Author Archives: kconger

Have you tested out the waters?

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In last week’s blog post, we conducted a quick poll to gauge your interest in the flipped classroom model of teaching and learning. The majority of those who responded indicated there is interest in the flipped classroom model but need to know more before committing to making a transition. We hope that the resources we are including as part of our weekly blog posts and adding to our 2014: Year of Active Learning at UTSHC page are helpful as you learn more about about active learning and flipping the classroom.

As we discussed in our blog post from a couple of weeks ago (https://uthsctlc.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/where-to-begin/), making a transition to a new teaching and learning model takes time and work. We suggested that you test the waters by incorporating an active learning exercise into a class you are currently teaching or flipping just one class session. Have you been searching for ideas to help in making this happen? Check out the Active Learning for the College Classroom page created by Dr. Donald Paulson and Dr. Jennifer Faust from California State University. They have put together an excellent list of active learning exercises that can help to supplement the class lecture or assist in flipping the classroom.

Let us know if you have tested out the active learning/flipped classroom waters. We’d love to hear about your experience!

Week of February 17, 2014 – Professional Development Opportunities

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For a calendar view of events please go to: http://bit.ly/UTHSCal

Primarily Education-Focused Sessions and Resources

Engaging, Connecting, and Communicating with Your Online Students

Date: February 26, 2014
Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Location: GEB A204

Presenter: Kristy Conger (Education Specialist – UTHSC Office of Academic, Faculty and Student Affairs)

Session Overview:
In an online or hybrid class setting, connecting with our students is especially critical. Web-based and mobile resources offer new opportunities in engaging and communicating with students. Tools such as AudiBoo, Jing, Screencast, Skitch, and Educreations allow instructors to connect and communicate with students in ways which extend past the physical classroom. In this session, we will discuss these resources and how they can help to enhance teaching and learning in an online or hybrid course setting. Please feel free to bring your laptop or mobile device and try the tools out during our session.

Register for this session at http://tinyurl.com/feb26session

Hold the Dates – IAMSE Spring Webinar Series (Innovations in Assessment)

Series Overview:
Innovations in health care education require the simultaneous development of creative new approaches to student assessment.  This IAMSE webcast seminar series will explore these issues and provide several examples of how schools are evolving with assessment approaches.

For more information about this webinar series including session overviews please go to: http://iamse.org/development/2014/was_2014_spring.htm

Login Information:
Log in to the webinar from wherever you are! Login information (posted the day before each session) can be found in the Professional Development course located in Blackboard.

Enrollment instructions for the Professional Development course are located at http://tinyurl.com/profdevenroll.

IAMSE Webinar Series Schedule:

February 27th (11:00 AM)

Topic: To Protect the Public by Providing the Means to Assess Competencies for Osteopathic Medicine and Related health Care Professions
Presented by: Bruce P. Bates and Melanie V. Nelson

March 6th (11:00 AM)
Topic: Individual Learning Assessment Approaches
Presented by: Daniel M. Clinchot

March 13th (11:00 AM)

Topic: Pivio: A New Records Management and Life-Long Learning Tool for the Medical Community
Presented by: Mary Drescher Halicki and Angelique Johnson

March 20th (11:00 AM)
Topic: Assessment Review: Learning From Mistakes
Presented by: Bobbe Baggio

March 27th (11:00 AM)

Topic: ACGME “Milestones”
Presented by: William Iobst

Professional Sessions

Biomedical Informatics Group (BIG) Meeting

Date: February 28, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Location: 910 Madison, Room 502

Presenter: Grady Wade, Ph.D. (Clinical Research Informaticist – Children’s Foundation Research Institute and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital)
Topic: Pediatric Research Database, a clinically rich, de-identified database for hypothesis generation and cohort discovery

Session Overview:
 Secondary use of large, open datasets provides researchers with an opportunity to address high impact questions and evaluate rare diseases. Utilization of local electronic medical records (EMR) to populate these research datasets is both an efficient use of available information and can also help researchers to assess effectiveness of local standards of care. To assist researchers in gaining access to large amounts of high quality clinical data for the purposes of research, our unit developed the Pediatric Research Database (PRD), a de-identified database designed around secondary use of a data-rich source, our EMR.

