2024 ACA Faculty Symposium

Dates: May 3-4, 2024

 

The American Chiropractic Association is excited to announce our fourth annual ACA Faculty Symposium. The meeting will be conducted online in order to be as accessible as possible.

The ACA Faculty Symposium provides attendees with opportunities to learn from faculty members at chiropractic colleges across the nation while networking with peers. Attendees will be exposed to a plethora of enriching topics such as:

• classroom management strategies
• student engagement techniques
• competency-based assessments
• classroom pedagogy

FACA Symposium 2024 Schedule and Details
*Schedule is Subject to Change*

All events are held virtually on Zoom.   

Friday, May 3rd

5 p.m. – 6 p.m. CST: Cocktail Hour, Social Mixer and Presentation: Changing of Times – Competency Based Learning 

Guest Speakers: Dr. Katie Burns Ryan, DC (Dean), Deb Bushway (President & CEO), and Kim Pearce, DC (Provost and Chief Academic Officer (Northwestern Health Sciences University) 

The panel will discuss moving from an emphasis on in-person, traditional classroom learning to a more competency-based learning program.  As an emerging learning model for chiropractic schools, there may be some hesitance around this revised practice in higher education, though it has been used in adult learning and continuing education programs for years.  Competency-based learning requires that students show what they know by applying concepts they have learned and successfully tying demonstration of their knowledge or skills to assessments of learning.  This hands-on, performance-based learning model is conducive to the Chiropractic profession’s hands-on, patient-centered approach. 

Saturday, May 4th  

9:00 a.m. CST: Introductions, FACA Board & Welcome Address  

9:20 a.m. – 10:20 a.m. CST: GoReact 

Presented by: Dr. Jeremy Barthels, DC, MS (Northwestern Health Sciences University) 

This presentation will review the GoReact platform as a transformative tool capable of diverse uses within a chiropractic curriculum. The primary focus will be how instructors can strategically utilize the GoReact platform within their courses to improve chiropractic students’ communication and critical thinking skills, thus enhancing their ability to interact and effectively communicate with patients.  

Learning Objectives  

1. Discuss the current challenges in chiropractic education related to communication skills.  
2. Discuss the pivotal role of effective communication in fostering patient trust, empathy, engagement, and delivering patient-centered care.
3. Demonstrate the GoReact platform features.  
4. Demonstrate the diverse ways the GoReact platform can be used within a curriculum.  
5. Review the benefits, personal experiences, and insights on incorporating GoReact within coursework.  
6. Highlight experiences that the GoReact platform has positively influenced the student learning experience and skill development in chiropractic communication and critical thinking. 

10:25 a.m. – 11:05 a.m. CST: Immersive Learning: Enhancing Patient Interactions through Virtual Reality in Clinical Education 

Presented by: Vanessa Morales, DC, MS, Mary Lee Carter BSHS, CHSE, and Ashley Long, PhD (Parker University) 

Unlock the potential of virtual reality (VR) to revolutionize education and transform patient interactions. In this presentation, you will explore innovative ways to leverage VR technology to engage students and assess their skills in healthcare contexts. Through simulated patient encounters in an interactive learning environment, discover how VR can bridge the gap between theory and real-world application, creating a more immersive and effective educational experience.  

Learning Objectives:  

1. Understand the Role of Virtual Reality: Gain insights into the fundamentals of virtual reality technology and its application in healthcare education, particularly in simulating patient interactions. 
2. Explore Immersive Learning Environments: Discover various VR environments designed to replicate healthcare settings, allowing students to practice and enhance their skills in realistic scenarios. 
3. Enhance Student Engagement: Learn strategies for using VR to captivate students’ attention and actively involve them in the learning process, fostering a deeper understanding of patient interactions.  
4. Assessing Skills in Virtual Reality: Explore methods and tools for assessing students’ performance and competence through VR simulations, providing valuable insights into their readiness for real-world patient interactions.  
5. Implementing VR in Education: Gain practical insights and best practices for integrating virtual reality into educational curricula, ensuring a seamless and effective adoption to maximize the benefits of immersive learning experiences. 

11:10 a.m. CST – 12:10 p.m. CST: Effortless Student Engagement and Assessment: Reclaiming Your Time with Feedback Fruits & Breakout Session 

Presented by: Vanessa Morales, DC, MS (Parker University)

Join presenters for an insightful exploration of their successful utilization of Feedback Fruits, a seamlessly integrated learning management tool, to enhance teaching and learning experiences. Through this platform, you can streamline the creation and scaling of engaging learning activities, significantly reducing your workload while enhancing student satisfaction and engagement. From dynamic active learning setups to consistent design templates, learn how Feedback Fruits will revolutionize your clinical education landscape, providing a user-friendly solution for engaging students across various settings and effectively assessing their progress.  

