In this chapter, the major concepts from program planning in adult education will be applied to health professions education (HPE). Curriculum planning and program planning will be differentiated, and program development and planning will be grounded in a systems thinking approach.

Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, comprises three primary units that each serve a distinct population: the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is a residential college for roughly 2,800 traditional-age undergraduates; the College of Adult and Professional Studies and Graduate School (CAPS/GS) serves roughly 2,200 adult learners at both the…

Adult and continuing education practitioners are the core group of staff that enable the lifelong learning enterprise. However, there are few studies that look into the domain of practice of these practitioners, which is shaped by the organisation and its wider external milieux. Research on this topic naturally calls for the elucidation of…

In 2002 President Martin Jischke initiated a new era in strategic planning at Purdue. Under his leadership, strategic planning became a centralized activity with unit plans aligned to the university plan. Strategic goals were designed to have maximum impact, which would be measurable through metrics. Strategic planning at Purdue would be an…

Concerns about health care costs and quality are focusing increasing attention on physicians and their continuing medical education (CME). These concerns have produced several calls for "a new definition," "a new vision," "repositioning," "reinventing," and "transforming" CME. However, differences in conceptualizations and vocabularies have…