Medical Education Research Certificate (MERC) Program

Purpose

The Medical Education Research Certificate (MERC) program is intended to provide the knowledge necessary to understand the purposes and processes of medical education research, to become informed consumers of the medical education research literature, and to be effective collaborators in medical education research. Alone, MERC is not intended to produce independent medical education researchers.

The program is open to all who are interested in improving their educational research skills and is targeted for those with a background in medical education but relatively less experience in conducting educational research. The courses are targeted for clinicians and other educators who desire to learn research skills that will enable collaborative participation in medical education research projects.

Curriculum

The curriculum of the program consists of a set of workshops, each of which focuses on a key skill or area in educational research. Workshops are typically three hours long and are facilitated by an experienced medical education researcher. The workshops emphasize opportunities for hands-on activities and active participation so as to maximize the applicability of the workshop principles. Six workshops of the participant's choosing are required in order to qualifty for the certificate. These can be taken in any order.

The following workshop topics constitute the curriculum.

• Data management and Basic Statistics in Educational Research
• Formulating Research Questions and Designing Studies
• Hypothesis-Driven Research
• Institutional Review Boards and Research Ethics
• Measuring Educational Outcomes with Reliability and Validity
• Overview of Qualitative Data Collection Methods
• Program Evaluation and Evaluation Research
• Qualitative Analysis Methods in Medical Education
• Questionnaire Design and Survey Research
• Searching and Evaluating the Medical Education Literature

Registration and Fees

MERC costs $50 for each registered workshop. Those interested in receiving a MERC Certificate must complete six (6) workshops. In order to receive a MERC Certificate, you must register for the MERC Certificate program for an additional fee of $100.

Those who registered for the MERC Certificate program and paid $550 prior to Jan. 1, 2008, will continue to accrue the required number of workshops and will be issued the certificate upon completion of six (6) workshops and are not required to pay the individual workshop fee.

Registration for MERC workshops hosted by the AAMC and its regional divisions take place through the AAMC. MERC workshops hosted by other societies or organizations will offer registration through their own meeting registration system. Every effort will be made to find space for MERC Certificate registrants in MERC workshops, but no guarantees can be made. Slots available to MERC registrants may be limited for workshops sponsored by some societies or organizations. Registration deadline is one week prior to the workshop date.

Cancellation Policy

The fee for an individual workshop will be refundable up to two weeks prior to the scheduled meeting. Cancellation after that point will forfeit the registration fee. If there are fewer than 8 people registered for the MERC workshop by the deadline, the workshop will be cancelled. You will be notified and your money refunded.