The Aachen model study course in medicine - development and implementation. Fifteen years of a reformed medical curriculum at RWTH Aachen University.

Objective: The Aachen model study course in medicine was developed in response to a negative appraisal of the Faculty of Medicine of the RWTH Aachen University by the Science Council in 2000. The aim is to create graduates who are capable of further training and can work in evidence-based and patient-centered health care while incorporating scientific findings. Methodology: In 2003 the medical degree was fully switched over to the model study course format. This means an annual cohort size of about 280 students. These go through a modularized and integrated curriculum, which is designed as a learning spiral. This requires a special interdisciplinary collaboration of teachers and curriculum planners. In addition to the modules, longitudinal elements such as workplace-based examinations, communication or practical skills are embedded in the curriculum. Results: The state exam results of the Aachen graduates have already improved significantly even for the first cohort and the university has been able to maintain an almost uninterrupted high level from 2008 to 2018. The students satisfaction with the model course is not only evident in the student course assessment and qualitative group discussions but also in various national rankings. Conclusion: The complete redesign of the course starting from the first semester onwards posed major challenges for all those involved in the faculty. The implementation of a completely reformed curriculum, such as the model study course, can only succeed through constructive cooperation of the various stakeholders at a faculty. The reorientation was able to address the major flaws of the 2002 report by the Science Council, student dissatisfaction and the poor performance in the nationwide state exams.

Can social semantic web techniques foster collaborative curriculum mapping in medicine?

BACKGROUND: Curriculum mapping, which is aimed at the systematic realignment of the planned, taught, and learned curriculum, is considered a challenging and ongoing effort in medical education. Second-generation curriculum managing systems foster knowledge management processes including curriculum mapping in order to give comprehensive support to learners, teachers, and administrators. The large quantity of custom-built software in this field indicates a shortcoming of available IT tools and standards. OBJECTIVE: The project reported here aims at the systematic adoption of techniques and standards of the Social Semantic Web to implement collaborative curriculum mapping for a complete medical model curriculum. METHODS: A semantic MediaWiki (SMW)-based Web application has been introduced as a platform for the elicitation and revision process of the Aachen Catalogue of Learning Objectives (ACLO). The semantic wiki uses a domain model of the curricular context and offers structured (form-based) data entry, multiple views, structured querying, semantic indexing, and commenting for learning objectives ("LOs"). Semantic indexing of learning objectives relies on both a controlled vocabulary of international medical classifications (ICD, MeSH) and a folksonomy maintained by the users. An additional module supporting the global checking of consistency complements the semantic wiki. Statements of the Object Constraint Language define the consistency criteria. We evaluated the application by a scenario-based formative usability study, where the participants solved tasks in the (fictional) context of 7 typical situations and answered a questionnaire containing Likert-scaled items and free-text questions. RESULTS: At present, ACLO contains roughly 5350 operational (ie, specific and measurable) objectives acquired during the last 25 months. The wiki-based user interface uses 13 online forms for data entry and 4 online forms for flexible searches of LOs, and all the forms are accessible by standard Web browsers. The formative usability study yielded positive results (median rating of 2 ("good") in all 7 general usability items) and produced valuable qualitative feedback, especially concerning navigation and comprehensibility. Although not asked to, the participants (n=5) detected critical aspects of the curriculum (similar learning objectives addressed repeatedly and missing objectives), thus proving the system's ability to support curriculum revision. CONCLUSIONS: The SMW-based approach enabled an agile implementation of computer-supported knowledge management. The approach, based on standard Social Semantic Web formats and technology, represents a feasible and effectively applicable compromise between answering to the individual requirements of curriculum management at a particular medical school and using proprietary systems.