Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Utilization of Touchscreen Technologies within a Weather Laboratory Classroom Frank Marsik Engineering $5970.00 |
Research has shown that the introduction of new information technology into the classroom or workplace can be unsuccessful if the targeted users are not comfortable with the new technology and if a clear task-technology fit is not readily apparent to the users. During the Fall Term 2012, the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences (AOSS) introduced two new touchscreen monitors into its computerized weather analysis laboratory classroom to aid students in the integration of a large number of meteorological data sets used in the preparation of weather forecasts and as part of student lead, peer weather forecast discussions. Such peer discussions are a critical learning tool for students in AOSS 414 and AOSS 440. Despite the educational potential of the touchscreen monitors, students preferred to use personal laptops and laboratory desktop computers, citing a lack of familiarity with touchscreens and lack of a unique task-technology fit for reasons as to why they did not use the touchscreen monitors. The principal goal of this research will be to develop specific activities to familiarize students with the use of touchscreen monitors, to develop an HTML5-based interface to improve the ease of use of the touchscreen monitors for course specific work, and to work with the UM Center for Research on Learning and Teaching to develop focus-group assessments to determine if activities associated with this project have improved the student's comfort level with, and utilization of, the touchscreen monitors within the AOSS weather analysis laboratory classroom. |
| Evaluation for Arts and Community Change Lorraine Gutierrez Social Work $6000.00 |
We propose to bring together a small group of faculty in the School of Social Work (SSW) and the School of Arts and Design (SOAD) to create an innovative course that engages students in active learning on the topic of the Arts for Community change. This course will engage graduate and advanced undergraduate students in exploring how direct engagement in arts and design activities can enhance learning about methods for positive community change that address significant issues and priorities in our society. A significant portion of the course will engage students in a design studio activity with community members to develop and implementation a community art and design activity in Detroit. This course designed and be co-taught by faculty members from each school. When the project was complete, they would then engage in active, collaborative, assessment and evaluation of the effort. This project will strengthen and build scholarly and educational partnerships between the schools of Social Work and Art and Design. If successful, this course could be continued as a joint offering between the two schools. It could meet the distribution requirements in the Community Action and Social Change minor in the SSW and elective requirement in the MSW program and in the SOAD. |
| High-Quality Video Modules for Materials Science Instruction John Kieffer Engineering $5972.00 |
The purpose of this project is to identify the pedagogical value of Materials Science video lecture modules and their threshold production quality needed to achieve adequate distribution and implementation. This will be accomplished by creating a series of video podcasts with variable production value on MSE topics. The modules will be disseminated among students and colleagues at UM and beyond, and their impact will be evaluated. |
| Communicating with Families of Patients with Dementia: Enhancing Learners’ Skills through an Interdisciplinary Approach Erika Manu Medical School $6000.00 |
In an effort to improve the care of patients with advanced dementia, we intend to create a new educational module for medical students and house staff. This training module will consist of a small group workshop using a trigger video illustrating the myriad of care needs and caregiver concerns that commonly arise in patients with advanced dementia. The module will focus on how best to communicate with and advise the families about care needs and nutritional concerns that arise in the late stages of dementia. We know from research that this area is one that many house staff that is training in Internal Medicine and Family Medicine feels unprepared. Specifically, eating and swallowing difficulties are common complications in advanced stages of dementia and are common sources of concern among families of patients with advanced dementia. It is paramount that medical students and house staff develop excellent communication skills and become comfortable discussing the expected course of advanced dementia with family members. Providers' unfamiliarity with the progressive course of dementia is cited as the most important barrier in providing optimal care to these patients. The video will be used both to elicit learners' knowledge of evidence-based approaches to eating problems and to provide evidence-based interdisciplinary expert opinion on the topic. Our intervention is innovative because we use an interactive small group seminar format to illustrate a true interdisciplinary approach to a problem that needs involvement of a team of healthcare providers to be successful. |
