Student Progress Dashboard Versus Legacy Academic Monitoring for Medical Student Support: A Consolidated Framework...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Educational Technology
• Student Support Services

Background:

• The USMLE Step 1 transition to pass/fail and declining pass rates increase pressure on medical students.
• Traditional monitoring systems are siloed, hindering effective student support.
• There is a need for precision education approaches to identify and support at-risk medical students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate an innovative Student Progress Dashboard (SPD).
• To apply precision education principles for identifying at-risk students.
• To facilitate holistic and timely interventions for medical students.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods evaluation using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).
• Integration of retrospective-prospective system comparison, descriptive analytics of adoption, and stakeholder experience assessment.
• Surveys and task analyses were used to gather qualitative and quantitative data.

Main Results:

• The SPD was successfully adopted by faculty advisors, course directors, and learning specialists within one year.
• The dashboard provided a significant Relative Advantage over legacy systems, improving efficiency in identifying students near performance thresholds.
• Stakeholders reported clearer performance views and adjusted support strategies based on dashboard insights.

Conclusions:

• The SPD is a feasible and scalable tool for the current medical licensing environment.
• Centralizing data in the SPD enables proactive, individualized student support and enhances stakeholder productivity.
• While resource-intensive, the SPD's benefits in intervention timeliness and efficiency justify the investment, with future plans for machine learning integration.