The Next 25 Years: Focus Areas for Growth

Posted on October 12, 2016October 13, 2016

On May 3, 2016, President Ana Mari Cauce launched a groundbreaking Population Health Initiative by inviting the University community and partners to join in developing a 25-year vision to advance the health and well-being of people around the world. By working across disciplines, we can strengthen our combined efforts to improve population health in the areas of human health, environmental resiliency, and social and economic equity.

We have identified five areas for focused interdisciplinary development and optimal achievement in population health over the next quarter century. These focus areas build on projects like those highlighted in this report, and will expand our ability to turn our understanding of health determinants into actionable policies, reforms, interventions and innovations. Together, we can ensure that every individual — whether in the Pacific Northwest or in the poorest countries of the world — has the chance for a truly boundless future.

What is population health?

Population health is a broad concept encompassing not only the elimination of diseases and afflictions, but also the intersecting and overlapping factors that influence health. These influencing factors include climate change, poverty, racism, transportation, health-care access, urban planning, governance, and many more. Together, these issues revolve around three major pillars—social and economic equity, environmental resiliency and human health—and affect the lives of billions of people around the world.

Education and Capacity Building

The UW will foster the next generation of leaders, thinkers and doers by developing collaborative and innovative education opportunities that address the complexities of population health. By engaging broadly across campuses, we will strengthen the impact of a UW education by recruiting and supporting the world’s best teachers. We will educate students for the increasingly interdisciplinary workforce in health, spur innovation and offer more diverse experiences in local, national, and global research. Finally, even for those students who do not choose a career in population health, their experience will inspire them to improve lives in new ways.

Christopher Brown of Growing Veterans — In the name of holistic mental health, Christopher Brown, ‘16, created Growing Veterans, a non-profit that connects veterans by growing sustainable produce for farmers markets and food banks.

Diagnostics and Critical Assessment

To improve our understanding of the world’s most pressing health needs and the determinants shaping health outcomes, we will expand and strengthen our ability to extract knowledge from data by drawing on data science and field research. As home to the world’s preeminent health measurement institution, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, we are committed to creating a world where using the best evidence is the basis for informed decision making and the guide to productive innovations and practices in public health and beyond. Through these efforts, we will strengthen the democratization, dissemination and use of data; reveal the complex intersections between human health and its social determinants; and create the most complete picture possible of the keys to increasing social equity and environmental resiliency.

Developing and Testing Innovation

Innovation is at the heart of our university. We hope to bring together the remarkable talents of our faculty and students in problem-focused research to respond to the challenges of population health. We are already well-positioned to develop, field and assess new interventions, processes and organizational mechanisms. We can bring to bear our experience and scale to deliver innovative preventive measures and care.

UW Medical residents in Kenya — Chief Medical Resident Josh Lacsina oversees UW medical residents at the hospital in Naivasha, Kenya where they train Kenyan medical students.

Implementation Science

In the United States, it takes 17 years on average — almost a generation — to turn original research into widespread practice and large-scale policies that benefit population health, such as through community interventions and/or changes in health care programs. And typically, only 15 percent of research evolves into practice and policy. In many low- or middle-income countries, research translation takes much longer. The UW is a global leader in implementation science, with our cutting-edge education and training programs being complemented by collaborative research activities in a range of programs. We will leverage our expertise in this rapidly changing research paradigm to ask and answer questions about how to deliver effective interventions to people who need them with greater speed, efficiency and quality. Implementation science is a rapidly changing research paradigm that provides a scientific approach to ask and answer questions about how to deliver effective interventions to people who need them with greater speed, efficiency, and quality.

Strategy and Planning

The 21st century has dawned with new patterns of immigration, greater workforce mobility and increased influence from private philanthropy. Through research and engagement, we are poised to empower governments, industry and donors with evidence, tools and the decision-making support they need to make the choices that benefit the most people, most efficiently. This scale of impact requires timely and well-informed strategy and planning. The UW has a unique expertise in strategy and planning, through the Evans School, the Jackson School, Economics, Computer Science & Engineering, Environmental Studies, the Foster School of Business, big data analysis and more. We are committed to inclusive, comprehensive long-range and data-driven planning to ensure the greatest influence and impact over the next 25 years.

“I hope the Population Health Initiative will raise awareness of the social determinants of health and how those factors influence overall public health. In addition to raising awareness, I’d like to see some of the most disadvantaged local communities benefit from actions designed to improve their health and well-being.”

Eric King, Graduate/Professional Student Representative, Population Health Initiative Executive Council

Human Health

Posted on October 12, 2016October 13, 2016

Over the last 25 years, we have seen some of the greatest advances in medicine in the history of humankind. In the next 25 years, the greatest transformations will come as a result of interdisciplinary collaborations in the areas of clinical care, public health interventions, public policy, technology and more.

Community engagement leads to new vision screening law | UW Bothell

The routine distance-vision eye test has long been a staple of public school education in the state of Washington. Yet near-vision problems have not traditionally received the same scrutiny. This will soon change thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Jay Inslee earlier this year. The law grew out of a vision and learning symposium organized in 2014 by Associate Professor Bill Erdly, who helped bring together the experts, advocates and legislators needed to collaboratively develop a solution to the shortcomings of the routine test.

