The IDEA Lab
The Innovative Design for Education and Assessment (IDEA) Lab is a primary driver of innovation at the ICRE. Our video producer, graphic designer, and instructional designer work closely with ICRE faculty to develop effective and beautiful instructional materials. To date, our team has developed a wide range of online programs and courses, incorporating digital tools and using multimedia, gamification, storytelling, and interactivity to spark learner engagement.
Cutting Edge Content
The ICRE’s curriculum is continually evolving to address emerging topic areas. We have recently added an Innovation track and an Implementation Science track, and are poised to offer new courses in machine learning.
Pitt DISC Implementation Science 101 Video Series
There’s no better example of our cutting-edge work than the Implementation Science 101 Video series produced by the IDEA Lab. See two examples below and check out the rest on the Pitt DISC YouTube Channel.
Implementation Science Extended Teaser
How to use implementation hybrid designs
HCD for Researchers
Human Centered Design (HCD) is a creative, visually engaging, and inclusive approach to problem-solving that can help researchers pursue more innovative research. The ICRE collaborates with Pitt’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the renowned LUMA Institute to provide HCD training to members of research teams and is tailoring combinations of HCD methods (called “recipes”) specifically to the needs of researchers. After participating in training, researchers have reported using HCD to accomplish a range of goals, including refining study aims, writing discussion sections, understanding barriers to implementation, and soliciting input from team members.
Customized Career Development Platform
The ICRE is developing a repository of digital tools—including authorship agreements and mentoring contracts —to help researchers plan their careers and collaborate more effectively. One of these tools is the Customized Career Development Platform (CCDP), a sleek, web-based career planning platform which enables trainees to strategically plan their careers, link their career goals with competencies, interact with their mentors while planning their career goals, adjust the timeline for their milestones as needed, and track their success.
Med Ed Faculty Development Program
This program features 4-week, small-enrollment, online "mini-courses" focused on timely topics in medical education, including curriculum development, remediating gaps in medical knowledge, developing clinical reasoning, and giving effective feedback. Learners in these courses gain critical knowledge, hands-on practice, expert feedback, and the opportunity to network with colleagues. FAST FOWARD YOUR TEACHING with Med Ed FDP.
M.O.S.T Seminar
With virtual education increasingly becoming the norm, the ICRE’s Maximizing Online Success for Teaching (M.O.S.T.) program gives instructors the opportunity to expand their online teaching skills and confidence. M.O.S.T. offers peer-to-peer instructor training via short, practical workshops on synchronous and asynchronous online teaching skills. Topics included how to run successful breakout rooms, use chat to best effect, establish netiquette, utilize TAs in online courses, and incorporate asynchronous learning.
Previous Seminar Speakers
Robert M. Arnold, MD
Engaging Learners Virtually: Core Strategies: Cold Call and Chat
Marie K. Norman, PhD
Teaching Asynchronously: Tips and Strategies for Creating Effective Lecture Videos and Online Discussions
Thomas R. Radomski, MD, MS
Facilitating Small Groups Virtually
Teaching Tips Library
There are hundreds of tools to enhance teaching online, but faculty rarely have the time to go out and find them. To address this problem, the IDEA Lab has produced a Teaching Tips Library. Every month, a new educational technology tool used by ICRE faculty or staff is featured with a testimonial by the user, a brief explanation and demonstration of the tool’s capabilities, and a comparison with similar tools. The continually expanding Teaching Tools Library is built in Rise 360, an interactive platform that demonstrates yet another tool faculty can use to create engaging content.
