The post Bricks Create Gets Faster, Smarter, and More Visual appeared first on ScholarRx.

You’ve seen it before. A student who performed well on your in-house exams sits down for their first NBME subject exam and freezes. The vignette is three paragraphs long. There are lab values they’ve seen before but never had to interpret under pressure. The question isn’t asking them to recall a fact; it’s asking them to reason through a clinical scenario using that fact as one piece of a larger puzzle. 

The student knows the material. They proved that on your exam. But something about the format, the complexity, and the sheer cognitive load of an NBME-style question overwhelmed them. 

This isn’t a knowledge problem. It’s a translation problem. And as a course director, you’re in a unique position to solve it, and to do it earlier than most schools currently do. 

The gap is real, and students feel it 

When M1 and M2 students describe the jump from in-house assessments to NBME exams, a few themes come up repeatedly. Your exam questions tend to be shorter, more direct, and more closely tied to what was covered in lecture. That’s not a criticism; it reflects a reasonable approach to assessing whether students learned what you taught. 

But NBME-style questions operate differently. They embed the relevant concept inside a clinical narrative. They require students to filter signal from noise across a long stem. They test whether a student can apply a piece of knowledge, not just access it. 

The result is that students who feel confident in your course can feel blindsided by their first board-style assessment. And that experience, the disconnect between “I know this” and “I can’t answer this” — erodes confidence in ways that ripple forward into Step prep and clerkships. 

Why it’s hard to close this gap (and why it’s not your fault) 

If the solution were simply “write better questions,” every course would already have a bank of 200 board-quality vignettes. The reality is more complicated. 

Vignette-style item writing is a specialized skill. Crafting a good NBME-style question requires clinical context that many basic science faculty don’t routinely work with. As the NBME’s own Item-Writing Guide emphasizes, without a clinical or experimental vignette as stimulus, items will generally assess only knowledge recall, making it difficult to test higher-order application. But writing those vignettes requires a different kind of expertise than teaching the underlying science. A biochemistry professor may deeply understand metabolic pathways but lack the clinical framing to write a realistic patient presentation that tests that knowledge in the way NBME does. Research on faculty item-writing consistently shows that untrained faculty produce questions with significantly more structural flaws. And these flaws that can affect student scores and undermine the validity of the assessment itself. 

The time investment is substantial. A well-constructed clinical vignette with plausible distractors takes significantly longer to write than a standard recall question. Estimates put the cost of a single high-quality item at over $100 when accounting for faculty time, review, and revision. Multiply that across an entire course’s worth of assessable content, and you’re looking at a major faculty time commitment with no clear institutional support. 

Curriculum committees have competing priorities. Your course has defined learning objectives, and your assessments need to align with them. Board-style questions that integrate across disciplines or require clinical reasoning can feel like they’re testing something outside your course’s scope, even when they’re testing exactly the concept you taught. 

There’s a philosophical tension. Some faculty believe that foundational courses should assess foundational knowledge, period. The clinical application, in this view, comes later. It’s a defensible position, but it leaves students to bridge that gap on their own during a compressed and high-stress study period. 

What actually works: scaffolding board-style reasoning into your existing course 

The good news is that closing this gap doesn’t require replacing your assessments or rewriting your course. It requires supplementing what you already do with deliberate, scaffolded exposure to board-style question formats. Here’s what that looks like in practice. 

Start with low-stakes formative exposure 

The single most impactful thing you can do is give students regular, no-grade-pressure encounters with board-style questions tied to the content you’re actively teaching. This isn’t about replacing your quizzes; it’s about adding a layer. 

The evidence supports this approach. A 2018 study at the University of Alabama School of Medicine gave 185 preclinical students 18-month access to a commercial Step 1 question bank throughout their organ-based modules. Greater use of the question bank was associated with stronger performance across instructor-designed exams, NBME Customized Assessments, module final grades, and USMLE Step 1 scores. The found the benefit most pronounced for students with lower MCAT scores, precisely the population most at risk for the translation gap described above. This aligns with a broader body of cognitive science research on the “testing effect”: active retrieval in a test-question format doesn’t just assess learning, it enhances it Particularly when exposure is spaced over time rather than massed during a dedicated prep period. 

A USMLE-style question bank can serve this purpose well. Rather than treating it as a dedicated Step prep tool (the way students typically encounter it), you can assign targeted question sets that map to your weekly or unit-level content. Students get practice with the format and the reasoning style while the material is fresh, and they start building pattern recognition for how board questions are constructed. 

Teach question interpretation as a skill 

Students often struggle with NBME questions not because they don’t know the answer, but because they don’t know how to read the question. They get lost in the vignette, anchor on irrelevant details, or misidentify what’s actually being asked. 

This is a teachable skill, and it can be broken down into a simple framework that students practice repeatedly: 

1. Identify the core clinical pivot point in the vignette. What single finding or combination of findings narrows the diagnosis or mechanism? Everything else is context or noise. 

1. Translate that pivot back to a foundational mechanism. This is the bridge connecting the clinical presentation to the biochemistry, physiology, or pathology concept being tested. 

1. Eliminate distractors by testing them against that mechanism. If a distractor doesn’t explain the pivot point, it’s out. 