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Reconnecting veterans to life through farming | Social Work

Christopher Brown, a three-time Marine combat veteran and master of social work graduate, created a sustainable local farming organization for veterans in the name of holistic mental health. Growing Veterans, a thriving nonprofit, seeks to transform the lives of veterans through satisfying work and an opportunity to reconnect with one another and their communities to help reduce feelings of isolation and prevent suicide.

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Developing a long-acting antiretroviral treatment for HIV | Pharmacy and Medicine

Current oral drug therapies for HIV can greatly reduce the presence of the virus in the blood stream. However, limitations prevent these therapies from reducing the presence of HIV in the tissues of a body, and to work in the blood stream, patients must strictly adhere to daily dosing regimens for the rest of their lives. To address these shortcomings, Professor Rodney J. Y. Ho, pharmacy, and Professor Ann Collier, medicine, have partnered to develop a new, seven-day long-lasting HIV therapy that seeks to overcome drug insufficiency in tissues while also improving patient adherence.

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Creating devices that reanimate paralyzed limbs | Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering

Researchers at the UW’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering are developing groundbreaking new medical devices intended to help restore function and mobility in individuals stricken by spinal cord injury or stroke. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, these researchers have developed implantable devices that can detect brain signals and transmit that information to other parts of the body’s nervous system. The center’s goal is to develop a successful demonstration of this concept in humans in the next five years, which will then allow regulatory approval to occur for wider dissemination.

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Decoding dyslexia with non-invasive brain imaging | Speech and Hearing Sciences

The brain has evolved over thousands of years to allow humans to communicate through language. Reading is a relatively new skill for the brain, however, which leads Assistant Professor Jason Yeatman to wonder if dyslexia is a byproduct of visual systems being wired slightly differently in some humans. With the aid of non-invasive brain imaging technology, Yeatman and his team are studying developing brains to identify the changes that occur as reading skills are required. Through this research, they hope to expand treatment options for dyslexia.

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Creating a mobile app that tests lung capacity | CoMotion, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering

People suffering from lung diseases in developing worlds often do not have a good way to track lung functioning without visiting the doctor. Through the work of UW researchers, many may soon be able to measure their lung function simply by blowing into any type of phone due to SpiroCall, a new health sensing tool, which was found to meet the medical community’s standard for accuracy. With this proof of concept in hand, the research team can now plan for additional data collection and determine how to best communicate results to patients.

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“I hope that my work advances interdisciplinary connections in support of legal and policy reforms that improve community health as broadly conceived, enhance the patient experience of care, and provide better value for our health care dollars.”

Sallie Thieme Sanford, Associate Professor, UW School of Law

“I am particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn more about potential collaborations between the health sciences and the broader University community [through the Population Health Initiative].”

F. Bruder Stapleton, Professor and Chair of Pediatrics

“I hope the initiative will increase awareness of disparities in health, healthcare, and health-care access among different populations, and causes underlying these disparities.”

Ceci Giachelli, W. Hunter and Dorothy Simpson Endowed Chair and Professor Bioengineering

Environmental Resiliency

Posted on October 12, 2016October 13, 2016

There is no question that our environment and its resources impact human health and well-being. The exact extent of the impact, however, is not always clear. From energy production to pollution, from natural disasters to overfishing, the Population Health Initiative encourages connections across disciplines to seek a better understanding of environmental sustainability.

Connecting to nature is key for healthy urban living | Psychology and Environmental and Forest Services

UW researcher Peter Kahn says that city dwellers are unaware of how their minimal connection to nature is putting our health and the survival of wildlife and wild areas at great risk. Kahn coauthored a new book exploring how “environmental generational amnesia” is partly due to multiple generations shifting away from meaningful interactions with the great outdoors. But nature can be incorporated within cities, the authors say. “Cities designed well, with nature in mind and at hand, can be understood as natural, supportive of both ecosystem integrity and public health.”

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A groundbreaking concept for a fusion reactor could reduce our carbon footprint and change the energy game | Aeronautics and Astronautics

The cost of producing fusion power has traditionally not penciled out in comparison to current energy sources, placing this zero-emission power source out of reach for wide-scale development. UW researchers believe they have now designed a concept for fusion power built on existing technology that will render that traditional cost structure obsolete. With a successful prototype in hand, they are now turning to further development and expansion of the device to create the needed power output to be a viable replacement for the fossil fuels that endanger our planet’s health.

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UW develops earthquake early warning tools | Earth and Space Science

As populations continue to grow on the West Coast, earthquakes remain a top threat. At the White House Earthquake Resilience Summit in February 2016, the UW received new funding for early warning systems. The UW-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is helping develop ShakeAlert, an alert system that could save lives by triggering automated and human actions just before an earthquake hits. And in a partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, UW researchers will examine how a network of sensors on the ocean floor can provide early warnings from the volatile Cascadia subduction zone.

