Fundamentals of COVID-19 Course: A Virtual Core Curriculum for Third and Fourth-Year Medical Students

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to transform medical education, the curriculum team at the IU School of Medicine identified a need to rapidly create a completely virtual curriculum that would prepare students to re-enter a clinical practice environment transformed by COVID-19. They created a course management team including 13 senior students to develop a course that would be delivered to over 730 third- and fourth-year students on nine campuses with a four-week course development timeline. The end product is an online course that both rising third and fourth-year medical students will have in place of two weeks of previously scheduled clinical clerkships. The aim of the course was to provide education covering COVID-19 including virology and immunology, public health, history of pandemics, patient care, public policy, disaster management, maintaining wellness during times of change, communication strategies, infection control and provider safety, and leadership in medicine during a crisis. The course contains a mix of both synchronous and asynchronous learning activities to be completed in a two-week period. For synchronous sessions, course designers identified expert educators in relevant fields including immunologists, virologists, radiologists, critical care physicians, emergency physicians, and public health officials to deliver specific content. Students will also be guided through decision-making for a real patient case of COVID-19 adapted for learning use and facilitated by experts in delivering care to COVID-19 patients. Outside of synchronous sessions, students will be expected to gather in small-group virtual sessions to discuss group assignments and work their way through online modules. Assessments for the course consist of completion-based individual and group activities. Students were also asked to participate in a pre-course survey covering knowledge, skills, and abilities as they relate to the course learning objectives. Students will take the same survey after having finished the course content. Students will also provide a self-reflection of their learning from the course.