TTS Educational & Scholarly Technology Services

October 2004
Maximizing Learning and Student Contact through Formative Assessment and Technology
In the keynote presentation, “The Challenge of Too Much Information – How technology can help faculty and students manage content while maximizing learning,” Dr. Harry Goldberg, Assistant Dean and Director of the Office of Academic Computing at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, offered examples from projects at Johns Hopkins that included using online self-assessment examinations, interactive slides, and streaming lectures.

In the second part of the program, participants chose between two workshops:

Workshop 1: Integrating Teaching into Your Busy Practice
Janet Hafler, Ed.D, Director for Faculty Development in the Office of Educational Development presented an interactive, case-based workshop. Participants had the opportunity to view actual videotape clips of clinical teaching encounters to stimulate discussion of the skills needed to integrate teaching into busy clinical days. The “lessons learned” and “teaching tips” were applicable to any type of clinical practice, or even any teacher-learner encounter where there is close mentorship.

Workshop 2: Assessing Student Learning and Understanding with Technology
Dr. Rafael E. Ortega, Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Boston University School of Medicine, presented his use of Classroom Response Systems (CRS) and multimedia in the classroom to fill gaps in student learning, among other instructional goals.

Susan Albright, Director of the Tufts University Sciences Knowledgebase (TUSK) and Paula Vincini, Instructional Design Specialist with AT, also
also offered a short workshop prior to Dr. Ortega’s presentation, on using the TUSK quiz tool to create self-assessment quizzes with feedback.

Fall 2005
From Theory to Practice: Dynamic Teaching and Learning in the Health Sciences
The program included a plenary presentation by Ed Neal, PhD, Director of Faculty Development at the University of North Carolina Center for Teaching and Learning, entitled Bridging the Gap between Didactic and Clinical Instruction. In this workshop, participants reviewed a variety of methods to help them more closely align clinical and didactic instruction by employing active learning and inquiry-based approaches in both instructional venues.

After the plenary presentation, participants chose between two additional sessions: a workshop on creating strong multiple choice questions for the clinical sciences presented by Dr. Neal or a demonstration of TUSK’s new Case Simulation Tool offered by the TUSK staff.