Participant demographics
The population for this survey are the members of a medicals school admissions committee. Some of the committee members have been on full committee for as long as 20-25 years and some are currently second year medical students. All members of the committee are appointed by the dean of the medical school, elected by the faculty or chosen by an appointee of the dean of the medical school. All members of the committee have a vested interest in the future of both the medical school as well as choosing medical students who will continue to provide outstanding care to the committee as well as fitting the mission of the school.
Committee members differ in their level of experience, their academic background, their motivation for serving on the committee, their biases, and experiences in the medical field as well as their comfort level with technology. Some committee members are second-year medical students. Their role in the admissions committee are to be full voting members and to evaluate candidates for their suitability for group based learning. Other committee members are early or mid-career physicians. Many of whom are graduates of the school and regularly precept medical students in their offices. They are good judges of candidate’s professionalism as well as interest and understanding of what it means to be a physician. The rest of the committee is made up of retired faculty and physicians as well as student affairs staff members. They provide stability as well as being well versed in the trends in medical admissions as well as pit falls to avoid.
The admissions committee members will need to utilize a new technology for the upcoming admissions cycle and will require training on this technology. The implementation of this technology also provides an ideal opportunity to review the current pre-admissions process to determine if any standardization of the process is feasible or desired. The non-instructional needs of this group are acknowledgment of their diverse backgrounds and motivations when developing a pre-admissions screening procedure so that it is not interpreted as too rigid or directed in favor of a particular population. Admissions committee members are all volunteers so instruction must take into account their time constraints as well as diverse levels of skill in utilizing new technology. With this in mind a detailed set of written directions with screen shots will be developed as well as contact information for resources on both the technology and the content side.
Committee members differ in their level of experience, their academic background, their motivation for serving on the committee, their biases, and experiences in the medical field as well as their comfort level with technology. Some committee members are second-year medical students. Their role in the admissions committee are to be full voting members and to evaluate candidates for their suitability for group based learning. Other committee members are early or mid-career physicians. Many of whom are graduates of the school and regularly precept medical students in their offices. They are good judges of candidate’s professionalism as well as interest and understanding of what it means to be a physician. The rest of the committee is made up of retired faculty and physicians as well as student affairs staff members. They provide stability as well as being well versed in the trends in medical admissions as well as pit falls to avoid.
The admissions committee members will need to utilize a new technology for the upcoming admissions cycle and will require training on this technology. The implementation of this technology also provides an ideal opportunity to review the current pre-admissions process to determine if any standardization of the process is feasible or desired. The non-instructional needs of this group are acknowledgment of their diverse backgrounds and motivations when developing a pre-admissions screening procedure so that it is not interpreted as too rigid or directed in favor of a particular population. Admissions committee members are all volunteers so instruction must take into account their time constraints as well as diverse levels of skill in utilizing new technology. With this in mind a detailed set of written directions with screen shots will be developed as well as contact information for resources on both the technology and the content side.