Project Proposal Remote University Networks 2nd

Project Proposal
Remote University Networks - Making

Students ResearchAble 2
nd
year

Martin Rydmark Sida: 1 (10)
500607-8058

Projektkontoret, gemensamma frvaltningen

www.gf.adm.gu.se/projektkontoret

Project Proposal: Remote University Networks Making Students
ResearchAble 2
nd
year
Background: Rationale: New technologies and advances in computational power have
revolutionized the study of life science, bringing together such diverse fields as biology, math,
physics, engineering, and computer science. However, the teaching of modern biological science
has remained relatively unchanged. To address the need for better integration of mathematics,
physical sciences, and biology, faculty at the University of Gothenburg (GU) and Stanford
University have collaborated with great progress over the previous three years (2005-08) as funded
by a Wallenberg Global Learning Network Planning (WGLN) Grant for RUN I and Full Grant for
RUN II and III (www.wgln.org). Our RUN II proposal received the highest score among fifty
WGLN proposals at Stanford University. Rydmark M and Lindh J were also founded for a global
pilot project by the unit, Pedagogical development and interactive learning (PIL), 2009-10.
We have proposed a pedagogical model that not only calls upon students to meet
educational goals within the curriculum we have designed but also to develop the skills required of
independent investigators. These skills include cooperation, managing available educational
resources, generating original data, and synthesizing findings into a summary paper or
presentation. We believe that commiserate with our desire to provide students with an adequate
knowledge base for advanced studies, we must also provide them with the skills to produce new
research, one of the most important goals of graduate work. Blended Learning
1
, where processes
and problem-based perspectives are being focused, is employed, and principally the students
themselves search for the information they require instead of the more traditional educational
method comprising lectures and examinations. The aim of the RUN course unit is defined in the
syllabus as follows:

The course unit is intended to provide students with increased knowledge about how
human movement is controlled and adapted with focus on sport, health and
performance. This will be achieved by the integration of a number of basic
biomechanical, anatomical and physiological principles. An additional aim is to
develop the students ability to work independently and in a group, to search for new
knowledge as well as to employ interactive teaching aids and communications
systems.

We expect students to progress through the course as they develop skills demonstrated in Figure 1.
Faculty have developed projects based on storyboards now completed that will progress groups of
students though these phases of learning. Projects require students to actively LEARN key
concepts through lectures and independent work. Students will begin to CONSTRUCT solutions
and models to test them. Finally the group will derive data to evaluate their proposed solutions, a
key component of RESEARCH.

1
Blended Learning is learning that is facilitated by the effective combination of different modes of delivery, models
of teaching and styles of learning, and founded on transparent communication amongst all parties involved with a
course (Heinze and Procter, 2004).
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Figure 1 Pedagogical Model for the RUN Project

We propose that an ideal subject for this interdisciplinary approach is exercise science.
Components of exercise science (injury, rehabilitation, performance, and fitness) can be described
in the context of biomechanics, anatomy, physiology, and material science.

We have developed a course model that allows students the ability to use multiple resources and
learning formats to achieve a set of outcomes within the field of exercise science. These outcomes,
or learning goals, were finalized by faculty during RUN II and are listed on the project website
(http://runproject.stanford.edu). We will refine our learning goals for 2011. Experiences gained
from the LearnAble-project at the Sahlgrenska Academy, GU,
(http://130.241.71.13/LearnAble/index2.php?p=1) were fundamental for the course (Hultberg et
al. 2008 and Kjellgren et al. 2008). Briefly, the course will run at half speed over eight weeks at
the University of Gothenburg from September 9 to November 3, 2011.

Course design for implementation of our educational model:
Introduction: Students will be oriented to the course design, technology, and to the participating
faculty but also to each other. After an appropriate introduction of course design, we progress to
group work on an individual storyboard.
Storyboards: Storyboards
2
(Cave, 2002) are designed to allow student groups to work on a
particular application of biomechanics and human performance (mostly exercise science) that
require integration of educational goals. Each storyboard is a learning tool that requires
innovation, cooperative work, research design and execution in a human performance lab. The
storyboards are purposely kept somewhat vague, with respect to focus and methodology, to allow
degrees of freedom for students planning. Over the eight weeks of the course, students will have
to manage all available resources to help produce a scholarly work that could lead to further

