Designing Medical Education With Access in Mind

February 2, 2026

Lori Dykstra has spent her life at the intersection of education, health, and community and is working to bring that intersectionality to the College of Human Medicine. Rooted in the West Michigan community, she’s earned a bachelors degrees in Mathematics and Health Sciences from Grand Valley State University, a K–8 graduate teaching certificate, and is currently completing her masters degree in Learning Experience Design at Michigan State University. That combination of analytical thinking and instructional design shapes her work as an Application Administrator at the college.

When Lori joined MSU in 2016, she was drawn by the opportunity to merge her background in education with her experience in health and science. She initially supported curriculum work related to Intersessions and the Late Clinical Experience (LCE), before moving to the JustInTimeMedicine team, where she now focuses on curriculum implementation and the integration of technologies used throughout the college’s curriculum.

JustInTimeMedicine (JIT), is an internally developed cloud-based curricular and assessment software that serves as a device-friendly, digital platform for students and faculty. It plays a central role in the student experience at the college, bringing together curriculum, assessment, and feedback in one place. The system delivers learning content, captures workplace-based assessments, integrates external data streams, and displays student progress into a focused dashboard using the college’s competency-based frameworks. It allows students to see how concepts connect and build over time, while giving faculty, advisors, and staff a shared digital space to review assessments, provide feedback, identify trends, and support learners throughout the program.

Recently, Lori’s work has focused on improving curriculum accessibility. Earlier versions of the curriculum did not always consistently account for students who rely on screen readers, captions, or other assistive technologies. Because the college uses a homegrown learning management system (JIT), this work required building accessibility practices from the ground up. Without automated tools, materials had to be manually reviewed and remediated, alongside developing training, documentation, and checklists to support faculty as they created content. Much of this effort occurred during the development and rollout of a new curriculum, adding to the complexity of the work.

“I’m proud of the progress the college has made and the collaborative effort poured into the project,” said Dykstra.

Last fall, significant progress was made towards improving accessibility at the college. Working with student interns and IT staff, Lori co-lead an effort to remediate all third- and fourth-year curriculum documents. First-year content is now being developed with accessibility built in from the start, and the same standards are being applied as second-year materials prepare for launch. The progress earned recognized from the university's Office for Civil Rights and Title IX Education and Compliance.

Looking ahead, the JIT team is exploring an AI-enhanced search experience that would allow students and faculty to use natural-language questions to find relevant curriculum materials more easily. Still in early beta, the goal is to improve discoverability and reduce the time spent navigating content across courses and documents.

There will always be ways that teaching materials, coursework and other types of media can be improved upon, but Lori is always open to questions about accessibility or providing support with best practices and encourages people to reach out and continue the conversation.

“One of the most meaningful aspects of my time at MSU has been the opportunity to collaborate across the college,” she said. “From departments and clerkships, to the eight learning communities, they all come together to support medical education. The variety of projects keeps the work engaging while continuously learning and contributing in different ways.”

Other Staff Spotlights


When medical students step into the College’s simulation lab, they often meet “Sim Man,” a high-tech mannequin used to practice clinical skills. But just as vital to their training is a “Sim Woman”—Theresa Helmbrecht, one of the staff members of the College of Human Medicine simulation lab team.

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By Steven Kaatz     Media Contact | Emily Linnert