Consider building short “question dissection” exercises into your course. These could be brief modules where students work through a board-style question using this framework, mapping the question back to the foundational concept being tested. These exercises work best when students encounter them in context alongside the relevant course material, rather than as a separate study task. 

Add clinical anchors to foundational content 

You don’t need to turn your biochemistry course into a clinical rotation. But even brief clinical correlations — a two-sentence patient scenario that illustrates why a metabolic pathway matters clinically — can help students start building the mental bridges they’ll need for board-style questions. 

The key is that these anchors live inside your existing course materials, not in a separate resource students have to seek out. A mini-vignette embedded in a foundational learning module — one that mirrors the way NBME frames questions around your specific content area — does more work than a standalone “clinical correlations” supplement that students may or may not engage with. The NBME Item-Writing Guide makes the same point from the assessment side: the clinical vignette is the mechanism that elevates a question from recall to application. Giving students practice reading that format is as important as teaching the content it tests. 

Use assessment data to identify the translation gap 

If you have access to performance analytics from both your in-house assessments and board-style question banks, you can identify something valuable: students who score well on your exams but poorly on board-style questions covering the same content. 

When 80% of a cohort answers a recall-style enzymology question correctly but only 45% answer a clinically framed version of the same concept, that discrepancy is diagnostic. It points to a translation problem, not a knowledge problem, telling you exactly where to focus your bridging efforts. 

Performance analytics that span both in-house and board-style assessments can surface these patterns at both the individual and cohort level, giving you actionable data rather than anecdotal impressions. 

Leverage secure, externally developed item banks for summative checkpoints 

If you want to build board-style questions into your graded assessments but don’t have the faculty bandwidth to write them, secure item banks developed by subject-matter experts and aligned to board standards can provide a ready-made source of high-quality questions. This lets you incorporate board-style summative checkpoints without the item-writing burden falling entirely on your faculty. 

The compounding benefit 

Here’s what makes early exposure so valuable: board-style reasoning isn’t a separate skill that students learn during dedicated prep. It’s the application of the knowledge you’re already teaching. When students practice that application alongside learning the content — rather than months later — the two reinforce each other. Students understand the material more deeply because they’ve had to use it, and they approach board-style questions with more confidence because the format is familiar. 

This matters more now than it did five years ago. Since the USMLE’s transition to Pass/Fail for Step 1 in 2022, first-time pass rates have declined across all student populations, due in part to reduced study intensity when a three-digit score is no longer at stake. If students are preparing less aggressively during dedicated study periods, the scaffolding they receive during preclinical coursework becomes the primary mechanism for building board-style reasoning. The curriculum has to do more of the work that students previously did on their own. 

You’re not necessarily adding to their workload.  You’re reshaping part of it so that learning and application happen in parallel rather than in sequence. 

Where to start 

The goal isn’t to turn foundational courses into board prep. It’s to prevent board-style reasoning from feeling foreign when students first encounter it. 

You don’t need to overhaul your course. Pick one unit — ideally one where you know students historically struggle with the board-style application — and try one or two of these strategies. Assign a targeted question bank set as a formative exercise. Build a short question-dissection module into your existing materials. Look at performance data to see where the translation gap is widest. 

Small, targeted changes compound. And your students will notice the difference the first time they sit for an NBME exam and recognize what’s being asked of them. 

References 

1. Baños JH, Pepin ME, Van Wagoner N. Class-wide access to a commercial Step 1 question bank during preclinical organ-based modules: a pilot project. Academic Medicine. 2018;93(3):486-490. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001861 

1. Akhtar S, et al. Assessing the impact of USMLE Step 1 going pass-fail: a brief review of the performance data. Journal of Graduate Medical Education. 2024. PMC11896725. 

1. Feddock C, et al. Formative assessment and feedback in medical education: a practical guide. AMEE Guide No. 189. Medical Teacher. 2025. doi:10.1080/0142159X.2025.2569623 

ScholarRx builds the tools that make these strategies practical to implement. Qmax provides the USMLE-style question bank for formative exposure. RxBricks and Bricks Create let faculty embed clinical anchors and question-dissection exercises directly into foundational content. The RxBricks Assessment Bank offers secure, board-aligned items for summative checkpoints. And integrated analytics surface the translation gaps that tell you where to focus.

The post Why Your Students Hit a Wall on Their First NBME Exam…and What You Can Do About It appeared first on ScholarRx.

Today, we are introducing a new way to do that inside the ScholarRx Faculty Portal.

With today’s release, Pools and the updated Manage Assignments experience bring question organization, AI-powered discovery, and assessment building into a single, connected workflow.

One Place for Questions and Assessments

In the Faculty Portal, you will now find an Assignments section that includes both Manage Assignments and Manage Pools. This brings together two things faculty do every day: organizing questions and building exams.

Pools give you a simple way to create collections of questions based on a course, unit, topic, or exam. You might have a pool for Renal Pathology, one for Endocrine Review, or one for a CBSE review. You can add questions over time, remove ones you no longer need, and share pools with colleagues so everyone is working from the same curated set.