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Restoring oysters in Puget Sound | Center for Urban Waters, UW Tacoma

When overfishing, polluted waters and shoreline changes led to the extinction of the Olympia oyster from Puget Sound, it changed the nature of our local ecosystem. UW Tacoma associate professor Bonnie Becker is leading undergraduate researchers in a collaborative effort to reintroduce the native oyster to its original environment. Her teams monitor microscopic larvae to identify sites where Olympia oysters can naturally seed the area and be self-sustaining. Reintroducing native oysters can improve the habitat for other plants and animals, including salmon prey, and help restore the natural balance of the sound for the health of our region.

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Clean, efficient cookstove can reduce pollution, illness, and early death | Mechanical Engineering

Smoke from open indoor cooking fires and cookstoves in developing countries is believed to cause millions of illnesses and premature deaths each year. Long journeys to gather all that fuel often expose adults and children to further dangers. To overcome these challenges, UW engineers partnered with the nonprofit BURN Design Lab to develop a much cleaner-
burning and more efficient cookstove, known as the Kuniokoa. This innovative stove will be manufactured by local workers in Nairobi, Kenya, and its designers believe the Kuniokoa will successfully reduce harmful particulate pollution by as much as 67 percent.

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Air pollution accelerates plaque build-up in arteries to heart | School of Public Health

Air pollution monitors like this tracked pollutants in more than 1,500 locations across six metro areas between 2005 and 2009. Then, researchers developed computational models to generate accurate pollution concentrations affecting people’s health. — Air pollution monitors like this tracked pollutants in more than 1,500 locations across six metro areas between 2005 and 2009. Then researchers developed computational models to generate accurate pollution concentrations affecting people’s health.

Researchers have long understood that lengthy exposure to air pollution is directly linked to an increased risk of heart disease. Thanks to the result of a 10-year study led by Professor Joel Kaufman, we now have a greater understanding of the biological responses to pollution that lead to heart disease, and that air pollution at levels — even below regulatory standards — can accelerate the hardening of human arteries. The study’s results are being used to push for new action in controlling pollution levels worldwide.

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“I hope that the Population Health Initiative encourages and supports collaboration across disciplines and across sectors towards this common goal and further, that having a deliberate and sustained focus on population health will amplify our impact.”

Emiko A. Tajima
Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
School of Social Work

“Through this initiative, I hope that we educate all our students to understand, integrate and apply population health principles and knowledge in their personal and professional lives regardless of whether they choose a career in this field.”

David Reyes
Assistant Professor
Nursing & Healthcare Leadership Program
UW Tacoma

“Through this initiative I hope that faculty, researchers, and students across units can work together to harness our world-class research and teaching and commitment to community service to improve the health of populations in the United States and across the world.”

Hedwig Lee
Associate Professor
Sociology

Social and Economic Equity

Posted on October 11, 2016October 13, 2016

Social and economic inequity has lasting effects on societies and the health of populations. UW scholars from a wide range of disciplines are addressing equity in innovative ways. Solutions range from addressing income inequality to education quality, poverty to criminal justice reform, and many other equity issues that directly and indirectly affect human health and well-being.

Minimum Wage Study examines the impact of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage | Evans School of Public Policy & Governance and Social Work

Since Seattle passed legislation providing for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the nation has been watching and waiting to see the effects on the local economy and quality of life. Tracking these effects and more is the Minimum Wage Study, a five-year research effort led by investigators from the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance with the School of Social Work.

The team seeks to answer such questions as, does a higher minimum wage improve quality of life measures, including health, nutrition, and family daily life? As more cities anticipate hikes in their minimum wage, this research will inform future decisions about the effects on workers, their families, employers, and the community.

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Innovative, low cost NIFTY™ Cup seeks to save millions of lives | Dentistry

Each year, there are millions of babies in developing countries born prematurely or with oral clefts who struggle to breast feed. These babies are often at high risk for malnourishment, infection, and often death. Thanks to Christy McKinney, a clinical assistant professor of oral health sciences, a new feeding aid is now readying for widespread distribution across Africa.

In partnership with PATH and Seattle Children’s, McKinney developed the NIFTY™ cup (Neonatal Intuitive Feeding TechnologY), a low-cost silicone cup with a small reservoir and spout that allows mothers to easily and safely feed these vulnerable newborns. This innovative intervention has the potential to solve a major global challenge, which could save millions of lives.

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States with punitive justice systems have higher rates of foster care, study finds | Sociology

Why do some states place more kids into foster care than others? A new study connects the hidden dots between a state’s approaches to social problems and their rate of foster care. Author Frank Edwards is a UW doctoral student in sociology who found that states with more punitive criminal justice systems remove children from their homes far more frequently than states with more generous welfare programs. This means that two states with similar rates of child abuse and neglect could have very different rates of foster care entry, significantly impacting the futures of already vulnerable children.

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Skies Over Seattle: Theater piece drawn from student experiences volunteering for U District social service entities | Drama

What does it mean to be homeless in the U-District? Drama students created “Skies Over Seattle,” original theater pieces inspired by the intersection of volunteerism and artistic creation in pursuit of understanding that question. Graduate students in acting, design and directing, as well as several undergraduates, volunteered for three community organizations that serve the homeless around the UW’s Seattle campus.

