Name: Building Durable Skills for Professional Practice
Uploaded: 2026-10-28T18:30:47.642Z
Duration: 1 h 16 s
Description: Building Durable Skills for Professional Practice

Transcript for "Building Durable Skills for Professional Practice": So today we'll be talking about professional skills, why they matter for students preparing for professional practice, and how programs can support their development. And we'll also introduce professional skills development, our solution that helps students build these skills and gives programs insight into learner growth. But before we get started, we do have some housekeeping rules that I wanna make sure we go over. Let me get my links open here. Sorry. Bear with me one moment. There we go. Alright. So just a couple of housekeeping notes before we get started. On the right hand side of your screen, you'll see the chat, docs, and q and a tab. Feel free to use the chat to introduce yourself and let us know where you're joining from today. You'll find some helpful resources there as well under that docs tab. So our panelists will will be taking audience questions at the end of the webinar, but you're welcome to submit your questions at any point throughout the session using the q and a tab there as well. We'll also email you the resources along with a recording of today's webinar later this week, and with that, let's get started. So today we have two lovely guests joining us we'll hear from two programs on with very different settings so we have Joseph Wells from the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University, and he'll be sharing a business perspective. And we have doctor Rebecca Keller from Albany Medical College who will be sharing a medical education perspective, and we're grateful to have them both here today. But before we hear from our partners, we wanna spend a few minutes setting the stage for today's conversation and introducing professional skills development. We'll start by looking at why professional skills are such an important part of preparing students for professional practice and the challenge programs face in helping students intentionally develop these skills. We'll then introduce how Acuity Insights is approaching that challenge through professional skills development. Supporting student growth while giving programs the greater insight into how professional skills are developing across learners and cohorts. From there, we'll show you what that looks like in practice, so how students engage with the assessment, how personalized feedback and resources support continued development, and how program level and longitudinal insights can help educators better understand development over time. That will give us a shared foundation before we turn to our partners and hear how they're thinking about these challenges within their own programs. When we talk about preparing students for professional practice, technical and academic knowledge are essential, we know that, but they're only part of the picture. Whether we're talking about a future physician working with patients and clinical teams or a business graduate navigating colleagues, clients, and organizational decisions, students also need to communicate effectively, think critically, collaborate, exercise judgment, and navigate complex interpersonal situations. And as AI changes how people learn and work, there's growing attention on how we intentionally develop these capabilities, not simply assume students will pick them up along the way. That's the challenge we're gonna explore today from two very different professional contexts. So that's where professional skills development comes in. It's a research backed formative assessment and development solution designed to help students build professional skills while giving programs greater insight into learner growth. There are really two sides to the value, so students gain a more intentional way to understand their strengths and identify opportunities for growth and continue that development, and at the same time, programs gain greater visibility into what's happening across individual learners and cohorts. And you'll hear both of those perspectives come through today as Rebecca and Joseph talk about what they're working towards within their programs. We think about the value at three interconnected levels. So first is the learner, helping students understand and intentionally develop professional skills. Second is the program, so giving educators structured insights they can use to better understand where strengths and development opportunities are emerging. And third is the broader program or institutional context so that evidence can help inform conversations around curriculum, student support, continuous improvement, accreditation, and other priorities. The important distinction is that we're not just suggesting one assessment makes all of those decisions for you. It gives programs another source of evidence they can bring into those conversations. The experience brings assessment and development together rather than treating assessment as the endpoint. So students begin by responding in their own words to realistic scenarios that ask them to apply professional skills and judgment in context. They then receive personalized feedback to help them understand their strengths and opportunities for growth. That connects to reflection and skill building exercises so there's a way to act on what they've learned. And because the assessment can be repeated at meaningful points in the learner journey, programs can gain insight into individual and cohort development over time. Rather than asking students how good they believe they are in a particular skill, professional skills development puts those skills into context so students encounter realistic situations and then respond in their own words to what they would consider or do. That distinction matters because we're focused on learnable professional skills, not personality traits or simply students perceptions of themselves. This is an important part of what makes the experience formative. The assessment isn't meant to end with only a score. Students receive personalized feedback that helps them understand where they're demonstrating strengths and where they may have opportunities to continue developing. That feedback