For faculty who already used pools in Qmax Management, those collections will appear automatically in the new experience. For others, this is a new and powerful way to start building a reusable question library.

Finding Questions with TAI

Pools are tightly connected to TAI, ScholarRx’s AI-powered teaching assistant.

When you open a pool, you can search for questions by topic, discipline, or organ system. You can paste in question IDs, enter keywords, or upload documents like syllabi, lecture slides, or readings. TAI analyzes what you provide and returns questions that best match your curriculum.

Each question is shown with rich context, including difficulty, past student performance, the question bank, and any images, audio, or video included in the item. This makes it easier to review and select questions with confidence.

Building a Living Question Library

As you search, you can add questions to a pool in one click, or select only the ones you want. Questions can live in more than one pool, and you can even create a new pool on the fly as you work.

Over time, this turns pools into a living library of questions that reflects how your program teaches and assesses, not just a single exam.

Pools can also be shared with individual instructors or faculty groups. Everyone with access can contribute to the pool and use it when building assignments, making it easier to collaborate across courses and teaching teams.

From Pools to Published Exams

Pools now connect directly to the way assignments are built.

Inside Manage Assignments, you can select one or more pools, apply filters like question bank, difficulty, and usage status, and even upload course documents. Before running a search, TAI shows a plain-language summary of what it is about to look for, so you always know what is driving the results.

This means TAI is no longer searching everything in the system. It is searching the exact question set you define.

Designed for How Faculty Actually Work

This release is about more than new features. It is about creating a workflow that matches how faculty teach, collaborate, and assess.

With Pools, TAI, and the updated Assignments experience working together, it becomes easier to find aligned questions, organize them for future use, and build assessments that best reflect your curriculum.

We look forward to seeing how you and your teams use these tools to make assessment creation more consistent, efficient, and connected across ScholarRx.

The post A New Way to Organize and Build Assessments in ScholarRx appeared first on ScholarRx.

ScholarRx has released a new seven-module Student Success collection inside Rx Academy, a hub designed to help students and faculty get the most out of the ScholarRx learning ecosystem. These Bricks address a core gap in medical education: students face massive workloads but often lack clear guidance on how to learn effectively, manage their time, or study with purpose.

The collection brings together evidence-based learning principles, wellness strategies, and practical tools for academic and exam success. Each Brick is interactive, concise, and built to help students build durable habits that improve performance across preclinical coursework, clinical training, and high-stakes exam preparation.

The collection includes the following Bricks:

1. The Role of Well-Being in Academic Success

Students often believe well-being is something to “fit in later,” but research shows the opposite: cognitive performance, memory, focus, and emotional regulation depend on sleep, nutrition, movement, and mental health. This module helps students understand the link between health and performance, build sustainable habits, and recognize early signs of burnout.

2. Time and Energy Management in Medical School

This Brick confronts the realities of overloaded schedules, procrastination cycles, and unrealistic study routines. It introduces practical tools for prioritization, aligning difficult tasks with peak energy windows, breaking procrastination loops, and building study structures that actually hold up under medical-school pressure.

3. Learning How to Learn

Many students rely on passive strategies; rereading, highlighting, “recognizing” rather than recalling, leading to what psychologists call illusions of competence. This module distills the science behind how memory works and teaches strategies like active recall, spaced repetition, interleaving, SQ3R, dual coding, and the Feynman technique to make learning deeper and more durable.

4. Learning How to Study

While “Learning How to Learn” focuses on cognitive principles, this module focuses on application. Students learn how to build a realistic study plan, set SMART goals, design a study-conducive environment, manage digital distractions, work productively in groups, and use the Rx Study Planner to create a personalized approach.

5. Studying With ScholarRx

This Brick teaches students how to integrate ScholarRx tools: Rx Bricks, Flash Facts, Study Stream, Qmax, and Express Videos into an efficient study workflow. Instead of guessing how to use the platform, students learn when and how each tool should be used for foundation building, review, and assessment. It explains common learning pitfalls and shows how active learning within ScholarRx improves comprehension and long-term retention.

6. Master Multiple-Choice Questions

MCQs dominate medical assessments, yet many students never learn a systematic approach. This Brick breaks down how exam-style questions are structured, introduces a six-step dissection method, and explains how to avoid predictable errors such as misreading the question, falling for plausible distractors, or overthinking. It also reframes MCQs as a learning tool, not just an assessment tool, by emphasizing quality review, error categorization, and deliberate practice.

7. Prepare for USMLE®

This final module guides students through Step 1 and Step 2 CK preparation, from understanding exam structure to building a long-range study timeline. It outlines how to combine resources strategically, how to use question banks effectively, how to maintain motivation over extended study periods, and how to manage test-day pacing and anxiety.

How Faculty Can Use These Resources

Faculty and academic advisors can integrate the Student Success collection directly into advising, orientation programming, and academic support courses. Each Brick can serve as a standalone learning module or as part of a structured curriculum to help students strengthen study skills, self-regulation, and exam readiness. Educators can assign relevant modules before coaching sessions, embed Bricks within existing digital course spaces, or recommend specific Bricks to students who need support in areas like time management, test-taking strategy, or foundational learning skills. Together, these resources offer faculty a scalable toolkit to help students build strong academic habits and confidently navigate the challenges of medical school.

