Funded Projects
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Beyond M-Compass: Preparing Medical Students for International Experiences Brent Williams Medical School $7500.00 |
Each year, approximately 70-80 medical students travel to low- and middle-income countries for educational experiences. Formal travel preparation currently consists of online learning modules through MCompass. Limitations of the modules include: a) they are not required for all students, b) not all students comply with the module recommendations (e.g., regarding medication prophylaxis following HIV exposure), and c) they are inadequate to prepare students for complex situations (e.g., whether to adopt local standards for sterile technique that may place the learner at risk). To address these limitations, we propose to create a set of video ‘triggers' describing complex scenarios in international settings with faculty-facilitated small group discussion. Video content will center on a series of up to five UM faculty and students describing actual situations recently encountered by UM medical students following by the question "What would YOU do?". After a pause for discussion, the scenario will be concluded. The video will be administered either in large group or small group settings, in either case allowing small group ‘break-out' sections for students to discuss their thinking, values, and possible responses to the posed situations. Beginning in academic year 2013-14, the video-discussion intervention will be administered twice yearly, and required of all medical students traveling internationally. Evaluation of the curriculum will be multi-pronged, and include student surveys immediately following the seminars and on return to the U.S., and post-travel interviews of 15-25 students on the value and effects of the video on their travel and learning experiences. |
| Updating and expanding Business Arabic textbook and existing Business Arabic courses in a web-based environment Raji Rammuny LSA $7500.00 |
The latest economic and political developments in the Arab World and recent advancements in instructional technology have produced a wealth of new materials and provided us with opportunities to update and expand the content of the Business Arabic textbook and its two Business Arabic courses (AAPTIS 409 Intermediate Business Arabic and AAPTIS 410 Advanced Business Arabic) to make them available for the entire community of learners, including students, members of the business community, and government personnel. The students who took the two Arabic business courses previously expressed their desire for the addition of a web-based Atlas of the Arab World unit to the Intermediate Business Arabic course and the expansion of the Advanced Business Arabic course to include current authentic formal correspondence, economic reports, banking documents, trade and industry agreements, policies and rules for investment in the Arab and Islamic world, Islamic banking, and business contracts. The professional development and training activities associated with this project fit very well with UM's commitment to internationalizing the curriculum. The proposed project will also support the project director's scholarly research in integrating media into the teaching of Arabic language and culture and the GSMA's research interest in Arabic second language acquisition. The revision process will follow the communicative-proficiency, learner-centered approach, with a focus on incorporating effective learning strategies that encourage collaboration, sharing of information, and using videoconferencing exchange sessions with faculty and students in Arab universities that focus on critical discourse analysis of texts and cross-cultural differences in business transactions. |
| Project Title | Overview of the Project |
|---|---|
| Assessing the Development of Self-Agency, Innovativeness and Risk-taking Skills in Engineering Design and Entrepreneurship Courses Aileen Huang-Saad Engineering Prateek Shekhar Engineering Cassandra Woodcock Engineering $8000.00 |
The term project-based learning captures a wide variety of educational opportunities from freshman and capstone engineering design courses to more user-centered entrepreneurship courses and co-curricular experiences. While these approaches fall under the umbrella of project-based learning, there are several differences in the design, structure and intended outcomes of these approaches. Existing research investigating the impact of nontraditional teaching approaches have not taken these differences into account and have paid limited attention to examining the impact of these differences on student learning outcomes. Guided by this gap, in this proposal we examine the differences in learning outcomes between engineering design and entrepreneurship courses. While the engineering design process and the entrepreneurial process share many similarities with regard to the need to identify problems and assuring that the designed product provides a viable solution to the problem, the contemporary entrepreneurial educational process typically focuses on the front end of opportunity identification. This front-end phase requires students to actively engage with the potential customers (customer discovery) and conceive of prototypic solutions. In our proposed work, we look to examine the influence of customer discovery in project-based classes on student self-agency, innovation and risk-taking. |
| Improv-ing Medical Education: Enhancing Communication and Teaching Skills Through Medical Improv Stephanie Kukora Medical School David Fessell Medical School Jennifer Stojan Medical School Catherine Kim Medical School $8000.00 |
In accord with the Center for Research Learning and Teaching (CRLT) call for proposals Investigating Student Learning (ISL), the goal of this project is to evaluate whether the engaged learning outcomes of communication, collaboration, and teamwork may be improved for medical trainees and faculty through improvisational education. We propose to determine whether this training, implemented in the context of a large, intensive medical student course, as well as in a small-group in-depth setting, improves outcomes within faculty teacher dyads and medical student groups. The multi-disciplinary investigative team includes experts in improvisational theater, faculty course directors, and teacher and student representatives critical to program implementation and evaluation. |