| FACULTY DEVELOPMENT IN INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN HEALTH SCIENCE COMMUNICATION SKILLS Monica Lypson Medical School $9948.00 |
Patient-centered communication is critical to improving healthcare outcomes. Working collaboratively will enable us to create a standardized model that could be used across health professional schools on campus. The World Health Organization defines interprofessional education as "When students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes". Interprofessional communication has also been identified as one of three core interprofessional education competency domains by the IPE Collaborative Expert Panel. To this end, health sciences education is rapidly moving toward interprofessional learning to ensure all trainees are prepared to work collaboratively to provide optimal care. Despite the call for IPE competency, few faculty receive formal training across interprofessional lines which has been found to enhance true collaboration and promote positive attitudes toward members of other disciplines (Silver & Leslie, 2009). Currently the Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry all utilize the Standardized Patient Program as part of their clinical skills education. While there is modest standardization through the usage of training, personal, and facilities, there is no consensus across these fields on best-practices for patient-centered communication skills. One way to enhance our educational effectiveness as a University using standardized patients and improve the skills of faculty on IPE principals is to undergo a joint faculty development that improves the standardized patient training and student assessment process on campus. |
| Concept or technology-based learning in applied pharmacology: best practices in clinical nursing education Esther Bay Nursing $10000.00 |
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether concept-based (CB) or technology-based (TB) teaching strategies compared to "teaching as usual (TAU)" increases the USN competency in applied nursing pharmacology. The CB approach involves the integration of concepts gained from prior courses to the patient for whom the student is providing care [5, 7]. The TB teaching approach involves the use of a point-of-care computer-assisted pharmacology (CAP) nursing resource in order to apply pharmacological knowledge specific to the patient for whom the student is providing care. Both of these approaches are expected to be superior to TAU and result in improved pharmacology competency, determined with a lab-simulated pharmacology evaluation (safety) and a customized applied pharmacology exam (knowledge). For sophomores enrolled in NUR 256 (N=140), the first nursing course that provides classroom application of pharmacological concepts learned in the lecture-formatted biological sciences, the following aims and hypotheses will be tested: 1. Evaluate two approaches (CB versus TB) on pharmacology competency determined with a customized pharmacology exam and a lab-simulated pharmacology evaluation. 1a. The CB compared to TB intervention group will have greater pharmacology competency 2. Compare pharmacology competency for beginning junior level USNs (N=140) who received TAU with NUR 256 sophomores who received the CB or TB intervention. 2a. NUR 256 sophomores exposed to CB or TB interventions will have greater pharmacology competency compared to beginning junior USNs who received TAU. The overall long-range goal of this project is to systematically improve applied pharmacology competency for our undergraduate nursing students. |
| Connecting the World: Making Global Health Classes Truly Global Holly Jarman Public Health $6000.00 |
Faculty at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (SPH) have long recognized the importance of balancing first-hand knowledge and critical thinking in enabling our graduates to develop innovative solutions to pressing public health issues. But the increasing internationalization of commerce, travel, public health funding, and health education, combined with the increasing prominence of global institutions which govern public health issues, have produced a growing need for public health professionals to think, and act, globally. Our project would use emerging technologies to connect students with experts in public health law and policy around the world through a new class on ‘Global Health Law and Governance' taught at several levels and online. Students would engage in real-world problem solving in order to enhance their learning about global health law and governance. Materials from the course would be made available to others on an open access basis, creating a virtual classroom that can have a lasting impact. |
| Soft Bricks: Experiential Design of Structural Systems for Introductory Architectural Studios Andrew Holder Architecture and Urban Planning $5990.00 |
