Dean's Awards for Innovation in Teaching - Launched 2015

Winners of the Dean's Awards 2021-22 - 38,925 Euro awarded

After a Covid-19 related hiatus, we are very pleased to announce the return of the Dean's Awards for Innovation in Teaching in 2021-22. The selection panel supported five innovations across the schools of Medicine, Nursing & Midwifery and Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences. Awards Brochure

Dr Jennifer Conlan, Assistant Profesor, Clinical Medical Education, School of Medicine

The aim of this project is to conduct a pilot study on the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in clinical skills training of undergraduate medical students. The study will investigate the use of VR primary assessment scenarios developed by Oxford Medical Simulation.

Dr Emer McGowan, Assistant Profeossor, Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine

This project addresses the development of a module, suitable as an elective, that uses healthcare-related ethical dilemma scenarios to support the interprofessional development of moral reasoning competencies and related decision-making abilities.

Dr Cicely Roche, Associate Professor, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences

This project will explore how ePortfolio for experiential learning might further address competence assessment challenges in Sophister health professional curriculums using Pharmacy non-clinical remote placements, and Medicine clinical placements as test-beds. Dentistry’s trial of transferring log-books to ePortfolio (2021) will serve as a comparator.

Dr Annemarie Bennett, Assistant Professor in Dietetics, Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine

A student’s experience of their practice placement plays a profound role in their career choices after graduating, and as such, it is essential that the inevitable ups and – most especially – downs of placement are managed with students in a professional and fair manner. The ‘Struggling Student’ can generate significant stress among qualified practitioners and students, and this project aims to attenuate this.

Dr Jan de Vries, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing & Midwifery

One of the main difficulties students in nursing and midwifery need to overcome is making the connection between theory and practice. Often theory remains abstract and therefore its application in clinical decision making remains elusive. The project we propose is intended to help overcome this issue in innovative fashion through enhanced practice-based video and immersive virtual reality materials.

Image: Jan de Vries reciving his award from the Dean of Health Sciences, awards ceremony June 2022.