By Megumi Barclay
Photography by Rayni Shiring, University of Pittsburgh
The School of Medicine’s Curriculum Colloquium is like the Olympics for professors, according to Jason Rosenstock, associate dean for medical education and professor of psychiatry.
“We train all year round,” he said during the event, held Feb. 19 in the Alan Magee Scaife Hall West Wing Auditorium.
Like the Olympics, the event is a way to assess strengths and hand out awards to stars.
Rosenstock described the colloquium as both a celebration of faculty dedication and as a faculty retreat—an opportunity to reconnect around shared goals in teaching and learning. This year’s program, titled “Curricular Integration and Mapping: Benefits, Basics, and Best Practices,” centered on curriculum mapping, a strategic process that visually organizes what is taught and how it aligns with learning objectives.
The program explored how mapping can help faculty, students and staff better demonstrate, evaluate and continuously improve content integration across a curriculum.
Eva Aagaard, vice dean for education and vice chancellor for medical education at Washington University School of Medicine, gave a presentation on curricular integration, which laid the foundation for the afternoon’s sessions on curricular mapping and integration.
The event featured a “Mapping Bootcamp” led by Carolyn Dufault, associate dean of education digital transformation and data strategy, Washington University Medical School, and Katie Maietta, assistant dean for education administration, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
The session walked faculty through the foundational elements of curriculum mapping used both at Pitt and Washington University and its use as a tool to strategically program learning to include new threads and approaches to technology such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
The program then turned to the present and future of the Three Rivers Curriculum (3RC), presented by Abbas Hyderi, vice dean for education, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Hyderi described the 3RC as a transformative, competency-based redesign grounded in integration and continuous quality improvement. He emphasized that rigorous evaluation and data-informed decision-making are essential to not only ensure innovation leads to measurable student outcomes, but also “secure Pitt as a preeminent institution for graduate and medical education.”
Faculty members then dispersed into moderated breakout groups focused on practical strategies to integrate, assess, visualize and apply mapping techniques within their own courses. The colloquium concluded on a celebratory note with a performance by the student a cappella group, the PalPITTations.
Outstanding faculty members then received awards for their contributions to medical education. Click here for the list of this year’s winners.
