9 grants awarded to promote teaching innovation

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Professors from nine disciplines were awarded the second annual Teaching Innovation and Development Awards to support new approaches to instruction and learning.

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“This is one of the ways we support the new QEP theme, Learning in a Team Environment,” said Jonathan Waugh, Ph.D., faculty director of the UAB Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). “The idea is that we want to stimulate innovation, but we also want to support the well-established and researched ideas that are new to UAB.”

The CTL and the Office of the Vice Provost for Student and Faculty Success select the recipients based on proposals that fit the theme of the Quality Enhancement Plan, required by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, to improve an aspect of student learning and enhance the quality of higher education. This year, Waugh said, one proposal was chosen that did not fit the theme. In total, faculty received $39,358 for the execution of their proposals.

  • Cynthia Ryan, Ph.D., associate professor of English, and Diane Tucker, Ph.D., professor of psychology, proposed, “A Team-Based Learning Approach to a Multidisciplinary Study Abroad Program: Creating a Culture of Sustainability.”
  • Jacqueline Moss, Ph.D., professor of nursing, will investigate simulation learning that occurs both during the simulation and afterward in the debrief.
  • Assistant professors of biology Daniel Warner, Ph.D, Kathleen Fischer, Ph.D., Peggy Biga, Ph.D., and Denise Monti, Ph.D., proposed to evaluate the effect of team learning with student-generated videos on student engagement.
  • Laurel Hitchcock, Ph.D., assistant professor of social work, will use a team-based simulation to enhance student learning about poverty
  • Michele Bunn, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing, industrial distribution and economics, will use team-based learning in an online environment for a business simulation.
  • Silvio Litovsky, M.D., associate professor of anatomic pathology, proposed using a reversed clinical history case-based technique to enhance reasoning, team function and self-directed learning.
  • Samiksha Raut, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, will use the Team-Based Learning™ method in a large class setting to enhance student performance and retention.
  • Lindy Winter, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics-neonatology, will use a rapid-cycle simulation for infant CPR combined with a team-based training approach.
  • Elizabeth Gardner, Ph.D., associate professor of justice sciences, Jason Linville, Ph.D., assistant professor of justice sciences, and Dan Matteo, credentialed course instructor of justice sciences, plan to develop an online laboratory course to expand availability and decrease expenses. 

Pictured above from top left: Peggy Biga, Michele Bunn, Kathleen Fischer, Laurel Hitchcock, Jason Linville, Silvio Litovsky, Jacqueline Moss, Samiksha Raut, Cynthia Ryan, Diane Tucker, Daniel Warner and Lindy Winter.