An interdisciplinary and interactive online tool to manage the continuous development of learning objectives in a curriculum.

BACKGROUND

The last decades have brought about an unprecedented proliferation of scientific knowledge necessitating a structuring and standardization of content for the training of novices and junior staff in all academic disciplines. In medicine, great effort has been expended by individual faculties to compile learning objectives, yet one disadvantage is common to almost all of these catalogues: their static structure limits search options and impedes an ongoing development.

METHODS

The learning objectives of all individual disciplines of the Heidelberg Curriculum Medicinale (HeiCuMed) were merged and assigned to levels and attributes of competency. In order to achieve easy access and to offer optimal search options to students, teaching staff and curriculum coordinators, the generated Heidelberg Catalogue of Learning Objectives (HCLO) was established as an online portal.

RESULTS

The easy to handle online interface of the learning objectives catalogue allows for an individualized search for items with an unlimited combination of text and/or attributes. Thus, students and teaching staff may use the tool as a discipline-based guide for learning and teaching as well as an outcome oriented tool defining the intended competence of a graduate. Curriculum designers can continuously update the catalogue to map the currently intended course contents, thus ensuring fast adaptation to changing needs and rendering a dynamic feature to the HCLO.

CONCLUSIONS

All members of the academic community may benefit from the presented model. Students are offered the opportunity to prepare for upcoming courses and examinations and to monitor their progress of competencies over the entire curriculum. Teaching staff and curriculum designers are supported in developing intended learning spirals and aligning learning objectives, course content and examination modalities. In its immediacy the HCLO provides the base for an advanced and fast adaptation in curriculum design as opposed to the static catalogues of objectives collecting dust. With this tool we would like to contribute to ongoing activities of curriculum designers in creating well-engineered and efficient tools to manage learning objectives.