TLEF 2016-17 Adjudication Results

Alberta School of Business

Strategic Management and Organization

Emily Block, Michael Maier ($49,980)

The Frontiers of Business Leadership: Alberta Leading Change

Leading at the Frontiers of Business (Frontiers) is a transnational, interdisciplinary journey of discovery for MBA students, occurring both inside and outside the classroom, through project-based work with partner organizations on business-and peace-related projects in emerging frontier markets. This course requires students to integrate lessons from economics, political science, law, international relations, and philosophy to begin to understand the challenges facing their local partners. Field immersion helps students grasp the immense challenge of transitioning beyond conflict and poverty, forcing them to continuously reevaluate their assumptions and diagnosis of the issues, while facing the real possibility of failure. It provides a novel but critical learning component within a comprehensive and rigorous MBA curriculum, presenting demanding and relevant challenges that not only builds skills but also instills in Frontiers students an abiding sense of service and confidence that they can make a difference in the world.

Keywords: Intercultural Communications, Economic Development, Service Learning, Problem-based Learning, Problem Solving (Business), Globalization.

Faculty of Arts

Department of Art and Design

Allen Ball ($63,000)

Realizing Arts 100: Gamifying Student Engagement in the Faculty of Arts

This project will support the design and delivery of Arts 100, a fully online, gamified courselet to be required of all future Faculty of Arts undergraduate students. Arts 100 will encourage students to be proactive with respect to their own academic, career and personal development goals. Research has linked student engagement to academic achievement. Arts 100 will promote student engagement in a number of ways: students will explore program options, majors, program enhancements through experiential learning opportunities (e.g. Arts Work Experience, Study Abroad and Community Service Learning), academic expectations, and available academic and personal supports. This project is a critical part of a package of initiatives, including BA program changes, creating an experiential learning portal, developing academic pathways, and redesigning our Honors Programs, to support the introduction and launch of our bold new BA in the Fall 2018 semester.

Keywords: Gamification, Student Engagement, Academic

Department of Art and Design

Jesse Thomas ($20,984)

Experimental Collaboration in the Digital Landscape to Enhance Teaching and Learning in the Painting Graduate Seminar

Human interaction is a key ingredient in the creation of research networks in the visual arts, yet vast distances separate art centers within the Canadian landscape. This project seeks to acknowledge the importance of face-to-face studio conversation for graduate students' learning outcomes while harnessing the potential for collaboration within the digital realm to bridge the gap between these art centers. Blended and flipped learning strategies will be employed to develop a series of networks that will guide the production of digital artworks investigating selected contemporary themes. Students will work with a series of visiting artists and critics, leaders in their field who will provide expert guidance through one on one studio critique. This integrated project supports a superlative learning environment for students while raising the research profile of the University of Alberta painting program and leading the way to an effective model for Canadian post-secondary visual arts collaboration.

Keywords: Canadian art centers, visual arts, digital collaboration, studio based learning, blended learning, graduate research-creation

Department of Drama

Jane Heather ($11,600)

Indigenous Theatre for Knowledge and Change

How might the exploration of Indigenous theatre creation and performance provide students with ways of knowing and understanding that can expand their capacity for the changes to our culture and society that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called us to make? The Department of Drama is preparing to welcome Indigenous playwright Kenneth T. Williams as our newest faculty member. In collaboration with other faculty he will be launching a new course in Indigenous theatre. The development of this course will require consultation with community members and artists, the guidance of an Elder, and other resources. Theatre invites participants to see, learn and experience the stories, history and contemporary concerns and dreams of Indigenous people. The piloting, assessment and development of this new course will provide a framework for future courses and/or programs in the Department and in the Faculty of Arts.

Keywords: theatre; pedagogy; decolonization; collaboration; Post-secondary barriers; reciprocity

Education

Department of Educational Psychology

Ying Cui, Ali Shiri ($66,284)

Enhancing Student Success through Predictive Learning Analytics: Expanding the Learning Analytic Application at the University of Alberta

This project serves as the second phase of development of the learning analytic software application for the University of Alberta eClass system. A predictive student success algorithm will be developed and built into the learning analytic application to allow students to harness the power of learning analytics to monitor and self-regulate their own learning and allow instructors to identify potential "at risk" students and develop and implement effective learning interventions. This project will promote a more sophisticated utilization and analysis of the wealth of student data available within university systems in generating actionable solutions that help personalize, support and improve learning experiences. This project is an example of the University of Alberta's commitment to withstanding and continuing to improve the rigours of teaching in providing world-class instruction to all undergraduate and graduate students. The project will have direct impact on and implications for all instructors and students on campus.

Keywords: Learning analytics, predictive algorithm of student success, higher education, online teaching and learning, software development, learning management system

School of Library and Information Studies

Michael McNally ($142,900)

Copyright Open Educational Resources (OER)

This project aims to develop a suite of Open Educational Resources (OER) dealing with copyright for use in classes within the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) and for copyright education initiatives by the Copyright Office. Knowledge of copyright is important for both future library and information professionals and all members of the academic community. By developing OER on copyright that can be used in SLIS classes, the largest graduate program on campus, these resources will increase the quality and consistency of copyright related instruction at SLIS. Furthermore the open nature of the resources ensures that they are available to students and instructors across campus, and the country, for use and adaptation in classes. The project is strongly aligned with the University's own "Use of Copyright Materials Policy" and For the Public Good, by aiming to increase copyright knowledge for SLIS students and the whole University of Alberta community.