Explore the Student Success Bricks

The post New Student Success Bricks Collection to Empower Students and the Faculty Who Support Them appeared first on ScholarRx.

At ScholarRx, we believe AI should amplify faculty expertise, not replace it. That’s why we built TAI (Teaching with Artificial Intelligence), an AI assistant embedded directly in ScholarRx that transforms legacy content into interactive modules and generates draft assessment questions in minutes, not hours. 

What is TAI? 

TAI is an integrated AI Teaching Assistant that works within the ScholarRx platform you already use. Unlike ChatGPT or other general-purpose AI tools that require copying and pasting content between applications, TAI operates directly alongside you as you build, adapt, and assess curriculum. 

What makes TAI different is its agentic framework. Rather than simply responding to prompts, TAI actively guides you through each phase of the curriculum development cycle in a structured sequence. Think of it as having a junior faculty colleague who not only handles time-intensive tasks but also helps you think through the pedagogical implications of each choice by breaking complex development into manageable, logical steps. 

Designed to Solve Real Faculty Challenges 

TAI addresses the two most pressing bottlenecks in medical education today.

Transforming Legacy Content into Interactive Learning

Many medical schools possess years of valuable content, PowerPoints, PDFs, lecture notes, trapped in static formats. Converting these into structured, interactive learning experiences typically requires significant faculty time and effort. 

TAI changes that equation through a structured, collaborative process. When using Bricks Create with TAI, it evaluates your source material and prompt, then begins by developing learning objectives that you can revise, reorder, or regenerate. From there, it drafts an outline so you can think through the structure of your brick and make adjustments before committing to full content development. Once you’ve approved the outline, TAI drafts the brick, which you can then review, optimize, and shape to meet your specific needs. 

This phased approach ensures you maintain pedagogical control at each decision point while TAI handles the heavy lifting of content transformation. 

The result: Accelerated curriculum modernization with thoughtful pedagogical design, not just automated conversion. 

High-quality, board-style assessment writing is both essential and exhausting. Writing questions that align with specific learning objectives while meeting NBME standards can take hours per item. 

Integrated with Qmax, TAI uses its agentic framework to guide assessment development. Rather than just generating questions, it helps you think through: What cognitive level should this assess? Which common misconceptions should distractors address? How does this align with your learning objectives? Then it generates draft questions based on your specific needs. 

You maintain complete control, reviewing, editing, and approving each item, but TAI’s structured approach helps ensure both efficiency and quality from the start. 

Why TAI is Different 

While AI tools are proliferating across industries, TAI was built for one purpose: to serve the medical education community. 

It’s grounded in four principles that distinguish it from generic AI: 

Agentic Intelligence 

TAI doesn’t wait for you to know what to ask. Its agentic framework proactively guides you through curriculum and assessment development, helping you think through each phase systematically while maintaining your academic freedom and expertise. 

Expert-Backed Foundation 

TAI leverages ScholarRx’s peer-reviewed library of Rx Bricks and Qmax questions, with its trusted, validated content developed by medical educators, not scraped from the open internet. 

Purpose-Built Intelligence 

Unlike general AI that might confuse medical terminology or miss curricular nuances, TAI is designed specifically for medical curriculum design, assessment alignment, and the precision required in high-stakes education. 

Security & Faculty Control 

All work stays within the secure ScholarRx platform. Your institutional content is never used to train commercial AI models. You maintain complete confidentiality and control: no uploading files to third-party tools, no data leakage, no compliance concerns. 

Empowering Faculty Through Time Efficiency 

The mission behind TAI is straightforward: return time to educators so they can focus on teaching, mentorship, and innovation. 

By automating the most time-consuming aspects of curriculum and assessment creation, while actively guiding you through sound instructional design, TAI helps you invest energy where it creates the greatest impact: supporting student learning and improving educational outcomes. 

Consider this scenario: A curriculum committee needs to modernize their neuroscience unit, converting 15 legacy PowerPoint lectures into interactive modules with aligned assessments. Traditionally, this might require 40+ faculty hours. With TAI’s phased approach, developing learning objectives first, then outlines, then full content, the committee can make strategic decisions at each stage while TAI handles content generation. What once took weeks now takes days, leaving faculty to focus on refinement, sequencing, and pedagogical strategy. 

See TAI in Action 

The true promise of AI in education isn’t automation for automation’s sake; it’s intelligent collaboration. With TAI’s agentic framework, institutions can modernize faster, improve efficiency, and keep faculty expertise at the center of every decision while benefiting from structured, thoughtful guidance through enriched development processes. 

Ready to see how TAI can reshape your workflow?
Discover TAI: Your AI Teaching Assistant 

The post Reclaiming Faculty Time with TAI: The AI Teaching Assistant Built for Medical Education  appeared first on ScholarRx.

If you couldn’t join us live, the full session is now available on demand below.

Turning Passive Learning into Active Understanding

Every medical educator has faced the same challenge: students who can recall facts but struggle to apply them. Traditional lectures and static slides often fail to help students connect foundational concepts to clinical reasoning.

