Carry the Innovation Forward was an initiative focused on sustaining and expanding the learning innovations that arose at Duke during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21. 

During a period of change and uncertainty, Duke faculty, staff and students sought to build purpose and meaning through the adoption of new teaching methods and learning technologies, as well as stay connected to one another while physically apart. While the end of the pandemic will bring much to celebrate, we also know that out of crises new opportunities and innovations can emerge. In light of this, we partnered with faculty who sought to use experiences from pandemic teaching to innovate the future of teaching and learning at Duke. 

We provided support for projects that aligned with one or more of the following four tracks:

Note: Items in orange represent publications, findings, or other artifacts that were a result of the work done on a Carry the Innovation Forward project.

1. Research on Innovative Learning

Many new approaches to teaching and learning emerged in 2020. Sometimes referred to as ‘pandemic pedagogy,’ experimentation was not only welcome but necessary. We now have the opportunity to analyze those experiments to understand their impacts. Did learning improve? Did our efforts have the impact we intended? What unanticipated outcomes did we see at Duke, and were those different at DKU? What new experiments can we design based on our “pandemic pedagogy” experience?

These are the projects and partners DLI supported and collaborated with in this track:

Laboratory kits as an aide to student in-person laboratory learning

Kip Coonley, Chris Bingham, Lisa Huettel, Stacy Tantum, Michael Gustafson, David R. Smith, Steve Cummer, Shani Daley, and Krish Chakrabarty

Study the effectiveness of Integrating hands-on learning using real hardware outside of the laboratory as pre-lab exercises to be completed prior to attending an in-person lab section. 

A systematic review of Zoom pedagogy: Digital divide revisited in the COVID-19 era

Jennie De Gagne and Leila Ledbetter

Examine the barriers and facilitators to Zoom pedagogy perceived and experienced by health professions students from the lenses of the digital divide, digital equity, and digital inclusion to guide pedagogical and curricular updates.

Evaluation of in-person versus online learner-led small group activities in Radiology

Jonathan Martin and Robert French

Investigate the impact of the shift from in-person to online learner-led small group activities, as well as the creation of new, individually completed online clinical cases, on radiology education.

Understanding the student experience in STEM courses during the pandemic: a comparison of traditional face-to-face versus online course versions

Thomas Newpher, Minna Ng and Dorian Canelas.

Investigate the impact of transitioning from in-person to remote instruction in STEM courses, especially among under-represented groups in STEM.

Connecting reading and application: using social annotation to foster knowledge construction and higher-order thinking skills in an online Global Health Ethics graduate course at Duke University

Karrie Stewart

Examine the extent to which social annotation activities in online classes support knowledge construction and higher-order thinking skills through collaborative sense-making and applying knowledge in new situations, particularly ethical-decision making in collaborative global health research.

Building community and self-efficacy through inclusive teaching practices

Maria Tackett and Shira Viel

Engage in research on building community and self-efficacy through inclusive teaching practices in introductory STEM courses.

2. Exploration of New Learning Technology

While most Duke and DKU faculty used Zoom and Sakai to establish their online presence, many faculty also experimented with new technologies to create connections between students, better relay content and ideas, and ultimately provide better learning experiences for students. What tools or technologies would you like to continue exploring? What if you had funding and additional resources to explore similar tools? What problems or needs do you have that new technologies might address? (NOTE: If you are a student and/or an instructor working with students looking to fund innovative technology projects, consider applying for a CoLab Innovation Grant.)

These are the projects and partners DLI supported and collaborated with in this track:

Knowledge vs. Knowledge Structures — Across the Disciplines

Ruth Day

Creating an app that facilitates a card-sorting exercise to map knowledge retrieval throughout a course.

Light Board Studio Worker

Mark Hart

Develop a library of lightboard videos used to flip classes in Sanford courses -in particular with heavily quantitative content.

Scaling up entrepreneurial coaching with technology

Steven McClelland, Sharique Hasan and Aaron Chatterji

Expand the use of digital technologies (e.g. Slack, Airtable and Zoom) to serve entrepreneurial coaching to local and affiliated organizations (e.g., NCCU, DKU, Helius Foundation, Audacity labs).

Virtual Nasher

Julia McHugh, Mark Olson and Wendy Hower

Create four new virtual experiences of museum exhibitions: two interactive, immersive virtual tours of exhibitions (one each semester) and two virtual video tours of exhibitions. 

A Template for Designing Virtual Escape Rooms

Jacqui McMillian-Bohler, Christine Leonard and Stephanie Gedzyk-Neiman

Develop an online resource library to support educational uses of virtual escape rooms. 

Taking the intelligent classroom assistant to the next level

Jon Reifschneider

Support the expanded development of the  Intelligent Classroom Assistant (more info) and pilot broader use within Duke via a Sakai integration.

Approaches to Participatory Learning in Virtual Environments

Augustus Wendell, Benjamin Bacon and Vivian Xu

Explore VR technologies, test content modules, and build foundational tools to support courses centered on aspects of Virtual Reality, Interaction Design, User Experience and Game Mechanics at both Duke and DKU

Industry 4.0 Open Education Resource Publication Initiatives

Luyao Zhang, Haiyan Zhou, Brandon Fain, Kartik Nayak, Fan Zhang, Haley Walton, Tianyu Wu, and Yinhong Zhao 

Create Open Educational Resources (OER) for DKU Economics courses, Duke Computer Science courses and co-curricular programs, using Duke and DKU undergraduates to code the materials.

