Earlier this month, UCD Medicine lecturer Dr. Tom Flanagan was presented with the Universitas 21 Health Sciences Teaching Excellence Award at the Universitas 21 Health Sciences Group (U21 HSG) Annual Meeting in Auckland, New Zealand.
L-R: Dr. Leigh Sperka, University of Queensland ; Dr Manuel Pérez Jiménez - Chair of the U21Health Sciences Group Executive Committee and Dr. Tom Flanagan , UCD School of Medicine
This international Teaching Excellence Award was set up in 2014 to celebrate and reward exceptional educational scholarship, particularly amongst research intensive universities, across the U21 HSG network. The Award was established to recognise leaders in this area and to share best practice across the network.
The Award also allows the U21 HSG network to nurture international cooperation, one of U21’s key objectives, by offering faculty from different universities, and regions, to work together on exciting, interdisciplinary projects.
Since the award was announced last year, Dr. Flanagan has worked closely with co-awardee, Dr. Leigh Sperka (University of Queensland) to develop a joint workshop for presentation at this year’s U21 HSG Annual Meeting in Auckland. The workshop, entitled “I’m An Educator, Get Me Out of Here!”, focused on the use of escape room activities in health sciences education. These immersive activities involve solving a series of problems towards a final goal within a fixed time period, and the format has grown in popularity in teaching and learning environments to foster teamwork and collaboration among students. Dr. Flanagan and Dr. Sperka shared their own experiences in using these activities to establish course expectations, review or assess course content and harness team-building in both physical and online learning environments. The workshop participants were placed in the role of students to experience the value in both the session format as a learning activity, as well as in collaborative activities with their peers.
Dr. Flanagan thanked the U21 HSG team for the opportunity and for their hospitality, and based on his experience, would encourage health sciences colleagues to apply to the many collaborative programmes and activities offered by the U21 HSG group.