Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Academy for Excellence in Education (AEE)
CRITERIA FOR CONSIDERATION OF SELECTION
The name of the Academy for Excellence in Education (AEE) belies its primary focus, advocating for those engaged in education throughout the Health Professions Education disciplines. Members have always engaged in direct learner contact and demonstrated sustained levels of effective engagement. Members of the AEE are often engaged in teaching, mentoring, designing/developing courses, curricula, programs or assessment strategies, demonstrating educational leadership, and conducting educational scholarship.
Candidates for the AEE must be full time faculty (any track) or staff in the School of Medicine and show sustained excellence in education. To assist applicants in the preparation of their documentation of activities, the Membership Committee of the AEE offers the following framework. Applicants will be assessed in 6 areas of educator focus: Teaching, Educational Leadership, Course/Curricula/Program Design, Assessment, Education Scholarship, and Mentorship. Applicants will demonstrate excellence in 2 or more of these 6 areas.
Examples of excellence are given below. All examples given are meant to be illustrative rather than representing the sole defining activities and the applicant is encouraged to document all educator activities. Documentation of activities should be in the form of a Teaching Portfolio and curriculum vitae with an emphasis on activities related to the areas of focus (see VUSM Office of Faculty Development for standardized CV guidelines). Proficiency is a development milestone that should be demonstrated on the path to achieving excellence but does not define excellence. Proficiency is defined below as a reference for each of the six educator foci.
TEACHING includes the presentation or facilitation of ideas and activities for the purpose of helping a person or group learn. Teaching excellence may be evidenced by teaching awards at the local/regional/national level, high quality teaching metrics as evidenced by positive learner feedback for a minimum of 3 years, and/or membership in a teaching/education academy at another/prior institution. Teaching awards should include the bestowing entity (include sufficient data to differentiate intramural vs. extramural awards), the nominating cohort (learner nominated, faculty nominated), and the year of award. Learner feedback in numeric data should include both individual data as well as peer reference (mean/median) where available. Learner feedback in numeric as qualitative data/commentary is encouraged and may contain common themes substantiated by multiple comments. Teaching activities should include the participation dates, course names(s) parent organizations (e.g., department, school or national organization), and number and level of learners (e.g., medical/graduate student, faculty). Teaching proficiency may be demonstrated through reports of teaching effectiveness with less than 3 years of experience.
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP includes activities that support the infrastructure and culture of education. Applicants may have educational roles outside of direct teaching and hence contribute significantly to the educational culture. These activities would include administrative roles in an educational program (e.g., UME, GME, CME) at the local or national levels. Such activities would include course/block director (co-director) within a larger curriculum (e.g., UME, GME, CME) or a leadership role in national/international educational organizations Educational leadership excellence may be evidenced by effective leadership (e.g., dean, graduate school director, program director) of local educational programs and committees (e.g., committee officers/chair) and/or major contributions (e.g., policy change, guidelines) at the national or international level in the areas of UME, GME or CME. Leadership activities should include the dates of participation, name of the committee (designate intramural or extramural), parent organization (e.g., department, school, national organization), role on the committee (e.g., member, chair, chair-elect) committee function/purpose and achievements. Awards in this area will be considered heavily. The minimum sustained effort for an isolated primary defining activity is 12 months. Proficiency is demonstrated through effective contributions to local educational programs, but not in a leadership capacity and is a steppingstone for excellence in educational leadership.
COURSE/CURRICULA/PROGRAM DESIGN is reserved for the creation of new education activities and includes the organization of related topics, content, sequence, instructional methods, pedagogy, resources, and assessment for the purpose of learning. Although these activities include those outlined in educational leadership (above) this category is limited to novel course, curricula, or program design to promote learning and professional development. Course/Curricula Program Design excellence may be evidenced by effective contributions to the design of major course, curricular, or program elements at the local, national, or international level. Activities should include the dates of participation, name of the course/curricula/program (designate intramural or extramural), parent organization (e.g., department, school, or national organization), role in the design (e.g., director) and impact (e.g.,number of learners). Scholarship, funding, and awards in this area will be considered heavily. The minimum sustained effort for an isolated primary defining activity is 2 years. Proficiency is demonstrated through contributions to educational programs(s) (e.g., instructor, facilitator) but not in a leadership capacity
ASSESSMENT includes either learner or programmatic assessment. Assessment excellence is demonstrated by sustained efforts in evaluation and judgement of successful development of novel assessment materials or tools, the implementation of novel strategies, and/or the application of analytics to the assessment process in multiple courses or programs or in courses/programs at the national or multi-institutional level. Activities should include the dates of participation, name of course/curricular/program (designate intramural or extramural), parent organization (e.g., department, school; or national organization), role in the design (e.g., member chair, chair-elect) and impact (e.g.,number of learners, period assessment usage). The minimum sustained effort for an isolated primary defining activity is 2 years. Scholarship, funding, and awards in this area will be considered heavily. Proficiency is demonstrated by the implementation of existing or novel assessment materials/tools/strategies, or the application of analytics to the assessment process in individual courses or programs, without the development of novel tools.
EDUCATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP includes all elements of scholarly activity including innovation and research with an element of dissemination. Activities include peer-reviewed publications, peer-reviewed funding for educational research, invited review articles, meeting oral platforms/lectures, meeting abstracts/posters, and invited seminars. Educational scholarship excellence may be evidenced by a combination of activities that include peer-reviewed publications (senior or lead author), peer-reviewed funding for education research (PI or co-PI), multiple invited review articles, oral platform/lectures, and/or invited seminars. Additional activities include textbook contributions, preparation of written course materials, pamphlets or other teaching materials for families (even if disease/treatment specific), and online learning modules. Major works or funding may be considered more heavily. Proficiency is demonstrated through one or more of the following peer-reviewed publication (co-author-not led/senior author), peer reviewed funding for education research (key study personnel, not PI or co-PI), oral platform/lecture, and/or an invited seminar.
MENTORSHIP Activities include mentorship of any health professions student, graduate student, research fellow, clinical fellow, or faculty members in scholarly pursuits. Mentorship may occur in conjunction with scholarship, as part of a clinical/graduate training program or an advisory program. Mentorship excellence may be evidenced by mentoring contributions, in research or scholarship, successful promotion, completion, or certification, and career advancement for multiple mentees. Documentation of activities should include the name of the mentee, dates of the mentoring relationship, location/program, mentoring program name (if applicable), mentee promotion/certification (if applicable), current position of mentee (current position if training concluded), project title (if applicable), project status (if applicable). Scholarship, funding, and awards in this area will be considered heavily. The minimum sustained effort for excellence in mentorship is 2 years. Proficiency is demonstrated by involvement with at least one mentee that leads to research/scholarship, publication or successful promotion, degree completion or certification. Effective mentorship of greater than one mentee is expected for educators with excellence in mentorship.
Reference:
Simpson, D., Fincher, R. M., Hafler, J., Irby, D., & Richards, B. (n.d.). Advancing Educators and Education: Defining the Components and Evidence of Educational Scholarship. AAMC, 2007.