Background: It is critical that medical students develop self-directed, lifelong learning skills to navigate medical school successfully and to become competent healthcare professionals. Moreover, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the USA medical school accrediting body, requires activities designed to help students develop self-directed learning (SDL) skills in the preclinical years. Objective: We evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of a self-directed learning activity in a 6-week first-year medical student course. Design: The course director assigned infectious disease case studies to teams of first-year medical students who individually assessed their knowledge gaps of the case, identified scholarly sources to fill their knowledge gaps, shared the information with their teammates, and reflected on their ability to guide their own learning. Students were asked to rate workload, team effort, acquisition of new clinical knowledge, and lifelong learning skills. Students were also asked to reflect on how this assignment affected their perception of their SDL skills. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze responses to the Likert scale questions. Thematic analysis was applied to the comments. Results: Survey response rate was 80% (131/163). Students strongly or moderately agreed that 1) they spent an appropriate amount of time on the project (94%), 2) the workload was evenly distributed among their teammates (95%), 3) their teammates made significant and timely contributions to the project (97%), 4) the project contributed to learning new clinical knowledge (92%), and 5) the project contributed to the acquisition of lifelong learning skills (85%). The analysis team identified four themes from student reflections on their perception of their self-directed learning skills: self-learning skills, collaboration, application, and metacognition, Conclusions: Study results demonstrated that we successfully implemented a case-based SDL activity in a first-year medical school course and that students perceived the activity as a valuable learning experience.

The purpose of this study was to systematically review literature on assistive technology (AT) used to develop literacy skills in students with physical disabilities. Primary databases were searched using search terms AT, disability, and literacy. Eight studies were eligible for inclusion. Six studies reported positive change to literacy components with AT support, and two reported a statistically significant change. Evidence offers support for AT in developing reading skills in this population. Future research could include reliable outcome measures, a classification system for participants’ disabilities, increased rigor of research design, and statistical data analysis.

Respectful and trusting family-professional partnerships can positively influence the health care of children with intellectual and developmental disability. This article describes a creative interdisciplinary educational approach that includes family members and preservice professionals as partners, and evaluates the perceived impact of this approach on the learners. The majority of survey respondents rated the impact of including family members in a 9-month interdisciplinary training program as co-learners, educators, and mentors as having a very high impact. Including family members in interdisciplinary educational activities, provides preservice learners invaluable opportunity to experience true family-professional partnerships. Recommendations are provided for education of preservice learners through a partnering process that fully includes family, self-advocacy, and professional disciplines, and targets family-centered inclusive services as an outcome.