2
According to Cave (2002) Story-Boarding is a popular management tool to facilitate the creative-thinking process
and can be likened to taking your thoughts and the thoughts of others and spreading them out on a wall as you work
on a project or solve a problem. Klaus (2002) defines a storyboard as a plan for teaching and learning activities. It
can be a combination of outlines and visual sketches (e.g., flowcharts) that map out the contents or sequence of ideas.
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research. Three-four students will be assigned a storyboard. Students can choose from six different
storyboards: ankle, shoulder, knee, back, running economy, cross country skiing. Tutors who have
worked with us on developing the storyboards will help facilitate work.
Keynote Lectures: Presented by experts in the field, originating from Gothenburg, Stanford or
other universities. These lectures are designed to be 15-30 minutes and original in content, that is,
not found in conventional textbooks, which students can access on their own. These lectures will
be archived to expand the network available for future students.
Faculty and an international network of expert consultants: In addition to delivering keynote
lectures, faculty have agreed to serve as consultants that are available at specified times to answer
student questions over web video. A global network of expert consultants from several universities
will also be available over web video for students at specific times during the course to help
students with their specific research questions and unique data from the experiment. Experts from
seven universities have agreed to participate, 2011.
GUL and a project homepage: A unified Course Management System (CMS) called GUL and a
project homepage will be the platform for all ICT-tools, information and communication exchange
(PIM, chat rooms, Adobe Connect etc.). GUL will be used to build a library of links, animations,
videos and key note lectures. A library of available motion capture videos have been built and will
be furthered by contributions from the students as they generate research. Our homepage will be
important to spread information about the project.
Reflective blog: Students will keep a reflective blog, hosted on GUL that will record their
experience throughout the course. The blog will be utilized by students as an element of reflective
learning, a strategy that stimulates students to use their own experiences to discover learning for
themselves. Individual reflection and group, tutor and expert discussion of their blogs can lead to
continuous assessment of their own progress and quality of learning. At the end of the course,
students will review their blogs and summarize their own key findings.
Self-assessment: Student assessment will also involve an element of reflective learning, self-
assessment.

An interactive individual self-assessment program (ISA) was produced and evaluated
during RUN III by Martin Rydmark, J acob Lindh and Gnther Dippe (Annerstedt, Lindh,
Rydmark et al, 2010). A similar concept has earlier been tested on dental students in Lund and
Malm (Mattheos et al, 2004, Leisnert and Matheos, 2006). Students will be asked to grade
themselves based on how well they met objective criteria that were presented in the course
introduction as well as how effective the student perceives his learning during the course. These
assessments will be followed up in an oral group-seminar for further discussion. The students
final grade from this part will rest with the course directors objective assessment.
Presentation of Storyboard work: Each GU student project group will turn in a scientific report
at the end of the course. The scientific reports are allowed to be 5-8 pages long, with the main
focus on new scientific knowledge extracted from the laboratory experiment versus results from
other similar scientific experiments. A key note lecture covering a scientific approach, design,
presentation technology and performance expectations is given. Students will also be given the
option to have experts comments on their achievements before finalizing their work. All findings
from the scientific report are presented orally as a Power Point presentation in front of the class.
Fellow students and an expert panel will comment on their work. The scientific reports and the
oral presentations are graded after the course by tutors. The grading is based on scientific
approach, content, oral presentation and individual efforts during the entire work process.
Posters: Students will also design posters on Power Point after common guidelines used at
international conferences. The poster should be a deduction of the most important findings from
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the students group project. One lecture with examples and guidelines of posters are presented to
the students. All project groups are asked to show their poster on a big screen after their oral
presentation in class of their storyboard work. Their fellow students and an expert panel can now
reflect critically upon their work. The posters are graded by tutors. The grading of the poster is
based on content, design, oral presentation and individual efforts.

