Opening Michigan to the World

Health education goes online

An ambitious project is being led by the Medical School to convert the University of Michigan’s pre-clinical health teaching materials into online educational resources. The goal of the pilot project is to decrease disparities in access to health education resources in developing countries. Lack of access, and the resulting scarcity of trained health care providers, is at crisis proportions in many parts of the world.

Working closely with the University of Cape Town and the University of Ghana in Africa, as well as with the U-M schools of Public Health, Dentistry and Information, the Medical School is converting existing educational materials into an online format. They will be available not only to partner institutions in Africa, but also to health science schools around the world to help educate health professionals. Other health science schools at Michigan, including nursing, pharmacy, kinesiology and social work, also are supporting the project.

“This is an exciting opportunity for our university,” says James O. Woolliscroft, M.D., dean of the Medical School. “This program provides the opportunity for U-M health science schools and the School of Information to collaborate in an innovative, comprehensive approach to improve educational opportunities for health care providers globally, and to help improve medical education in developing countries.”

Known as Open.Michigan, the pilot is unique from similar projects undertaken at other top universities by virtue of its use of dScribe, a low-cost method developed by the School of Information to convert educational materials into online educational resources. The dScribe method involves close collaboration among students, faculty and staff to assess the quality of resources and to clear intellectual property in course materials. A future effort is expected to include educational materials beyond the health sciences.

Funded largely by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, additional support for the pilot comes from the U-M, the Open Society Institute, and the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research.

Open education resources comprise full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, videos, tests, software and other educational tools, materials or techniques. These resources are in the public domain or have been released under a Creative Commons intellectual property license. —Bruce Spiher and Rick Krupinski

Visit Open.Michigan

 

2008 Entering Class

The paperwork’s been completed, reviewed, evaluated and filed.
E-mail exchanges, phone calls, visits and interviews are all part of admissions history now, as are the tough decisions the Medical School and prospective students faced. August 4 marked the beginning of classes for this year’s entering medical students who
will graduate with M.D.s as the Class of 2012. The following statistics provide background on the newest members of the U-M Medical School.*

Meanwhile, the process for 2009’s incoming students already is underway, with 2,479 applications received as we went to press; 150 applicants have been offered interviews. The first offer of admission for next year’s class will take place in mid-October. The school’s “transparent” admissions process makes information accessible to applicants every step of the way. This open approach allows those who apply to learn early and often where they stand in their bid to study medicine at Michigan, relieving some of the anxiety in this monumental — and monumentally important — process. —RK

Admissions Summary
Applicants 5,818
Interviewed 744
Class Size 170
Class Average GPA 3.74
Class Average MCAT 11.63

Class Composition
Male 47.6%
Female 52.4%
M.D./Ph.D. students 8
Average Age 23.2 (Range 20–35)

Class Geography
Michigan residents 78 (45.9%)
Non-residents 92 (54.1%)
States represented 30
California 14
Illinois 10
Massachusetts 9
New York 7
Florida 6
Pennsylvania 5

Most Represented Undergraduate Schools
Michigan Institutions Represented 12
U-M Students 43
Harvard 12
Stanford 6
Johns Hopkins 5

Undergraduate Field of Study
Biology and Biomedical 46.4%
Chemistry/Biochemistry 12.4%
Humanities 3.6%
Engineering 4.2%
Other Science 22.6%
Business/Economics 4.2%
Other 5.4%

Medical Education Day annually highlights educational innovations throughout the U-M Medical School. At this year’s event, held June 10 at the Towsley Center, the plenary speaker was William C. McGaghie, Ph.D., professor and associate director of the Office of Medical Education and Faculty Development for the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Interdisciplinary health science education was the topic of the plenary session; a panel discussion followed McGaghie’s remarks.