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In preparing our clients for the upload to the AAMC’s Curriculum Inventory system, we’ve run into a few medical schools who have questioned whether or not it’s even possible for them to upload their data to the CIR, given the state that it’s in.
If you fall into this camp, you’re far from alone! The MedBiquitous XML standard that the CIR uses is flexible, but exacting. It requires you to centralize, tag and annotate all of your curriculum data to a high degree. Even if you have a decent level of curriculum management going on, you will probably need to do some extra work to get your data CIR-ready.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I believe that this extra effort is worth it. If you are thinking the same thing, but don’t know how to proceed forward, here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine if it will be possible to upload your data this year:
- Do you have the following data in Word, Excel, or in another format?
- The academic levels your curriculum covers (eg. Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4)
- The modules/courses/blocks/sessions that make up the “core” levels of your curriculum
- Objectives for each level of your core curriculum
- Instructional and Assessment methods for each session
- Is the data in Question 1 centralized or spread out among various people? If it’s spread out, how much data could you get together without too much effort? Could you gather all of this in a folder?
- How much time would it take, once the data was in the folder, to transcribe it all into one excel sheet?
- How much time and money would you be willing to invest after that to see your data in the Curriculum Inventory system?
These questions seem simple, but answering them in detail will give you a good idea of what it will take for you to get your data into the CIR. Answering them will give you at least an idea of “is this possible for us?” and hopefully an idea of the budget required to get there.
The AAMC is also putting on a series of webinars to help curriculum deans, faculty, and administrative and technical staff of AAMC-member medical schools prepare for the Curriculum Inventory.
If you would like more hands-on consultation, we are now offering a free 45-minute session to help schools determine their level of CIR readiness.
During the 45 minutes, we will go through a step-by-step assessment of how CIR-compatible your data is, and give you our take on where you stand, curriculum-wise. This session will cover many common questions, including:
- What it means for you to submit data to the CIR, in practical terms
- How to get your curriculum into the CIR from Excel, CSV, Access, or CurrMIT
- Which free tools you’ll need to prepare your data for upload
If you’d like to set up a session, contact us here.