Figure 2 RUN Course Design

New pedagogical course model for 2011: We are aiming to transfer our educational model to
other courses and are therefore planning a test on the neuroanatomy course at the School of
Medicine (first semester), GU, autumn 2011. We are also preparing for an advanced level course
for 24 sport science students in autumn 2011, hopefully with great interest from both students and
faculty from Chalmers University of Technology, Sahlgrenska Academy and the Department of
Education. The major differences from our previous RUN-project are that this course involves
university students at advanced level, hopefully from many different educational programs in
Sweden (physiotherapy, sport science, technology, medicine, health promotion etc.) in cooperation
with more tutors and expert consultants from several new universities. We believe that the RUN-
concept is even more useful for advanced level students, based on our results from RUN I-III, and
the promising results from our advanced level pilot project. Our students at advanced level were
very satisfied with our pedagogy and interactive learning methods and tools. A scientific report
and a summary of our results from the pilot project 2009 are available at PIL:s homepage. We also
believe that interdisciplinary student groups including students from different educational
backgrounds that work with the same storyboard will create a very stimulating learning
environment with more original and valuable solutions to problems. Our students from the pilot
experiment 2009 described this as extremely valuable. We know from the RUN-project that
interdisciplinary scientific questions and unique data need to be processed with support from a
large interdisciplinary global network of expert consultants and we therefore want to expand our
network. We hope that each university that participate will contribute with virtual lectures, expert
consultants, data for the database, new technology, papers, participate in virtual meetings etc. By
sharing resources and competence with other universities, we hope to lower course costs and
enhance course quality and student learning at the same time. GUL and an updated
LindhJ,RydmarkM
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homepage/community from the pilot 2009, will be the platform for all ICT-tools, interaction and
information exchange.
Target Population
(1): The Institution for Biomedicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, aim
to implement our educational model on their longitudinal courses (semester 1 and 4) in
neuroanatomy for medical students. They wish to cooperate with us in planning during spring
2011 and start implementing during fall 2011.
(2): The Institution of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science at the Department of Education,
University of Gothenburg, aim to implement our educational model in an advanced level course in
Biomechanics and Human Performance, 15 ECTS. This course will be available for
physiotherapists, technologist, medical students, sport science students and other students with
appropriate academic background at advanced level.
(3): The Institution of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science at the Department of Education,
University of Gothenburg, also aim to implement our educational model at basic level to collect
more data for scientific publications.
Our secondary target is at regional level (Kattegatt). Our goal is to share resources
and competences between simultaneous courses in biomechanics with universities in Aarhus,
Oslo, Halmstad and Gothenburg. An EU-collaboration between our institution leaders already
exists and they are very positive to this initiative to strengthen our collaboration. Hopefully, we
can prove that we can lower course costs at GU and enhance learning quality.
The third target is at global level (on-demand, network). Our goal at this level is to
chare experiences, expertise and resources for curses in biomechanics through a web community.
Efficiacy goals

Participant and evaluator perception of our pedagogical model and ICT-battery were assessed
positively in our surveys and interviews. Hopefully, our generic educational model will provide:
Shared access to knowledge among participating universities
Lowered course costs for programmes
Increased students awareness of ICT possibilities
Increased cultural exchange and understanding
Interdiciplinary work and research preparation
Implementation of our generic educational model to other programs and courses at GU and other
universities, by further scientific validation of our tools and methods
Primary efficacy goal

Viktning:
X2 Ekonomi Effektivitet X1 Kvalitet
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Documents

A reference list for this project is available at ->http://www.mednet.gu.se/download.php?id=110
Contacts

Huvudman: Martin Rydmark, MD, professor, Sahlgrenska akademin, GU
Handlggare: J acob Lindh, Inst. fr kost och idrottsvetenskap, Utbildningsvetenskapliga
fakulteten, GU
Project goals and implementation of staff and external observers
Results
Work Plan: Results of the collaboration from RUN have lead to the development of best
practices. The final goal for RUN 2011 will be the implementation of a demonstrably improved
course in biomechanics for advanced level students from several university programs that can be
shared with other universities.
Two tenets are central to our proposal: The realization of multidisciplinary cooperation and
the development of innovative learning tools to enhance human biology education. As biology,
engineering and mathematics continue to develop at rapid rates, it becomes increasingly difficult
for their respective faculty to focus on collaboration and interdisciplinary teaching. Our goal is to
avoid the secularization of faculty into their individual departmental approaches and develop a
consistent multidisciplinary approach. Although it is frequently difficult to apply quantitative
methods to living systems, exercise science, with its emphasis on motion and adaptation, is an
ideal candidate for this application and is a field with which all faculty in this project have been
involved. Cooperation among faculty members will serve as a model for learning and give the
students access to experts from a variety of fields. We will continue to work in three areas of
development to reach full implementation: pedagogy, content, and technology.
Pedagogy Work Plan: Data from the initial RUN-courses and the RUN 2009 course at
advanced level will be critically analyzed to measure how effectively we utilized novel approaches
to achieve better learning skills as well as comprehension of the established learning goals. This
will include reviewing video graphs, blogs, surveys, self-assessments, tutor and faculty
assessments, and final projects. Spring-Summer 2011 will be devoted to refining our pedagogy
according to the data generated as well as producing more manuscripts for submission to peer-
reviewed journals. We will refine a standardized format to be used in self-assessment at GU.
Validation of this rubric will be essential to our desire to export the self-assessment model to other
institutions.
We intend to present a conference article and broadcast a live interdisciplinary student-
driven experiment from our new Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Gothenburg
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in Sweden to conference attendees at the Medical Meets Virtual Reality Conference (MMVR 19),
Long Beach, California, Spring 2012. Further, a PhD program for Lindh J is under construction.
Technology Work Plan: The success of the project will largely depend on the ability to
develop and maintain reliable technology. During 2011 we will be refining many of the interfaces
we have developed during the past years (such as the course homepage, blog, interactive ISA and
CMS-tools) and we will test the improvements suggested by our own evaluations from the RUN I-
III and the advanced level 2009 pilot project. We have completed standardization of equipment at
GU during RUN I-III and developed common protocols for classroom, lab, and faculty web
conferences. Technical problems during student conversations with experts over web video have
been very stressful for our educators during RUN II-III. During the pilot project 2009-10 we tested
GU:s new web video software, Adobe Connect, with many problems with audio and picture. We
will try to standardize computer, audio, video and light in one smaller room at our new centre for
this purpose, making virtual communication as user friendly as possible for our students. Lindh is
developing an ICT-room at our new Human Performance Centre at this moment. Our ICT-room
will include fifteen workplaces for laptops, six standardized web video communication boxes, one
videoconference system, one interactive tough-board (Smartboard) and two 60 TV-screens
(LED). This will be a unique opportunity to test new ICT-setups to create better interactive
learning environments that are generic to most students and staff.
Evaluation Plan: Evaluation of whether the new pedagogical design improves learning
outcomes and student satisfaction will continue. Student, tutor, teacher, expert and international
evaluator satisfaction and perception of our pedagogical model and ICT-battery will be assessed
by surveys and interviews. We will compare student learning outcomes from the RUN II and III
courses taught in 2007 and 2008 with the 2011 course at advanced level with students from several
university programs. In these courses, learning outcomes are assessed by objective examinations
of student knowledge of the educational goals agreed upon by faculty during RUN I-III. Central
to both faculty and student self-assessment for RUN 2011 will be the aforementioned standardized
rubric which will be further developed by Spring-Summer 2011 and validated during the 2011
course. Points for evaluation include but are not limited to:

