World Health Medical School

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World Health Medical School (WHMS) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit school whose mission is to provide free online medical education to anyone, anywhere in the world. The school does not grant degrees at present, but aims to extend the geographical reach of existing medical schools and to augment their teaching methods. The WHMS program of accelerated learning, using the principles of elearning, will eventually expand to encompass an entire online university offering both theoretical and practical education in a wide range of subjects, such as the computer sciences and trades. The school's URL is www.emedschool.org.

The WHMS website makes learning absorbing, fun, and manageable by breaking down complex concepts into simple "fact units" that are placed on electronic flash cards in a question/answer format. To maximize the student's focus, only a single question is displayed at a time. As the student studies the cards, the software keeps track of exactly which units the student has successfully learned and continues to show only those flashcards containing information that has not yet been mastered.

Because the student is continuously challenged with a question to be answered, learning is an active process. Indeed, the student becomes so absorbed in the learning process that time passes quickly and unnoticed.

Contents

[edit] Pre-Internet Education

Most of us were raised with schools that employed classes, lectures, and books. Some of us can't imagine a school without them. Before the days of the computer and Internet, these "passive learning" environments represented the most practical way to educate and to absorb new information. But now, a redesign of the whole structure of education is both possible and necessary, for a variety of reasons:

  • The increasing complexity of certain professions and trades requires students to master and memorize ever larger volumes of information.
  • New technologies make it possible to extend the reach and scope of education.
  • New learning methodologies make it possible to create effective "active learning" environments -- ones in which the student is an actively engaged participant in the learning process, even if he or she is geographically (and temporally) removed from the school, the teacher, and other students.

[edit] The Problem with Traditional Classes

From a learning standpoint, there are many ways in which traditional classes often fail to result in effective learning. One problem with classes is that you, the student, must be physically present at the time and in the place where the class is given. You have to try to absorb and understand unfamiliar and complex ideas being communicated by a teacher whose focus must be divided among an entire class instead of being available exclusively to you. You have to learn at the same pace as the other students. To have any hope of remembering the material later, you have to take notes. You may miss something important -- and possibly not realize that you have. If material is not in your notes, you are not likely to remember it. Your notes may be poorly organized. Your notes may be incorrect.

Today, traditional medical schools are gradually moving toward new learning solutions that break the mold -- and address some of the drawbacks -- of the standard classroom/lecture environment. The dean of education of one major US medical school described a situation in which the main lecture hall became too small for the number of students enrolled. In an attempt to address this overcrowding problem, the school set up a video monitor in an adjoining break room, so that the students who could not fit into the main lecture hall could still "attend" the lectures given there. Interestingly enough, once they had the option, more students chose to watch the lecture from the break room than from the live lecture hall. Over time, the school also decided to put its lectures online (making them available only to their enrolled students) -- and one day, only three students showed up for the live lecture. Today, the school also supports a "lecture notes" club in which lecture notes are exchanged freely, and many students now simply rely on the notes without attending the lectures at all.

It is both interesting and informative to observe how students, given the choice of freely selecting the learning methodologies and environments that work best for them, gravitate away from the traditional class structure.

[edit] The Problem with "Book Learning"

"Book learning" is not traditionally an active process. It is possible to read page after page without really understanding or remembering the material. You may already know some of the material you are reading -- and you may have no need for or interest in every fact in the book, yet have no way of eliminating or skipping over theunwanted material without risking missing something important. And, of course, the book may not contain all of the information you do want. You may choose to underline the textbooks but once you learn what is underlined, there is no way to remove the underlining. And when you have finished reading, you don't really know what you have learned and what you have not.

[edit] The Ideal Learning System

The ideal learning system should be available to you 24/7, regardless of your physical location. Information should be presented in a question/answer format so that you're always challenged to think instead of mindlessly glossing over the material. To keep your focus narrowed and specific, only one question should be presented at a time instead of an overwhelming barrage of information.

Information should be broken down into the smallest possible "fact units." You should have the power to control the display of these fact units. If you know them cold, you should be able to eliminate them from view permanently. If you know them but are concerned that you may forget them, you should have the ability to remove them from view temporarily but to flag them to reappear at a time you designate.

Trillions of dollars are spent every year on education worldwide. The ideal learning system can be constructed for an extremely small percentage of this amount and, in many ways, is more efficient.

