Getting Started - Designing a Course or Session

Needs Assessment

• Start with the learning needs assessment The first step in designing a course or session is to determine the need for the learning opportunity. Assessing both the General and Targeted needs will help you select the appropriate content and learning environment suitable for the medical student.
  • General – The difference between how a problem is currently being addressed and how it should be addressed. The better a problem is defined, the easier it will be to design an appropriate curriculum to address the problem. (D. Kern, et al., 2016, Curriculum Development for Medical Education A Six-Step Approach, Johns Hopkins University Press)
  • Targeted Needs Assessment: Assessing the needs of a targeted group of learners and their medical institution or learning environment. A focus on the specific needs of your learners which may be different from the general needs. (D. Kern, et al., 2016, Curriculum Development for Medical Education A Six-Step Approach, Johns Hopkins University Press)

Learning Goals and Objectives:

• Develop learning goals and objectives
  • Once you have a good idea of what your learner needs and have identified what the content/topics are for a course, you will then start to develop your learning goals and objectives.
• What are course goals?
  • Course goals are broad statements of the intended learning outcome. They describe how students will interact with the curriculum. At the end of the course, the students “will….”
    • Provides the “why” and purpose of the course
    • Sets clear expectations of what the student will achieve – the end result
    • Aligns to the School of Medicine’s Education Program Objectives (EPOs) and competencies
    • To be specific and clear, goals should include descriptive verbs.
  • Examples:
    • At the end of the course, students will:
      • apply fundamental theories in social psychology to real-world scenarios.
      • teach a peer on the role of the family medicine physician in the health care system.
      • provide basic clinical skills to patients
• What are course objectives?
  • Course objectives are the steps needed in the learning to reach the goals. They set the clear expectations of what the student will be able to do at the end of the course. At the end of the course, the students “will be able to…”
    • Examples:
      • At the end of the course, students will be able to:
        • Describe the structural properties of the four organizational levels of protein structure (primary, secondary, tertiary,) and the bonding types associated with each level.
        • List three characteristics that make the family medicine physician distinctive from other specialists in the healthcare system.
        • Analyze the epidemiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus in specific populations