Over the course of a year, their lessons learned and questions asked inspired the students to write, design and perform original pieces that challenge assumptions about the communities that share the space beneath one sky. “We want the community to know that we’re not giving them a voice — they already have a voice,” says AJ Friday, a student in the Professional Actor Training Program.

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New UW program aims to foster better education for Native learners | Education

Education is a key component of lifelong health, yet the underrepresentation of Native American teachers across the United States often negatively impacts young Native students. The new Native Education Certificate seeks to address that challenge by providing a knowledge base for non-Native teachers to create a culturally relevant curriculum for Native students. Mixing online learning and community projects, the 10-unit program is designed to reduce the disconnect between non-Native teachers and Native children, making public schools more inclusive.

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Map-a-thon collaboration helps sidewalks be accessible | TCAT and DSSG

Inadequate sidewalks and navigational infrastructure can be a nuisance to anyone, but for people with mobility limitations or low vision, these conditions can not only feel insurmountable, but become hazardous. The Taskar Center for Accessible Technology and the OpenSidewalks team from the UW eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good program held a Map-a-thon to address these issues. Data collected by Seattle community members will be integrated with the OpenStreetMap open source platform to offer more robust sidewalk information and navigational assistance for those with limited mobility.

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UW Nurse Camp inspires underrepresented high school students to become the next generation of nurses | Nursing

Less than 20 percent of the U.S. nursing workforce are from low income or underrepresented backgrounds — yet the patients those future nurses will serve are increasingly likely to be minorities. The UW School of Nursing is widening the pathway to nursing for minority students through the UW Nurse Camp. Each summer, high school students get hands-on experience in the world of nursing. Not only do they gain insight into medical career options, many begin to see earning a degree as a real option for the first time, something many low-income or underrepresented students may struggle to visualize.

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“This initiative will provide the activation energy needed to facilitate real impact when it comes to tackling key challenges that currently compromise population health.”

Alison Cullen
Professor, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

Finding meaning behind the music

Posted on May 2, 2016September 8, 2016

Online tool helps students get creative with final class presentations

Kim Davenport, lecturer in Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW Tacoma, went online to help students find their creativity.

Last fall, UW Tacoma Lecturer Kim Davenport turned to FOLD, a new web-based open publishing platform, to help her students construct multimedia presentations that allow them to discover their creative voice.

FOLD, as Davenport quickly discovered, boosted the learning of the students in her humanities classes, encouraging them to express their ideas about music in multiple ways.

“It brought out a lot of creativity in my students. And it made them better presenters,’’ says Davenport, a lecturer in Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences who first asked students to use FOLD for their final presentations last autumn quarter.

“Many of the presentations are very touching, from a student who is contending with life after military service to someone who explored his world of sound by making a potato clarinet,” says Davenport, who also was pleased by the high quality of content students produced, including the original musical pieces they performed for classmates.

Technology offers students new options to apply theories and demonstrate understanding

Students are now required to use FOLD to produce their final assignment in Davenport’s course, Listening Outside the Box: Concert Music in the 21st Century. Before, Davenport asked students to write a two-page paper.

Writing about music is no easy task, says Davenport, even for seasoned musicians. FOLD makes it easier for students—many who have no music experience at all—to design, create, document and perform a new musical work as part of their final class presentation. With FOLD, they can attach videos, song snippets, photos and other multimedia to their words.

“I have been using FOLD for three quarters now, and it has really reinvigorated the final assignment,” Davenport says.

Studying—and emulating—an artist to boost your own creativity

Davenport’s class is centered on the musical philosophies of John Cage, considered one of the most influential composers of the 20^th century. Cage pioneered the idea of “indeterminacy” in music—where any part of a musical composition is “indeterminate” if its performance is not precisely specified in the notation, allowing the performer to play at random or within certain guidelines.

This approach also typically features non-standard use of musical instruments or even everyday objects, such as what is seen in the musical Stomp and by the Blue Man Group live musical act. Students learn about Cage, the meaning and philosophy of music, and, finally, are asked to create and perform a new musical work in homage to Cage.

Davenport says Cage’s ideas about music are particularly important—and accessible—for students who are looking at music critically for the first time. His unique ideas and creative approaches, which often push the boundaries of what is traditionally considered music, encourage students to expand their own views about music.

Following in Cage’s footsteps, many of Davenport’s students push the boundaries in their presentations, creating original video to play their scores and using a wide range of media to support their ideas and inspiration.

Students learn how creative inspiration comes from anywhere, from the kitchen to Snapchat

FOLD, developed at the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Civic Media in 2015, lets users link media “cards” to the text of their stories. These cards can include content in just about any digital form, from unique and fresh multimedia content created by the users to videos, photos, maps, tweets, audio and other links that already exist on the internet.

For an example, Davenport sends her students to look at L’instrument de la Terre, created by student Paul Kang, who made a potato clarinet for his final class assignment. Kang talks about his inspiration in his FOLD presentation, which is peppered with video, photos and music.

“I chose to make a potato clarinet to show that you can make music with anything if you have the passion and the dedication like John Cage,” writes Kang, who carved a potato and used clarinet parts to make his instrument.