[edit] Organization of Information

Within the ideal learning system, the largest unit of organization is the "school" (for example, the World Health Medical School). Similarly, there could also be a law school, or a plumbing school, or a school dedicated to any other field of endeavor requiring the mastery of a large body of facts.

The school is broken down into "terms." In the case of the WHMS, there are eight terms, each corresponding to a semesters (for example, Basic Sciences I).

Each term contains a number of "subjects" (for example, Anatomy).

Each subject is broken down into "topics" (for example, The Skeletal System).

Topics are organized into "subtopics" (for example, Cranial Bones). The subtopic is the manageable stack of flashcards, corresponding to the number of physical cards that a student would hold in his or her hands. Subtopics contain anywhere from 50 to 150 flashcards.

Note that of the organizational levels described, only the subtopic level contains flashcards. All of the higher classifications -- that is, schools, terms, subjects, and topics -- exist only for organizational purposes.

[edit] Personalized Education

An important component of the ideal learning system is personalization.

The WHMS system remembers each of its students as individuals, as well as their preferences. For example, as part of your learning preferences, you can specify that the superlearning music be on or off by default. You can mark learned flashcards for later review at one of three predetermined times (that is, in A, B, or C days).

Whenever you log onto the system, you are taken to the last flashcard that you viewed when you stopped your previous session. The system remembers the status of each flashcard, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, with respect to each student. Each flashcard is classified as not viewed, answered incorrectly, or answered correctly and either never to be seen again or to be reviewed again in A, B, or C days.

[edit] Flashcards

Within an ideal learning system, flashcards are the optimal learning tool.

The term "flashcard" can be used to represent a number of different formats. Here, it is used to describe a card with a question on one side and the answer on the other. Imagine starting out with a stack of these in your hands, studying one card at a time. Once you feel that you have mastered a particular flashcard, you remove it from the stack and set it aside on the table beside you. If you have not mastered the flashcard, you put it on the bottom of the stack of cards in your hands, so that you will eventually "see" it again and have another chance to master the information. As you progress, the stack of "unlearned" cards in your hands gets smaller and smaller, while the stack of "learned" cards on the table grows. In the end, no cards remain in your hands -- and you have learned all of the material covered by the cards.

Today, this process can occur electronically on the Internet. Unlike their physical "index card" counterparts, electronic flashcards can contain graphics, movies, links to other education tools, and even sounds.

[edit] Flashcard Operation

When working with flashcards, you focus on one subtopic at a time. The flashcards are presented in a logical order within the subtopic. Each flashcard can be flipped back and forth between question and answer. You decide if you answered the question correctly. If you decide that the flashcard has not been mastered, simply click the "incorrect" button, and the flashcard goes to the end of the stack within the subtopic.

After going through the subtopic a couple of times, you can randomize the flashcards within that subtopic to make sure that no flashcard serves unintentionally as a hint to the answer to the succeeding flashcard. You can stop the learning process at any time, and when you return, the entire system -- and your place within it -- are preserved intact.

[edit] Flashcard Authoring

The WHMS editorial staff consists of authors, grammar editors, and technical editors:

  • An author is responsible for a particular subject and must be fully competent in that subject, as well as having a talent for flashcard writing. People who write well in essay form are not necessarily able to construct good flashcards, so the website offers extensive training and tutorials in flashcard writing.
  • Grammar editors check not only for typos and style errors, but also to ensure that each flashcard adheres to the school's format guidelines and that it is useful as a teaching tool.
  • Technical editors check the flashcards for scientific accuracy, as well as for usefulness as a teaching tool.

A database-driven program is used on the "back end" of the website for authors, editors, and administrators. The software includes a bulk editor that can display multiple flashcards at once, according to the student's preference.

Authors and editors are paid according to a fee schedule posted on the website. A statement is generated automatically.

[edit] Feedback Links

Every static and dynamic webpage and flashcard has a feedback link. Clicking this link brings up a form on which any user, regardless of credentials, can offer suggestions and ask questions. Feedback is responded to in a timely manner by the editorial staff. The feedback may result in an improved flashcard, an additional flashcard, or simply a direct communication with the student.

[edit] Accelerated Learning

The flashcard principle as we have described above is the most important ingredient in accelerated learning. But it can be enhanced by listening to special music. The original superlearning music was slow baroque music at about 60 beats per minute. Music can be further enhanced by embedding pulses at certain frequencies conducive to learning. It has been shown that learning is optimal when accompanied by music with embedded entrainment at 14 to 24 Hz.

[edit] See Also

[edit] External Links

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