How do students use GUL and the interactive learning tools at advanced level compared to
basic level students and how useful were they?
Is the self-assessment concept a reliable and valuable learning tool for students and for
educators to give better individually centered support during courses?
Do students learn more effectively when paired with students from other university
programs?
Do students at advanced level learn more effectively compared to basic level students?
How useful is the interdisciplinary global network of expert consultants?
How do our international external observers experience our educational model?

Finally, we will continue our, year-long assessment of both faculty and student approach to
our design to be conducted by graduate level students (degree projects) at the University of
Gothenburg. Through an ethnographic research approach with triangulation of data we will look
upon the process, where student understanding is being challenged through different theories of
learning and applied knowledge, and if students are continuously active and problem-solving.
Acting as an objective observer of the process through written and videotaped recordings, the
graduate students will generate a record of the yearlong process that can be further analyzed for
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years to come. This process has previously been validated through work at the Institution of Food
and Nutrition, and Sport Science, GU.

Sustainability: At present we have identified PIL as the unique source of funding for implementing
the pedagogy in RUN 2011. However, the results of this collaboration will serve a wide audience.
RUN 2011 will continue the development of a cross-cultural outcome-based course that is aligned
with the goals of PIL and The European Higher Education Area as outlined in Bologna, 1999. We
anticipate the course may be used in the universities of many of the cosignatory nations of this
important educational policy. This coming year will be a benchmark for the RUN Project, as we
complete a sustainable curriculum and educational model that can be shared with other universities via
GUL and a homepage/community. After RUN 2011 we will publish our complete results and be able
to collaborate with the significant number of universities worldwide that have expressed interest. The
possibility of establishing an archive of web-hosted experiments and lectures as well as a network to
allow students to directly participate in lab experiments will provide opportunities previously
unavailable to many students. Further, we have begun to implement the RUN-concept into other
interdisciplinary fields such as health promotion, which hopefully gives us an opportunity to study
other cross-cultural approaches and will provide valuable research opportunities.
(www.mednet.gu.se/download.php?id=100).
We believe that in only a single year of a full grant, faculty and student commitment to a
new pedagogy has begun the realization of a true Remote University Network -- a library of
interactive virtual laboratory experiments, a virtual classroom where students can exchange ideas,
and a forum for faculty leaders in their field to share ideas with students. In the coming years we
look forward to sharing this vision with other university students through the continuing
partnership between the Stanford University and the natural expansion to other universities that
have expressed interest.