Another student found his inspiration from social media. “My motivation to do this piece came from my constant Snapchat use,” writes Ariel Advincula. “I realized I posted a lot of snippets of my life on my Snapchat and if I skipped, stopped and replayed the footage in sporadic patterns, I found that even the simplest of sounds can become music.”

“I want to empower them to find their own voices by creating music and sharing those experiences with others.”

Students have the option of keeping their projects online, Davenport says, something she encourages so others can enjoy and learn from their work.

“I’m always trying to find ways to make music more engaging for students. Some of my students have no musical skills, and I want to empower them to find their own voices by creating music and sharing those experiences with others.”

Davenport’s suggestions for incorporating FOLD into a class project:

If you’re going to use a new classroom technology, try it out first, see if it fits: Technologies come and go and that’s true for classroom use, Davenport says, so be open to new tools that can help you meet your teaching and learning goals. Davenport learned about FOLD last summer, when she used it to make a submission of her classroom work for a music award. She tried it and saw its potential to help students.

FOLD is relatively new and free for now, but Davenport recommends it because her experience over three quarters has been largely positive—students have reacted well to it and have used it in creative ways to support their work.

However, as easy as it is to use, she says faculty should definitely try out any new classroom technology first before asking students to work with it. “I learned how to use it very quickly, and students should not have any problems at all,’’ she says. “Students live online, so this is easy for them.”

Make it a requirement: At first, using FOLD was not required, but consistency in a classroom is important, she says. Now, students know they will be using FOLD to create and present their final project—worth 30 percent of their grade.

Help students understand how to use the classroom technology and how it fits into their experience of learning about creativity: Davenport spends time with students explaining how they will use the publishing platform. FOLD helps students put different concepts together and to build on them to present their own creative ideas about a particular piece of music.

“I don’t have to spend too much time telling them how to use it. Yet, it is important to make sure that students understand that this is just one tool for a very specific assignment.” FOLD can help them tell the story of their final product, but the creative work comes from them.

“I still expect them to participate in the classroom and engage in discussion with other students in multiple ways,” Davenport says.

Showing rather than telling at UW’s School of Dentistry

Posted on March 29, 2016November 4, 2016

First-year dental students learn big lessons thanks to strong storytelling videos

Donald Chi, associate professor in the UW Department of Oral Health Sciences, turned to video case studies to help students understand complex dental health issues.

Four years ago, UW School of Dentistry associate professor Donald Chi traveled to a remote Alaska Native community in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region to find out what was rotting young keggutet, the Yup’ik word for teeth.

What Chi learned in the field perfectly illustrates why he has replaced traditional paper case studies with videos in first-year public dental health classes—it is often better to show rather than tell students how complex dental health issues may someday challenge their professional lives, and the lives of their patients.

“When I was a dental student here at the UW, we had lectures and paper case studies that we discussed in small groups,” says Chi, who teaches in the Department of Oral Health Sciences. “We studied a different case each week, but they didn’t feel tangible or real to me.”

Video case studies illustrate complexities of real-world health disparities

The videos elicited a more visceral and more humane response from students, and also increased student engagement and learning, he says. The videos are used in the “Introduction to Dental Public Health Sciences” course, which familiarizes first-year dental students with public health concepts such as barriers to dental care, behavioral and social determinants of oral health, and the development of multi-level solutions to reduce oral health disparities. These are areas in which Chi has experienced issues firsthand in Alaska and in other communities as a researcher and dentist.

Case studies play a central role in introducing students to real-life scenarios. It may show, for example, high numbers of cavities among children in an area where there’s no fluoridated water but plenty of sugary drinks. Throughout his Alaska research, Chi met these children and their families, and saw how shocked and surprised parents were after realizing their children had been consuming 16 times the maximum amount of added sugars recommended for children.

“These case studies put dental health care in perspective. They allow students to follow a scenario, discuss barriers to health and potential solutions with their peers. But I thought we could do it better with video,” Chi says.

Chi returned to teach at the UW in 2010, when pedagogical approaches also were making a strong case for video in some circumstances. He wanted to see if videos could make the case study approach an even more powerful learning experience, and he started with a modest goal of three videos to test the waters.

The videos piloted shortly after his arrival. One tells the story of a teenager of American Indian descent with mouth sores caused by tobacco products; another follows a non-English speaking pregnant woman frustrated by dental forms she can’t understand; a third focuses on a Medicaid-enrolled preschooler with a non-English speaking mom. All three are still in use today, with six others now part of the dental library. Chi said there are plans to make more videos, including one that discusses dental problems faced by the homeless population.

REAL PROBLEMS, REAL PEOPLE

Learn about one dental student’s experiences with video case studies.

Student data showed videos resulted in better learning than paper case studies

“I’m big on evidence-based teaching,” says Chi, who co-authored a study comparing video vs. paper cases. The data revealed that dental students who received a video case for study reported better affective, cognitive and overall learning outcomes than students who received a paper case. “We found significant statistical differences. Across all measures, the videos were much better at improving student outcomes.”

Students who watched the videos reported a higher understanding of public health problems and how these issues might affect their own careers as dentists. Compared with students who studied from paper cases, the video students also had more empathy toward vulnerable individuals and a greater appreciation of how health disparities impacted real people, Chi says.

