Join us at the Learning Innovation Showcase on Thursday, November 8, 12-1pm in the UCSF Clinical Skills Lab (room S20/S22) in the lower level of the Medical Science building (remote attendance via Zoom is available using https://ucsf.zoom.us/j/403454113). This quarterly showcase is designed by and for the UCSF education community to create opportunities to explore innovative applications of technology in education. At the Learning Innovation Showcase, educators can come together and learn from our peers, share best practices, see demonstrations, and discover new technologies.

The topic for the November 8 Showcase is Virtual Reality (VR) in Medical Education, with Dr. Derek Harmon, Assistant Adjunct Professor in UCSF Anatomy Learning Center. Learn how VR technology is being used in the Department of Anatomy at UCSF. Attendees will also have the opportunity to experience VR through live demos.

Virtual Reality allows for the presentation of anatomy in three dimensions and gives students the opportunity to participate in active learning outside of the anatomy labs at their own pace and to dive deeper into the subject matter. The Department of Anatomy at UCSF piloted Virtual Reality (VR) learning sessions in 2017. Due to the student feedback and popularity it has been fully implemented in 2018 for all first and second year medical students during each of their learning blocks within the Bridges curriculum.

Educational technology brings many advances and innovations to education but it also brings many challenges. New tools and strategies for teaching come to us every day, but educators seek opportunities to learn how to effectively use them, to share successes and solve problems with colleagues, and to scale innovations for broader use. 

The bi-monthly monthly showcase/roundtable provides opportunities to:

• Meet others in the community and do hands on activities
• Find potential collaborators
• Attract funding, develop elevator pitches, get feedback from students and others
• Share innovative use cases of existing tools - e.g. Zoom
• Share experiments using newer tools for education - e.g. VR/AR, Raspberry Pi
• Nurture ideas that could be proposed to CET for IT Roadmap funds

Look forward to more Learning Innovation Showcases, scheduled every quarter. The Learning Innovation Showcase is a collaboration between the IT Governance Committee on Education Technology (CET) and the UCSF Library.

Questions? Contact Gail.Persily@ucsf.edu