That’s where Rx Bricks comes in. Built for flexibility and faculty empowerment, Bricks transforms the learning experience from content delivery to concept discovery.

Each Brick is an interactive, modular learning unit: peer-reviewed, visually rich, and structured for active engagement. Faculty can assign Bricks as pre-class preparation, use them during flipped sessions, or integrate them into case discussions, allowing class time to focus on higher-order learning and application. You can also explore the Brick we created on this webinar here.

What You’ll Learn in This Office Hours Session

This Faculty Office Hours webinar explores practical ways to integrate Bricks into your curriculum, regardless of whether you teach foundational sciences or clinical reasoning. Topics discussed include:

• How Bricks supports active and team-based learning through structured questions and embedded quizzes.

• Using Bricks analytics to identify student engagement and comprehension levels.

• Flexible teaching strategies—from pre-class assignments to in-class application and formative assessments.

• Real-world examples of how medical schools are using Bricks to improve student outcomes and curriculum alignment.

The session also includes Q&A highlights from faculty around the world who are using Rx Bricks to modernize their teaching and foster deeper student participation.

Why Faculty Are Rethinking Engagement

Active learning isn’t just an educational trend—it’s a proven approach to improving retention, critical thinking, and long-term clinical competence. Yet implementing it can feel daunting without the right structure or tools.

Rx Bricks simplifies this process by offering:

• Modular, customizable content that maps easily to your existing curriculum.

• Built-in self-assessment tools that promote retrieval practice.

• Seamless integration with other ScholarRx tools like Qmax and Lists.

• Support for both independent study and collaborative classroom experiences.

Instead of creating everything from scratch, educators can focus on guiding students through problem-solving and synthesis—the core of professional learning.

Insights from Faculty Using Bricks

During the discussion, participating faculty shared how they’ve used Bricks to:

• Replace traditional readings with interactive pre-work that prepares students for deeper discussion.

• Embed Bricks into case-based and team-based learning activities.

• Use analytics to spot where students struggle—and address gaps before exams.

• Engage large groups without losing individual accountability.

One common theme emerged: Bricks help students take ownership of their learning while giving faculty more time to facilitate, mentor, and connect concepts across disciplines.

The Power of Simplicity and Structure

At ScholarRx, we’ve seen that innovation in education doesn’t always mean adding complexity. Sometimes, it’s about simplifying how learning happens.

Bricks are built on this principle, each one is concise, concept-driven, and visually engaging, allowing students to focus on mastering the material, not decoding it. For faculty, that means more freedom to teach in the ways that matter most—through connection, collaboration, and clinical reasoning.

Watch the Full Webinar

If you missed this Faculty Office Hours session, you can watch the full recording above. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to integrate more active learning into their curriculum with minimal prep time and maximum impact.

Whether you’re rethinking pre-clinical teaching, designing team-based learning sessions, or seeking ways to measure engagement, this session provides actionable insights to bring active learning to life.

Ready to Learn More?

Discover how Rx Bricks can help your faculty save time and elevate student engagement. Explore the Brick Exchange or sign up for a free trial here.

The post A Smarter Way to Actively Engage Students: ScholarRx Faculty Office Hours Replay appeared first on ScholarRx.

Through MERIC, ScholarRx will fund research projects that explore new teaching methods, strengthen curriculum design, and enhance assessment practices—all leveraging the ScholarRx/USMLE-Rx learning ecosystem, which currently supports more than 100,000 learners worldwide.

About the MERIC Grant

MERIC provides seed funding for faculty, researchers, and educational leaders seeking to test novel approaches, evaluate interventions, and contribute to the global conversation on improving health professions education. Explore the full list of previous grant winners and funded projects here.

This program reflects ScholarRx’s ongoing commitment to fostering collaboration between institutions, empowering faculty innovators, and translating research into practice.

Funding Details

• Number of Awards: 2–3 projects expected

• Typical Budget Range: $2,500–$5,000

• Exceptional Proposals: Multi-institutional studies or high-impact projects may be funded up to $10,000

This structure makes MERIC an accessible entry point for educators looking to launch pilot studies or gather preliminary data for future larger-scale funding.

Key Dates

• December 12, 2025 – Letters of Intent due

• January 23, 2026 – LOI acceptance notifications sent

• March 13, 2026 – Full proposals due

• April 24, 2026 – Awardees announced

These milestones ensure a streamlined application process while providing applicants with time to refine their study design and collaboration plans.

Why MERIC?

Faculty across the world face common challenges: limited funding, difficulty piloting new approaches, and the need for strong platforms to test interventions at scale. MERIC addresses these needs by:

• Providing seed funding to launch innovative projects.

• Offering access to the ScholarRx/USMLE-Rx platform for implementation and study.

• Supporting global collaboration by encouraging multi-institutional partnerships.

• Amplifying results through ScholarRx’s international network of educators and learners.

By lowering barriers to entry, MERIC empowers faculty to move ideas from theory into practice, making a tangible impact on how students learn and succeed.

Who Should Apply

MERIC is open to:

• Faculty and researchers in medical, dental, nursing, and allied health education.

• Curriculum leaders seeking to innovate in course design or delivery.

• Assessment directors interested in studying student performance and remediation.

