Fostering Curriculum Mapping and Alignment Across College of Health Sciences
Head of the Health Professions Education Unit Professor Veena Singaram hosted an insightful Learning Opportunities, Objectives and Outcomes Platform (LOOOP) Curriculum Mapping Symposium at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine.
Following the tool’s successful implementation in mapping the MBChB curriculum, its value is now being expanded across all disciplines within the College of Health Sciences (CHS).
Singaram, who also serves as the CHS LOOOP Coordinator, described the initiative as an innovative online tool that enables educators to visualise the curriculum. She explained that it helps identify gaps, redundancies and areas for improvement while ensuring alignment with national accreditation standards and UKZN’s strategic goals.
Attended by educators, curriculum developers, academic leaders and administrators looking to leverage LOOOP to its fullest potential and elevate UKZN’s educational offerings across all CHS disciplines, the symposium showcased presentations from the tool’s developers at Charité University in Berlin. It also presented an opportunity for fellow South African universities to share their experiences and successes with LOOOP, lending insights into best practices and innovative approaches to curriculum mapping.
The LOOOP programme was presented by Professor Olaf Ahlers, an anaesthesiologist and professor for research in Health Sciences Education at the Faculty of Health Sciences Brandenburg, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB) in Germany. Ahlers is also the co-ordinator of the international LOOOP network for curriculum mapping in Health Sciences at the Institute of Medical Informatics at Charité – Universitätsmediz in Berlin.
Presentations titled: “Curriculum Mapping Demystified: What It Is and Why It Matters” by Dr Gerda Botha of the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University in Ga-Rankuwa and “LOOOP in Action: Reflections from SMU and UP” by Dr Maria (Marlize) Cochrane-Boeyens of the University of Pretoria, promoted a national collaborative LOOOP research project as well as the incorporation of artificial intelligence in LOOOP.
This was supported by the Head of UKZN’s Family Medicine Department and MBChB Curriculum Review Task Team, Professor Bernhard Gaede, who lobbies for the training of fit-for-purpose doctors for the rapidly-changing healthcare environment in South Africa. Gaede’s presentation was titled: “The LOOOP Journey at UKZN: Then, Now, and What Lies Ahead”.
Singaram and Gaede were joined by South African LOOOP National Coordinator Mr Scott Smalley in paving a way forward with LOOOP. Smalley said: ‘We are happy about the growing interest and happy to be part of the UKZN curriculum mapping initiative.’
The symposium was followed by a hands-on LOOOP training session that was held at the Senate Chamber on the Westville campus.
Words and photograph: Lunga Memela
