We have recently seen global initiatives to produce online activities in an effort to scale up learning opportunities through learning management systems and massive open online courses for both undergraduate and continued professional education. Despite the positive impact of such efforts, factors such as cost, time, resources, and the specificity of educational contexts restrict the design and exchange of online medical educational activities.ObjectiveThe goal is to address the stated issues within the health professions education context while promoting learning by proposing the Online Learning Activities for Medical Education (OLAmeD) concept which builds on unified competency frameworks and generic technical standards for education.MethodsWe outline how frameworks used to describe a set of competencies for a specific topic in medical education across medical schools in the United States and Europe can be compared to identify commonalities that could result in a unified set of competencies representing both contexts adequately. Further, we examine how technical standards could be used to allow standardization, seamless sharing, and reusability of educational content.ResultsThe entire process of developing and sharing OLAmeD is structured and presented in a set of steps using as example Urology as a part of clinical surgery specialization.ConclusionsBeyond supporting the development, sharing, and repurposing of educational content, we expect OLAmeD to work as a tool that promotes learning and sets a base for a community of medical educational content developers across different educational contexts.

Innovate and Educate

“…Open education resources are sharable, free, reusable educational content. 5 For students who have accessibility concerns, OER are the perfect complement to a course without the added stress of purchasing a book. These resources are growing every day in what topics are available, as well as the availability of different types of resources (questions, books, videos, etc).…”

Exploring Digital Competency of Rural Students in Malaysia

“…It was further added a society or academic organization is required to facilitate the advancement and adoption of digital learning research. In exploring for digital learning competencies, Vaitsis et al, (2016) developed the Online Learning Activities for Medical Education (OLAmeD) concept, which builds on unified competency frameworks and generic technical standards for education. The results show the tools promote learning and set a base for a community of medical educational contents across different education context.…”

Promoting international collaboration and creativity in doctoral students

“…In doing so, we are able to explore the possibilities of broadening the scope of the educational environment. The peer-led sessions allowed students to use their networks of learning ( Boud and Lee, 2005 ); the outcome-based design ( Vaitsis et al, 2016 ) of the course made both asynchronous and synchronous activities possible ( Hrastinski, 2008 ).…”

“…Here we describe the design, implementation and evaluation of a joint transatlantic course in regenerative medicine that sought to prepare doctoral students for such challenges. The course was developed by employing a competency-based approach ( Frank et al, 2010 ; Vaitsis et al, 2016 ) to learning design, together with elements of peer learning ( Boud and Lee, 2005 ), and relied heavily on videoconferencing and other digital technology. Based on our own reflections and the feedback we received from the students at both institutions – the Mayo Clinic (MC) in Rochester, Minnesota, and the Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Stockholm – we also discuss the benefits we witnessed and the challenges we faced from a technological and a pedagogical perspective.…”