Newcastle University Teaching Fellowships
2006/2007
David Kennedy
David has been awarded a Teaching Fellowship to develop interactive computer simulations and tutorials to aid the teaching and learning of physiology in medicine. The provision of simulations where the practical ‘doing’ of the task is not essential to the learning outcomes will enable laboratory time to be released for sessions in which it is the students’ practical experience of a technique and/or piece of equipment that is important. It is proposed to develop simulations and tutorials that are tailored to the Newcastle medical curriculum, with particular emphasis to the self-directed approach of the accelerated MBBS programme. It is intended to incorporate animation, text descriptions and interactive elements within the simulations and tutorials to complement the students taught material and further reading. Furthermore, the resources developed will be made available within the learning support environment allowing the students to revisit the material if and when required.
For further information please contact d.j.kennedy@ncl.ac.uk
Sarah Wright
Sarah has been awarded a Teaching Fellowship to improve the way in which exam question data is recorded and stored. Exam questions are currently stored in a database that is used to generate exam papers. After an exam is given, Speedwell software is used to generate a discrimination index for each question given on an exam (discrimination index is a measure of how well an exam question discriminates between high scoring and low scoring students). Discrimination indices are not currently stored with the exam questions in the database. The project will join up the two processes and will hopefully improve the way in which exam papers are set.
For further information please contact sarah.wright@ncl.ac.uk
2005/2006
Simon Cotterill
Simon has been awarded a Teaching Fellowship to support and further develop the use of portfolios and related assessment processes in the undergraduate Medical curriculum at Newcastle. Simon has played a key role in developing the ePortfolio, which was first introduced into the MBBS curriculum in 2003. From 2005/6 students in Year 1 will be required to evidence their achievement of specific programme outcomes in their ePortfolios which will be seen by and discussed with a mentor. The fellowship, proposed by Dr Philip Bradley, will support the one-to-one discussion/coaching and the evaluation and refinement of the process with the intention of eventually rolling it out across the full 5 years of the programme.
For further information please contact simon.cotterill@ncl.ac.uk.
Rebecca McCready
Rebecca has been awarded a Teaching Fellowship to develop a number of multimedia files to enhance current teaching. The multimedia files will augment existing teaching and provide students with a learning resource to use outside of the classroom. All multimedia files use video, audio and subtitles and are accompanied by an HTML script of the audio to ensure accessibility.
Following the roll-out of these videos in teaching at the start of the 2006/2007 academic year, Rebecca will be conducting some research into the effects of these videos on student learning and interaction with the courses.
For further information please contact rebecca.mccready@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Megan Quentin-Baxter
Megan was awarded a Teaching Fellowship to investigate the use of mind-mapping techniques to evaluate the medium term impact of small-grant funding on career development. Small grants are awarded by many agencies, such as the Higher Education Academy, but the long term impact of this funding is not well documented. Collecting the evidence could be burdensome if grant holders are regularly asked for feedback, therefore it is proposed to use mind maps (which can be updated periodically) illustrating activities and nature of relationships arising from the project. It is hoped to analyse this better understand how small grant activity relates to career development.
For further information please contact megan.quentin-baxter@ncl.ac.uk.
Dr Roger Searle
Roger was awarded a Teaching Fellowship to development realistic simulation for teaching and assessing practical clinical skills. Although learning and practising clinical skills using manikins and models allows the medical student to gain proficiency it ignores the crucial interpersonal skills between the doctor and patient and the emotional component of the learning process. It is proposed to develop realistic simulations in clinical skills teaching by combining models and simulated patients so that medical students perform a range of clinical skills with an interactive patient. This allows the medical student to practise a clinical skill safely in realistic doctor-patient clinical settings but with communication skills now being evaluated in these safe clinical simulations. Funding will support the development and assessment of models to be made from artificial tissues attached to simulated patients and the purchase of digital recording equipment to allow the recording of the practical clinical skill as well as recording the simultaneous doctor- patient consultation.
For further information please contact r.f.searle@ncl.ac.uk.
Dr Richard Price
Richard has been awarded a Teaching Fellowship under the title 'Curriculum development for accelerated professional programmes in medicine - an evaluation of effectiveness of the case-led, problem first teaching and learning strategy'. He is currrently undertaking a number of small projects looking at evaluating both the local and the national picture with regard to Graduate Entry Programmes, and is a member of a national body looking to develop research in this area. In addition he has used a proportion of his fellowship fund to be trained to deliver the Myers Briggs Personality Inventory. This has been successfully piloted in the Graduate Entry curriculum and will be formally introduced to the 5 year curriculum from next year. He has also been able to use this as a staff development tool.
For further information please contact t.r.h.price@ncl.ac.uk
2004/2005
Dr Philip Bradley
For further information please contact p.m.bradley@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Suzanne Cholerton
For further information please contact suzanne.cholerton@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Jane Metcalf
For further information please contact Jane Metcalf
