Keeping in Touch : the NYCOM PDA LOGS Project C. Kumar Ph.D.A. Jeger Ph.D L. Goldstein D.D.S.B. Friedman M.A. B. Ross-Lee D.O

NYCOM Osteopathic Medical school in Long Island, New York 300 students in each of the four years First two years on campus, next two at hospitals 50 on campus faculty 150 clinical faculty About 1200 off campus, adjunct faculty

Issues How can we Academically support students who are off campus? Keep the students engaged, working and accountable? Keep the students emotionally connected to the mothership? Train and motivate the busy off-campus faculty? There is no pure technology solution Success requires a complex, custom, multi element approach

Emotional Connection Popular discussions on the web board Continued use of mailing lists Lots of images from campus events at the website Streaming video webcasts of events Videoconferencing in the works

Academic Support Streaming video lecture archives The academic website Online databases from the library Streaming video orientation to clerkships in the works Breeze meetings online with away students in the works

Monitoring - The PDA Project Palm PDAs and training given to each student in second year Students use PDAs off campus for Organization Reference LOGS

PDA Logs – Rich Monitoring Simple PDA database lets students log all their activities Data uploaded every couple of days to servers Two forms One for patient encounters One for educational activities

LOGS PDA form Structure

Sample Good Log – Real! Logs sample.htm

DME access Reports available real time to mentors, faculty and staff Reports available to DMEs and reviewed as part of the clerkship evaluation process by the DME Face validity Part of grade, Dean’s letters and student portfolios

The Result The off campus student Feels Confident Is academically supported Is monitored Stays connected Feels like she is graduating from NYCOM and not the hospital!

Contact C. Kumar Ph.D. A. Jeger Ph.D.