Hearty congratulations to our DPAG Anatomy Teaching Team, who won the Inclusive Teaching and Assessment Award at the Vice Chancellor’s Awards 2024 (announced at an awards ceremony held on 8 May at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford). The award recognises groups of colleagues who have adopted approaches that make teaching more inclusive for different groups of students.
The award-winning team members are:
DPAG: A/Prof Helen Christian, A/Prof Robert Wilkins, Sharmila Rajendran, Dr Rumyana Smilevska, Dr Mary McMenamin, Sam Snowdon, Saiyma Iqbal and Kiara Delos Santos. And from CTL and IT services) : Xavier Laurent, Nandy Millan and Sandra Morales Rios.
The DPAG Anatomy Teaching Team created a diverse range of teaching initiatives using immersive technologies to support their students. This included virtual reality and digital resources such as 3D software tools, touch screen devices, and H5P-based Canvas materials - all aiming to enhance students’ learning by reducing barriers that could hinder their engagement in anatomy learning.
Student feedback has been incredibly positive, and the nomination outlined the collaborative team working practices across various skills and knowledge from different departments and alignment with the university's Digitally Supported Inclusive Teaching Toolkit.
Dame Professor Sue Black, (Anatomist, Forensic Anthropologist, President of St John's College, Oxford and Honorary Professor of Anatomy here at DPAG), commented, 'I was so delighted to learn that the Anatomy Teaching Team have won an award for inclusive teaching and assessment. The meaningful teaching of anatomy is a skill that requires years of training and dedication - it is a genuine lifelong vocation, and so recognition is both richly deserved and appreciated.'
Head of Department David Paterson was at the awards ceremony and comments, ‘Team DPAG Anatomy have done a terrific job in transforming our anatomy teaching, which is inspiring the next generation of medical students with modern advances in digital approaches to illustrate complex structures in 3D. Combined with traditional based wet anatomy our digital synergy strategy is enhancing high level delivery of our educational objectives'.
The team would like to thank the Medical Sciences Division, Bodleian Library – Radcliffe Science Library, Digital IT services and Centre for Teaching and Learning without whose help this award would not have been possible.
