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UCD School of Medicine & Medical Science

Scoil an Leighis agus Eolaíocht an Leighis UCD

Education Development Projects 2009/2010

In addition to ongoing programme delivery, our staff are engaged in a range of strategic education development projects which support continued curriculum innovation and enhance student choice.  Current projects include, but are not limited to, the following:

E-learning Infrastructure

E-learning technologies should be used where they provide for richer engagement with our students rather than simply delivering the traditional pedagogy through a new medium.  The School has made significant recent investment in information technology equipment (including multi-site each-way teleconferencing, unidirectional webcasting and recorded media) and both our students and staff are growing in confidence in the use of these resources.  The School will continue to develop our e-learning and information technology infrastructure as appropriate across our principle teaching sites to support teleconferencing, distance learning and web-streaming of educational activities.   Project descriptions and sample content developed by UCD SMMS Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health Research at St. Vincent's University Hospital can be viewed by visiting their E-learning Projects page.

Establishing Structured Electives in all Undergraduate Programmes

Student selected elective modules are a feature of all our undergraduate programmes.  These electives enable students to customise their degree to specific interests or anticipated career choices.  To exploit the full potential of these study options, the School is establishing a series of structured electives in each programme.  Structured electives build throughout the programme curriculum to deliver a substantial component of the undergraduate degree.  For example, students within our radiography degree programme who envisage a research career may select a series of research-related modules. 

Intercalated Research Activity

As a research-intensive School, our students have numerous opportunities to engage in research during their undergraduate studies.  With careful mentoring, these research projects can provide a platform for future careers in translational research.  This project is focused on delineating the myriad of research study opportunities in a way that allows students to acquire an intercalated masters or doctoral research degree.

Mapping Graduate Attributes

Our programme curricula are subject to ongoing and continuous development.  For example, in recent years our medicine curriculum has been modularised and has evolved from a subject-based approach, to a systems-based focus and subsequently to an integrated systems-based delivery which describes fundamental biomedical knowledge in the context of disease presentation and modern clinical intervention strategies.  Consistent with this planned curriculum development and to provide a focus for future innovation, the School is re-mapping module and programme outcomes to our stated target graduate attributes.  This project is a continuous exercise which assures the relevance of our programmes to modern healthcare.

Delivering Continuous Professional Development

The School offers an extensive portfolio of taught and research programmes which support continuous career-long learning and higher professional development of doctors, radiographers and biomedical scientists.  The School is committed to developing an accessible interface that demonstrates the range of further study options that are available at UCD and at our affiliated institutions.

Medicine Programme Development

The UCD School of Medicine & Medical Science currently offers two distinct medicine programmes – an undergraduate entry for school leavers (uGEM) with two entry points (resulting in 5- and 6-year programmes) and a 4-year graduate entry medicine programme (GEM) for students who already hold a primary degree.  Modularisation has further increased the opportunity for students to customise their degree based on their interests and career aspirations.  As innovators in medical education, UCD is constantly assessing the needs of the healthcare sector.  This project engages staff, students and other key stakeholders in a debate on the importance of retaining 6-year degree programme in the context of balancing accessibility with the demands of significant further postgraduate specialist training.

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