The project will create a workshop for the introductory undergraduate architecture studio that teaches basic structural principals of design through an experiential series of form-finding exercises. Although an understanding of structures is an essential component of any architectural design, formal instruction in the mathematics and physics of structural systems occurs outside the studio environment. The proposed workshop would introduce students to basic structural concepts from the very beginning of their design education through hands-on experimentation in studio with "Soft Bricks," a system of pliable, stacking units that encourage students to deduce principals of structure by observing the behavior of materials under load. The outcome of this project will be twofold: an installation in the Taubman College gallery illustrating the possible outcomes and teaching potential of the Soft Brick structural form-finding method; and a manual offered to instructors to guide implementation of the workshop. |
| A Flipped Course in Partial Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems $6000.00 |
The goal of this project is to develop an enhanced version of an existing course, Math 454, Boundary Value Problems for Partial Differential Equations, that is "flipped": students will spend much of their time outside class learning course material through supplementary instruction designed to replace the core of the standard classroom lectures, leaving the majority of time in class for active learning, primarily through collaborative work in teams that solve problems based on the material and then present their solutions. The target group is advanced undergraduate Engineering students, with a few graduate students also, who take a special section of this course taught on North Campus. The students will be divided into teams of size three or four for interactive learning in class and preparation of homework outside of class, with team assignments changed twice during the term. Assigned reading outside of class will be enhanced by supplementary explanatory materials prepared by the instructor, and existing materials already used by the instructor for in-class interactive team work will be upgraded for better learning and more efficient use of time. Lecture was de-emphasized in a preliminary experiment with this format in this class, and an experiment with podcasting is planned to see whether further de-emphasis is possible and helpful. |
| From Impairment to Empowerment: a Longitudinal Medical School Curriculum on Disabilities Arno Kumagai Medical School $6000.00 |
Despite the fact that one of the core responsibilities of physicians is working with individuals with disabilities, formal training development in this area is almost non-existent. For example, there is currently no curriculum on disabilities at the University of Michigan Medical School that takes into account the perspectives, experiences, and voices of individuals with disabilities. Furthermore, the prevailing approach to disabilities in general is the medical model, i.e., the disability is seen only in the context of a disease process and as an impairment in function that must be cured or "normalized." This approach is in contrast with the social model of disabilities in which disability is seen as a social process in which individuals with disabilities encounter obstacles (physical, professional, psychological, and social) to living fully and meaningfully in society. The current proposal is a mentored project in curricular design focused specifically on enhancing medical students' awareness of disabilities in a way that incorporates disabled individuals' perspectives and social contexts into their understanding. The overall approach is meant to emphasize a major tenet of disabilities communities, "Nothing about me without me," by engaging in ongoing collaborations between educators, a medical student, and community disability advocates to produce specific educational experiences for medical students exploring living with disabilities. A second goal of the project is to train a medical student in curricular design and implementation, as well as methods to assess effectiveness in teaching this subject to medical students. |
| Enhancing Direct Observation Skills for Pediatric Primary Care Faculty Sharon Kileny Medical School Jocelyn Schiller Medical School Heather Burrows Medical School $10000.00 |
It is explicit that medical school faculty must directly observe medical students. Despite this, direct observation continues to be an informal and underused assessment method. Residents and students alike report rarely being observed during their educational process even though they value the experience. For direct observation, the reliability of raters poses a threat to the validity of the observation and feedback. Several studies have demonstrated that training for faculty raters using checklists or guided evaluations improves the comfort and performance of the raters. Therefore, the goals for this faculty development project are to:1) Familiarize our core teaching faculty with the pedagogical principles related to direct observation and feedback.2) Train faculty on use of the direct observation checklists and standardize expectations for student ratings.3) Obtain baseline inter-rater reliability data for the checklists and reach consensus on checklist items that have wide inter-rater reliability.In order to achieve these goals, we plan to conduct an interactive faculty development session regarding core principles of direct observation and feedback. We will develop a set of training videos that would showcase medical students performing histories and physical examinations on pediatric patients in a primary care setting. These videos will encompass a range of expected medical student performances to stimulate discussion on how faculty would rate students on various directobservation checklist items. We will assess initial inter-rater reliability of the medical student direct observation checklists. Standard setting will be performed and consensus will be reached around checklist items that have wide inter-rater reliability. After discussion and consensus building, a second set of videos will be shown and inter-rater reliability will again be assessed. |
