The Impact of Instructional Design on Medical School Curriculum

Max Anderson, MLIS, MS@maxlibris

Instructional DesignerUniversity of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago - Office of Curricular Affairs

Take-Aways• What determined the need for an Instructional Designer

at UI College of Medicine - Chicago?• Role of the Instructional Designer at UI COM - Chicago• Evidence-based best practices are suggested to faculty• Feedback loops• Future plans for improvement

Snapshot of UI College of Medicine - Chicago

• Largest medical school in the country (in terms of student population)

• Change in campus structure• Other campuses• Curricular redesign looming

“How Did We Ever Function Without an Instructional

Designer!?”

IKR?

Me

French —> Librarian —> Instructional Designer —> Instructional Technology

Or, how did I get from here to there, or there to here?

Challenges

• Teaching faculty who were never trained to be educators

• Faculty who are ‘meh’ about new teaching methods

• Slow moving bureaucracy

• Low or stagnant board scores

• Faculty evaluated poorly (and no follow-up)

ADDIE

Analysis

Design

Development

Implementation

Evaluation

Backward Design

Photo Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/arcady_31

• Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction• Dick and Carey Model• Kemp’s ID Model• Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction• Bloom• Kirkpatrick• Etc.

Analysis• What types of learning

constraints exist?• What are the delivery

options?• What are the

pedagogical considerations?

• What is the timeline for project completion?

Design• Documentation of the project’s

instructional, visual, and technical design strategies

• Apply instructional strategies to outline/create course content

• Create storyboards

• Design the user interface and user experience

• Prototype creation

• Apply visual design

Getting there…

Much better…

Development• Developers create and

assemble the content assets

• Programmers work to develop and / or integrate technologies

• Testers perform debugging procedures

• Project is reviewed and revised according to feedback from team

Development• Populate modules with

content (tables, videos, images, text, etc.)

• Blackboard tools: Blog, discussion board, quizzes, group tools, mashups, etc.)

• Integrated tools: Echo360, Collaborate, Explain Everything, Sharestream, etc.

Implementation• TAs and Instructors prepared to use new tools used

in course• Learners prepared to use new tools, mode of

delivery, and pedagogical approach• ID ensures that the learning materials (books,

hands-on equipment, tools, and software) are in place and course site is functional

Evaluation• Formative evaluation• Informing the design• Present in each stage of ADDIE process

• Summative evaluation• Informs instructional design improvements• Conducted after course implementation is over• Need data from systems and users

Result of focus groups

Course directors have limited ‘power’

In ‘complex’ courses, CD don’t know exactly where to make changes

Frustration with low student attendance at lecture

Time-management - feeling of being overwhelmed

Photo from http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=13829

UICOM - Chicago Course & Instructor Evaluations: Continuous Quality Improvement

In AY 2015-2016196 individual instructor reports16 course reports3,855 pages of documentation16 meetings with Course Directors and Department Heads9 meetings with Deans, Department Heads and Course Directors

Evaluation Cycle for One Fall CourseSeptember

January

April

July

Faculty Workshops Faculty

Teaching Observation

s

TBL Observation

s

Course Director

‘Pre-‘Meeting

Deans, Department

Head, Course Director

‘Pre-‘Meeting

Student Curricular Board (SCB)

Report summarizing

ongoing feedbackInnovations on

Deck• Automate report

production via Benware

• Contextualize data to improve decision-making

• Document instructor response to feedback

• Rapid evaluations by students

Fall1. Each instructor is evaluated

by students as the course progresses

• Instruction events• Evaluation of instructors

2. Students evaluate the course when it ends

• Evaluation of course

• Educational materials analysis (best practices for presentations)

• Instructor & Course Evaluation (last year & this year)

• Course Director receives reports to distribute to instructors

• Course Director meets with Curriculum Dean and Instructional Designer; develops plan

• Course Director discusses plan with Deans

• SCB: Course & Faculty reports• Faculty workshops• Course Director implements

modified course elements

Spring

Best Practices Guidelines

Conceived of, and approved by students, faculty, staff in December 2013 and updated with additional evidence-based content in July 2015 & July 2016

Multimedia Design

Medical EducationVolume 45, Issue 8, pages 818-826, 14 JUL 2011 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2011.03988.xhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2011.03988.x/full#f1

(Meta) Analysis Phase

Problem(s) Solution(s)

Process

1. Student dissatisfaction with LMS organization

2. Student dissatisfaction with educational materials

3. Faculty resistance to facilitation and design improvements

1. LMS organization cleaner and consistent across courses

2. Educational materials more student-centered and easy-to-digest

3. Faculty more engaging and interactive

1. Focus groups with students and faculty on reorganization2. ID reviews educational materials and offers specific

feedback to instructors3. ID meets with faculty, observes teaching and collaborates

on improvement

Evaluation Data (Raw)

‘Pretty’ Evaluation Data

Examples of Feedback from ID

Team-Based Learning

Feedback Loops• Course Reviews• Summary by Course

Director• Graduation questionnaire

(AAMC)• Student feedback• Evaluation data• Instructional Designer

feedback• Board scores

Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbrekke/159390694 via Create Commons License

Faculty Development Learning Environment

• Best Practices in Learner-Centered Instruction• Creating Effective Independent Learning Assignments• Best Practices in Creating Powerful PowerPoint Presentations• Setting the Stage: Meeting LCME Standard 6.3• Hands on with Explain Everything• Poll Everywhere• Approaches to the Flipped Classroom: Achieve Student Engagement with Active Learning Techniques

• http://www.medicine.uic.edu/education/faculty_learning___environment

Educational Methods: Ways of Delivering

Content• Readings• Lecture• Discussion• Reflection

• Small group

• Team-based learning

• Standardized patients

• Clinical experiences

• Etc.

Blackboard Numerous “fixes” with student / faculty

input

Please, no.Please, no.

Yes, please!Yes, please!

Observation of Lecture

Flipped Classroom & Active Learning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wont2v_LZ1E

Active Learning Exercises• Teamwork• Debates• Self-reflection• Case Studies / Poll Everywhere• Team-Based Learning• Problem-Based Learning

McLaughlin, et al. (2014). The flipped classroom: A course redesign to foster learning and engagement in a health professions school. Academic Medicine (89),2. 236-242.

Flipped Classroom• Instructors prerecord lectures

and post online for students to watch

• Class time is dedicated to student-centered learning activities

Team-Based Learning (TBL)

Lessons Learned Through This Process

• Objective view!• First year, ID reviewed evaluations and then looked at

materials• Second year +, ID does analysis and then looks at

evaluations

Plans for the Future

• Use of Tableau for data visualization• Shorter evaluations• Evaluation sampling

Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/buckaroobay/3721809183 via Creative Commons License

Max Anderson, MLIS, MSInstructional Designer & Apple Certified

Education Trainer

University of IllinoisCollege of Medicine at Chicago

Office of Curricular Affairsmax@uic.edu312-996-5898