“When we made the videos, I didn’t realize at first how powerful they were and how much they affected the thinking of so many students.”

Through visual storytelling, the individuals and their problems become more real to students—some of whom have never even had a dental cavity. The videos, he says, lead to deeper, more empathetic thinking toward people dealing with health disparities.

“When we made the videos, I didn’t realize at first how powerful they were and how much they affected the thinking of so many students,’’ says Chi. “Many were outraged by the situations they saw in the videos. They were affected in a very profound way.”

Chi’s suggestions for producing case study videos:

Aim for quality over quantity: Chi recommends starting small, and focusing on producing only one or two videos at first. Students are accustomed to technology, and savvy about video. They know if something is poorly made when they see it. Chi and colleagues narrowed their focus and chose three dental health topics that could be made into short, well-made videos.

Assemble a team and access UW support: Chi suggests involving people with expertise in producing videos and not being afraid to ask for help. UW Video provides services to the entire University community; faculty can also tap hourly videographers or Communications grad students who are adept at visual storytelling and need a project. Chi says volunteer actors, film editors and videographers often need the practice and are happy to participate in this type of project. He recruited his sister, who had finished studying film at the UW, to direct and produce the videos. They worked together with a team of psychologists to craft the story and dialogue. Video expertise, from writing to filming to acquiring talent (actors), is more likely to produce positive results, with videos that will engage students.

However, there are costs involved in producing high-quality video. Chi sought funding from multiple sources to support his project, putting together a business plan based on three pilot videos, and making a strong case for visual storytelling as a pedagogical tool. As evidence, he cited the Commission on Dental Accreditation, which encourages the use of technology such as video to enhance the educational experience of dental students while improving the learning environment.

Keep it short: Students don’t need one-hour videos. A typical video in the dental school is about 10 minutes long. That’s plenty of time for a detailed narrative that won’t overwhelm.

Remember that video isn’t a substitute for face-to-face teaching: Video does not stand alone. In problem-based learning, video is another tool for learning. It is most effective when supplemented with group discussions led by a facilitator.

Acknowledgments: The original video idea stemmed from a collaboration among Chi and Drs. Jacqueline Pickrell, lecturer in Oral Health Sciences at the UW, and Christine Riedy, now an instructor at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. As psychologists, they were involved in dental research at the UW School of Dentistry when the videos were first proposed.

Funding for the pilot videos came from three main sources: The UW Department of Oral Health Sciences, the UW Regional Initiatives in Dental Education (RIDE) Program, and the UW School of Dentistry Fund for Sustaining Excellence.

Student testimonial: How video helps put a face on critical dental health care issues

Posted on March 29, 2016March 29, 2016

Dental student Christopher Shyue says video case studies stimulate active learning processes and help students become critical thinkers and independent learners.

Before I started dental school, I knew that it would not be an easy task, yet I was still surprised and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that we needed to learn. In my effort to stay afloat, I resorted to memorizing hard facts and statistical numbers presented in PowerPoint slides, hoping that this would be sufficient to help me pass the constant stream of quizzes and exams.

It was not until I took Dr. Donald Chi’s Dental Public Health Sciences class that I realized I was missing the true purpose of learning for a health care provider. In that class, Dr. Chi utilized video case studies to illustrate scenarios of patients encountering various issues when they try to access dental care. For me, this approach “puts a face on the problem,” which reminded me that we are learning to be care providers; we not only need to know the facts, but ultimately need to use the knowledge in a way to positively impact patients’ health outcomes.

The video case studies were also important in stimulating an active learning process. We analyzed the scenarios in the videos to pinpoint the challenges that the patients faced. Then through group discussions, we came up with potential solutions and researched scientific literatures to evaluate the feasibility of each solution. Through this process, we were actively engaged in our learning, which helped us to become critical thinkers and independent learners.

— Christopher Shyue, School of Dentistry, Class of 2018

What to Know When Using Random Calling

Posted on March 8, 2016March 8, 2016

Ben Wiggins, faculty coordinator for instruction and lecturer in biology, shares his top tips on incorporating random calling for a more inclusive and equitable classroom experience.

Prepare a randomized list of student names: Don’t rely on yourself to randomly choose a name; instead, develop a system. Wiggins says it can be as simple as using two dice and a numbered list.

Rolling dice is one low-tech way to use random calling in your class.
Frame it as a safe environment: Make it safe for students to speak up when they are called on. “Everybody is on point every day,” says Wiggins. Randomly calling on students helps push those who avoid talking to gain the ability to speak with confidence.
Lessen anxiety: “For a small percentage of students, the heightened anxiety may go beyond helpful into something that deters their learning,” says Wiggins. Provide an easy option for students to voluntarily remove (and also re-add) themselves to the list, such as emailing the professor.
Remind students of the benefits: From practicing public speaking and persuasive skills to making mental models transparent, help students connect the dots about the ways this learning method benefits them. “Their initial discomfort is often balanced out by the benefits,” he says. “Keep it relevant for students, if only through your own comments about process throughout class.”
Make it OK to be wrong: “Passing” on a question should always be an option, but instructors who can create a courageous atmosphere find that this happens relatively rarely. “Did you convince the student, and the rest of the class, that being wrong is a useful part of the process?” queries Wiggins. “If you do that, you’ll feel the class come around with you and they’ll be more engaged on more levels.”