To reserve your lunch, email Debra Jackson: djackso9@uthsc.edu by Monday, February 24, 2014.

Questions? email Teresa Waters: twaters@uthsc.edu

FERPA Regulations for the Online Environment: A Toolkit for Faculty & Staff

Date: March 6, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Location: GEB A104

Session Overview:
Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), all college employees are legally and ethically obliged to safeguard the confidentiality of student information. Many times this presents unique challenges for faculty and staff who work with students online. Issues that online program employees encounter when following FERPA guidelines while using technology tools in the learning environment are specific and must be explored and understood.

Through real-life scenarios, this webinar will help online staff better understand and apply FERPA to the online environment. Upon completion of the webinar, online staff and faculty will be able to identify online classroom applications of FERPA including implications for grading, student counseling, letters of reference, and student communication.

For additional information about this webinar and the speaker go to: http://www.innovativeeducators.org/product_p/2099.htm

To attend please RSVP Terri Fought at 448-8014 or tfought@uthsc.edu

Conferences

International Association of Medical Science Educators (Annual Conference)

Dates: June 7-10, 2014
Location: Nashville, TN

Conference Overview:
The IAMSE meeting offers opportunities for faculty development and networking bringing together medical sciences and medical education across the continuum of health care education. Plenary topics for the 2014 meeting will include the use of simulation in medical education, giving effective and meaningful feedback, interprofessional education and the promotion of active learning in the classroom.

For additional details or to register please visit: www.iamseconference.org

Additional Resources

2014: The Year of Active Learning at UTHSC
To access a a variety of active learning resources visit https://academic.uthsc.edu/faculty/2014.php

UTHSC’s Faculty Resource Center
View schedule of upcoming professional development opportunities and read our latest blog posts at https://uthsctlc.wordpress.com/

Cast Your Vote Today!

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In some of our recent blog posts, we’ve shared links and resources related to the flipped classroom. We’d like to dedicate this week’s blog post to conducting a quick poll to gauge your interest in learning more about flipping the classroom.

Interested in learning more about the flipped classroom before submitting your vote? See our 2014: Year of Active Learning at UTHSC page at https://academic.uthsc.edu/faculty/2014.php to view a variety of resources.

Week of February 10, 2014 – Professional Development Opportunities

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Primarily Education-Focused Sessions and Resources 

Hold the Dates – IAMSE Spring Webinar Series (Innovations in Assessment)

Series Overview:
Innovations in health care education require the simultaneous development of creative new approaches to student assessment.  This IAMSE webcast seminar series will explore these issues and provide several examples of how schools are evolving with assessment approaches.

For more information about this webinar series including session overviews please go to: http://iamse.org/development/2014/was_2014_spring.htm

Login Information:
Log in to the webinar from wherever you are! Login information (posted the day before each session) can be found in the Professional Development course located in Blackboard.

Enrollment instructions for the Professional Development course are located at http://tinyurl.com/profdevenroll.

IAMSE Webinar Series Schedule:

February 27th (11:00 AM)
•    To Protect the Public by Providing the Means to Assess Competencies for Osteopathic Medicine and Related health Care Professions
•    Presented by: Bruce P. Bates and Melanie V. Nelson

March 6th (11:00 AM)
•    Individual Learning Assessment Approaches
•    Presented by: Daniel M. Clinchot

March 13th (11:00 AM)
•    Pivio: A New Records Management and Life-Long Learning Tool for the Medical Community
•    Presented by: Mary Drescher Halicki and Angelique Johnson

March 20th (11:00 AM)
•    Assessment Review: Learning From Mistakes
•    Presented by: Bobbe Baggio

March 27th (11:00 AM)
•    ACGME “Milestones”
•    Presented by: William Iobst

Professional Sessions

Biostats Club at Preventive Medicine

Date: February 12, 2014
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Location: 66 N. Pauline (Doctor’s Office Building), Room 400 (4th Floor Classroom)

Session Overview:
Please join us for “Trustworthy statistical computing II: Specific examples using R” presented by Fridtjof Thomas, PhD, Associate Professor Biostatistics, UTHSC Department of Preventive Medicine.

