On 17th March 2023, part 1 of the 14th Academic Teacher Training Course (ATTC) 2023 was successfully completed.
It's an honor to share with you my experience of the ATTC 2023 from an observant perspective. ATTC 2023 was again held entirely online, following the success of our previous two online ATTC courses in 2021 and 2022.
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Photo courtesy of: Zuotang Ye
On February 10th, the Kick-off session took place with 16 participants from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds, working in the scientific context of health. From 11th February to 12th March, participants were instructed in an inverted classroom scenario to accomplish a series of self-organized learning activities, including pre-recorded video lectures, group exercises, and self-reflection. These activities laid a solid foundation for deep discussions on the art of good teaching in the next phase of the course. Constant and effective communication via emails, Moodle forum, and Signal ensured that all their questions along the way found answers in a timely manner. It was also great and reassuring to observe that they were making progress in their self-directed preparation for the online course week.
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Photo courtesy of: Marie-Catherine Rausch
During the five-day online course week, our participants learned different teaching concepts and methods and trained themselves in teaching techniques with each other. Omar from Morocco, who participated in this course to apply for habilitation at the University Hospital of the LMU Munich, stated:
“ATTC feels to me like a 5-day trip to a new island (ATTC-Island) where I discovered and explored different and exciting information, tools and strategies that are very crucial for improving my teaching skills. If my colleagues want to know the secret recipe of competent academic teachers who use effective and modern learning management systems to teach higher-order thinking skills, they should not miss the next ATTC.”
During the teaching design module, participants first drafted and developed their own teaching unit. As they later present the unit in the class, you could quickly pick up each participant’s own unique teaching style. In the intercultural training session, the session itself facilitated an open exchange of ideas on how best to communicate with students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Participants actively listened and almost eagerly absorbed the cultural insights from each other, in many times, the group breakout session gave out the feeling of a friendly catch-up session instead of a serious zoom classroom. A highlight of the online course week, participants had the chance to practice their presentation skills in the microteaching sessions in front of the camera, give, and receive feedback from their colleagues. In the Assessment Circle one day later, between other assessment methods like EPA (entrustable professional activities) and WPBA (work place based assessment), participants showcased their designed MCQ (multiple choice question) and received instant feedback from the facilitators to understand how to design valid questions. The questions were thought-provoking and diverse, reflecting the participants' various medical backgrounds and providing a glimpse into each other's areas of expertise. Throughout the entire week, there were more break-out sessions like the above described, which are always filled with discussion and sharing of insights, creating a highly engaging learning environment for our participants.
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Photo courtesy of: Marie-Catherine Rausch
The very competency-oriented course also came along with extensive online teaching tips and techniques to activate students. Participants were enthusiastic to try out some classic online interactive tools such as Miro board, Menti, LMU-onlineTED, and Padlet. As remote learning gains more popularity, these tools will be used more frequently to make classes more dynamic and to increase interaction with students in future teaching. In the beginning, some participants were struggling a bit with the set-up of the tools. Needless to say, many questions were raised in the group, but then many more tips and guidance followed to help. In this mutual learning and helping spirit and through the hands-on course design, our participants all managed these tools very quickly. Pema, a Bhutanese medical doctor from Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences (CIH partner university), also commented: “I am confident that I will enjoy effective teaching experience with the application of new teaching methods, online tools, and soft skills I learned from ATTC.”
Finally, all participants were left with a strengthened confidence and enthusiasm to integrate their learnings into their future teaching practices. We're excited to see the results of the transfer phase (part 2) during the Online Symposium on July 28th, when all participants will present how they put the new teaching concepts into practice.
Written by: Zuotang Ye