Professor Chie Adachi, Dean for Digital Education in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, discusses how our pioneering Digital Education Studio is making medical education more accessible.
Technology has changed how we communicate, learn and teach. We’re able to earn a degree online, look up YouTube videos to learn a new skill or speak to our GP. The way we teach medicine hasn’t changed radically for decades, despite the technological shift in society.
How do we incorporate technology into medical education to make it more inclusive and innovative? How do we prepare our future doctors for a world in which technology is deeply embedded in medical practice? How do we reflect the impact that technology has had on society in medical education?
These are the kinds of questions we’re exploring through our Digital Education Studio, an initiative that incorporates technology into our world-leading education. We work across digital and physical spaces, applying purposeful design of digital tools and resources to provide inclusive learning experiences and equip our students with the skills to help them flourish in a post-digital world.
Our mission is to broaden access to education, especially to students of diverse backgrounds who are most often under-represented in higher education. We are also making higher and medical education more accessible by removing barriers that would otherwise prevent someone from being able to attend university – helping Queen Mary become the most inclusive University of its kind, anywhere.
We are opening the doors of opportunity to the international community by providing students and Faculty access to our world-renowned medical education, while forging new partnerships with universities around the globe.
It’s been two years since I moved from Australia to London to take up the role as Dean for Digital Education at Queen Mary and create our flagship Digital Education Studio. What started with just me is now a multi-disciplinary team of 12 covering the learning design, project management, multimedia and interactive assets creation, medical education, and more.
In that short time, not only have we grown as a team, but we’ve also been recognised through awards, winning the Excellence in Digital Health Education Award at the 2023 Med-Tech Awards Event in Malta, on behalf of the Faculty. Our work has been recognised as a joint-runner up for the 2024 Roger Mills prize by the Centre for Online and Distance Education (CODE) Teaching and Research Awards.
Let’s explore how we are using technology to make learning more inclusive for all.
Digital education aligns with the social justice ethos of Queen Mary – to be the most inclusive University of its kind, anywhere.
The Digital Education Studio’s first project was to support and provide the academic oversight for the creation of first blended-learning MBBS in the UK, a partnership between Queen Mary and NHS England. (You can read my colleague, Pedro Elston’s piece for more information about developing the blended-learning course [link].)
‘Blended learning’ incorporates a mix of digital and in-person learning, providing more flexibility to medical students. It can remove barriers for those wishing to study medicine with multitude of competing priorities – for example, for those who are unable to travel to campus on workdays, especially in a city as vast as London.
By putting the power of learning into the hands of each student, everyone can forge their own education path, ensuring that careers in the NHS are as accessible as they can be. We’re answering the call set out by the NHS People Plan: ‘the NHS must welcome all’.
While we must do our part to support the NHS and train the UK’s future doctors, our remit doesn’t stop there.
Through the Digital Education Studio, we are making our education more accessible to future doctors around the entire world. We are not just creating courses from a UK-perspective and making them available, we are co-creating courses with global universities, all while forging deep partnerships. We are a truly global University, and our education reflects our diversity of thought. Take, for example, our course ‘Digital health: philosophies, technologies and practice’, funded by the British Council and developed in partnership with Ain Shams University, Cairo. Since the course launched in January, we have over 2,500 enrolments from 100 countries.
If our education system isn’t able to cater for all, regardless of background, then it has failed. To ensure the needs of our students are met, we must ensure we represent as many student voices as possible.
We use our CARE agenda to do this, ensuring that the programmes we create are co-created, active, relational, and evidence based. This puts students at the heart of their own learning, while ensuring that it is accessible in a multitude of ways. These students, and every student, deserve the same chance at success.
To address this, we also recognise and value the importance of education as a stepping-stone for future careers. That’s why our Digital Education Studio builds interdisciplinary skills and career-building into every programme. It’s the idea of boundary-crossing – breaking down the barriers between disciplines to ensure students have close connections with industry partners, third-space professionals, and community members. And it’s why we build these solutions with every student in mind. To bring community and education closer together to ensure the pathway from classroom to the world of work is as easy as possible.
Think back to the last time you met with your GP – for a good portion of you reading, this may have been a virtual visit. What about the last time you ordered a prescription? Perhaps you received an automatically-generated email saying that your prescription has been approved and is now being shipped to you. Technology has had a major shift in medicine and healthcare, from how we access or record information about our own health to the actual delivery of healthcare.
Whenever innovation happens, effective healthcare will need to be delivered by confident, educated, and well-equipped doctors and dentists. Regardless of background, circumstance, or obstacles to learning, our Digital Education Studio is built to ensure that the next generation of healthcare staff is prepared to deliver the best healthcare possible to their community.
With a long history of providing best-in-class healthcare education, we’re no strangers to championing innovation and inclusivity. It’s why we’re recognised as the best Russell Group university for social mobility by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI).
By making higher education more accessible, and providing crucial opportunities to people traditionally underrepresented, we’re supporting the next generation of healthcare leaders. To make sure no patient is left behind, we make our very best effort to ensure every student has the same chance to succeed in healthcare education.
Learn more about our Digital Education Studio today.
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