#MedEdPearls: Using rapid prototyping to establish virtual interprofessional communities of practice

To lend support to Ohio State instructors last spring, the Drake Institute created several remote Communities of Practice with the intention of connecting instructors to evidence-based instructional strategies for remote course delivery. These spaces were also used to discuss assessment and evaluation of student learning, inclusivity and access, and quality of student engagement and experience.

Writing for Harvard Macy Institute’s Community Blog, Anna Lama, director of assessment for West Virginia University School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Education and Undergraduate Medical Education, describes her experience as a collaborator with the Drake Institute’s Clinical Teaching Community of Practice.

This particular Community of Practice was open to Ohio State faculty from the Colleges of Dentistry, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Optometry, Pharmacy, Public Health, Social Work and Veterinary Medicine. Larry Hurtubise, director, College of Pharmacy; Carol Hasbrouck, interim director, Clinical and Professional Skills Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine; Melinda Rhodes-DiSalvo, associate director, Drake Institute; and John D. Mahan, professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the College of Medicine also led the effort.

Lama describes three stages of rapid prototyping, an iterative approach involving cycles of Design-Based Improvement, and how this method was used to develop a number of sessions within the Clinical Teaching Community of Practice on topics including active learning and small group teaching.

“As we began to navigate COVID-19, course directors in health professions education were under pressure to pivot to remote teaching with little training in online technologies or pedagogies,” Lama writes. “Whether a blended or fully online model, this placed a greater onus on faculty developers to create stakeholder specific workshops including engaging material and dynamic teaching methods within a virtual environment. ... A virtual community of practice (VCoP) model was used to enable participants to share real-time problems and to develop solutions while including participants and facilitators from a variety of institutions.”

The Drake Institute invites Ohio State instructors to share how they’re teaching during this time of remote, hybrid and in-person instruction. Submit innovative solutions, remote teaching tips, and creative methods for student engagement here: https://drakeinstitute.osu.edu/how-are-you-teaching