COM:MAND is a suite of modular tools developed at the University of Edinburgh to help map, manage, and deliver medical education curricula and learning outcomes. It was created to address challenges in curriculum review, identifying gaps and overlaps between curricula, and aligning courses with guidelines. The tools allow users to add and edit outcome data, map relationships between datasets, and visualize data. COM:MAND has been used by several medical education organizations in the UK and is intended to make managing complex curricula more efficient through a collective effort supported by flexible technology.

1. COM:MAND Supporting the creation, mapping, revision and management of curriculum and learning outcomes Michael Begg Matt Hammond David Dewhurst University of Edinburgh Learning Technology Section

2. COM:MAND Curriculum Outcome Mapping: Management And Delivery By necessity a suite of loosely connected tools Born out of a number of problems/challenges Informed by multiple contexts Purposefully never out of development Developed ad hoc / R&D according to immediate need

3. The terrain Curriculum review and revision Identifying gaps and overlaps Find clarity in integrated curricula Assist QA / QE Assist program design Align courses/curricula with professional/ national/ international guidelines Align activity with clinical vocabularies

4. Surface challenges Full picture contained only in the minds of the few Increased expectancy to explicate, report and audit all outcomes for all parties Increased value of harmonized curricula Increased requirement to map to professional / national guidelines

5. Underlying challenges Managing a consistent vocabulary and tone across a full curriculum is a HUGE undertaking System structure very often at odds with human process The representation of data is never neutral Example…

6. Plot outcomes by dimension?

7. Plot outcomes by domain?

8. Plot outcomes by case narrative?

9. Plot outcomes in abstract

10. Plot outcomes in context

11. The Toolset COMMAND is modular Flexibility is critical no one party could undertake activity in all relevant areas at once Resource prohibitive (hours / money) Modular approach allows for loosely coupled development Loosely coupled suggests the side-benefit of maximum integration

12. The Toolset Add and edit outcome data Cross reference ( map ) datasets Cross reference layers within dataset Embed data within VLE content Web service also allows association of external web content with datasets Manage/ sustain datasets (status and version) Visualisation Tools Making use of technical affordance to offer fresh perspective

20. Journey of discovery And this activity is all part of the map Also engaged, in some form, to date: Edinburgh MBChB National Health Education (Scotland) GP Unit / RCGP Scottish Deans Medical Education Group Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh) Karolinska Institute Outcome datasets in the COMMAND db to date include: GMC Tomorrows Doctors 2009, Scottish Doctors 3, Tuning, MeSH, RCGP… and growing!

21. Waypoints The task is still massive – but unavoidable Collectivity eases the pain Technology can provide additional benefits/outputs, and so further eases the pain Activity must fall into workflow for sustainability And the technology must support that workflow

22. This Afternoon See COM:MAND in action at “Secrets of Success” session Hall A 16.15 – 17.45

23. Thank You COM:MAND Supporting the creation, mapping, revision and management of curriculum and learning outcomes Contact: michael.begg@ed.ac.uk