These tips are related to the Innovators Among Us article, “What is your class telling you?” detailing research on gender gaps in the classroom.

References

Eddy, Sarah L., Sara E. Brownell, and Mary Pat Wenderoth. “Gender gaps in achievement and participation in multiple introductory biology classrooms.” CBE-Life Sciences Education 13.3 (2014): 478-492.

Grunspan, Daniel Z., Sarah L. Eddy, Sara E. Brownell, Benjamin L. Wiggins, Alison J. Crowe and Steven M. Goodreau. “Males Under-Estimate Academic Performance of Their Female Peers in Undergraduate Biology Classrooms” PLOS ONE February 10, 2016, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148405

What is your class telling you?

Posted on March 8, 2016October 12, 2016

Researchers uncover persistent gender performance gaps in their classes, but suggest classroom techniques to improve equity

Clickers can be a tool to improve equitable participation in a large class.

Ben Wiggins, a faculty coordinator for instruction and lecturer in biology, knew many students in his introductory biology classes faced challenges that reached beyond the material being taught.

Something else, something quite powerful, was at play in the background, affecting the performance of female students. Work by Sarah Eddy, Sara Brownell and Mary Pat Wenderoth (Eddy et al. 2014)¹, his colleagues in the Biology Education Research Group at the UW, had revealed an achievement gap that favors males as top performers, a phenomenon that could affect student self-confidence—particularly of females—thus influencing their persistence in their discipline. The researchers observed this gender achievement gap, in addition to a participation gap, even in classes where males were outnumbered by females three-to-two. Although their research focused on introductory biology classes, the researchers believe the dynamic may be at play in other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) classes and throughout the University as well.

Wiggins joined colleagues Dan Grunspan, a doctoral student in anthropology performing graduate work on social aspects of learning, and Eddy, then a post-doctoral student heavily involved in gender equity issues in the classroom, to further understand what was happening. Their research revealed another bias in who students perceive as knowledgeable in the class.

The research: How Wiggins and colleagues reached their conclusions

“Just because a student knows someone doesn’t mean they’re willing to say ‘I think they know the material…

To conduct social network analysis, Wiggins and colleagues began by asking students to list who in the class they predict will be a particularly strong student. “Just because a student knows someone doesn’t mean they’re willing to say ‘I think they know the material,’” notes Wiggins. No inequality was evident when the question was asked at the beginning of the quarter, but as the students answered the same question after each of four exams throughout the term, more males than females were listed as strong students—even in a course where females significantly outnumbered males.

Analysis of the data revealed that males were much more likely to nominate other males, while women were equally nominating males and females who were perceived to receive high grades and often speak up in class. “Females seem to nominate equitably based on who you would expect [from actual performance], whereas males over-nominate other males,” says Grunspan. This work has recently been published in PLOS ONE, and the larger team includes former Biology Education Postdoc Sara Brownell, UW Biology Principal Lecturer Alison Crowe and UW Anthropology Associate Professor Steven Goodreau².

What instructors can do to minimize the gender gap

Despite the complexities of a classroom environment, the researchers say their data highlight broad issues that can largely be addressed through small tweaks in teaching methods.

Random calling helps address the common problem of implicit bias

Research on teaching has shown that gender biases commonly creep in to how instructors run their classes. “As an instructor, it’s likely that I don’t call on people in a gender-equitable way, even if I’m thinking about it, even if I have a lot of experience,” says Wiggins. “If you want to make classes more gender equitable, you have to take your own biases out of it.” Therefore, Wiggins regularly employs a method known as random call to improve equity in class participation. It is a method long used in teaching, and the work of Eddy, Brownell and Wenderoth (2014) confirmed that random calling rather than choosing students or asking for volunteers can also equalize the environment of the college classroom. “Where everybody is equally likely to be called on, everyone is more active. Students can’t avoid being called on by staying in the back,” Wiggins says. Involving more students beyond those who are naturally more inclined to be “outspoken”—a measure the researchers determined by asking instructors to rank students they recalled as speaking up most in class—can potentially influence the perceptions of other students about who is doing well in the class, one element affecting self-confidence. “But more importantly, it randomizes who is doing the talking,” notes Wiggins. “It may help to alleviate this prestige gap that we see.”

Random calling can offer more equitable opportunities for positive reinforcement

Women in particular can benefit from seeing more women speak up with the right answer or successfully handle being wrong—with no adverse effects on males in the classroom. As students transition into a career, beginning with an introductory biology class, women are particularly vulnerable to threats to their self-confidence, which is closely linked to persistence in STEM and is known to be heavily influenced by social interactions such as classroom participation. Getting an answer right or wrong in an introductory biology class may seem like a small thing to affect a student’s persistence in a chosen field, but, “It’s the day-to-day interactions that matter,” explains Eddy. “The minute someone defers to you, you feel like you’re an expert.”