• Multi-institutional teams pursuing collaborative education research.

Applicants should propose projects that align with MERIC’s mission to enhance health professions education through innovation, assessment, and scholarship.

ScholarRx’s Commitment to Educational Research

At ScholarRx, we believe educational innovation should be accessible, evidence-based, and globally impactful. Through initiatives like MERIC, we continue to:

• Support faculty in developing new teaching and assessment strategies.

• Provide students with high-quality, affordable resources.

• Advance the field of medical education through research-driven collaboration.

MERIC represents the next step in our mission to transform medical education—by working hand-in-hand with faculty innovators around the world.

Apply Today

Applications for the Medical Education Research and Innovation Challenge (MERIC) are now open.

Letter of Intent deadline: December 12, 2025

Learn more about the program, eligibility, and application process: MERIC Grant Information

Together, let’s shape the future of health professions education.

The post ScholarRx Launches 2025 MERIC Grant to Support Global Medical Education Research & Innovation appeared first on ScholarRx.

What Makes TAI Different? 

TAI isn’t another general-purpose AI tool that generates content without context or accountability. It’s purpose-built for medical education, incorporating established instructional design frameworks like the Kern 6-Step Process and ADDIE methodology. TAI lives inside Bricks Create, so your existing workflows remain unchanged. Most importantly, educators remain in the lead throughout the entire process. 

Unlike platforms where anyone can generate educational content without oversight, TAI ensures that every brick has an identifiable educator taking responsibility for its quality and accuracy. Your name is on the content you create with TAI’s assistance, and you maintain complete control over the educational outcomes. 

How TAI Works: A Structured Approach to Curriculum Development 

TAI functions like having a team of specialized instructional designers working alongside you. The platform guides you through a five-step process: 

Step 1: Define Your Vision 

Start by describing what you want to create. Upload your source materials, whether it’s a PowerPoint presentation, research article, or lecture notes. Tell TAI about your specific needs: “I need a 30-minute presentation on wellbeing for Canadian healthcare workers” or “Create a brick about clinical reasoning for shortness of breath.” 

Step 2: Refine Learning Objectives 

TAI analyzes your materials and suggests learning objectives aligned with Bloom’s taxonomy (typically levels 1-3). You can edit, modify, add, or delete these objectives to match your specific educational goals. Looking for more Canadian examples? Want to emphasize particular clinical scenarios? Just tell TAI what you need. 

Step 3: Build Your Content Outline 

TAI creates a comprehensive outline with multiple sections and embedded formative assessments. You can move sections around, directly edit content, and request specific modifications. The platform responds to natural language requests like “add more physiology examples” or “create a stressed-out health professional persona.” 

Step 4: Generate Your Brick 

TAI develops complete brick content—up to 4,000 words—based on your specifications. The platform drafts engaging, interactive content that aligns with your learning objectives and incorporates your requested modifications. 

Step 5: Optimize and Collaborate 

Review your brick at both macro and micro levels. You can regenerate entire sections, make targeted edits to specific parts, or fine-tune individual elements. Once you’re satisfied, you can move it into Bricks Create and invite co-authors to collaborate, then move through the same peer review process used for all ScholarRx content. 

Real-World Example: Faculty Development 

Consider this scenario: Canadian medical schools need to address healthcare worker wellbeing. Using TAI, an educator can: 

• Upload existing presentation materials about wellness 

• Specify the need for Canadian-specific examples and French language capability 

• Request a 20-minute interactive learning experience 

• Include case studies featuring stressed healthcare professionals 

• Generate culturally appropriate content that addresses local healthcare challenges 

The result? A comprehensive, engaging educational resource created in a fraction of the time while maintaining educational rigor. 

Addressing Common Concerns 

Will AI replace my expertise? No. TAI amplifies your expertise rather than replacing it. You provide the vision, context, and educational goals. TAI handles the time-intensive tasks of content structuring, initial drafting, and formatting, allowing you to focus on what you do best: teaching and mentoring. 

How do I know the content is accurate? Every TAI-generated brick goes through the same rigorous peer review process as traditionally created content. You review and approve all content before publication. TAI provides transparency about its involvement and maintains data privacy protocols throughout the process. 

Can TAI work with my existing materials? Yes. TAI can transform various source materials—PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, lecture transcripts, or even rough notes—into structured, interactive educational content. It’s designed to revitalize existing resources and help you transition toward active learning approaches. 

Getting Started with TAI 

TAI is currently available in open beta for institutional partners. To access it: 

1. Enable beta features: Toggle the beta option in your account settings 

1. Launch TAI: Click the TAI icon in your brick development environment 

1. Start creating: Upload your materials and begin the guided process 

The platform supports multiple languages and can create content tailored to specific cultural contexts, making it ideal for the global curricular ecosystem supported by the Rx Brick Exchange. 

Ready to Transform Your Curriculum Development? 

Bricks with TAI isn’t about replacing the art of teaching. It’s about giving you the tools to practice that art more effectively. Whether you’re developing new content, revitalizing existing materials, or creating resources for faculty development, TAI can help you achieve your educational goals more efficiently. 

