The Solution

The integration of Osmosis’ medical education platform provided access to multimodal resources that enhanced learner engagement and facilitated medical knowledge acquisition.

Osmosis provided dependable and accessible resources for all learners. Offering a variety of media formats including videos, notes, flashcards, and questions, it caters to diverse learning preferences.  “Osmosis really combines the auditory and visual with cute ways to present information that sticks in your mind,” shared Dr. Johnson.

Spearheaded by Dr. Johnson, the academic affairs team developed Osmosis playlists closely aligned with course content to reduce the initial integration burden on faculty. Dr. Johnson explained, “[We] inserted the playlists into the learning management system, so that right along lecture PowerPoint slides there would be a link to the Osmosis resources. That was pretty successful. The students decided this was a great resource, they have been using them consistently.”  

Faculty curiosity increased about how they might use Osmosis to support teaching, and began asking for access. This sparked the idea of faculty development sessions to ensure faculty could learn more about the resources available to them and their students. Some faculty expressed concern that Osmosis might compete with their own original content. However, Dr. Johnson assured them, “No, this is not competing, it is repeating it in a slightly different way that might gain purchase with an individual student.”

In addition to facilitating primary learning, Osmosis has become an integral component of the remediation process. When students need to retake an exam or address learning deficiencies, they are able to curate personalized Osmosis playlists to share with the Student Success team and Course Directors. Learners watch these videos and use associated Osmosis resources to refresh and reinforce their understanding prior to attempting the examination again.  

A key strength of Osmosis lies in its capacity to present medical information in an engaging and approachable manner. Dr. Johnson shared, “I like that lighthearted approach that Osmosis takes. There are things here and there that make you chuckle a bit, that are cute. They make you feel good and there’s a lot to that psychologically.”

The Challenge

Identifying reliable resources that effectively support a variety of learning preferences and provide targeted assistance for remediation..

Dr. Johnson has decades of experience educating both allopathic and osteopathic medical students and has seen firsthand what helps students succeed in medical school and beyond. Through her own research she found that the most successful learning outcomes arise from multimodal learning, and that struggling students tend toward one type of resource or one mode of learning (i.e., reading, watching lectures, highlighting/note-taking, etc.).  

Wanting to ensure that all learners have access to reliable, multimodal learning resources, Dr. Johnson brought Osmosis into the pre-clerkship curriculum at KYCOM. Her intention was to leverage Osmosis alongside coursework, to support self-directed learning among all students, and to aid in remediation for struggling students.

Additionally, to increase diversity among classes and promote rural health, there are a great number of non-traditional students in the KYCOM program. Dr. Johnson explained, “We had the added challenge of addressing the needs of those students and making sure they are supported in their learning.”

KYCOM also searched for resources to be utilized in remediation processes throughout the curriculum. These resources needed to be reliable and easy for students to access during independent study to prepare for exam retakes.

The Result

Expanded and deeper Osmosis usage across the pre-clerkship curriculum.   

The students' enthusiasm for using Osmosis is clear based on their own explanations and engagement data. Roughly 80% of students in 2024 and 2025 classes used Osmosis.

After seeing the data and watching videos associated with their own courses, faculty want to continue exploring more ways to utilize the resources and expand Osmosis usage further. One of the primary ways faculty engage with Osmosis is “by pulling all those pieces together, assigning a video for students to review and then talking about that video.” Beyond flipping the class and assigning pre-work, faculty now regularly go through questions associated with the videos during class time.  

Each year the academic affairs staff reflect on how to use resources most effectively and how to best demonstrate the resources available to the students. “If you acquaint students with the resources when they first hit the doors, and support them in the use of those resources throughout the curriculum, when they start to engage in board study at the end of the second year, they are much more prepared,” shared Dr. Johnson.

Dr. Johnson was a continuous advocate for Osmosis because. “We know that these are quality resources. We know that from reviewing many Osmosis videos. They are very closely aligned with what the students are learning in the classroom. Osmosis content is an alternate way for students to take that information in and for them to have a greater chance to understand it completely.”