Faculty rolls out microcredential to improve course design
By Rachel Boutet
For the first time, the Faculty of Dentistry is offering a microcredential developed to provide course directors the necessary tools to improve their course design.
“We recognize that faculty members have expertise in clinical care and research, this microcredential is to increase their expertise in teaching,” says Jack Gerrow 7T9, adjunct professor at the Faculty.
Gerrow is spearheading the launch of the new program along with assistant professor Michelle Wong 1T0, assistant professor Carilynne Yarascavitch 0T4, associate dean of graduate education Ernest Lam, vice-dean of education Jim Lai and dean Daniel Haas 7T9.
The idea for the microcredential, entitled “Designing Your Course for Students' Success: Meaningfulness Through Alignment of Competencies, Learning Outcomes, Evaluation”, came out of the Faculty Development Committee. It is modeled after the Association of Canadian Faculties of Dentistry Summer Teaching Institute that was a “boot camp” for dental educators across the country, including attendees from every dental school in Canada. The Faculty’s microcredential is a modern, updated version of this program.
The goal of the microcredential is to “improve participant knowledge of learning pedagogy with respect to course design and to enable participants to implement this knowledge into actionable change into their curricula.”
Click here to view the Microcredentials Brochure PDF
“We have set this up in a way that’s possible to do remotely and still be extremely valuable,” says Gerrow. “Once someone has completed the microcredential, they will walk away with improved skills and abilities that will help them better organize a course, set outcomes, and develop an evaluation system to test those outcomes."
As part of the program, participants will complete multiple workshops and assignments which will end up being their course outline and evaluation system for the upcoming year.
The microcredential also aims to expose course directors to student-centred learning which Gerrow notes is more meaningful for students and therefore better retained and recalled. The end goal is to give faculty members an introduction to teaching methodology which will ultimately benefit student learning.
“Our faculty know the science when it comes to dentistry and their area of expertise, but there is an even larger science in education that they might not be aware of,” says Gerrow. “When it comes to teaching, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel – there’s a science for that too.”
The rollout of this microcredential is scheduled for October and will include five to 10 new or experienced course directors, or individuals who will eventually become course directors. Faculty members interested in learning more about the microcredential can contact the office of the vice-dean of education. Plans for a second microcredential include in depth coverage of how to improve classroom teaching, how to conduct seminars, and how to improve the reliability and validity of tests, examinations and clinical evaluations.