Our Learner-Centred UQMD
The new UQMD curriculum is designed to be student (learner) centred and learning outcomes based.
This is a challenge for me, and I suspect also for a lot of us who have been in the medical education space for any length of time. Our experience as students (lifelong learners) have been varied, and likely to be different to what we are creating for our future students and doctors. We are also drawing upon our past and current experiences as teachers and educators which is variable.
Our new MD provides us with the opportunity to help better prepare our MD students for future demands (near and far) and improve student and faculty learning experience. It gives us opportunity for our students to be even more amazing as junior doctors and set for a long career in medicine in whatever form that takes.
To shift our paradigm is uncomfortable. In the past when I’ve been involved in curriculum design in health it has been centred around the content – what do they need to learn? And the activity – how am I going to teach them? This more traditional way of thinking is familiar and it does work but it is not truly learner centred.
The new MD is Learning Outcome driven. What does this mean? Well, it is about starting with the end goal or outcome in mind. What will our students know? What will our students be able to do? Who will our students be? All of that consultation and conversation since 2019 has been consolidated throughout this year and with the input of over 70 members of working groups centred around the 6 themes and the Assessment working group, to give us our Staged learning outcomes for the new Program. These are mindful of the AMC domains and map to our UQMD Graduate outcomes. They form the basis of the next exciting phase of design – course organisation and operationalisation.
In this next stage together we will be bringing together the best of our current program with our re-imagined, learner-centred approach to create a new paradigm in medical education. More to come!
Dr Charley Greentree
Theme Lead - Kind and Compassionate Professional
Course Design Lead - Year 3