| Enhancing Health Behavior Change Curriculum through Faculty Development Janet Kinney Dentistry Anne Gwozdek Dentistry Wendy Kerschbaum Dentistry $5960.00 |
Background: Recent scientific literature suggests a strong relationship between oral infections and other systemic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, bacterial pneumonia, diabetes mellitus and low birth weight. Common oral diseases are largely preventable, but require patient compliance with recommended oral self-care behaviors. Sadly, research has shown that frequently patients do not adhere to the recommendations given by their health care providers. Project Goals: The goal of this project is to enhance integration of models of health behavior change (HBC) within the Dental Hygiene Program's curriculum through broadening our faculty member's knowledge, skill and application. Attainment of this goal will facilitate our students' abilities to translate content learned in the classroom into clinical applications during patient care. Project Design: The project transforms two key components of the dental hygiene curriculum, didactic instruction and clinical application and will be implemented in three phases: Phase 1-Planning/Consulting/Curriculum Design; Phase II-Faculty Workshop; Phase III-Implementation (revisions to classroom and clinical programs will be fully integrated into the curriculum). Scope: This project will immediately impact Dental Hygiene faculty members (26), students (90), as well as patients students treat in year one. This project will also have an impact immediately in year one, on the patients these 90 students treat. Evaluation: The plan for evaluation of the HBC Curriculum Enhancement Initiative is four-fold involving faculty, student, patient, and programmatic assessment. Data aggregated from all of these areas will be analyzed annually to assess the overall impact of the program, and will also include a one year post-graduation survey, exploring how well graduates are sustaining HBC techniques with their patients in practice. |
| Integrating Case Studies into the Biomedical Engineering Design Experience Jan Stegemann Engineering $5850.00 |
The goal of this project is to enhance the design experience in biomedical engineering (BME) by integrating relevant and field-specific case studies into existing design courses. Two related approaches will be used: i) incorporation of existing publically- and commercially-available case studies into the BME curriculum, and ii) development of new cases studies that are tailored specifically for BME students. Case studies will be implemented first in the Graduate Innovative Design in Biomedical Engineering class (BME 599.002/004) and subsequently in the undergraduate capstone Biomedical Engineering Design classes (BME 450/451/452). It is well established that the case method enhances student skills in critical thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. Case teaching also creates a dynamic, interactive, and student-centered learning environment. This project therefore promises to directly address key priorities of the FDF program by implementing an innovative teaching methodology and tailoring it to the specific needs of engineering students. |
| Expanding the Math 105 On-line Problem Library Gavin LaRose LSA - Mathematics Angela Kubena LSA - Mathematics $5985.00 |
On-line homework is currently used in the courses in the Department of Mathematics' Introductory Program, of which Math~105 (Precalculus) is one. The Department's Introductory Program courses are all taught in an innovative and effective manner, with a strong emphasis on conceptual learning and extensive use of student collaborative learning both in and out of class. The on-line homework is an essential component of this learning environment, providing a day-to-day formative assessment tool for students to learn the material and for instructors to get feedback on their students' progress.This project will significantly expand the number of high-quality on-line homework problems available for use in Math~105 (Precalculus). This expansion will address shortcomings in our existing problem bank, especially those arising from a fundamental reorganization of the course material in the latest edition of the textbook used in the course. |
| Secondary MAC Program Educative Mentoring Professional Development for Field Instructors and Mentor Teachers Charles Dershimer Education $9982.00 |
This project proposes to develop an educative mentoring professional development model to build on and strengthen the current support that is provided for the instructors in the clinical instruction component of the Secondary Masters and Certification program (MAC) in the School of Education. We intend to provide professional development in the form a learning community that uses a co-teaching model connecting the university course faculty with our mentor teachers and field instructors who act the "faculty in the field" for the clinical program. |
