Outlook: A Quarterly Newsletter of the Society of Behavorial Medicine
Winter 2010 Return to Outlook Main page »

The Course Syllabi Database: A Valuable Resource for SBM Members

Karl J. Maier, PhD, Education, Training and Career Development Council Member

To facilitate curriculum development across the field of behavioral medicine, the Education, Training, and Career Development Council (ETCD) of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) maintains a searchable database of syllabi and course-related material for higher education in behavioral medicine. Around 1995 the Council began soliciting syllabi from the membership. Several council Chairs and others have contributed to the building of this incrementally over the years. In 1996, Marc D. Gellman, PhD, then Council Chair, held the hard copy collection of syllabi. Prior to the electronic record keeping of today, interested members requested copies of syllabi pertaining to their interests. A few years later, during her leadership of the Council, Shari R. Waldstein, PhD solicited additional syllabi and worked with SBM staff to make them available on the SBM Web site. Starting in 2003 Karl J. Maier, PhD worked closely with Council Chair Justin M. Nash, PhD to develop the syllabus Web site to have search functionality along with an online submission and review process (https://www.sbm.org/syllabi/search). In addition to syllabi, other course-related material such as assignments, seminar outlines, or other text-based materials may be submitted. Since 2005, syllabi and materials could be submitted and searched for according to date, training area (psychology, medicine, nursing, public health, other), training level (undergraduate, graduate, other), and scope of the course (introductory/survey or specialized). As such, database users can easily find the syllabi most relevant to their needs. To date, the searchable database holds over a dozen syllabi, and over 50 syllabi are listed outside of the searchable database from prior to 2005. The entire collection includes syllabi for psychology courses mostly, with some representation of medicine and public health courses. Existing syllabi that are available at the undergraduate and graduate levels are either general or specialized in scope.

The growth of this resource is important as SBM continues to be a leader in behavioral medicine. If you teach in areas related to behavioral medicine, we encourage you to consider submitting syllabi for the courses you have recently taught. Likewise, if you will be teaching a course in the future or are otherwise interested, we invite you to take advantage of this great resource. Visit https://www.sbm.org/syllabi to submit or access syllabi.

 

gradient