Virtual Reality Health Professionals Skills Trainer

Michael Zychowicz 

Development of a virtual reality task trainer for health professional students to learn and practice essential clinical skills such as suturing, putting a cast on an injured limb, and injecting a body part

3. Re-envisioning a Course or Program for Flexible or Online Learning 

In 2020, most faculty gained experience with digital learning of some sort—be it fully online, hybrid or some other combination. We know that successful online learning requires time to plan, design and prepare. We also know that the most successful efforts don’t happen in a vacuum—they require collaboration with colleagues who can bring new ideas, expertise and production assistance to the course or program. We welcome proposals for courses or programs that grow digital learning experiences from the seeds of the innovations gathered during remote learning, either Duke only or Duke-DKU collaborative courses.

These are the projects and partners DLI supported and collaborated with in this track:

Graduate Public Policy Video Library

Matthew Bunyi, Cory Krupp, Eddy Malesky, Sarah Bermeo, Subhrendu Pattanayak and Marcos Rangel

Establish a Graduate Public Policy Video Library, creating a repository of high-quality, flexible teaching material for instructors across the school.

Learning Together Apart: Rethinking the Asynchronous Module

Della Chambless, Luciana Fellin, Mattia Begali, Laura Bilanceri and Laura Casa

Redesign six lower-level Italian courses as hybrid courses to include multiple asynchronous modules to accomplish learning objectives via a diverse selection of activities, including interactions with peers at other institutions, and with native Italian speakers. 

Extending and maximizing effectiveness in virtual language learning beyond the pandemic

Rebecca Ewing, Joan Munné and Lisa Merschel 

Revise Spanish 204 to include more inclusive and accessible activities and assessments for online or hybrid teaching, and to ensure an inclusive “digital habitat” for the course, using principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). 

Development of Learning Resources for Teaching Virtual Telehealth Across Health Professions

Daniel Ostrovsky, Kathleen Waite, Mitchell T. Heflin, Margaret Bowers, Nicholas M. Hudak and Erin Leiman  

Develop formal and standardized curricula and materials to teach the skill set of telehealth to interprofessional students.

Putting the Patient FIRST: An Integrated UME Curriculum Bringing the Biomedical Sciences to Life through Interactive Virtual Patient Encounters

John Roberts, David Gordon, Sulochana Naidoo, Matthew Velkey, Jennifer Carbrey, Nancy Weigle, James Fox, Kenyon Railey, Victoria Parente, Fatima Syed, Sharon Kaiser, Joshua Chorman, Deborah Engle and Aditee Narayan 

A major course redesign that uses interactive patient videos using PlayPosit to fully integrate the biomedical science, clinical skills, and cultural determinants of health courses, while giving all students high-fidelity access to patient encounters and physician role models. 

Reimagining the Digital Footprint (of Duke Divinity)

Katherine Smith, Colin Yuckman, Anathea Portier-Young, Ross Wagner, Xi Lian, Patrick Smith, David Goatley, C. Kavin Rowe and Katie Benjamin

Develop evaluative measures of the direct and indirect outcomes of the new Hybrid Master of Divinity (MDiv) program, including student experiences of formation, equity and accessibility in the curriculum. 

Creating a Graduate Liberal Studies Online Option (Duke GLS)

Anne Whisnant, Kent Wicker, Thomas Brothers, Leo Ching, Amy Laura Hall, Mark Olson, Jonathan Shaw, Susan Thorne, Amanda Starling Gould and Bob Healy 

Expand the Duke Graduate Liberal Studies Program’s reach to working adults by creating sustainable, attractive, and creative pathways and opportunities for students to complete their Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree either partially or fully online.

4. Faculty Learning Communities 

We know that change and learning come from reflection and collaboration. We also know that most faculty didn’t have the time, bandwidth or energy to dig into the deeper changes they wanted to see in their courses and teaching in 2020. In this area, we will provide support to convene faculty learning communities at Duke or Duke-DKU, focused on rethinking pedagogical approaches  to continue and expand pandemic-inspired innovations.

These are the projects and partners DLI supported and collaborated with in this track:

Transformative Learning at Duke

Joan Clifford, Liliana Paredes and Cori Crane

The Transformative Learning Intellectual Community will expand and continue to learn about Transformative Learning particularly in underrepresented student groups at Duke, and host speakers and faculty discussions to increase interest and uptake of transformative learning principles in Duke courses. 

Assessing and Creating Classroom Climates that Support Learning through Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

Barb Hooper and Lindy Norman

Creating and assessing classroom climates that support learning through diversity, inclusion and belonging, and comprised of the entire faculty and academic support staff for their new doctoral program.

CDS Anti-Racism Faculty Learning Community

Christopher Sims and Michael Betts 

Structured learning activities about anti-racism in teaching documentary studies for their full-time and core adjunct faculty, supported by an expert consultant. 

Inclusive Assessment for Quantitative Disciplines

Stacy Tantum and Sophia Santillan 

Learning about and implementing inclusive online assessment practices in quantitative courses, particularly in light of the concerns that sometimes arise about academic integrity in online assessment.

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Special thanks to the Office of Information Technology, the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, and the Duke University School of Nursing for partnering to support selected Carry the Innovation Forward projects.