Abstract:
In a broad sense statistical computing is trustworthy when the derivations of solutions are understandable and the results are reproducible.  Besides hardware and software related problems, a troublesome issue is the “human factor” but good programming habits can guard against some human-introduced errors.  This presentation focuses on the statistical programming language R and we will look into several aspects typically encountered during a standard statistical analysis:

  • RStudio as user interface to R
  • Computing values for customized tables that minimize the need for cutting and pasting
  • Extendibility of R (example: archiving computations)
  • Make all your tests statistically significant by overriding the build-in functions in R (VERY *bad* but can easily be done)!

Timing Your Tenure Clock (Webinar offered by Academic Coaching and Writing)

Date: February 13, 2014
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Session Overview:
In this webinar, presented by Moira Killoran, you will learn strategies to:

•    Develop a big picture plan and a task-specific weekly plan
•    Place yourself at the center of the plan
•    Prioritize your sacred writing time
•    Choose technologies to actualize your plan

Register for the webinar at http://tinyurl.com/tenureclock

Biomedical Informatics Group (BIG) Meeting

Date: February 28, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Location: 910 Madison, Room 502

Presenter: Grady Wade, Ph.D. (Clinical Research Informaticist – Children’s Foundation Research Institute and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital)
Topic: Pediatric Research Database, a clinically rich, de-identified database for hypothesis generation and cohort discovery

Session Overview:
Secondary use of large, open datasets provides researchers with an opportunity to address high impact questions and evaluate rare diseases. Utilization of local electronic medical records (EMR) to populate these research datasets is both an efficient use of available information and can also help researchers to assess effectiveness of local standards of care. To assist researchers in gaining access to large amounts of high quality clinical data for the purposes of research, our unit developed the Pediatric Research Database (PRD), a de-identified database designed around secondary use of a data-rich source, our EMR.

To reserve your lunch, email Debra Jackson: djackso9@uthsc.edu by Monday, February 24, 2014.

Questions? email Teresa Waters: twaters@uthsc.edu

Conferences

International Association of Medical Science Educators (Annual Conference)

Dates: June 7-10, 2014
Location: Nashville, TN

Conference Overview:
The IAMSE meeting offers opportunities for faculty development and networking bringing together medical sciences and medical education across the continuum of health care education. Plenary topics for the 2014 meeting will include the use of simulation in medical education, giving effective and meaningful feedback, interprofessional education and the promotion of active learning in the classroom.

For additional details or to register please visit: www.iamseconference.org

Additional Resources

2014: The Year of Active Learning at UTHSC
•    To access a variety of active learning resources visit https://academic.uthsc.edu/faculty/2014.php

UTHSC’s Faculty Resource Center
•    View schedule of upcoming professional development opportunities and read our latest blog posts at https://uthsctlc.wordpress.com/

Enrolling in Professional Development Course

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The course, Professional Development (Course ID ProfDev), was created in Blackboard to assist in sharing professional development resources with faculty and staff. Feel free to check out any items that interest you. That’s why they are there! We will continue to add and update professional development content within this course.

Instructions for self-enrollment into the Professional Development course:

•    Login to Blackboard at http://courses.uthsc.edu/
•    Click on the Courses tab
•    Do a search for Professional Development
•    Only one course should show up – click on the chevron to the right of the Course ID (ProfDev) and select Enroll as the option.
•    Enter the Access Code “faculty” (without quotes) and click submit.
•    Click OK on the next screen and you’ll be taken to the course.
•    Questions or problems enrolling? Contact Kristy Conger at kconger@uthsc.edu or 901-448-2253

Where to begin?

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You’re aware of the buzz surrounding the flipped classroom and use of active learning strategies. You’ve read a few articles and blog posts from fellow educators and students sharing their experiences within a flipped classroom environment. You’re interested in dipping your toes into the flipped classroom waters and incorporating some active learning activities, but you don’t know where to begin.

