Explorations: a New Approach to Self-Directed Learning in a Competency-Based Curriculum

Helping students develop the skills required for a lifetime of self-directed learning (SDL) is a key facet of undergraduate medical education (UGME). We are a new medical school and have developed Explorations, a novel approach to SDL. Explorations is a project-based approach to SDL that provides students complete autonomy to choose a topic of interest to explore, allowing them to take full ownership in acquiring the skills needed for the competency of lifelong adult learning. Explorations was designed for the Millennial medical student to facilitate the development of the SDL skills necessary to practice medicine in the modern digital age.