UNMC students sought as e-learning innovators

As UNMC’s Online Interactive E-Learning Modules Program moves in a new direction, there’s a new hand on board to help steer.

Peggy Moore, an instructional designer with a master’s in education, joined UNMC in November. One of her first projects will be assisting with the latest effort in UNMC’s campuswide E-Learning Program — a new round of grants for e-learning projects created by UNMC students.

Moore, who had freelanced previously for the College of Public Health and served as an instructional designer at Nebraska Methodist College, said she looks forward to helping students. In her new position, she also will be supporting faculty and e-learning grant winners in best practices and andragogy for e-learning and technology in the classroom.

Moore said the E-Learning Steering Committee is excited about student-led initiatives.

“Students are the end users,” she said. “They will have new ways of approaching these projects. I’m looking to the students for creativity.”

Students accepted into the E-Learning Program will receive a $1,000 grant to create their proposed learning modules and will be recognized university-wide at a spring showcase following the completion of the projects.

Students have wide latitude for their projects — lessons, mobile apps, animation — as long as the project has a learning objective, Moore said.

“Within the learning objectives, I can work with the students and their faculty advisers to help make sure they’re using an approach that matches the objectives,” she said. “Together, they are the ‘content experts,’ the experts in the subject matter. My job is to make their information usable so that the students’ projects meet the outcomes and learning objectives, that the project is engaging and uses technology that’s appropriate to its goals.”

The student grant awards will be the third round of funded projects for the Online Interactive E-Learning Modules Program. Creation of interactive online e-learning modules has been a priority for UNMC, and funding of a modular-based course proposal during the first round led to the University of Nebraska’s first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). These new projects will build off earlier successes, said Dele Davies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs.

“UNMC views production of interactive e-learning modules as an important part of mastery and competency-based learning that will transform the future of health sciences education,” Dr. Davies said. “We are excited to see the creative proposals our talented students present to us, and we especially look forward to seeing the completed projects.”