The future of medical education lies not in choosing between human expertise and artificial intelligence, but in thoughtfully combining both to create learning experiences that are more engaging, more accessible, and more effective than either could achieve alone. 

Quality Assurance and Transparency 

Every TAI-generated brick maintains full transparency about AI involvement. This transparency, combined with peer review, ensures that AI enhancement doesn’t compromise educational integrity. 

TAI also maintains strict data privacy protocols, ensuring that your educational materials and student information remain secure throughout the development process. 

The Future of Medical Education 

By handling routine instructional design tasks, TAI frees educators to focus on innovation, mentorship, and the human connections that make learning meaningful. 

Early adopters are already seeing results. Several schools have published TAI-assisted bricks, and feedback indicates that educators appreciate both the time savings and the enhanced quality of their educational content. 

Ready to get started? Log into your ScholarRx account, enable beta features, and discover how TAI can transform your approach to curriculum development. Both your students and your schedule will benefit. 

The post Introducing Bricks with TAI: A Faster, Framework-Driven Way to Build Curriculum appeared first on ScholarRx.

Empowering Global Medical Education

The Brick Builder Grant is a ScholarRx initiative empowering educators and students worldwide to create innovative, free, open-access digital learning modules, or "Bricks," focused on underrepresented medical topics. By providing essential tools and support, the grant aims to revolutionize global medical education through innovation.

What do winners receive?

• $500 in funding
• Free access to the ScholarRx curriculum authoring platform and the Rx Bricks digital library
• Expert training and support from ScholarRx

2025 Grant Winners

We are excited to announce 50 winners from 47 institutions across 9 countries who will be using the Brick Builder Grant to develop innovative medical educational resources.

NAME	INSTITUTION	BRICK TITLE
Abigail Gilbert	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Decoding the ANA: A guide to antinuclear antibody testing
Abigail Oyedokun	College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria	Heat, Floods, and Fevers: A Clinical Guide to Climate-Responsive Healthcare
Adam Burch	East Carolina University	Post-Translational Processing of Proteins
Alexis Woida	Medical College of Wisconsin	Complex Care Medical Technology
Amelie Oshikoya	Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine	Unlocking Hidden Pathways: Empowering Medical Students to Explore Underrepresented Specialties
Andrew Binks	Virginia Tech University	Understanding and Managing Dyspnea: an acute sign and a chronic symptom
Athena Reich	Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine	Fertility and Family Planning in Transgender and Gender-Diverse Patients
Billie Ruden	University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine	Specialty Snapshots - a useful tool for both students and advisors
Bryan Nicolalde	Norwalk Hospital	Tailoring obesity treatment: Anti-obesity medications, endoscopic, and surgical treatments
Charles Gullo	Gullo Consulting (self) and West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (Co-Author)	Experiential learning Bricks for student and faculty with emphasis on TBL and PBL.
Connie Wong	Lane Medical Library	From Search Results to Strong Evidence: A Guide to Critical Appraisal
Deeksha Sikri	Wake Forest University School of Medicine	The "X" syndrome- Deconstructing a Novel and Fictional Disease with Foundational Sciences
Desiree Franco Lugo	Anahuac Mexico University/ Osmosis Medical Education Fellowship Program	Healthcare Management
Eman mahmoud	national liver institute	Smart Infection Control: Leveraging Data and Technology for Real-Time Decision Making
Emelia Moore	Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine	Exercise Physiology
Emma Cowles	Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine	Impacts of Urban Living on Health
Evergiste Singizwa	University of Global Health Equity	Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy: A Clinical Overview with Global Perspectives
Gabrielle Walcott-Bedeau	St. George's University	First Encounters: Trauma-Informed Communication in Healthcare
Henry Moon	Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University	Generative AI in Medical Education: Applications, Ethics, and Best Practices
Hien Thi Thu Ngo	Phenikaa School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Phenikaa University	Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica and Silicosis Prevention in Emerging Industries
Ian Schultheiss	Lincoln Memorial University - DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine	Using 3D Printing to Develop Accurate Models for Anatomic Education
Itisha Jefferson	Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine	Inclusive Dermatology: Enhancing Care for Individuals with Disabilities
Jane Newman	Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine	Biochemistry-Physiology Integrated Basic Sciences Bricks
Janet Kennedy	Western New England University	Rewired: Understanding Addiction Through Brain Chemistry and Human Experience
Jennifer Panczyszyn	Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV	Neurodivergent Communication in Clinical Encounters: Identification, Application, Connection Skills
Jennifer Ross	Boston Children's Hospital	Identifying, Managing, and Treating Substance Use Disorders in Adolescents
Jill Forbess	Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine, Belmont University	Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
Jim Fiordalisi	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Organizational principles of applied autonomic pharmacology
Joshua Owolabi	Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine | PCOM	The Mind- Generative AI Collaboration for Optimizing Learning
Jyotsna Needamangalam Balaji	Panimalar Medical College Hospital & Research Institute	Red Flag Prescribing: Understanding Drug Contraindications Across Common Clinical Conditions
Katerina Venderova	Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine	Disability Inclusion and Accessibility in Medical Education and in Medicine
Kathryn Eisenmann	University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences	Public Health of Oncology
Kirsten Porter-Stransky	University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville	Lifestyle Medicine for Brain Health
Lamese Saab	Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine	The Biochemistry and Health Impacts of Sugar Alcohols
Linda Chang	University of Illinois Chicago	Clinical Pharmacogenomics
Miklos Fogarasi	Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, Quinnipiac University	Cancer Survivorship in Primary Care
Mustafa Alshareefi	University of Baghdad, College of Medicine	Open Pedagogy in Health Professions Education
Ou Zhang	California University of Science and Medicine	Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)
Paul Langevin	Rocky Vista University Montana College of Osteopathic Medicine	Greenman's Dirty Half Dozen in Failed Low Back Syndrome
Peter Barbosa	San Juan Bautista School of Medicine	Autoimmune Disorders (any of 18 - see below)
Ritesh Soule	McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston	Hearts Divided: The Rivalry that Reshaped Medical Ethics and Professionalism
Samiksha Prasad	Nova Southeastern University, College of Allopathic Medicine	Providing Care for Neurodivergent Individuals
Samridhi Arora	Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi	Intersexuality Explained: From Genes to Gender Respect
Sarah Saffa	Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences	Principalism and Biomedical Ethics
Sumitra Miriyala Miriyala	Kirksville College of Medicine	Introduction to Machine Learning in Medical Diagnostics and Decision-Making
Tafline Arbor	Wake Forest School of Medicine	Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education: A Beginner's Guide
Tetyana Cheairs	New York Medical College	Environmental Toxicology. Role of environmental chemicals in human disease
Tipsuda Junsanto-Bahri	Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine	Dermatology Fundamentals: Sun Safety, Cancer Screening, Treatment, and Patient Empowerment
Tuoen Liu	West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine	Targeted therapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Yanfei Qi	Duquesne University College of Osteopathic Medicine	Acute (abortive) and preventive (prophylactic) treatments for migraines

