We found 60 results that contain "aan"

This week, we are featuring Breana Yaklin, a Learning Experience Designer in the Broad College of Business.  Breana was recognized via iteach.msu.edu's Thank and Educator Initiative! We encourage MSU community members to nominate high-impact Spartan educators (via our Thank an Educator form) regularly!
Read more about Breana’s perspectives below. #iteachmsu's questions are bolded below, followed by their responses!

You were recognized via the Thank an Educator Initiative. In one word, what does being an educator mean to you? 
Learning
Share with me what this word/quality looks like in your practice?
As an educator, I’m focused on teaching and learning, and I try to stay more focused on the learner and what their needs are. Being an educator also means that I’m constantly learning from others who are experts in the field or who share their experiences
Tell me more about your educational “setting.” This can include, but not limited to departmental affiliations, community connections, co-instructors, and students. (Aka, where do you work?)
I currently work for Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. I’m a Learning Experience Designer in the Learning Technology and Design department. My work right now is focused on supporting the EMBA Flex program, which includes both on-campus live synchronous sessions and online asynchronous learning. I work with the faculty teaching the program to help them design their courses and think through the best ways to teach in a flexible format, and how to take advantage of the on-campus sessions and the asynchronous learning. As a Learning Experience Designer, I have to focus on (1) the student needs as an end-goal, and (2) the faculty needs, as they are the ones I’m working with directly.
What is a challenge you experience in your educator role?
A challenge I frequently encounter is one that I think everyone sees in their work as an educator: time. The faculty I work with to develop their courses are pressed for time and have to balance multiple priorities, and sometimes the course I’m consulting on gets pushed back as a priority because they don’t have the time to dedicate to it. I know that many of our students also have to balance multiple priorities. For the program I’m currently working on, we know that these students are working full time and often have families and related time constraints.
Any particular “solutions” or “best practices” you’ve found that help you support student success at the university despite/in the face of this?
Good course design and development takes time, as does investing in learning. If possible, I try to encourage leadership to support faculty time allocations toward course design and development. I also try to focus on making the best use of time during the course design and development process, for both faculty and students. How can I support this faculty member to use their time effectively towards designing and developing their course? I try to find resources, or create tools or templates to make the process easier or more efficient. How can I encourage the course design and development to take into account student time limitations? I discuss setting priorities and learning expectations with faculty, and how to best make use of the live in-class time and how to be flexible with the asynchronous time.
What are practices you utilize that help you feel successful as an educator?
I listen and learn from others. I’m somewhat new to my current setting in Broad, but I’ve been at MSU for 6 years, and I have a network of colleagues across campus who I learn from. I’ve also worked on learning from others outside of MSU, at my previous institution (Baker College), and by networking at conferences and with colleagues on Twitter. I learn a lot from listening to others about their experiences, their work, and their research, and I add it all to my repertoire as an educator. 
What topics or ideas about teaching and learning would you like to see discussed on the iteach.msu.edu platform? Why do you think this conversation is needed at msu? 
I’d like to see more discussion around online and hybrid teaching and learning, specifically, the existing research and practices around good online and hybrid (or blended or flex) teaching and learning and how we can continue to improve the online learning experience. This obviously has been a huge focus for the past year due to COVID, so it might seem like it has already been addressed. However, a lot of the work over the past year was fast and reactive (by necessity), and prior to COVID there has been years of work researching what good teaching and learning can and should look like online. I think education will be permanently changed (if it hasn’t already) by what happened over the past year, and I think we should be prepared for more online and hybrid education to be more flexible and meet the needs of our students and our educators.
What are you looking forward to (or excited to be a part of) next semester?
I’m looking forward to debriefing with the first round of faculty I worked with on the EMBA Flex program. I’m excited to learn how their courses went as they taught them for the first time in this new format, what lessons they learned, how the students responded, and what we can do to continue to improve the courses for the next time. I’m hoping to speak with some students in the program to hear directly from them on what’s working and what could be improved upon to create a better learning experience. 
I’m also excited to share that I’ll be working with Dr. Melissa Hortman, Director of Instructional Technology at Medical University of South Carolina, to conduct a literature review on course modalities and flexible learning approaches, and we’ll be presenting our results at the Online Learning Consortium Innovate Conference in the spring.


Don't forget to celebrate individuals you see making a difference in teaching, learning, or student success at MSU with #iteachmsu's Thank an Educator initiative. You might just see them appear in the next feature!

