Announcing the ALiEM-AgileMD Educational Design Fellowship

Based on the successes of our 2014-15 ALiEM-EMRA (for medical students), ALiEM-CORD (for residents), and ALiEM-AAEM Young Physicians fellowships, we are thrilled to be launching the 2015 ALiEM-AgileMD Educational Design Fellowship! The application process for this virtual fellowship is now open.

Background

Design thinking is a movement that is fast taking the Silicon Valley and the business world by storm. That said, educators around the world have seen the merit in applying sound design principles to instructional materials for decades. With the explosion of online resources, however, there is an increasing need to bring design expertise into the daily activities of educators.

With over five years of experience now, ALiEM is uniquely positioned to share innovative ideas and projects as exemplified by our recent publications in the literature (e.g., expert peer review in educational blogs, curated summaries of the ALiEM-Annals Global EM Journal Club, growth of EM/CC FOAM sites) and conference abstracts. We have reached a tipping point where we are ready to serve a mentorship role to someone who is interested in joining our creative, collaborative, passionate, and often hypomanic team.

How is this fellowship different from the other ALiEM fellowships?

While all mentored fellowships will have a foundation in learning about the inner workings of the ALiEM website and participating in key leadership roles, this Educational Design Fellowship will focus much more on content production and design for education. A central goal will be to take the Paucis Verbis (PV) card series, which can be found on the free AgileMD app, Evernote, and Dropbox platforms, to the next level. Additionally this ALiEM-AgileMD fellowship includes specific funding for the fellow to seek special training in formal education- and/or design-related courses. As with the rest of our fellowships, this is a great opportunity for anyone who is also interested in digital education, medical education, disruptive technologies, and innovative academic leadership.

Thanks to AgileMD

We would like to thank AgileMD for their generous sponsorship of this new fellowship. We look forward to collaborating with them to expand the online resources available to the #FOAMed world.

Goals of the ALiEM-AgileMD Educational Design Fellowship

To update and improve the existing set of ALiEM PV card series, using sound educational design principles
To participate in digital scholarship, especially thinking how to measure the success and impact of these PV cards
To gain an in-depth understanding of the workings of a medical education blog, which includes hands-on experience with WordPress and Google Analytics
To role model professionalism on social media platforms
To collaborate efficiently with an international team using digital technologies

Responsibilities of the Fellow

Design, edit, and work on the PV card series by:
- Updating the ~100 existing PV cards
- Creating at least 12 new PV cards (1 per month) to be uploaded to the ALiEM site and AgileMD app
- Being available to writing on-demand cards per AgileMD user requests
Attend the annual ALiEM Editorial Board meeting at the 2015 ACEP Scientific Assembly in Boston
Attend one education- and/or design-related course that enriches the experience for the fellow, such as the Duarte Design Workshops. The fellow will be expected to write a story for the ALiEM blog about this experience (similar to this post).
Serve as a liaison between ALiEM and the AgileMD organization

Prerequisites

Be familiar with AgileMD app
Be fluent in written and spoken English
Be an excellent writer
Possess strong internet and word-processing skills
Have an interest in medical content design and presentation
Have active Twitter account
Preferred experience but not mandatory:
- Have some medical writing, copyediting, or journalism experience
- Possess skills with at least one design-oriented software (e.g. Pages, WordPress, InDesign, Photoshop, Keynote, Powerpoint)
- Be a practicing emergency physician beyond residency training

Stipend and Finances

Although the fellowship is an unpaid, one-year volunteer position (no one on the blog team is paid), we will provide the following financial assistance:

Up to $1,000 to assist with travel and lodging at the 2015 ACEP Scientific Assembly for the annual ALiEM board meeting
Up to $2,500 for tuition and expenses related to a formal educational- and/or design-related course

Application Process

The following documents will be screened by the ALiEM-Agile MD Fellowship Director (Dr. Teresa Chan) and Editor in Chief (Dr. Michelle Lin) as well as the fellowship director for the other 3 ALiEM fellowships (Dr. Nikita Joshi), with final approval of the candidate by the ALiEM Editorial Team and AgileMD.

Curriculum vitae, which includes contact information including a Gmail email account and Twitter handle. Please provide at least one reference that can attest to your design abilities at the end of your CV.
Letter of intent which includes learning objectives for the year, and highlights the candidate’s perspective on the role of design in medical education. This should also outline a brief description of the fellow’s desired design-centred course that he/she would like to attend.
Portfolio submission: We would like to see one submission that demonstrates the candidate’s previous design work. These should be using digital media of some sort, but may be of various formats (ranging from infographics to videos). If a candidate does not yet have any previous design content, we suggest that he/she designs a quick one-page summary on a topic specific to emergency medicine like the PV cards.

Upload these 3 documents in the form below.

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