Instructional Design Support

Faculty Learning Environment opportunities available to faculty Heading link

This is a voluntary program participated in by faculty of all levels and consists of observation of teaching followed by a supportive feedback session. The focus is on facilitation skills and use of instructional technologies. We also provide the following:

Individual or group teaching observation and feedback

  • An additional source of confidential feedback in addition to student feedback
  • Demonstrates and documents excellence in teaching for the promotion dossier
  • Development of a community of learners and educators

Through confidential interaction with a trained observer, educators receive feedback on the strengths and challenges about the learning environment, learner engagement, session management, and teaching strategies based on a pre-negotiated, standardized assessment tool. Benefits for the peer observers include new perspectives and methods that they might want to incorporate into their own teaching practices.

How it Works:

  • A ‘pre-meeting’ to establish the faculty member’s specific area of focus as well as expectations.
  • A specific date/time is set for the teaching activity observation.
  • The teaching activity is observed.
  • The instructor receives oral and written feedback on strengths and weaknesses including suggestions for improvement.
  • The instructor and trained observer collaborate on a plan to improve or enhance performance.
  • The teaching session is observed a 2nd time (ideally and if possible) and the feedback loop is complete.

Curriculum design consultation

We help department chairs, block/course directors, and resident chiefs identify current faculty development offerings that may meet their needs, and to design needs assessments and other methods to discover those needs. Tailored offerings can occur within the context of an existing meeting to maximize participation.

This is a useful document from Medbiquitous on Standardized Instructional and Assessment Methods and Resource Types. It lists some instructional methods and their corresponding assessment methods.

Implementing instructional technologies

This includes:

  • Best practices for using audience response systems (e.g. Poll Everywhere)
  • How to integrate gamification (e.g. Jeopardy, Kahoot) for teaching and learning
  • Anatomage tables
  • Multimedia design (e.g. best practices for using PowerPoint, video, or other similar tools)
  • Integration of Osmosis (e.g. videos, flashcards, questions, etc.)

Active Learning

Otherwise known as ‘flipping the classroom.’ There are multiple ways to achieve your end result for learners, such as using core case activities (unfolding cases or team-based learning), structure lab, & anatomy lab with teachback.