connects to guided reflection and skill building resources, giving students a more intentional way to act on what they've learned. The same experience also gives faculty and program leaders a different level of visibility. So instead of relying only on individual observations or isolated measures, programs can look across learners and cohorts to see where patterns are emerging. Those insights can help inform questions such as where are students demonstrating strengths, where might additional support be helpful, and are there areas we want to explore more closely with the curriculum or learner experience. The data doesn't prescribe the intervention, but it gives programs structured evidence to help inform those decisions. So professional skills development isn't something that happens at a single point in a student's education. It can be used at meaningful points throughout the learner journey. An initial assessment can establish a baseline and build self awareness, and programs can revisit the assessment at milestones that make sense for their curriculum and their goals. Over time, this gives students repeated opportunities to reflect on their development while giving programs a longitudinal view of patterns across learners and cohorts. What those meaningful moments look like and how programs use the insights they gather will be different depending on the discipline, the learner journey, and the goals of the program. And that's a great place to turn to our partners. So rather than talk about this only in the abstract, we're going to hear how Albany Medical College and Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management are approaching professional skills development in their own environments, the challenges they're working to solve, and what they hope to learn along the way. So I'd like to start by hearing from Rebecca and Joseph on your program goals. So I'm going to start with you, Rebecca. So could you walk us through some of your goals when it comes to applying professional skills development? Of course. Thank you for inviting me to speak today. So we started out thinking about the professional skills development in terms of our medical students. We know that they achieved them by the time that they're done because in our postgraduate survey, our students rank very well in their, internships and residencies. However, we weren't sure if our curriculum had, anything to do with that or if students just organically develop these skills. So what we wanted to do was look at the growth of each student, see where students come in at baseline. So we did give the assessment at the beginning of the school year this year to our incoming class, and we were very intrigued that 95% of our students were already very high on the scale. And I'll go into that later on in the talk. But overall, the goal was to really align where our student growth were and if there were areas of burnout that our students might see throughout the course of their journey through a four year medical school, and then how can we support our students so that burnout doesn't happen? Or are they disengaged or disinterested in certain aspects of the assessment and also how we can support our students? So we've designed our program of assessment at various times throughout the curriculum that align with events that happen such as, you know, the baseline was at the beginning of orientation, and then after their first clinical experience, and then at the end of year two, at the end of year three. And so at various times, just to see where those milestones are and what we can deduce from each student's growth pattern. Is it a fast growth pattern? Was it something that they saw or did in the clinics? Was it something we did intentionally in a discussion group? And so we're really excited to see that that growth. As well, we have different cohorts of students in our curriculum that are admitted to our medical school. They've either had a gap year or maybe they come in with an advanced degree or they come in as a junior in college. So we're really interested to see what experiences they have before medical school that might aid in their professional development skills. So those are just some of our goals is to. really look at everything. And because of our dashboard that we have, we're able to make a lot of comparisons with the courses that they're taking and possibly, other milestones that they're achieving throughout medical school. Yeah. That's great. I love hearing about the longitudinal approach and really being selective of which milestones you're looking at in a timely, space throughout your program and really flipping that on how can we better support our students, how... What can we learn from this to add that support in where it may be needed or at those opportune times. So that's great. Thank you so much for sharing that. Joseph, I'll pass it over to you. If you could share a little bit more about your goals and how you're applying professional skills development. Sure. And, and, again, thank you, for the opportunity, and, good afternoon to, all those who are joining us. So at Morgan State University, I'm responsible for five, master's programs in our school of business. And so, and so we have a variety of students that we're admitting, both from, The US and internationally, at various stages. Some have just graduated from college. Others have been working for five to ten to to twenty years. And so as we began to talk with employers, over the last couple of years, we were hearing more and more about, kind of a skills deficit as they're thinking about bringing, students in, into the workforce, broadly. So not not our students per se, but students broadly as of bringing them in. Obviously, there was a need for things around, all things that are AI. That's being covered kind of elsewhere, from, curricular, changes. We're in the process of revamping the MBA program. But on the skill side, what we found was that there was a, there was a deficit. We thought that there were some challenges, but what we didn't have at the time, was any way to assess that. So we've been delivering, two courses that are required for all for all students in their first two semesters, which really look at, workforce development and skills development, and the... That's the second course. The