With COVID19 pandemic most, if not all, research activities placed on hold in 2020. The need for remote teaching and working was obvious. The increase number of older adults in the US and world wide place geriatric medicine as a priority in addressing health need in the near future. According to Association of American Medical Colleges [AAMC] there is increasing number of medical graduates who do not match to any residency program in the US. We started a virtual research fellowship in geriatric medicine as a tool to empower some of those unmatched medical graduates in Michigan state and other areas using funds provided by The Pearl J. Aldrich Endowment in Gerontology/Michigan State University. One of the goals of this fellowship is to train these graduates to know the basic steps of any research work and how to use the tools available in any research environment. We hope that these students understand the methodology of identifying a problem that faces older adults, and then carry the required steps to address and solve such problem in a systematic way. Currently we have four teams, who are involved in different research projects. We have submitted 10 abstracts to 2 different meetings, and so far 6 were accepted for oral presentation. We targeted The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Some of the topics address include COVID19 and its impact on the elderly. During this session our team will share our experience.
To access a PDF of the "Virtual Research Geriatric Fellowship for Unmatched Medical Graduates" poster, click here.Description of the PosterTitle: Virtual Geriatric Research Fellowship 
Author: Nadir Abdelrahman, MD, CMD 
Geriatric Division,  Dept of Family Medicine, MSU 
Introduction:
Between 2020 and 2030, the number of older adults is projected to increase by almost 18 million 1. 
The Association of American Medical Colleges expects that an additional 42,600 to 121,300 doctors will be needed by 2030 2.  
There is a huge need for geriatric-trained health care providers 3. 
Each year, there are more than 8 thousand Unmatched medical graduates [UMGs] in the US. Most of them are international medical graduates.  
Aim: 
The aim of this fellowship is to empower UMGs by improving their knowledge, skills, and experiences in geriatric medicine.  
Curriculum Development: 
This curriculum was developed based on Entering Research course.  
The primary goals of this fellowship are to create a supportive learning environment to introduce UMGs to the culture of research and to teach them valuable skills needed to become effective researchers. 
The fellowship was designed to help medical graduates find a research mentor, explore the culture of research, write a research project proposal, and begin doing research.  
They informally share their research experiences and learn about the diversity of experiences available through their peers. 
Through virtual meetings, research basics, communication skills and common geriatric principles were reviewed.  
Early discussions included current pandemic topics ranging from COVID19 incidence, hospitalization and mortality to prevention and vaccination. 
The content of these discussions came from the students, and their engagement in the weekly, 2-hour-long meetings.  
The course facilitator provided a framework for the discussions, relevant background reading materials, and structured assignments designed to help students develop positive relationships with their research mentors, define themselves as a member of the research community, and understand and communicate their research.  
Description of Curriculum 
The following tasks were identified for this program 

Recognize the research ethics principles.
Select a research topic.
Identify research question(s).
Describe various types of study designs.
Select appropriate study design.
Define study population.
Take an appropriate study sample.
Enumerate various study variables.
Discern various types of errors, including bias.
Identify confounding factors.
Select and use appropriate measurement tools.
Prepare for data management.
Set a work plan with time, budget, and a plan for dissemination. 

Results of Implementation 
A total of 6 Virtual posters were accepted in 2 national conferences:  American Medical Director Association/The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care (PALTC21: 2 virtual posters) and American Geriatrics Society (AGS21: 4 virtual posters). 
Eight of the fellows were matched into residency programs starting July 2021. 
Discussion 
This virtual research fellowship in geriatric medicine is considered unique and innovative as there is an immediate need for geriatric-trained health care providers.  
The conceptual framework allows training program directors to identify and select appropriate activities to use with their trainees based on need and career stage. 
Activities were designed to teach UMGs principles of research, research design, and critical evaluation of results while also giving them practice with the real-world experience of creating and presenting posters in virtual environment.  
This fellowship achieved its goals using online tools. 
In the coming year, we hope to expand this concept, and establish it as a model for implementation at other institutions. 
 Figure 1. 
The four-box model 
 Disclosure 
The author has no conflict of interest to disclose. 
This fellowship is supported by:  
The Pearl J. Aldrich Endowment in Aging  
Demographic Changes and Aging Population – RHIhub Aging https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/toolkits/aging/1/demographics 
Healthcare Suers When Medical School Graduates Don’t Match https://www.insightintodiversity.com/healthcare-suffers-when-medical-school-graduates-dont-match/  
Record number of unmatched medical graduates. CMAJ 2017 May 29;189:E758-9. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.1095432 
Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. (1969). Management of organizational behaviour: Utilizing human resources. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 
 Tasks and Team approach 
Fellows were grouped into teams. 
Different tasks were assigned to each fellow. 
Teams leaders encouraged individual fellows 
Projects identified and project leaders assured completion of each Poster.  
 Fellows learned the basics of literature review, statistical analysis (using SPSS) and reference management (e.g EndNote) 
 Situational leadership skills and teams were incorporated using the four-box model 4 (See Figure 1) 
 References 
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=nursingposters 
https://slideplayer.com/slide/6319238/ 
https://www.mghihp.edu/poster-presentations-age-zoom 

