Curriculum Retreats
OCED assists faculty in improving their teaching skills through workshops and seminars at Weill Cornell. For example, course directors and teaching faculty recommended by their Department Chairs (including affiliates) are invited to participate in the annual all-day Curriculum Retreat. Recent topics have included Facilitating Small Groups; Learner Assessment: Writing Effective Comments; Enhancing Lecture Skills, Micro-Skills of Clinical Teaching and Learning.
PBL Training
We also sponsor a three-part program to train faculty to become PBL facilitators. In the first part, a faculty trainee is assigned to sit and observe a "seasoned" PBL faculty member facilitate a student group discussing a PBL case as it evolves over the three-day time period; usually this is done in the course or module prior to the faculty member's PBL teaching assignment. Some new PBL faculty agree and are able to co-facilitate with a veteran PBL facilitator for an entire course segment/module before "going solo" with their own group. In the second part, the trainee receives a comprehensive orientation session to PBL facilitation by the Associate Director of OCED. Finally, the third part consists of reading the PBL Guide for Faculty Facilitators. The guide also lists approximate time periods for the observation and orientation sessions, by course. Faculty wishing a copy of the PBL guide should contact the Foundational Curriculum Coordinator at 646-962-6516. Faculty wishing to participate in the PBL training program should contact the Associate Director of OCED at 646-962-6508.
Regional and National Programs
Funds permitting, the Office of Academic Affairs, in conjunction with OCED and/or academic departments, sponsors faculty to attend regional and national educational development programs, workshops, or annual meetings.
Other
The Associate Director of OCED also provides one-on-one consultation to help faculty improve their presentation and test writing skills, develop learning objectives, and prepare written manuscripts dealing with medical education (e.g., journal articles, grant applications, abstracts at regional, national, or international meetings).
Our staff also works with faculty (and students) on student assessment, as well as how to tailor course evaluation questionnaires for feedback to course design groups and to individual faculty members on their teaching skills. The Associate Director reviews and summarizes electronic course evaluations and meets with new faculty interested in discussing their teaching performance.
Our staff assists faculty in preparing and using electronic (e.g., Angel) and audiovisual resources for courses, including links to articles available through the medical school library.