Changing from a “dead-tree” learning environment to a paperless, digitalized milieu is not only environmentally progressive; but it’s what our students want. In a recent survey, students expressed extreme satisfaction with a paperless curriculum. Among Med I students, 97 % agreed that they prefer their learning resource materials online.

As we enter Phase 3 of the project, we continue to enhance OPAL. We meet regularly with student leaders to hear their concerns regarding OPAL and then address them according to priority. We have implemented many changes over the last year based on student feedback such as developing a new portal and posting video lectures.

I appreciate the candor with which students bring their concerns forward. Whether it’s about syncing OPAL with mobile devices (a top priority in phase 3) or improving the OPAL calendar, we are committed to making these changes.

Students have raised issues such as server downtimes, which are not related to OPAL per se, but to the larger University of Manitoba information technology demands. We are working closely and collaboratively with central IST to address these technical performance issues.

Students have also voiced their concerns about delays in some faculty members uploading notes or out-of-date notes posted online. As we know, the most conscientious students review the material the night before. The success of OPAL depends on improving the timeliness of OPAL uploads.

How will I address this issue? OPAL generates a weekly report which identifies whether learning resources have or have not been uploaded for the next two-week period. I intend to remind “tardy” faculty members that OPAL deadlines must be met – and should not be considered optional. We all need to do our part to ensure OPAL meets the needs of our number one priority: our medical students.

By next year, OPAL will be used by all four med classes. This is a huge accomplishment that could not have been achieved without the hard work of many faculty, staff, students and our partners at Online Business Systems. We continue to work side-by-side with OBS to develop OPAL in to the most robust, reliable and advanced integrated curriculum management system.