Enabling wireless access to educational resources for MD and Health Professions learners
A partnership between UBC and the Health Authorities of BC
Overview
The UBC Faculty of Medicine and our partners are working to enable wireless internet access for MD and Health Professions learners in locations across BC. The purpose is to provide learners with wireless access to educational materials that are required for their training.
Why is wireless access needed?
- Medical education accreditation: Medical education accreditation standards require the Faculty of Medicine to provide internet access to educational resources in a manner that will satisfy Medical Doctor (MD) and Health Professions learners.
- Education from classroom to clinic: Eighty percent of MD training occurs in clinical settings, as does significant portions of other Health Professions training. Learners need to have access to educational resources wherever they are learning, and wireless is a key way to enable this access.
- Convenience for work and learning: The manner in which learners’ access information has changed significantly over the past 10 years. Wireless availability is increasingly expected as a way to conduct work and learning, and having inconsistent wireless access is impractical, inconvenient and time consuming for learners and educators.
How is wireless access provided?
Partnerships: The Health Authorities are critical in enabling educational wireless access as they own the space and technology infrastructure in clinical sites.
Existing wireless network infrastructure is used to broadcast a pre-existing service – eduroam – which provides wireless access for MD and Health Professions learners from institutions across BC. This wireless service is separate from clinical wireless and is dedicated to educational usage.
Service Agreements relative to this service will be established between Health Authorities and the UBC Faculty of Medicine to support the initiative.
See Resources for more information about the use of eduroam in clinical sites.
Thank you to our Health Authority colleagues for partnering with us to enable eduroam in clinical sites.