Kevin Hittle

About Me

Hi, I'm Kevin. I am a graduate student in the Curriculum Design and Instructional Technology at the University at Albany and work full-time as a Curriculum Coordinator in the Office of Medical Curriculum at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

I graduated from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Music in Tuba Performance. Following my graduation I worked as a drafter and project manager at a structural engineering firm for nearly ten years.

I am fascinated by the ways technology interfaces with education and its effects on learning. Specifically, I am interested in deepening my knowledge of learning and want to develop a more robust educational technology faculty development program in the medical school.

My Topic and Purpose

Topic:

Incorporating technology into adult learning theory as a way to increase medical student engagement and collaboration in hybrid learning environments.

Course Goal:

Medical students are becoming increasingly reliant on commercial products and outside resources to prepare them for the United States Medical Licensing Examiners (USMLE) Step 1 Exam. Attendance at didactic sessions is dropping precipitously and an intervention must be made to improve the efficacy of in person instruction. Research in the field of adult learning theory has found a number of ways to enhance the instructional design and learning experience.

The goal of this course is to examine the current trends in medical education, review the types of learning environment and notable guiding educational theories influencing the trends, and explore ways to incorporate technology into medical education.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

Discuss modern medical education including developments and influences over the past 10 years, current trends, and future directions.
Explain the notable guiding educational theories that influence medical education and adult learning.
Evaluate the impact of technology as a driver of instructional change and list examples of innovative uses of technology in medical education.
Design an asynchronous collaborative educational activity that uses technology to prepare students for a synchronous experience.

Needs Assessment

Stakeholders and Participants: Stakeholders and participants to whom this mini-course applies are medical school faculty and staff as well as the first- and second-year medical students they teach.

Intent: Upon completion of this course, participants in this course should have an understanding of evidence-based adult learning theories, be familiar with innovative uses of technology in medical education, and be able to design learning experiences melding adult learning theory best practices with technology.

Learning Goals: Many faculty members in medical school are either physicians or basic scientists with a PhD and little or no formal educational training. The goal of this course is to help medical school faculty identify opportunities in their courses to bring technology and learning theory together to design effective, evidence-based collaborative learning experiences.

Instructional Content: The content of this course will challenge lower- higher-order thinking skills in variety of activities, including reading passages and journal articles and, if applicable, video clips. Instructional content will be followed by formative assessments designed to help the learner apply their knowledge and measure their level of understanding.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

Over the past 10-15 years, there has been a proliferation of commercial study aids for students to use to prepare for the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1 exam. A recent study found that less than 1 in 5 students preparing for the Step 1 exam in 2014-2015 used educational materials from their medical schools to prepare for the exam, finding them only somewhat useful. In contrast, nearly all students (over 99%) used third-party Step 1 study resources including online question banks and lectures and supplemental textbooks (Burk-Rafel et al., p. S69). Students consider many of these commercial study aids to be "high-yield". The vendors build their products upon current and emerging trends in educational theory and the science of learning and students then look for these modalities in their local curricula.

Due to the vast amount of information and limited time to present it, most medical schools over-rely on lecture to deliver the majority of their pre-clinical content. Despite incorporating ideas such as cognitive load theory when developing lectures, this transmission-and-acquisition model is usually more educator-centered and less effective in developing understanding than other modalities. To develop more learner-centered experiences, medical educators should look at incorporating more opportunities for active and collaborative learning models.

Performance-Based Objectives

Unit 1: Medical Education - Past, Present, and Future

The participant will review the past 10 years of medical education, examine current trends, and look to the future of medical education.
The participant will discuss popular modalities in medical education.
The participant will explore ideas such as self-directed learning, competency-based medical education, entrustable professional activities, and interprofessional education.

Unit 2: Learning Environments, Theories, and Activities

The participant will define asynchronous, synchronous, and hybrid learning environments.
The participant will review the learning theories of connectivism, constructivism, and instructivism.
The participant will examine educational ideas such as cognitive load theory, dual-coding theory, and the generation effect.
The participant will explain how active learning promotes deeper understanding than passive instruction and why active learning is so important to medical education.

Unit 3: Technological Possibilities for Medical Education

The participant will evaluate technological tools to deliver learner-centered educational experiences.
The participant will identify and explain strength and weaknesses of incorporating technology into planning learner-centered educational experiences.

Unit 4: Putting It All Together

The participant will reflect on the dynamism of educational theory, instructional design, and the numerous technological tools available for use.
The participant will combine ideas from the previous three units to construct a learner-centered educational experience in a hybrid learning environment.

Curriculum Map

References and Resources

Burk-Rafel, J., Santen, S. A., and Purkiss, J. (2017). Study Behaviors and USMLE Step 1 Performance: Implications of a Student Self-Directed Parallel Curriculum. Academic Medicine. Association of American Medical Colleges. 2017(92): S67-S74. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000001916.

Larson, M. B. and Lockee, B. B. (2013). Streamlined ID: A Practical Guide to Instructional Design. New York, NY: Routledge. (ISBN 978-0415505185)