| 'Flipping' the Big Bang - Implementing active and blended learning in an introductory level cosmology course Eric Bell LSA - Astronomy $5905.00 |
Astronomy 142 – entitled ‘From the Big Bang to the Milky Way' – is run Fall and Winter semesters, and attracts typically 100 primarily non-science majors interested in learning about the evolution of the Universe from the time of the Big Bang to the present day, following the development of galaxies and stars. The main goal of this proposal was to revise the course design of Astronomy 142 to make as its centerpiece active learning during class sessions. As a result of the work supported by this award, the class is now partially 'flipped', where initial exposure to concepts happens before class (largely via a textbook, and occasional podcasts), and a variety of active learning techniques are now incorporated:. Active learning --- e.g., think-pair-share interactive questions, lecture tutorials, minute papers, concept maps --- now takes up ~30-40% of the class time. The majority of students have reacted positively to these changes, and learning gains (measured using a concept inventory pre and post-test) increased to 0.53+/-0.03 from 0.36+/-0.06 in a previous semester (with a different instructor). |
| Instructional Technology and Literacy Skills in First- and Third-Year Chinese David Porter LSA - English Language and Literature Laura Grande LSA $6000.00 |
Students of the Chinese language face unique challenges in attaining even a modest degree of literacy owing to the notorious difficulty of mastering Chinese characters. Instructional technology holds considerable promise for helping students to meet these challenges and to develop their reading and writing skills in a more efficient and systematic way. Over the past four months, we have developed and classroom tested beta versions of two software tools targeted at the specific literacy hurdles of first- and third-year students. The goal of this project is to expand both of these tools for use with additional lessons in the first- and third-year curricula at the University of Michigan. |
| A REVISED CURRICULUM FOR SAC’s NEW DRAMATIC NARRATIVE PRODUCTION STREAM $6000.00 |
A REVISED CURRICULUM FOR SAC's NEW DRAMATIC NARRATIVE PRODUCTION STREAMScreen Arts and Cultures' Undergraduate Major integrates Film History, Theory and Production/Screenwriting. SAC is located in LS&A, and students take roughly one third of their concentration requirements in each of the three areas. SAC has just had a new curriculum approved. In the Production area of the Department (Screenwriting is relatively unchanged) the new curriculum now has much more specific course names in place of broad and/or somewhat confusing names.My primary teaching area is Dramatic Narrative for the screen, and the stream of courses I teach have been renamed from "Filmmaking" to "Dramatic Narrative." So far so good. Coincident with this renaming is a technological shift from shooting on celluloid film to shooting on HD digital video in all three courses. This technological change offers many opportunities for restructuring the three consecutive courses that make up the stream. This proposal is for summer salary to enable me to re-vamp all three courses based on this new technology, which is at the root of everything done in the them. New learning opportunities abound, it is a matter of having the time to restructure the three courses holistically, rather than piecemeal, that the summer support offers. |
| Physical Computing for the Performing Arts Michael Gurevich Music, Theatre & Dance $6000.00 |
In the past 10 years, the falling cost and increasing ubiquity of embedded sensing and computing systems have enabled a dramatic rise in artists' ability to design and create exciting new physical means for interacting with computers. In electronic music, for example, audiences do not appreciate watching a performer sitting behind a laptop with their head buried in a screen and gestures restricted to typing and mousing. Consequently, we have seen a recent explosion of new electronic musical instruments incorporating small microcontrollers and sensors that can translate human actions into electronic signals to manipulate sound and graphics. Some of these new devices sometimes take the form of traditional musical instruments, while others, like the Monome and the Yamaha Tenori-on look like futuristic interfaces with touch screens and illuminated button displays. The common underlying goal is to restore the physicality and refined skill to artistic performances with digital systems. Such devices are associated with the burgeoning "Maker" community and the field of "New Interfaces for Musical Expression," whose 2012 international conference is being hosted at the University of Michigan. These technologies and practices have not gone unnoticed by our students, but are not presently represented in the Performing Arts Technology curriculum. The proposed project will facilitate revisions to two courses in the Department of Performing Arts Technology in order to introduce physical computing for the performing arts through an active, experiential approach. |