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, educators from many fields have looked to representations of pandemics to help students study topics the pandemic has accentuated. In the history of science, educators have explored inequalities in medicine, trust in experts, and responses to uncertainty. To help make these issues digestible, some educators have turned to the cooperative board game, Pandemic Legacy. Small groups work together to avert a global health crisis by managing disease. Teams play the game multiple times, but actions in one game have consequences for the next and rules change and develop as the game progresses. The game's development introduces students to new concepts at a manageable pace while giving them new problems to solve. While the game effectively introduced students to topics in the history of science, this study sought to know whether it promoted cognitive and interpersonal skills. It focused on team adaptive performance, which is linked to problem-solving and communication skills. Data was collected using three surveys. Variation in teams' responses was analyzed using the Median test. The Friedman test was used to analyze each team's adaptive performance at each of the three timesteps. All teams were initially quite confident in their ability to creatively deal with unexpected events and reported that they adapted well to new tasks. As they encountered novel situations, some teams reported that their confidence decreased. They were newly aware that they did not have creative solutions to unexpected problems. Teams aware of their limitations performed better than those who maintained their initial confidence.To access a PDF of the "Studying Team Adaptive Performance using the Board Game Pandemic Legacy" poster, click here.Description of the Poster
Studying Team Adaptive Performance using the Board Game Pandemic Legacy 
Research Goal 
This study examined how team adaptive performance evolves over time. Adaptative performance is understood as a process that more effectively moves a team towards its objectives. The team must recognize deviations from expected action and readjust actions to obtain the best outcome (Salas, Sims, Burke 2005; Priest et al. 2002; Marques-Quinteiro et al. 2015). 
While previous studies have examined team adaptive performance in singular events, this study aimed to measure the evolution of team adaptive performance over time. Using a cooperative boardgame that changes as teams play, the study measured how well teams performed in response to three major deviations in game play that necessitated adaptation. 
Research Hypothesis 
Teams with higher perceived levels of adaptability will have better outcomes (the success measure) over time than teams with lower levels of adaptability  
Research Methods 
A total of 16 participants were divided into four teams. Each team played the cooperative board game, Pandemic Legacy (Figure 1), nine times throughout the study. Each participant completed a team adaptive performance questionnaire three times during the study, once after each major disruption in the board game. The questionnaire was designed to assess perceptions of team performance, based on Marques Quinteiro et al. 2015. It consisted of control questions about participants’ demographics as well as a 10-item Likert scale team performance questions broken down into categories assessing satisfaction, creativity, adjustability, adaptability, and positivity.  
Questions to evaluate adaptability included: 
Q7:We update technical and interpersonal competences as a way to better perform the tasks in which we are enrolled. 
Q8: We search and develop new competences to deal with difficult situations. 
Reliability Analysis showed that Cronbach alpha for Q7 and Q8 is 0.938. 
Team outcomes were assessed by a success measure that evaluated each team’s number of wins (where > wins = better outcome) and number of outbreaks (where < outbreaks = better outcome) 
Research Results: Success Measure 
The success measure results of number of wins are displayed in a bar chart. 
The success measure results of number of outbreaks are displayed in a bar chart. 
Research Results: Adaptability Measure 
Differences in the median score of teams’ responses to each question was calculated using the Median Test. Team 3 responded differently than at least one of the other teams to Q8 after Survey 1. Post-hoc analysis with pairwise comparison tests was conducted with a Bonferroni correction applied, revealing a statistically significant difference between Team 3 and Team 1 (p =.030), and Team 3 and Team 2 (p =.030). 
Using the above method revealed no significant results after Survey 2. After Survey 3, there was a significant difference between Team 4 and Team 2 (p=.049) for Q7 and Team 1 and Team 2 (p=.049) for Q8. 
A Friedman Test was performed to determine if responses to the questions changed over time. There was a statistically significant difference in Team 3’s response to Q8 (X2(2)= 6.500, p= .039). Post-hoc analysis with pairwise comparison tests was conducted with a Bonferroni correction applied, resulting in a significance difference between Team 3’s first and third survey for Q8. 
Research Findings 
The initial analysis suggests that teams, such as Team 3, that develop higher perceptions of their adaptability will have better outcomes once the higher perceptions are achieved. Teams, such as Team 1, that begin with high perceived levels of adaptability but did not alter their approach when the success measures indicate adaptation is needed will have poorer outcomes. Teams, such as Team 2, that report high perceptions of adaptability throughout and that correspond with the success measure, will maintain good outcomes. 
Analysis of the satisfaction, creativity, adjustability, and positivity data is needed to determine if these affect the success measure or adaptability over time. 
Acknowledgments 
Funding provided by the MSU SUTL Fellows program, a collaboration between the Lyman Briggs College and the MSU Graduate School. 
References 
Marques-Quinteiro, P. et al. 2015. “Measuring adaptive performance in individuals and teams.” Team Performance Management 21, 7/8: 339-60. 
Priest, H.A. et al. 2002. “Understanding team adaptability: Initial theoretical and practical considerations.” Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 46: 561-65. 
Salas, E. D.E. Sims, C.S. Burke. 2005. “Is there a ‘Big Five’ in Teamwork?” Small Group Research 36, 5: 555-99.   

