Winners of the Faculty Development Fund Grants

During Fall Term 2008, CRLT awarded monies from the Faculty Development Fund for innovations that enhance the quality of student learning. Grants are awarded to individual faculty members or groups of faculty for work on topics such as curriculum development and evaluation, interdisciplinary courses, inclusive classrooms, research experiences for undergraduates, and graduate student instructor (GSI) mentorship and training programs. In Fall 2008 FDF grants were awarded to the following faculty. (For brief descriptions, click on the project title.)

Barry Barkel and Johannes Schwank, College of Engineering, Chemical Engineering
Development of Distance Mentoring for Chemical Engineering Design Classes

Mark Creekmore, LSA, Psychology
Creating a High Impact Learning Environment While Studying the Engagement of Persons Living with Brain Disorders in Legal Systems

Robert Deegan, LSA, Center for the Study of Complex Systems
A Laboratory Course in Nonlinear Science

Marita Inglehart, School of Dentistry
Motivational Communication - An Active-Learning Approach to Prevention-Centered Patient - Provider Communication

Sadashi Inuzuka, School of Art and Design
Art of Ability

Ken Resnicow, School of Public Health, Health Behavior and Health Education
E-Portfolios to Demonstrate Core Competencies in Health Behavior and Health Education

Anne Ruggles Gere, LSA, Sweetland Writing Center
New Courses for the Sweetland Writing Center

R. Brent Stansfield, Medical School, Medical Education
Training Unbiased Observers to Assess Medical Students' Clinical Skills Performance

Dana Tschannen and Michelle Aebersold, School of Nursing
Increasing Clinical Competencies for Nursing Students Using Simulated Virtual Experiences in Second Life

Casey White, Medical School, Medical Education
Interprofessional Service Learning to Promote Competencies in Multiculturalism and Disparities

Barry Barkel and Johannes Schwank, College of Engineering, Chemical Engineering
Development of Distance Mentoring for Chemical Engineering Design Classes

This project will identify the IT elements and mentoring procedures necessary to implement a system whereby Michigan Chemical Engineering Alumni can serve as Distance Mentors to the Senior Design classes in the Chemical Engineering department. Once developed, the Distance Mentoring model could be used throughout the College of Engineering to utilize the “real world” expertise available in our Alumni.

Mark Creekmore, LSA, Psychology
Creating a High Impact Learning Environment While Studying the Engagement of Persons Living with Brain Disorders in Legal Systems

This project will create a “high impact learning environment” through an upper-level psychology course (401) called “The engagement of persons living with brain disorders in legal systems.” The proposal enhances Psych 401 through non-traditional teaching approaches that include participation in classes by select members of the Mental Health Recovery Community in Washtenaw County and student volunteer mentors with experience in this area. The class will co-create new knowledge through research projects that will include both a formal written report and community presentations.

Robert Deegan, LSA, Center for the Study of Complex Systems
A Laboratory Course in Nonlinear Science

This project will develop the experimental apparatus for a laboratory course on nonlinear science to be offered through the Center for the Study of Complex Systems. The concepts of nonlinear science are used throughout the physical sciences and are beginning to be applied in the social sciences. There is currently no course offered at the University of Michigan in which students can learn these concepts without substantial mathematical preparation. Moreover, the core concepts of nonlinear science can be stated without recourse to mathematics. The course developed through this project will capitalize on students’ innate physical intuition and on the tactile and visual nature of experiments to transmit these concepts, and thus will provide an alternative to the math-oriented nonlinear dynamics courses.

Marita Inglehart, School of Dentistry
Motivational Communication - An Active-Learning Approach to Prevention-Centered Patient-Provider Communication

The most common dental diseases are caries and periodontal diseases. Despite the fact that both diseases are preventable, they are widespread in the US. This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of faculty in pediatric dentistry, Periodontics, dental hygiene, and the behavioral sciences with learning technology experts to develop and implement an innovative, active-learning approach to educating dental hygiene, dental, and graduate pediatric dental students about motivational communication, a prevention-centered approach to patient-provider communication. An outcome evaluation will assess the effectiveness of this approach. Specifically, these evaluations will focus on assessing the degree to which the students acquire self- and peer-evaluation skills, and become more prevention-focused, patient-centered, and culturally sensitive in their communication with their patients.

