2. Innovation in Teaching
Design effective learning environments using a variety of interactive educational and multimedia strategies which engage the learner in interdisciplinary and collaborative activities.
Artifact 2-A
Introduction to Steatotic Liver Disease e-Module
Reflection
This assignment, from HPTT 825 – Essentials of E-Module Development, was one of the more challenging tasks throughout the Master of Health Professions Teaching & Technology (MHPTT) program, but overall, it was the most rewarding. The task was to create an e-Learning module from scratch using Articulate Storyline over the summer semester, and I am quite proud of the final product: Introduction to Steatotic Liver Disease. I selected this artifact to represent Innovation in Teaching as it embraces interactivity to engage medical students while augmenting their classroom lectures on the topic.
Some of the challenges encountered included gaining software familiarity while adhering to e-Learning best practices, as well as the compressed timespan of a summer semester course. Challenges aside, completing this course encouraged me to apply for the e-Learning funded awards program, and motivated two medical students to create their own e-Learning modules. The work through this and the subsequent modules I have created has garnered interest from national hepatology societies to help create online asynchronous educational content specific to medical students and trainees.
I aim to take the experience gained from this course to continue working with national medical societies, such as the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), on online asynchronous interactive content for medical students and trainees. I also plan to expand my Enhanced Medical Education Track into a regional opportunity.
Artifact 2-B
Acute Liver Failure Escape Room Simulation
Reflection
The purpose of this assignment in HPTT 824 – Simulated and Virtual Learning in Health Professions Education was to design a team-based escape room simulation including learning objectives, role delineation, puzzle examples, and a debrief strategy. I chose to highlight this assignment because it addresses both facets of competency 2a: the puzzles engage learners through interactive problem-solving rather than through lecture, and the assigned roles require the team to reach the diagnosis and the treatment plan collaboratively.
The scenario opens with a patient presenting to the emergency room with new-onset confusion, jaundice, and elevated liver enzymes. The team works through three puzzles to identify the hepatotoxic supplement among the patient’s medications, to calculate the correct N-acetylcysteine loading dose to open a lockbox, and to arrange the tubing needed to start the patient on continuous veno-venous hemodialysis (CVVHD). Post-simulation debriefing uses the Plus-Delta model, one that I had informally seen implemented in the past, but through this course I was able to better understand the methodology behind this model and the importance of structured debriefing in simulation.
While I have participated in escape rooms in the past, this was my first foray into creating a medical-themed simulation. One of the challenges encountered was finding a balance between clinical accuracy of the content and the gamification and simplification necessary to adapt to an escape room scenario, but I feel that in the end I struck the right one. In the future, I would like to implement this activity with the medical students I train and work on developing the escape room activity over the next one or two years.