Projects funded in the 2019 round of the ITIF:

We are pleased to announce the 2019 Recipients of ITIF Awards. As in previous years, we have a variety of different project ideas from around the University:

Mobile application to group people in large TEAL classrooms

Chris Bouwmeester, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

The normal experience of having students assemble into groups in active learning classrooms is that groups of students get distracted from the task at hand as they are either sitting with their friends or they have become comfortable with the group they have acclimatized to. One way to minimize these distractions is to have each individual responsible for some component of a group effort and rely on the others to complete theirs. It has been hypothesized that this is easier to accomplish when individuals are assigned to a group of people they don’t know. The proposed mobile application will automatically direct learners entering a large active learning classroom to a prescribed table within the room.

Best practices for teaching clinical professionals using remote video technology

Deirdre Dawson and Heather Colquhoun, Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy

The expansion of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy to two campuses requires the use of video technology. With full support from Graduate Life Sciences Education, this project aims to support faculty to optimize e-learning and student engagement, and develop a Guidebook for use by others within and beyond the University.

3D Gutenberg

Paolo Granata, Sheril Hook, Book and Media Studies

By connecting traditional letterpress printing and 3D printing, this project aims to integrate old and new technologies to create a hybrid experiential learning opportunity that will aid undergraduate students to experiment and develop the effective use of 3D printing technologies in order to revitalize the study of print culture.

Exploring YouTube as a scalable educational platform for niche and sub-specialized medical and graduate disciplines

Phedias Diamandis, Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

This project centers on the development of “NeuroscIQ” which provides quality and accessible content on many neuroscience concepts. Videos include core subject lectures, reviews of interesting journal articles, research presentations and expert interviews, directed towards University of Toronto learners and collaborators.

Creating E-Learning Modules to Enhance Advanced Competencies in Mental Health Social Work Practice

Eunjung Lee, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW)

Advanced Social Work Practice in Mental Health is one of the required courses for Master of Social Work (MSW) students specializing in the field of study Mental Health and Health. This project will incorporate both online modules and simulations into the course to enhance students’ mental health competence during their master’s program and beyond.

Clinical Faculty E-Learning and Development Program

Mary Ann Fegan, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

The goal of this project is to enhance the preparation and development of clinical nursing faculty, who directly facilitate undergraduate nursing student learning in clinical settings, by using a blended learning approach. This project includes the creation of two self-directed, interactive, media-rich e-learning modules.

Using Virtual reality (VR) Simulation to Help Students Manage High Stakes Exam Anxiety

Aleksandra Bjelajac Mejia, Lachmi Singh, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

This project aims to use Virtual Reality simulation to help students at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy manage test anxiety when taking the high stakes Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE), a requirement to become a licensed pharmacist, by familiarizing students with the exam processes.

Comparative Judgement Classroom Response System

Susan McCahan, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

The project entails building a Comparative Judgement (CJ) classroom response system. Building on existing classroom response systems, student responses will be randomly paired up and sent back to students after they have submitted their own answer. Students would then be asked to identify which response in each pair of answers is better. This creates an “up-voting” result that would allow the instructor to select better answers to discuss further.

Facilitation for Online Sanskrit Character Entry

Elizabeth Mills, Department for the Study of Religion

Sanskrit character input has been a stubborn problem for the last 4 years. Solving it will be a significant enhancement for online undergraduate Introductory Sanskrit courses. This project entails identifying educational technology support to develop a method that will facilitate student input of Sanskrit characters within synchronous learning environments.

Video exploring a public health case study from multiple perspectives

Erica Di Ruggiero, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Collaboration in public health improves results, but even within public health the various disciplines can be siloed. This project will create a video that will discuss a single case study from different public health perspectives. This will help public health graduate students increase their knowledge and skills in understanding a public health problem from an interdisciplinary lens.

Minor Ailment Prescribing Training: An Opportunity for Virtual Interactive Case System Innovation and Enhancement

Certina Ho, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

This project proposes to expand the use of Virtual Interactive Cases by creating community-based cases for minor ailment prescribing training for pharmacy students.

Using a Novel Simulation-Based Training Intervention to Improve the Clinical Management of Cannabis Intoxication among Adolescents in an Interprofessional Clinical Environment

Jana Lok, Sarah Ibrahim, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

This project proposes to design hybrid simulations to enhance health professions learners’ knowledge and skills related to the complex clinical management of cannabis intoxication among adolescents and young adults. This is in collaboration with health professional trainees (from the Faculty of Nursing and Medicine) and healthcare providers from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, SickKids, and Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.

Online collaborative annotations (Hypothes.is) to enhance student critical thinking and group-work

William Ju, Human Biology Program

This project proposes to build student community and critical thinking skills through the use of an online annotation system (Hypothes.is) to evaluate primary scientific literature in biology.

Interprofessional Education Game – What Do Your Colleagues Do Anyway?

Sylvia Langlois, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy

This computer-based Interprofessional Education game was piloted with first year learners from Medicine, Occupational Therapy, and Kinesiology. Other health profession programs have now expressed a desire to join this activity. With this funding, new profession-specific questions can be added and the design enhanced to facilitate relevant interprofessional learning.