| Examining access and stratification in public schools: Supporting undergraduates’ engaged learning about issues of privilege and equity Chandra Alston Education Simona Goldin Education $8000.00 |
Our project examines patterns and trajectories in undergraduate thinking concerning issues of privilege, access, and stratification in U.S. public schools. The current project will analyze evidence of participants’ thinking as they engage with data regarding the ways U.S. public schools have and have not offered equal opportunities to learn to all students. Close examination of students’ thinking and development is needed to inform the development of undergraduate curricula to support undergraduates’ understanding and appreciation of our nation’s diversity. We investigate how the instructional supports of the course (readings, K-12 classroom and historical artifacts, independent and collaborative course assignments, class discussions, and case enactments) inform and influence student thinking about: (1) for whom schools have traditionally worked and for whom have they not, (2) and how these factors are influenced by structural privilege, access, and stratification. We will use these findings in the design and redesign of three undergraduate courses at the school of education and will disseminate these findings to support better, shared understandings of how to design substantive opportunities for engaged learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion at this public university. |
| Investigating Engaged Learning and Transformational Impact in an Action Learning Immersion Program Jane Dutton Business Monica Worline Business Betsy Erwin Business Dasha Peppard Business $8000.00 |
The Center for Positive Organizations at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, has concluded its second year pilot of the Magnify Immersion Program for undergraduates, offering a unique blend of classroom, experiential, and action learning experiences grounded in the multi-disciplinary field of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS). The design and pedagogy of Magnify engages students in learning POS research, applying and testing the implications of this research for their own lived experiences, and deploying their knowledge and skills in a strategic placement with a partner organization. The multi-disciplinary, cross-professional teaching team that has led Magnify has developed this immersion-style format around the principles of mutual benefit in a vibrant learning community. The teaching team is comprised of faculty, students who serve as peer coaches, staff members, and business professionals. Our preliminary results suggest that Magnify generates substantial benefits for students, teaching team members, and partner organizations. Our design assumption is that engaged pedagogy and a positively deviant classroom community of mutually engaged learners draws out students’ capacities to imagine and act with greater potential for their own personal well-being and flourishing. Imagining is an important capacity for envisioning positive possibilities (Cooperrider, 2000) as well as a crucial aspect of prospection and developing the agentic capacity to invent a positive future (Seligman, Railton, Baumeister, & Sripada, 2013). Action is important in fueling both individual and collective agency to enact the kinds of possibilities that imagination unlocks (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). By combining our emphasis on imagination and action with learning at the individual and collective levels, we theorize that Magnify has the potential for transformational impact. |
| A Novel Mixed Modality Approach in Self-Directed Procedural Simulation Deborah Rooney Medical School Suzanne Dooley-Hash Medical School $8000.00 |
Traditionally it has been assumed that the clinical practice of pediatric emergency medicine is sufficient for the acquisition and maintenance of critical procedural skills. However, the relatively low acuity of patients provides inadequate opportunity. In a retrospective analysis at a busy children’s hospital ED (90,000), trainees performed a median of 3 critical care procedures annually, with some performing none. This lack of clinical experience combined with resultant competition to practice these skills, leads trainees to unlikely achieve competency based solely on clinical exposure. There is a need for clinical leadership to monitor individual performance of technical skills and develop curricula for procedural skill maintenance. Simulation is an alternative method of skills attainment that provides practice with immediate feedback to the learner with no risk of harm to the patient. When compared with traditional medical education, simulation-based education with deliberate practice has been shown to be superior in clinical skills acquisition. This project aims at expanding on pilot work through the clinical simulation center incorporating a novel training approach called the “mixed modality module” (MMM) within the context of simulation-based self-directed learning. MMM is an education delivery method that impacts cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning domains by combining both web- and simulation-based mechanisms concurrently. Through a variety of asynchronous digital modalities (video demonstration, PowerPoint, online text, podcasts, etc.), this method offers the efficacy of rapid utilization of learned skills to cement proper technique with the convenience of on-demand training and the efficiency of learner- and technology-driven instruction. |
| Developing an Interdisciplinary Pediatric Craniofacial Surgery Course Utilizing High Fidelity, Computer Aided-Designed, 3D-Printed Surgical Simulators David Zopf Medical School $8000.00 |