Moving students from a “fixed mindset” about intelligence to a “growth mindset” may help

Persistence and confidence are also closely linked to what students believe about their ability to grow their intellectual capacity and learn from being wrong. Noted psychologist and Stanford researcher Carol Dweck has shown that simple interventions, such as asking people to reflect and write about their values and motivations, can change people’s mindset, and “rewire” the brain to a growth mindset. “One hypothesis is that perhaps more females are coming in with a fixed mindset while more males are coming in with a growth mindset,” says Grunspan. Moving forward, the UW researchers plan to test the effects of interventions on introductory biology classes.

Connecting the classroom environment to the outside world

Digging deeper into the research revealed consistent gender gaps in both student perception and achievement, even when controlling for student grades coming into the class. “By the end of your college career, you may have seen this pattern happen 20 or 30 times, and those same people you see in all your classes may very easily be doing hiring or firing later,” says Wiggins.

As Wiggins, Grunspan and Eddy realized they were seeing evidence of invisible but powerful forces affecting their students, they began to understand how persistent negative stereotypes can be. “We tend to think our classrooms are distinct from society, but the processes from our larger society are being brought into the classroom. Unless we can actively disrupt them, it will continue,” says Eddy.

Eddy joins Wiggins and Grunspan in viewing classroom data as an important tool to interrupt the negative processes they observed. “Professors typically have the ability to look back at numbers and performance in a class. Start prying a little deeper and really assess what’s going on in each classroom,” advises Grunspan. If the data suggest these common problems are affecting the performance of your students, consider ways you can make space in your classroom for equitable opportunities and inclusion. “As instructors, that’s where we have leverage,” says Wiggins. “We want to make sure we run the class in a way that engages everyone, and this is just one example of changing our teaching to serve diverse students.”

Get more details

Find out how Ben Wiggins incorporates random calling into his classroom.

“If you want to make classes more gender equitable, you have to take your own biases out of it.”

– Ben Wiggins

“We tend to think our classrooms are distinct from society, but the processes from our larger society are being brought into the classroom.”

– Sarah Eddy

“Professors typically have the ability to look back at numbers and performance in a class. Start prying a little deeper and really assess what’s going on in each classroom.”

– Dan Grunspan

References

¹Eddy, Sarah L., Sara E. Brownell, and Mary Pat Wenderoth. “Gender gaps in achievement and participation in multiple introductory biology classrooms.” CBE-Life Sciences Education 13.3 (2014): 478-492.

²Grunspan, Daniel Z., Sarah L. Eddy, Sara E. Brownell, Benjamin L. Wiggins, Alison J. Crowe and Steven M. Goodreau. “Males Under-Estimate Academic Performance of Their Female Peers in Undergraduate Biology Classrooms” PLOS ONE February 10, 2016, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148405

Husky Presidential Ambassadors

Posted on February 29, 2016March 1, 2016

Transitioning to college can be especially challenging for international students. Through leadership studies, domestic students facilitate smooth transitions and inclusive engagement as Husky Presidential Ambassadors

Universities across the nation are working to further connect international students and create a globally engaged campus environment for all students. Increasing globalization also raises the demand for graduates with increased competencies in cross-cultural communication and practice. Engaging together in cross-cultural leadership studies, undergraduates learn to think and connect across boundaries, enhancing all students’ Husky Experience.

Learning from a pilot orientation program

Global Affairs and First Year Programs saw an opportunity to connect and engage incoming and returning students from the U.S. and overseas through a study abroad program. Because Chinese students make up the largest number of international students on campus, they held the pilot program in China.

In 2015, they partnered with Regional Advancement to pilot the Husky Presidential Ambassadors program, a study abroad program in which 20 upperclassmen traveled to China to bring a short orientation experience to incoming Chinese students. The organizers agreed it was a success, but they knew it could be more.

Partnering with the Husky Leadership Initiative

The team engaged the Husky Leadership Initiative in order to further anchor the program in the Husky Experience. “We are seeking innovative ways to make leadership education accessible to all UW students, and we believe leadership studies can cross cultural barriers in the ways we wanted,” says Fran Lo, director of the Husky Leadership Initiative. Lo is co-directing the new program with Liping Yu, senior lecturer of Asian Language & Literature. They developed a leadership curriculum that students will begin together in China and continue on campus.

In summer 2016, 20 UW students selected for their outstanding campus engagement and diversity of background and experience will participate in an Exploration Seminar. A week of coursework on campus will prepare them for their experience in China. They will spend the next week in Beijing experiencing new cultural surroundings. In the final week, they will meet the incoming Chinese students and engage together in the week-long Husky Presidential Ambassadors Leadership Institute. The students will live and study together in Tsinghua University facilities.

During the institute, Yu and Lo will guide the students in connecting leadership theory to practice. They will meet with government officials, business leaders and community change agents while also engaging in skill-building and self-reflective opportunities to accelerate their personal leadership development. The students will continue to explore leadership perspectives across boundaries when they arrive on campus. In fall quarter, they will continue their education through an on-campus seminar and participation in Unite UW, a domestic-international student exchange program facilitated by Student Life.

Through strong campus partnership and creative collaboration, the Husky Presidential Ambassadors Leadership Institute is an innovative education model cultivating globally-minded leaders who are prepared to create connections across boundaries and work together for a world of good.