Recognized by Apple as a Distinguished School (2022–2025) for the implementation of our iPad program

OUR STORY

The iPad learning initiative at UC San Diego includes our School of Medicine, and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. All incoming students receive an iPad Air, Apple Pencil, and Apple Care+ for the duration of their education programs and assume ownership when they graduate. Students use their iPads across the medical education spectrum, stretching from pre-clinical coursework into clinical years of training.

VISION

UC San Diego established the iPad initiative to:

- Help optimize student education with a versatile and user-friendly tool. We provide several apps to students including a 3-D anatomy app (Complete Anatomy), and students can install their own educational apps to help customize their learning.

- Remove cost barriers with technology. We aim to recruit a diverse class of students, and this program allows us to provide access to this essential technology to all students, removing financial barriers to access.

- Leverage iPads to foster innovation and collaboration among students and faculty. We encourage all students and teachers to innovate with how they use and learn from their iPads, sharing their findings with the greater educational community within UC San Diego.

LEARNING

Students, faculty, and staff have discovered several creative approaches to incorporate iPads into student life. Faculty have converted course packets to iBooks, which allows students the ability to annotate notes, add images, and easily search for information. Student leaders have created tutorials on how to best use the iPad to optimally and efficiently learn medicine. One student worked with an anatomy professor to create a companion study guide. On clinical rotations, students access electronic health records to see the most up-to-date information on their patients. The iPads also enable students to help in directly education patients, leveraging a variety of health-related and graphics-oriented applications.

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SUCCESS

Overall, students see iPads as valuable learning tools, 98% of surveyed UC San Diego School of Medicine students and 84% School of Pharmacy students agreed that "having an iPad has positively influenced my education". Over 95% of students believe that it's important to integrate technology into health sciences education, and over 90% believe that their iPad directly helps them study. We hope that continued incorporation of iPads into medical education will help create a new generation of providers ready to thrive in our increasingly digital healthcare ecosystem.