Sadashi Inuzuka, School of Art and Design
Art of Ability

This proposal expands the School of Art and Design outreach course Many Ways of Seeing that, for the past four years, has brought together students and visually-impaired individuals in art-making collaboration. In search of a new community partner and off-site location, this new course, Art of Ability will work with the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living (AACIL), an advocacy organization for people of varied disabilities. Art of Ability will continue to broaden student learning while reaching more individuals in the disabled community and expanding the possibilities of art to include a range of media.

Ken Resnicow, School of Public Health, Health Behavior and Health Education
E-Portfolios to Demonstrate Core Competencies in Health Behavior and Health Education

The goal of the HBHE E-portfolio project is to develop an innovative, educationally meaningful alternative to our current Capstone experience. As part of the current capstone experience, students engage in a synthesis/analysis of their individual program of study and skill set. Our primary goal for the proposed project is to replace the current pen-and-paper capstone experience with an E-Portfolio (EPort) based program. In this phase of the EPort project, we will develop a competency-based matrix, whereby students will examine the core HBHE competencies and determine which competencies have been met through their coursework or extracurricular activities (e.g., internship). The matrix will allow students to examine their educational experience to date and work with their advisors to fill possible gaps in their competencies. The EPort will allow for a deeper learning experience through reflection on their coursework and artifacts of learning, as well as provide a database for our department of student perceived learning objectives, which will be helpful in curricular planning.

Anne Ruggles Gere, LSA, Sweetland Writing Center
New Courses for the Sweetland Writing Center

To develop curricular materials for SWC200, the SWC team will examine in detail the results of its LSA faculty survey, looking closely at assignments currently given and scanning new media writing assigned at other universities. The SWC team will then create a series of at least 10 new media writing modules that can be incorporated into various offerings of SWC200. In all cases, the modules will focus on rhetorical dimensions rather than technological features of new media writing. Modules will include topics such as The Rhetoric of Power Point, The Rhetoric of Blogs, The Rhetoric of Podcasts, Rhetorical Analysis of Websites, Multi-Media Research Presentations, The Rhetoric of Research Posters, and The Rhetoric of the Image. The SWC team will also develop module-specific evaluations.

R. Brent Stansfield, Medical School, Medical Education
Training Unbiased Observers to Assess Medical Students' Clinical Skills Performance

The medical school plans to train a cohort of clinical faculty to make valid, reliable ratings of undergraduate medical students’ clinical performances by observing them in actual clinical settings. Faculty training is important to ensure that all raters can produce unbiased scores and give useful, appropriate formative feedback. The project is a long-term initiative, seeking to create an Assessment Academy in the medical school—a group of clinical faculty who can provide objective, unbiased assessments of student performance in real-world clinical settings.

Dana Tschannen and Michelle Aebersold, School of Nursing
Increasing Clinical Competencies for Nursing Students Using Simulated Virtual Experiences in Second Life

The goals of this project are twofold: create an 8-bed virtual hospital on Wolverine Island in Second Life and create three scenarios to be used in Second Life as part of the educational experience of the senior-level nursing students during their management and leadership course and their transition course.

Casey White, Medical School, Medical Education
Interprofessional Service Learning to Promote Competencies in Multiculturalism and Disparities

Project Goals:

To categorize senior medical students’ reflective self-assessments on an objective, structured clinical examination (OSCE) in terms of quality (expectations include demonstration of self-awareness, realistic self-assessment, appropriate attribution).
To use the findings to construct a faculty-development workshop that focuses on the importance of self-assessment for lifelong learning (knowledge/attitude), and on feedback to students about the importance of self-assessment (i.e., links to professional excellence) and their own reflective self-assessment (areas of strength, areas for improvement) (skills).
To categorize the quality of second-year medical students’ self-assessments and develop a similar faculty-development workshop for faculty involved in the second-year formative OSCE.
To implement a similar reflective/remedial program for all medical students on the second-year and fourth-year OSCEs.