Keywords: Copyright, Copyright literacy/education, Open Educational Resources (OER), Resources for students, staff and faculty

Extension

Rob McMahon, Diane Janes, Fay Fletcher, Patricia Makokis, Janice Makokis ($50,000)

We are all related: Using augmented reality and Indigenous storytelling as reconciliation learning resources

Our project applies an iterative 'learning by design' process through which students and faculty work with Indigenous knowledge keepers and partners to explore reconciliation learning by co-creating digital Augmented Reality (AR) resources for the Faculty of Extension. The first phase will create an AR application, digital content and hard-copy curriculum/guidebook about Indigenous-settler relations associated with the Sweetgrass Bear sculpture housed in the Faculty (the former Hudson Bay site). The second phase, building on year 1, develops a set of questions and learning activities to be used in classroom settings and with Indigenous partners across disciplines, campus and community. The third and final phase, building on the previous years, involves the evaluation and dissemination (and replication) of the learning process and AR resources across the University for use by students, faculty, Indigenous partners and the public at large.

Keywords: First Nations, Indigenous storytelling, augmented reality, narrative theory, reconciliation learning

Medicine and Dentistry

Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Lisa Purdy, Amanda Van Spronsen, Roberta Martindale ($49,754)

Simulation: An Innovative Curricular Advancement to Instill Foundations of Lab Practice

Simulation is an education modality used in healthcare education with varying degrees of fidelity and ranging from basic to complex scenarios. Simulation is one way to link together theory and practice through the stages of pre-brief, scenario and debrief. Simulation can provide rich learning experiences as well as opportunities for self-reflection; however, has been underutilized in clinical laboratory training. We have identified that simulation will provide opportunities to increase medical laboratory science student exposure to foundational areas of a clinical laboratory; workflow, quality control and laboratory information systems (LIS). The project will allow student exposure to the LIS earlier in the Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) program as well as participation in simulation scenarios of increasing complexity. We will evaluate the reaction, learning and behaviour in response to simulation. The project will also assist in advancing educational scholarship at a national level through involvement in a multi-institutional research network.

Keywords: simulation, experiential learning, curricular innovation, medical laboratory technology, clinical competency

Department of Medicine

Vijay Daniels, Hollis Lai, Okan Bulut, Minn-Nyoung Yoon, Tracey Hillier ($59,170)

Effect of Detailed Score Reporting on Student Learning

Education is moving from infrequent summative assessments to frequent formative assessments utilizing timely, detailed, and specific feedback to guide further learning. In a previous TLEF, we developed an electronic assessment system that reduced time to performance assessment results from two weeks to five hours. However, the amount of feedback was still limited to pass/fail and comments from examiners, the quality of which was highly variable. The purpose of this project is to build on our previous work with a new score reporting system that can provide better feedback to learners to focus their future learning. The key steps of this project involve 1) tagging current assessments with key competencies, 2) developing and implementing the system to report areas for improvement for each assessment, and across multiple assessments, and 3) evaluating the success of the system based on learner feedback, and differences in learning outcomes from before and after implementation.

Keywords: Assessment for Learning, Score Reporting, Feedback

Rehabilitation Medicine

Department of Occupational Therapy

Shaniff Esmail, Susan Mulholland, Mary Roduta Roberts, Eleni Stroulia, Martin Ferguson-Pell, Mark Hall, Lu-Anne McFarlane ($57,577)

Using Virtual Reality to Help Students Manage Exam Anxiety

Purpose: Among university campuses, student anxiety is significantly influencing academic performance, as well as health and well-being. Approximately 50.7% of University of Alberta students experience overwhelming anxiety (University of Alberta, 2015). This study takes an innovative approach to address student anxiety associated with performance on clinical exam assessments by using Virtual Reality technology (VR). First, a VR clinical skills learning experience will be developed. Second, the effect of using a VR experience on student stress will be measured.
Innovation: VR provides students with the opportunity to practice and rehearse clinical skills in a self-directed and safe environment prior to formal assessment activities. This is expected to reduce overall performance anxiety as well as improve general student performance in their clinical exams.
Impact: Although this is a Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine initiative, there is potential for larger impact on Health Sciences programs by providing a new tool for students.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Test/Performance Anxiety/Stress, Clinical Skills

Department of Occupational Therapy

Mary Roduta Roberts, Sharla King, Ying Cui ($97,063)

Assessment and evaluation of competencies for collaborative practice within the Interprofessional Learning Pathway

Interprofessional education (IPE) is when learners from two or more professions learn 'with, from and about each other'. At the University of Alberta, the Health Sciences Education and Research Commons (HSERC) facilitates the development and evaluation of interprofessional (IP) competencies of health sciences students through a curricular model called the IP Learning Pathway. With the increasing focus on competency-based education within health sciences, the assessment of IP competencies is complex and will require an integrated, robust, and multi- faceted process. Multiple, well-designed assessments can positively influence the student learning experience and outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate a coordinated assessment plan for IPE. With the inclusion of instructors, program staff, and students throughout the project phases, the resulting assessment plan and associated methods are anticipated to be sustainable with positive long-term implications for health sciences students and impacts in the field of IPE.

Keywords: Interprofessional Education (IPE), Competency-Based Assessment, Experiential Learning

Science

Department of Psychology

Peter Hurd, Deanna Singhal ($27,000)

Creation and Implementation of Methods Modules in Introductory Psychology Courses

The proposed project addresses the importance of statistics education and the development of statistical literacy for students within the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta. In recognition of insufficient training in the area of statistics and research methodology, and limited funding to support the development of additional statistics courses within the department, the current project proposes introducing a modular approach to teaching this material. Online methods modules will be developed and introduced into currently existing psychology courses. Students will be required to complete the modules for a portion of course credit. Instructors will be encouraged to apply content in their classes, to further demonstrate the applicability of statistics in the field of psychology. TLEF funding is requested to support the first phase of development and implementation of these modules for the introductory psychology courses of PSYCO 104 and PSYCO 105.

Keywords: statistics education, statistical literacy, methods, online modules, mastery of learning