Vcomdo.com is a student-run Web site created by Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine students for the purpose of building community and assisting students with the rigorous workload of medical school.
Sumeet Goel, third-year medical student at VCOM and creator of vcomdo.com, felt that because of the competitiveness associated with medical school, a site dedicated to helping students get through the demanding course load was absolutely necessary.
"Basically, the problem I felt that was going on was that there wasn't much of a community in the student world. There wasn't a good system out there to share study guides, and (students) had to struggle through school together," Goel said. "I wanted to create a resource to help students better handle their time and perform better in school."
With the help of Puraj Patel, third-year medical student at VCOM and co-creator of vcomdo.com, they were able to create a basic Web site that would allow students to upload notes, previous exams, outlines, study guides, as well as communicate with other medical students about virtually anything.
"It's an all-encompassing resource for students to connect over anything, whether it's curriculum or class issues, or social needs like looking for roommates," said second year VCOM student and SGA president Erin Deihl.
Vcomdo.com evolved from being a small class blog adapted from a free online application (WordPress) and recently exploded, Patel said.
Goel and Patel "sat down one day and decided we could make this bigger; we could make this a huge thing for our school, and that's what it ended up being," Patel said.
For a school of 600 students, vcomdo.com receives an average of over 2,000 hits per day on the homepage, and around 1,000 views for each separate class page.
The Web site is set-up strategically to cater specifically to the needs of each academic level within the school. First through fourth years can access and upload podcasts, blogs, study resources, events and contact information without an extensive knowledge in computers.
Anticipating the different needs of all 600 students attending VCOM was a significant challenge for Patel, a Web designer for vcomdo.com.
"Students in their third and fourth years doing clinical rotations have different needs that are more important than first and second years still doing the majority of their studies in the classrooms. It was really important for us to sit down and figure out how to include those differences into the site," Patel said.
Students have the ability at vcomdo.com to select the year of study they are currently in and be provided with a list of relevant courses and information tailored to their individual class needs.
To accommodate the needs of VCOM students further, vcomdo.com is completely user-driven and uses an e-mail submission system that eliminates the hassle of registering with usernames and passwords. The process simplifies contributions by allowing students to simply submit any content to the Web site through e-mail.
"That was the key thing we wanted to make sure of," Goel said. "That non-computer people can use the site and contribute to it easily."
For a Web site that contributes significantly to the numerous needs to medical students, the expenses for vcomdo.com are light.
Originally, the Web site cost $8 monthly and later escalated to $60 because of the dramatic increase in student usage. Luckily for students, vcomdo.com's hosting costs are covered as a school expense.