Dr. Crystal Eustice (Department of Community Sustainability Studies Assistant Professor of Practice, Academic Advisor, Internship Coordinator) & Jackie Martin (MSU Extension Leadership & Civic Engagement Educator, 4-H Program Supervisor)
 
The Thank an Educator Initiative was born out of the #iteachmsu Commons project, an effort to recognize the great practices of individuals on campus who contribute to student success by supporting MSU’s teaching and learning mission. On such a large decentralized campus, it can be difficult to fully recognize and leverage the expertise of educators. The #iteachmsu Commons' current focus has been to develop and launch a web platform for educators across campus to share their expertise and experience, connect with others, and grow in their practice.
 
You’ll notice that we’ve specifically chosen to denote the audience of this platform as “educators” which the #iteachmsu Commons’ founding units (the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology, the Academic Advancement Network, and the Graduate School) define in the broadest sense – anyone who contributes to MSU’s teaching and learning mission. This includes but is not limited to faculty, academic advisors, librarians, coaches, graduate teaching assistants, undergraduate learning assistants, infrastructure planning and facilities, learning designers, IT, planning and budget, staff, etc.
 
We (the #iteachmsu Commons team) have had unwavering enthusiasm for the platform, which is now live at iteach.msu.edu, but we weren’t sure that the Spartan community would identify with the goals of the project (despite the platform’s for educators – by educators development). As a part of my 2018-19 Hub Graduate Student Fellowship, I was able to further observe and investigate how individuals on our campus qualified their work (as it related to the mission and vision) and how they identified with the role of educator. While I found overwhelming support for the type of platform we were building, many of the individuals I spoke with did not personally identify as an educator despite their work contributing to teaching and learning at State. Thus Thank an Educator was born.
 
I designed and launched the inaugural year of Thank and Educator as a part of my Hub fellowship last year as a way to celebrate all the individuals who contribute every day to helping MSU be the institution of higher learning that it is today. By intentionally launching the initiative across the MSU community and asking for individuals to share stories of the positive impacts made by MSU educators, we were able to not only recognize the great efforts of invaluable Spartan community members but also showcase the diverse roles and ways in which people take up being educators on our campus. 80 Educators were nominated by fellow Spartans and were recognized at the first annual #iteachmsu Educator Awards during last year’s Spring Conference on Student Learning and Success. This initiative wouldn’t be possible without the support of Dr. Jeff Grabill (Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Technology) and the Provost’s office, and I am excited to say that it is continuing in this 2019-20 academic year.
 
I have been at Michigan State for the entirety of my postsecondary experience. I came here in 2008 for my B.S., finished a M.S., and plan to complete my doctoral degree by the end of this academic year. Throughout my time as a Spartan, I have encountered countless individuals who were invaluable to my experience but weren’t limited to those who stood at the front of my classes. Thank an Educator gives me the opportunity to recognize those people who made a difference in my MSU experience (as both a learner and a colleague), and for that I am thrilled. I have received correspondence from individuals directly, saw posts featuring educator awards on Twitter, and have even seen award certificates hanging in offices or by desks. I am deeply honored by the idea that I have played a small part in amplifying the work educators do at MSU, and reinforcing the value of that work through this initiative and community.
 
Anyone can recognize a Spartan educator who has made an impact in their lives by clicking “Thank an Educator” in the left panel of this site! You can also read about educators who have been recognized in our "Featured Educator" posts!
 

Vivek Vellanki (College of Education Doctoral Student) & Terry Edwards (Assistant to the Chair, Department of Teacher Education)
 
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2019/honoring-msus-educators/