Using clickers on multiple sites in a distributed undergraduate medical program

Terris, B. (2009) University Uses ‘Clickers’ to Quiz Students in Multiple Location Chronicle of Higher Education, September 14

The University of British Columbia recently completed a trial of a new satellite polling system by i>clicker, which sells student-response systems. The new system allowed students on three campuses, all part of the university’s Distributed Undergraduate Medical Program, to respond to questions in a simulcast lecture . I>clicker hopes to make the product widely available by January 2010.

The university’s Distributed Undergraduate Medical Program enrols students from across the province. Students can study at UBC’s main campus in Vancouver, or in partnership with the Universities of Victoria and Northern British Columbia, on the universities’ campuses at Victoria and Prince George. Programs are delivered in more than 80 communities in BC, and include nine clinical academic campuses and 13 affiliated regional centres located in hospitals across the province. The problem-based program is delivered through a mix of local small-group face-to-face sessions, video-conferenced lectures, an extensive set of web-based resources, and local clinical laboratory work. For more on this very successful program (resulting in more GPs working outside the main urban area of Vancouver) see:

Snadden, D. and Bates, J. (2005) Expanding undergraduate medical education in British Columbia: a distributed campus model CMAJ, Vol. 173, No. 6