Flipping the classroom does not (and should not) happen overnight. However, you can test the waters by “flipping” one class session. This will give you and your students the chance to try something new without the stress of diving in head first. Incorporating active learning activities into what has been a “lecture only” teaching and learning environment is a big change for both the instructor and students. Keep in mind that transitioning to a new teaching and learning model will require a great deal of planning, work, and communication with your students in order to be effective and successful.

Great! You have a starting point. What’s the next step? Do some research on active learning strategies and exercises. Find some that you believe will be a good fit for the classes you teach. Need help finding some examples? Last week’s IAMSE webinar (Flipping the Classroom: Introducing Active Learning into the Large Group Setting) focused on lecturing less and incorporating active learning activities into the large lecture classroom. The presenters, Bill Jeffries, Ph.D. (University of Vermont College of Medicine) and Katie Huggett, Ph.D. (Creighton University School of Medicine), shared educational theory supporting the use of active learning as well as several examples of active learning exercises.

Check out the links below to view their presentation slides and handouts.

Presentation Slides: http://iamse.org/development/2014/was_013014/was_013014.pdf

Examples of Active Learning Exercises: http://www.uvm.edu/medicine/mededucation/documents/FlippedClassroom.pdf

The flipped classroom model…is it working?

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Last week’s blog post focused on an active learning strategy, the flipped classroom, that is currently receiving a great deal of attention. As with any new teaching/learning model that receives a great deal of attention or hype, questions loom. Particularly…does it work?

Dr. Steve Nace (UTHSC College of Medicine) recently shared a series of posts with us from AM Rounds, the official blog of Academic Medicine (Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges). In this series of posts, faculty and students shared their thoughts and perspectives on a flipped classroom experience that took place in the North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Though challenging, all participants viewed the overall experience as a success.

To view this blog series and read more about the North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s flipped classroom experience go to: http://academicmedicineblog.org/tag/behind-the-scenes-of-a-flipped-classroom-redesign/.

What other evidence exists related to the successes and challenges of flipping the classroom? What do other faculty and students who have participated in a flipped classroom environment say about their experience? Check out the articles below to learn more.

Nursing Faculty Explore Flipped Classroom and Effect on Student Outcomes
https://news.tamhsc.edu/?post=nursing-faculty-explore-flipped-classroom-and-effect-on-student-outcomes

How to Make the Most of the Flipped Classroom
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/01/15/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-flipped-classroom.aspx

Flipped Classroom Model Taking Off, Thanks to Online Video
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/News/Online-Video-News/Flipped-Classroom-Model-Taking-Off-Thanks-to-Online-Video-93359.aspx

7 Things You Should Know About Flipped Classrooms (EDUCAUSE)
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7081.pdf

Do Teaching and Learning Simply Equal Transferring and Receiving Information?

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We’ve all heard the term, sage-on-the-stage, used to refer to educators who utilize lecturing as the main model of information delivery in the face-to-face classroom. It seems as though lecturing has been a fixture in the classroom for as long as there have been teachers and students in classrooms. However, many in education (and even outside the field) are now wondering if lecturing is the most effective method of teaching and learning in the current digital age? Are there other means of sharing content and information that in the past were typically delivered during face-to-face class meetings? If so, can class time be restructured to include different methods of teaching and learning including active learning activities? Some believe that the flipped classroom model is the answer to these questions.

The flipped classroom is a teaching and learning model that has been around for many years. However, technology has put a new spin on flipping the classroom, and many in education are beginning to take note based on the success stories shared by other educators.  Eric Mazur, Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University, began developing a teaching method known as Peer Instruction in 1990. This method focused on transferring the large lecture classroom into a more interactive teaching and learning experience and proved to be very successful in his introductory physics course. His success with the Peer Instruction model has since spread far beyond his Harvard classroom, and has led Dr. Mazur to become a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the flipped classroom model.

Interested in learning more about the flipped classroom model and the work of Dr. Mazur? Visit our 2014: The Year of Active Learning at UTHSC page at https://academic.uthsc.edu/faculty/2014.php for links to additional resources and information.

“I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material.” – Dr. Eric Mazur