Leaders in Education: Academy of Presidential Scholars holds it second symposium, featuring a keynote presentation, Distinguished Educator Awards, seed grant recipients, breakout sessions, and more.
Photo: Sol Roberts-Lieb delivers his keynote presentation at the LEAPS Symposium on April 2 at the SMC Campus Center.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) Leaders in Education: Academy of Presidential Scholars (LEAPS) held its annual symposium April 2 at the SMC Campus Center, focusing on the theme “Navigating the Technology Landscape in Graduate and Professional Education.”
Sol Roberts-Lieb, EdD, assistant professor, Health Professions Education, University of Maryland Graduate School, and faculty director, UMB Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, delivered the keynote presentation, “Who Moved My Technology: Using Technology Advancements to Enhance Faculty Development and Student Outcomes.”
Roberts-Lieb asked the audience to envision the future intersection of teaching and technology and to be open to using the next waves of innovation when designing courses and teaching students. He noted that students in the Class of 2027 at UMB were mostly born in the mid-2000s and are extremely tech-savvy, having grown up in the age of YouTube, Google, smartphones, and now, artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT.
“The first iPhone came out in 2007. Think about that,” he said. “This generation has always had a smartphone. So our students are already there. They’re going to use this technology with or without us. Technology is already a part of what we do, and the question is: How do we think about it in a new way?”
To start his presentation, Roberts-Lieb showed two slides that illustrated the progression of how people have sought information, from finding books at libraries through the Dewey Decimal System to getting printouts from early internet sites to current smartphone technology and AI.
“Content is out there, it’s everywhere, but you still have to think, you still have to do, you still have to reflect,” he said. “So when you look at teaching and technology, things are changing all the time, and we’ve adapted to it. But it’s not all about just using technology. We still need people to talk to. Our librarians, we’ll always need. Our mentors, we will always need. Our coaches, we will always need.”
Roberts-Lieb talked about the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) Framework, a researched-based model that helps teachers design, create, and integrate technology-infused lessons into their classrooms, and TPaCK (Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge), which focuses on the overlaps and interactions among these three types of knowledge to highlight seven types of knowledge about teaching.
He provided examples of how technology can be integrated into teaching, such as virtual patient simulators in health professions education, virtual courtroom simulations for law education, learning management systems for general education, and a virtual interactive training assistant (VITA) for social work education.
“VITA is from the University of Southern California, and it’s been around for a while,” Roberts-Lieb said. “It's basically simulated client interactions. You have consulting sessions with people, and maybe they get really angry, especially if you are talking about substance abuse or domestic violence — these are hard things. But if you go through practice first, it makes it a little easier each time. And you are seeing diverse populations in diverse settings.
“So there are tools out there for you to use — most of them are free — and you don’t have to be perfect at it.”
In addition to the keynote presentation, the event featured opening remarks from UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, and LEAPS co-chair Christina Cestone, PhD, MA, assistant vice provost of faculty affairs, UMB, and program director, Health Professions Education, Graduate School.
This was the second annual symposium for LEAPS, which launched in 2022 and is designed to support the educational priorities of the University through programming and events, awards and recognition, educational innovation, and educator development.
The symposium featured morning and afternoon breakout sessions and the announcement of LEAPS’ 2024 Distinguished Educator Award winners and Instructional Innovation Seed Grant recipients.
The Distinguished Educator Award winners:
- Outstanding Mentor: Alison Duffy, PharmD, BCOP, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP)
- Excellence in Teaching: Scott Riley, PhD, UMSOP
- Outstanding Educational Scholarship/Publication: Nicholas Morris, MD, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM)
The 2024 Instructional Innovation Seed Grant recipients:
- Mary Anne Melo, DDS, PhD, MSc, University of Maryland School of Dentistry: “Implementing Clinically Relevant Dental Bonding Teaching Techniques and Assessment in Preclinical Dental Training” ($7,500)
- Moran Levin, MD, UMSOM: “All Eyes on Education: Improving Ophthalmology Education and Creating a More Diverse Ophthalmology Workforce” ($5,000)
- Cheryl Fisher, EdD, MSN, RN, University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON): “Excellence in Health Profession Education: Establishing a Nursing Faculty AI Champion Program to Elevate Teaching and Learning with Artificial Intelligence” ($5,000)
- Heather Terech, JD, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, “USPTO Simulation Workshop” ($5,000)
- Alison Duffy, PharmD, BCOP, UMSOP: “Integrating Virtual Patient Simulation in Pharmacy and Interdisciplinary Learning” ($2,500)
The breakout sessions:
- “Improving Reproductive Health Access Through Education with Technology and Innovation”: Mary Jo Bondy, DHEd, MHS, PA-C, Graduate School
- “Going Live: Synchronous Learning Show and Tell”: Alexis Guethler, PhD, MA; Catherine Hanssens-Passeri, MA; Rodney Urand, MBA, MS; all from University of Maryland School of Social Work
- “Best Practices for Assessment in Online Learning: Foundation to Application”: Christina Cestone, PhD, MA; Violet Kulo, EdD, MS, MA; Karen Gordes, PhD, PT, DScPT; Erin Hagar, MA, MFA; all from Graduate School
- “Empowering Tomorrow’s Professionals: Exploring Micro-Credentialing and Micro-Learning in Graduate and Professional Education”: Gregory Brightbill, EdD, MBA, MEd, UMB Academic Affairs
- “Teaching Motivational Interviewing Skills Using Online Dialog Simulations”: Marianne Cloeren, MD, MPH, UMSOM
- “Virtual Simulation: A Pathway to Interprofessional Team-Based Care”: Karen Gordes, PhD, PT, DScPT, Graduate School, and Linda Horn, PT, DScPT, MHS, UMSOM
- “Harnessing Generative AI and Faculty AI Champions to Innovate Health Professions Education”: Cory Stephens, DNP, MSN, RN, UMSON
Learn more and see more photos at this link.
Watch a video of the keynote presentation below or at this link.