Learning Objectives:  

1. Introduction to Feedback Fruits: Understand the key features and capabilities of Feedback Fruits as a powerful LMS-integrated tool suite for creating engaging learning experiences. 
2. Efficient Course Design: Explore how to set up active learning activities with a fraction of the original workload, design engaging courses, and create reusable templates to enhance the overall teaching and learning experience. 
3. Seamless LMS Integration: Learn how Feedback Fruits seamlessly integrates with our LMS, synchronizing groups, gradebooks, and calendars, providing a unified and streamlined experience for both educators and students.  
4. Engaging Students Anytime, Anywhere: Discover how Feedback Fruits accommodates every course modality, size, and device, allowing educators to engage students regardless of the learning environment.  
5. Data-Driven Interventions: Explore the clear student analytics provided by Feedback Fruits, allowing educators to track students’ progress at each step.   

12:15 p.m. CST: Lunch/Break 

1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. CST: Implementing a Multi-Station Teaching Format 

Presented by: James Russell Ebbets, DC, MS, MED, CCSP, MS (D’Youville University) 

The design and implementation of a lesson plan can be a daunting task. This is particularly true when considering the content, emphasis and placing of skills and abilities for a chiropractic technique class. The list of various skills and competencies can be extensive, including but not limited to static palpation, motion palpation, motor skill introduction and refinement, physical conditioning, promotion of professional demeanor, introduction of notation and record keeping, soft tissue constellation patterns, doctor and patient ergonomics, efforts to mimic the pace and timing of real-world practice, and attempts to tie in clinical application of various techniques. Further complicating this whole process are the limitations of a 90- to 120-minute class period.   

The solution to these challenges is to divide and conquer. Breaking a class period down into “manageable wholes” of five to 10-minute teaching segments allows for concentrated attention to individual skills by the student learner. This format promotes a “present time consciousness” and attention to the task at hand for both the teacher and student.  With thought and planning this method allows the teacher to design a dynamic educational experience specifically formatted to develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities for successful clinical practice.  Activities can be designed to address various learning styles (visual, auditory, or kinesthetic). Additionally, this method is adaptable to all levels of the student’s education. Finally, use of a multi-station teaching format can capitalize or develop the skills of teaching assists, prize teachable moments and encourage the refinement of one’s presentation skills.  

Learning Objectives: 

1. Participants will gain a new perspective for teaching chiropractic technique.  
2. Participants will observe a format to design a comprehensive daily teaching plan for teaching efficiency and effectiveness.   
3. Participants will learn several of the contributions of educational icons such as Abraham Maslow (whole-phase-whole), EL Thorndyke (enjoyment = quicker bond = stronger learning) and Jean Piaget (active role of learner, compare and contrast) among others.   

2:35 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. CST: Assessment of Program Learning Outcomes in Chiropractic Education

Presented by: Vincent DeBono, DC (Keiser University)  

This session will discuss the importance of assessing Program Learning Outcomes across the entire curriculum to demonstrate learning and improve course outcomes. The emphasis of the DCP programmatic accreditor on the measurement of meta-competencies outcomes primarily occurs at the later stages of the curriculum, however can prove difficult to measure in the early stages of the curriculum.  This can present challenges in demonstrating progression of learning and the identification of early learning deficits that may erode the foundational knowledge needed to develop and build clinical skills. This session will focus on the development of Program Learning Outcomes with an assessment framework that permits measurement of learning and progression across the curriculum, ultimately leading to the assessment of the terminal meta-competency outcomes during the clinical phase of the student’s education.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the role of Program Learning Outcomes in the overall assessment process of students learning.
2. Understand the how to develop and assess Program Learning objectives.
3. Understand how to map Program Learning objectives to your Course Level Objectives.

3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. CST: Breakout Session: Group discussion and how to apply what you have learned in the classroom on Monday morning.  

Small group discussions led by the FACA Leadership on strategies and tactics to implement the concepts learned from the symposium. Participants will also discuss their future learning needs and how best FACA can support them.

4:35 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. CST: Closing Remarks

Updates will be posted to acatoday.org and ACA Connects as details become available.

 

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