The post Brick Builder Grant Winners 2025 appeared first on ScholarRx.

ScholarRx, a leading provider of digital learning tools for medical schools globally, and AFREhealth, a pan-African organization dedicated to advancing health education across the continent, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaboratively transform medical education in Africa through innovative, culturally relevant educational resources.

The strategic partnership formalizes both organizations’ commitment to co-developing and promoting open-access Rx Bricks, which are high-quality, customizable learning modules specifically designed to meet the unique needs of African health professions students and educators. These digital educational resources will address context-specific health challenges while maintaining global standards of medical education excellence.

The collaboration leverages ScholarRx’s innovative Bricks Create platform, which enables the development of modular, customizable content with active learning elements. This technology will empower African educators to create and adapt educational materials that reflect local health priorities while maintaining pedagogical rigor.

AFREhealth brings extensive expertise in African health education landscapes, institutional partnerships, and understanding of regional healthcare challenges. This combination positions the partnership to create meaningful, sustainable impact across diverse African medical education environments.

“This partnership represents a pivotal moment in our mission to make high-quality medical education accessible worldwide,” said Tao Le, MD, CEO of ScholarRx. “By collaborating with AFREhealth, we’re not just expanding our reach—we’re ensuring that African health professional learners and educators have access to world-class, culturally relevant educational resources that will strengthen healthcare delivery across the continent.”

“At AFREhealth, we are committed to strengthening health systems in Africa by transforming health professions education to be more responsive and impactful,” said Mrs. Georgina Yeboah, Executive Director of AFREhealth. “This partnership with ScholarRx represents a strategic step toward democratizing access to high-quality, contextually relevant learning materials across the continent. Together, we aim to empower educators and students with tools that address Africa’s unique health challenges while aligning with global standards in medical education.”

This agreement aligns with the commitment of both organizations to building more inclusive and accessible health education systems. By focusing on open-access resources and collaborative development, the partnership aims to reduce educational inequities and strengthen the foundation for improved healthcare delivery across Africa.

About ScholarRx

ScholarRx is a mission-based organization of passionate medical educators, designers, and technologists dedicated to building a healthier world through accessible, sustainable medical education. ScholarRx offers a revolutionary, low-cost, multi-competency curriculum system featuring interconnectable learning Bricks powered by the groundbreaking Rx Bricks Create authoring tool, helping make this the world’s first sharable health science curriculum platform.

About AFREhealth

AFREhealth, the African Forum for Research and Education in Health, is a cross-continental organization formed in 2016, devoted to advancing excellence in health professional education and research that underpins strong health care systems. Our greatest advantages are the extensive ability to connect the entire network of African academic institutions and linked organizations to the most updated health knowledge and promote important research addressing global health security threats. We are also firmly committed to bringing all health professions together and harnessing a wide range of expertise to find solutions to everyday issues faced in the delivery of healthcare and looking ahead to prepare for the future. Our strengths include our extensive network of partners, academic institutions, national governments and regional bodies, and global collaborators. And we are fully committed to partnering with others who share the vision of promoting excellence in preparing for the future of a healthy Africa, as AFREhealth is well positioned to accelerate progress benefiting all Africans in the Africa we want.

The post ScholarRx and AFREhealth Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Transform Medical Education Across Africa appeared first on ScholarRx.