Vanderbilt Consortium LEND (VCL) Core Curriculum Modules 1

School of Medicine

The primary formal education portion of the VCL is the core curriculum: weekly modules and in-person core curriculum seminars at the end of each unit. Each weekly module on the LEND Moodle contains objectives, required readings or other activities, and several questions. Students, including the medical student(s) in this certificate program, are assigned to interprofessional groups of six to seven trainees, and each group submits group answers to the questions at the end of each week. On a rotating basis, each week one of the trainees serves as a group leader to maintain group accountability and productivity. For each question in the module, one trainee writes a draft response, then a second trainee reviews and edits the response. The leader compiles and formats all edited responses, provides an opportunity for the group to edit the entire answer set, and then uploads the answer set to the LEND Moodle by the deadline. The following week the faculty facilitators for the module provide feedback to the group within the documents submitted and uploads the document with the feedback into the module forum. All groups can review the feedback provided to every group. At the end of every given unit of study, there is an in-person seminar facilitated by expert LEND faculty. These seminars provide an opportunity for the interprofessional groups to work together to apply what they learned from the weekly modules to clinical cases. Anonymous peer assessments are completed at the end of each semester to maintain individual accountability and to provide feedback on leadership skills, communication skills, and professionalism. This blended educational experience combines online, asynchronous, and team-based assignments with in-person, case-based interprofessional teamwork to provide a rigorous comprehensive curriculum in neurodevelopmental disabilities.