West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
About
Located in Lewisburg, West Virginia, the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine strives to produce well-educated, compassionate osteopathic physicians. Their mission is “to educate students from diverse backgrounds as lifelong learners in osteopathic medicine and complementary health related programs; to support and develop graduate medical education training; to advance scientific knowledge through academic, clinical and basic science research; and to promote patient-centered, evidence based medicine. WVSOM is dedicated to serve, first and foremost, the state of West Virginia and the health care needs of its residents, emphasizing primary care in rural areas.” The school accounts for approximately 87% of practicing osteopathic physicians in West Virginia.
The Challenge
In 2016, West Virginia was already using components of the eMedley system. They were enjoying their partnership with AllofE, and wanted to expand their system to help with classroom management tasks such as grading and distributing materials.
The Solution: Implementing eduCATE
To help with the grading workflow, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine added eduCATE to their eMedley package. eduCATE is eMedley’s learning management system (LMS) that helps with distributing class materials and assignments, grading, and communication. It was one of the first systems to use a feed-style interface where students can see the activity in their classes and interact with it in a familiar, intuitive way. The powerful gradebook was especially useful for WVSOM’s workflow; its calculated columns, custom grading scales, assignment weighting, and grading categories made the gradebook highly customizable for reducing the burden on instructors.
Customizing the Solution
Later on, as WVSOM continued using eduCATE, the eMedley team was able to customize certain features to make the system fit their unique needs even better. They now have custom grade reports including the following:
- A custom report for calculating the averages for certain classes, taking into account the number of students and number of hours for each section
- A custom report by student of individual grades within a course showing the possible grade for each assignment, their actual score, and their percentage score
- The ability for certain administrators to filter the gradebook report by region, without others who have access to the report being able to do the same
They additionally had the problem that students would occasionally start a rotation during one term and finish it in another. The eMedley team built custom logic for the school to calculate grades for these students across terms.
Results
AllofE and West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine both continue to enjoy their partnership. After eight years of using eMedley and five years of using eduCATE, WVSOM’s system is highly customized to their individual needs. AllofE looks forward to continuing to support WVSOM as they educate skilled, culturally sensitive osteopathic physicians and serve rural communities.