Summer Remediation Course for MD Students Medical Neuroscience

Course Co-directors: Drs. Francis Sessler and Jed Shumsky

Introduction

We have developed a web-based summer remediation course for medical students who have received a failing grade during their initial course in Medical Neuroscience.

The course has been successfully running for the last 16 years, recruiting students from nearly 40 different medical schools.

Students take the course online while remaining at their own institution.

This course re-presents the course material from Medical Neuroscience in an accelerated fashion with additional supporting material to ensure mastery of the topic.

Some modular options will be available for remediation involving multidisciplinary integrated courses. Please contact us for pricing and availability.

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Goals

  • To gain an understanding of the structural neuroanatomy of the central nervous system.
  • To gain an understanding of the functional connections within the central nervous system.
  • To acquire a clinical context to interpret new primary research being generated in the field of neuroscience.
  • To deduce structure/function relationships in order to understand clinical diagnoses of various neurological conditions.

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Eligibility

  • Open only to students who are registered in an accredited U.S. medical or dental school, or equivalent, and who provide written approval from their administrator (usually the dean of students).
  • Students must also supply written assurance from their administrator that a proctor will be supplied to administer the final exam.
  • Prerequisites: completion of first-year medical curriculum.

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Medical Neuroscience Course Description

  • Drexel University College of Medicine offers a remedial course in Medical Neuroscience, which is taken online.
  • Course name: Summer Remediation Course in Medical Neuroscience.
  • Tuition fee: $2,200 (please contact us for pricing and availability for remediation involving integrated multidisciplinary modules).
  • The course material is available from June 9 until July 11 with the final exam held on Friday, July 11, 2025.

The course includes:

  • Lectures provided in streaming video format.
  • A course manual, which can be downloaded or viewed simultaneously with the streaming video.
  • Web-based interactive tutorials, quizzes, brain atlas, brains slides, animations and interactive diagrams.
  • A medical school faculty member available for questions and answers via bulletin board, telephone or email.

The course is divided into six sections, which will follow a progression (see syllabus) that students may access at their own pace:

  1. Introduction
  2. Spinal Cord and Pathways
  3. Brainstem and Cranial Nerves
  4. Sensory Systems
  5. Motor Systems
  6. Cerebral Cortex and Limbic System

Examination:

  • After each section the student takes a MCQ exam (containing both questions directed at structures identified in brain sections and questions from the lectures) to test their learning and understanding of the material taught.
  • Each section exam is composed of 50 questions and lasts for 70 minutes (1.4 minute per question).
  • Each section exam is taken through Blackboard Learn and requires a computer.
  • Success with each section exam is required in order to start the next section. If a student fails to obtain a grade of 70% or above in a section exam, they must retake the exam.
  • A mid-term and a final exam (each worth 50%) will be held on June 25 and July 11 (120 minutes to answer 75 questions for each exam). These exams can be taken at the student’s institution with a proctor supplied by an administrator or the dean of students to administer the exam, or online with video monitoring requiring a computer with a webcam.

Evaluation:

  • A feedback questionnaire will be requested from each enrolled student to evaluate the course's resources (handouts, streaming video lectures, lecturers, web resources, exams, help provided by the teaching faculty, quality overall of the course, areas of improvement, etc.)
  • Success on both exams will ensure that the student has reached a level of proficiency in medical neuroscience, similar to that of other medical students in this institution.
  • Since overall the material taught and the tests used in this course are similar to those used in our normal Medical Neuroscience course, we expect students passing the Summer Remediation Course in Medical Neuroscience to be well-prepared to continue their medical education.

Administration:

  • The course is packaged and administered within the frame of Blackboard Learn.
  • The course is offered through the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, and all administrative tasks related to the course will be handled by the course directors.
  • Final grades will be sent to the student's dean for confirmation of course completion as well as to the student.

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Medical Neuroscience Course Syllabus

Subject to change when needed.

Sections 1, 2 and 3 must be completed between June 9 and June 23, 2025.

Section 1 (Introduction, spinal nerves, gross brain anatomy):

Section 2 (Neurotransmission, spinal cord and pathways):

Section 3 (Brainstem and cranial nerves):

Midterm Exam on June 25, 2025.

 
Sections 4, 5 and 6 must be completed between June 25 and July 9, 2025.

Section 4 (Sensory systems):

Section 5 (Motor systems):

Section 6 (Cerebral cortex, limbic system):

Final Exam on July 11, 2025.

 
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