Teaching Matters
Learn more about teaching matters within the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences.
Innovate Ed Success
The Department’s Dr Kwang Cham and A/Professor Anthea Cochrane, along with A/Professor Kate Tregloan (Melbourne School of Design) and Iain Scott (IT Development), were successful in receiving funding to investigate how the feedback Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) ipad system they have developed for Optometry might be integrated into the learning management landscape at The University of Melbourne. Kwang will work with the Learning Environment team on this project during 2020.
Ways of Knowing in Healthcare– An Interprofessional Day
On 20 February 2020 the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences ran an interprofessional day that for the first time brought together 1st year Medicine and Physiotherapy students with 2nd year Nursing students and 3rd year Optometry students. The day focused on “Ways of Knowing in Healthcare” where students participated in conversations that explored interprofessional roles and First Nations health and wellbeing. It was great to see Optometry staff facilitating multi-disciplinary groups of students exploring questions relating to health and patient care, and for the role of the Optometrist in the interprofessional team to be explored.
Review of the OD program
Over the summer break, A/Professor Michael Pianta (OD Course coordinator) has been leading a review of the current Doctor of Optometry program to update the course and subject learning objectives to identify content gaps or areas of unnecessary overlap, and to ensure alignment between desired learning outcomes and assessment. This work ensures our course remains contemporary and relevant to current practice needs. The changes will be reflected in the 2021 Handbook of the University of Melbourne.
Inaugural Interprofessional Teaching Day at the University of Melbourne
In November 2019 a group of Optometry teachers joined clinical supervisors from across the Department of Health Sciences to learn about and discuss the provision of feedback to students in a clinical environment (pictured right). Eight educators from each of the disciplines of Nursing, Speech Pathology, Audiology, Optometry, Social Work and Physiotherapy met at the University to share best practice and ideas.
International Conference Presentations
Dr Kwang Cham attended and presented at the ASCILITE (Australian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education) conference in Singapore in December. A/Professor Anthea Cochrane attended and presented at the 3rd World Congress of Optometry in the United States of America in October. Attendance and presentation at conferences internationally allows the teaching program at the University of Melbourne to stay abreast of current developments in tertiary education, and allows the sharing their educational research ideas.