Surgeons-in-training performing craniofacial surgeries require rehearsal to understand these complex geometric repairs and to promote their future creativity and innovation within the field. The use of surgical simulation models facilitates the conceptualization and the practice of procedures in an environment devoid of surgical risk. Our research group has developed and validated several high-fidelity, low cost surgical simulation models for common pediatric craniofacial surgeries using computer aided design (CAD) and three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. Specialists in a variety of surgical fields, including otolaryngology, plastic surgery, and oral maxillofacial surgery (OMFS), perform these surgeries; however, collaboration and communication among these specialties are traditionally limited and learner training opportunities siloed. This research study will address several engaged learning outcomes through the creation of an interdisciplinary pediatric craniofacial surgical simulation course at the University of Michigan. Our set of pediatric surgical simulators has the potential to dramatically improve the way residents are trained in these complex craniofacial procedures, and this course will improve communication, collaboration, and teamwork through the use of interdisciplinary education and collaborative learning constructs in the curriculum. |
| Novel Intern Curriculum in Response to Changing ACGME Requirements in Otolaryngology Residency Marc Thorne Medical School Mark Prince Medical School $8000.00 |
In 2016, the ACGME requirements for Curriculum and Resident Experiences were modified to require entering PGY-1 residents to spend six months (previously three) of structured education on otolaryngology-head and neck surgery (ORL-HNS) rotations. Surgical “boot camp” for residents has been described as an effective tool in competency-based learning tool; however, these typically exist as 1-2 day courses and have not been incorporated routinely into PGY-1 curricula. Given recent changes to ACGME requirements for ORL-HNS residency programs, we propose a full month “boot camp” curriculum that will include formal training in airway management, communication/handoff, common and emergent clinical scenarios, and competency based simulation/task trainers. To our knowledge, this will be the first and most robust curriculum dedicated to PGY-1 residents in our surgical subspecialty. There will be a strong focus on engaged trainee learning, specifically in competencies of communication, collaboration, and teamwork. |
| Enhancing student learning in mechanics through the development and implementation of a concept guide Allen Liu Engineering - Mechanical Engineering Engineering - Biomedical Engineering LSA - Biophysics Medical School $4000.00 |
Every mechanical engineering student and many other engineering students take an introductory course in solid mechanics. The use of both force and moment equilibrium concepts on free bodies are basic to all mechanics problems. Yet, there remain challenges with student learning of concepts and skills associated with typical basic mechanics problems. The hypothesis of this investigation is that academic history may not be a good predictor of a student's ability to learn basic mechanics concepts and acquire problem solving skills, but rather analysis process contributes significantly to student learning. Several specific ideas focusing on bolstering student's learning of concepts will be explored and implemented in this work, which include: i) the development of a concept guide for mechanics covered in Introduction to Solid Mechanics, ii) concept reinforcement by students in small groups, iii) utilization of the concept guide for homework assignments and examinations, and iv) the use of models for visualization and retention of concepts. We will evaluate the success of this investigation by looking at student outcome focusing on the learning and retention of core mechanics concepts. The outcome from this study will be valuable to consider the type of skills that our engineering students should acquire and build from these earlier core coursework. |
| Investigating the Use of Mobile Devices for Video Review to Improve Oral Communication Pauline Khan Engineering $6000.00 |
Investigating the Use of Mobile Devices for Video Review to Improve Oral Communication |
| Motivating Study Group Participation Tanya Rosenblat Information $8000.00 |
This study utilizes an information intervention to motivate attendance in study groups – a form of collaborative learning. The study groups are organized by an on-campus organization, the Science Learning Center (SLC). Our first goal is to test the direct effect of the advising messages on student attendance and learning experience. We do so by comparing the attendance rate of the informed students, who receive the treatment messages, to the control group students. Our secondary goal is to measure the indirect of the messages. That is, we ask if there is a spillover effect from the informed students to those uninformed group members, who do not receive the treatment messages. |
| Investigating student development of intercultural intelligence through diverse stakeholder engagement using prototyping during design Kathleen Sienko Engineering Shanna Daly Engineering $8000.00 |
Prototypes play an essential role in the product development process and enable designers to specify, meet and verify design and engineering challenges. Expert designers have long recognized the benefits of iteratively using prototypes throughout the design process. However, novice designers, such as students, often lack the background to use prototyping to effectively impact their project outcomes. Specifically, most novice designers limit their use of prototypes to one or two phases of the design process and don’t create and/or adapt prototypes based on the geographical and/or professional culture of the stakeholder group they are engaging. We propose to investigate how students participating in design experiences with culturally diverse stakeholders leverage prototypes throughout their design processes and how they adapt the use of prototypes according to the cultural background of the stakeholder. Ultimately, we aim to improve education to support students’ growth and development in prototype usage in design and intercultural maturity. |
