AAMC’s Virtual Medical School Fair Reaches New Audiences with 6Connex

Case Study: AAMC

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) serves and leads the academic medicine community to improve the health of all. Founded in 1876 and based in Washington, D.C., the AAMC is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care through medical education, patient care, medical research, and community collaborations.

The Challenge

Connecting to a new generation with 6Connex

As more millennials and Gen Z students aspiring to be doctors are entering the medical school application process, the AAMC—a nonprofit with a mission to improve the healthcare of all through medical education, patient care, and medical research—sought additional ways to connect their member medical schools with a new generation of prospective medical students. In an effort to forge these connections without asking students and exhibitors to incur travel costs, the AAMC turned to 6Connex to create an innovative and engaging virtual medical school fair. Key features important to the AAMC included accessibility from all mobile devices, private and group chat options, and in-depth metrics on all aspects of the event program.

The Solution

Hosting the AAMC medical school fair virtually provided medical schools with access to a much broader, more diverse population, as prospective students who could not travel to multiple schools nor take time off of work could attend.  In addition, the virtual fair featured an equally diverse range of participating schools, with several medical degree-granting schools from the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada in attendance. The 6Connex platform enabled each school to have its own virtual booth, where the school could share the same information and content available at a traditional fair, such as resources on the application process, details about the school and curriculum, and videos from current and past students.

Unique platform features made connecting easy and comfortable for students, while real-time metrics made calculating the event ROI easier.

Privacy

One of the key advantages of the virtual event was the opportunity for students to engage in private chat conversations with school representatives. Without the possibility of other attendees overhearing, students could freely ask personal questions on a range of subjects, from financial aid and credit ratings to MCAT scores.

Ease of access

The AAMC wanted to level the playing field to ensure travel wasn’t an obstacle to attending the event. By using a virtual environment, the AAMC was able to eliminate the time and expense of travel and meet students where they’re comfortable: on their smartphones and tablets.

Reporting

With in-depth, real-time metrics, the AAMC was able to see vital event data both during and immediately following the event, and they could easily share the results with their internal teams and member schools. The AAMC team noted the data from 6Connex was much more robust and user-friendly than what they had before, and it was easy to access. They were also able to view the chat transcripts and identify commonly asked questions, allowing them to educate participating schools on the type of information and resources students are seeking.

Today I’m excited to share some details about one of our newest launches, the Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe virtual campus. I believe it’s truly a groundbreaking program, taking an off-line program and providing broad access to it online, while also driving sales, awareness and community connection.

Childhelp, the nation’s oldest and largest non-governmental nonprofit advocating for abused and neglected children, offers a comprehensive child abuse and bullying prevention education program, Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe®. The program includes curriculum for grades one through six, taught by trained facilitators.

Previously, much of the actual curriculum was delivered via a thumb drive, and the training was scheduled based on availability. Using the 6Connex platform, Childhelp’s brand new virtual campus enables immediate access to the curriculum, along with anytime access to the facilitator training. In addition, Childhelp will be offering guest speakers, continuing education opportunities, community outreach, the Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe for Athletes program for youth sports and more.

The program was brought to life by a talented and passionate team, who had a clear vision from the start. We applaud their efforts, and the mission of Childhelp. We’re also quite excited about the use case – what a great way for a 55 year old nonprofit to leverage technology to further its mission.

I’d like to share some of the highlights, the things that we think are truly unique uses of our Virtual Environment platform.

• We talk a lot about how “looks matter” and in this case it’s as true as ever.  Bringing Childhelp’s “little red schoolhouse” to life and creating a campus look and feel that reflects the nonprofit’s feeling of hope is a significant achievement. The unique design provides just the right backdrop to welcome new individuals, schools and other organizations to learn more about the Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe program. Childhelp Co-Founder and President Yvonne Fedderson said, “We are amazed that you were able to capture the look of our villages with this new technology. It honors a dream that took us so many years to build and gives everyone access to the Childhelp mission.”
• Of course the content of any program is the real key, and the Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe curriculum takes center stage. The virtual campus’ architecture showcases the value of the curriculum at each grade level, providing a public view into the content. For a deeper look at the curriculum, powerful platform entitlement allows Childhelp to grant access for a full review, and once a decision has been made to purchase the curriculum, grant full access to the program. Childhelp refers to this process as “leveling up” and it’s a key strategy that is aimed at bringing the program to more children across the nation.
• Perhaps the most important element of the virtual campus is an entirely new way to train and engage with facilitators. By leveraging a virtual environment, Childhelp can make the training available to facilitators when and where they need it, and the curriculum itself is available for immediate download. Platform interactivity features enable facilitators from across the country to connect with each other, forging a stronger community fighting child abuse and bullying. Additionally, guest speakers can engage with the community, and Childhelp can offer other continuing education opportunities. Childhelp Co-Founder and CEO Sara O’Meara said, “We really honor your team’s investment in this remarkable platform. Our hope has always been to bring prevention education to every state in the nation so that all of our children can learn to speak up and be safe. Your help will make that dream a reality!”

All in all, it’s a comprehensive and engaging program, one that we hope will serve as a model for other non-profits. You can check it out at www.speakupbesafe.org – and please share to help drive awareness for this very worthy cause.

Virtual Classrooms

Education is evolving.

Virtual learning is quickly making its way into the educational realms. Dusty erasers and broken chalk have long been discarded, and soon even the classroom will become a distant memory. Just think, students will no longer have to compete for their teacher’s attention, and personality clashes will never be an issue. Education is constantly evolving, and the learning tools that businesses currently use to educate their personnel are now being applied to schools.

Many enterprise organizations rely heavily on a partner network for sales, service and support.  These channel partners are a critical extension of the organization and as such, they need comprehensive training and education, along with regular communication and oftentimes lots of “personal touch.”

If you manage a channel program of any size, you know how tough it can be to stand out among all the choices your partners may have in their portfolio.  Capturing mindshare is key, and you’re constantly pushed to innovate while you motivate.

“Go build me a virtual campus.”  This is a great quote I heard recently from one of our enterprise clients.  The Chief Learning Office said exactly this to someone on the learning team.  Not because they don’t have a learning management system or are launching a new learning initiative.  In fact, just the opposite as they have a large LMS implementation for their current corporate training program.  Their existing program simply isn’t engaging, and that’s ultimately the key.