Timeplan
A timeline for the 2011 project is available at ->http://www.mednet.gu.se/download.php?id=109
Budget

Budgetplan fr Remote University Networks
Sktbelopp InklOH
Ln:JacobLindh:Exekutiv/forskare 122700kr 241100kr
Ln:MartinRydmark(huvudskande) 74400kr 118300kr
ITexpert(GU) 12000kr 17700kr*
Expertkonsulter(externa) 15000kr 22100kr*

Sktbelopp 224100kr
OH 175100kr* *EjbeskedangnyOHfr2011
Summainkl.OH 399200kr

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Projektbestllare
Huvudman: Martin Rydmark, MD, professor, Inst. fr biomedicin, Sahlgrenska akademin, GU
Handlggare: J acob Lindh, Inst. fr kost och idrottsvetenskap, Utbildningsvetenskapliga
fakulteten, GU
Personella resurser
Tvrvetenskapligt ntverk
IT-ansvarig: Svante Eriksson, FD, Utbildningsvetenskapliga fakulteten, GU
Rrelseanalys: Fredrik Mller, VD, Qualisys AB, Gteborg
Gran Patriksson, professor, pedagogik, Inst. fr kost och idrottsvetenskap, GU
Claes Annerstedt, professor, pedagogik, Inst. fr kost och idrottsvetenskap, GU
J on Karlsson, MD, professor, ortoped, Sahlgrenska akademin, GU
Roland Zugner, doktorand, sjukgymnast, Sahlgrenska akademin, GU
Roy Tranberg, FD, ortopedingenjr Sahlgrenska akademin, GU
Anna-Lisa Osvalder, docent, Chalmers Tekniska hgskola
Lina Lundgren, doktorand, driftansvarig fr rrelselaboratoriet, Hgskolan Halmstad
H.-C. Holmberg, Docent, National Winter-Sport Centre, Middle Univ.

International network (external observers)
Klavs Madsen, Prof., Institute of Sport Science, Aarhus University
J ens Boisen-Mller, Prof., Department of Physical Performance, Norwegian School of Sport
Sciences
Gordon Matheson, MD, Prof., Chief; Division of Sports Medicine, Stanford University
Mike Lambert, Assoc. Prof., Faculty of Health Sciences, Univ. of Cape Town
Andrew Cresswell, Prof., Chair of the School of Human Movement Studies Teaching and
Learning Committee, Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane

Collaboration and Integration of Principal Investigators and Staff:
Dr. Martin Rydmark specializes in three-dimensional anatomy and biomechanics at the
Sahlgrenska Academay at GU; his experience with virtual models has been important for the
design and interactivity of the storyboards as well as their accurate representations. He has been a
driving force behind the ICT-tools and the pedagogical design of the RUN-course.
J acob Lindh is an experienced educator in exercise science and he played a key role in
content development for the RUN-course. Lindh was the executive director of the RUN-project
during 2005-2008 and he is now the project coordinator of the new human performance laboratory
at GU, that will be built and ready for business in Oct 2010.
Dr. Claes Annerstedt provides expertise in successful methods of teaching exercise science
and insight into the utility of learning models in the classroom environment. Dr Annerstedt has
evaluated the previous RUN-project.
Dr. J on Karlsson, the Academic Chair of Orthopedic Surgery at GU, provides expertise in
surgical approaches that can be modeled, principles of rehabilitation, and clinical application. He
is one of the leading researchers in sports medicine in Sweden.
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Dr. Roy Tranberg is an orthopedic engineer and an experienced educator in biomechanics.
Tranberg is the executive director at Lundbergs gait laboratory for orthopedic research at GU,
were student conduct their experiments.
Roland Zugner is a physiotherapist and an experienced educator in biomechanics also
working at Lunbergs gait laboratory.
Dr. Anna-Lisa Osvalder is an experienced researcher and lecturer in biomechanics and
product development at Chalmers University of Technology. She will act as expert consultant for
questions in product development-biomechanics and a tutor for students from Chalmers taking the
course.

The rest will act as external observers, evaluators, expert consultants and/or resource faculty to be
able to implement and export this course to other universities. Dr H-C Holmberg, Dr Gordon
Matheson, Dr J ens Boisen-Mller, Dr Andrew Cresswell and Dr Klavs Madsen are all chiefs or
executives at their division or laboratory in Sports Medicine, Biomechanics or Exercise
Physiology.
Ansvar efter projektets slut
Frvaltning av projektets resultat

Institutionen fr kost och idrottsvetenskap samt Institutionen fr biomedicin samt alla de
universitet/institutioner som medverkade i projektet.

Realisering av nytta i verksamheten

Ansvarig fr projektfrslaget Datum

Professor Martin Rydmark

30/11 2010

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