first course looks at is kind of a 30,000 foot view of career, life, kind of optimal settings, kind of you designing what does that optimal career look like. And then the second course is really the more tactical course. But what we hadn't done up until we ran a pilot with Acuity Insights, is... And what they were doing was in the spring, was look something for around the around the assessment piece. And I wanted to understand what those skills were, understand what students, what students needed. We had an idea of the end goal, but we didn't necessarily have an idea of where students were at the beginning. So our assessment is going to look at, an assessment in the first semester course that they'll take called design your life, and then we will revisit the, the assessment in their respective capstone courses. So for the MBA program, that'll be, for the students that just started this fall, they'll have their their second assessment in, spring of twenty six, when they start that semester in jam... Sorry, '28. So January '28. For the other specialty master's programs, their program will wrap next December. So they will have that assessment in their respective capstone courses, December '27. And so this is an iterative process, to figure out, you know, kind of what what what some of the challenges were through the assessment initially, where we made improvements, and then we'll be iterating through our professional development courses themselves, as well as other things we're looking to bring in a curriculum to make sure that we are we're filling in those gaps, so that so that when students graduate, they're, very, very prepared to go out into the workforce, in whatever capacity they are... They're they're looking for. But we made sure to assess the skills and then to identify them and then to, make changes both in our curriculum, and in, experiential opportunities, whether that's additional cases or conferences or whatever it is, to also make sure that we're filling in some of those gaps. Yeah. That's great. Really, interesting to hear how you've been able to work it into existing courses as well. And then, like you said, use it as a tool to identify that baseline and how they're finishing the program and hopefully identify any room for improvement or gaps or things you might be able to apply to your curriculum. So that's really great to hear. Thanks so much for sharing that with us. Okay. So next, I wanted to talk a little bit about the importance of professional skills in general. So, Rebecca, could you tell me more about which professional skills are especially important, for graduates, entering medicine and why? Sure. So I would say all of them. As you as you started out, you know, the technical aspect and the medical knowledge is really, really important, And that's easier to teach, and we have really good assessments for those. But the professional skills such as empathy, patient trust, communication, leadership, those are things that students are going to develop organically, throughout medical school, and then, hopefully, our curriculum will enhance that. In 2010, Cruz and colleagues came out with a definition of professional identity formation, which we talk about a lot in the medical school, and that it's the, formation of a lifelong transformative process where students integrate the values and skills, behaviors and roles of being a physician. And so all of that includes, as I said, that patient trust and safety. That's really important. That's of utmost important to reduce medical errors and really to have the patients trust how the health care professionals help them on their health care journey. And then effective communication as you, hand off a patient from one team to another, that's really important to develop that skill of effective communication. And then teamwork. You know, our students, medical doctors are going to work with a variety of different health care workers from social workers to nurses to PAs to nurse anesthetists to nurse practitioners to the maintenance people to the patient advocates, to the patient care associates. And so they really need to learn how to be a leader of that team and to listen to each one of the team members. And then really the ethics. As we think about artificial intelligence coming, we have to train our students those lifelong skills, learning skills of when to use the new technology, how to use it, to think about security and, using, you know, tools that have been approved so that things don't go out into the public arena that really shouldn't such as patient data. Information. So all of those are really important, and we're hoping that our students achieve those skills. Yeah. Definitely. Thanks so much for sharing that. It sounds like the technical expertise and the professional skills really go hand in hand. You can't be successful in medicine with only one. You need both. And I really appreciate you touching on ethics as well and the importance of ethics, in medicine, and different tools and and everything that's coming out. So, yeah, thanks so much for sharing that. Joseph, I'd love to hear from you what skills are particularly important, in the business realm and why. Sure. So what we're hearing and what we're seeing is, that the the hard skills, the technical skills will always be, will always be important. But at some at some level, that's gonna be assumed that, you know, if you're going for a job on Wall Street that you know what ROI is, that you know what NPV is. So some of that's gonna be assumed. Where we see where, especially when you're getting into the deeper into the interview process, or even at the very, very beginning of the process, it's the softer skills. It's the leadership. It's the communication. Pardon me. It's the ability to think, analytically and critically. Probably it's the decision making. These are the things as you get, like I said, can be, you know, can... You can get get... Begin to get snapshots early on as you're meeting individuals. Again, how do you how do you, you know, manage a social situation, a a networking situation? But the deeper you get into the interview process, these are the qualities that employers are really beginning to focus on. And around the margins, these are what end up making the difference for for students. And we're hearing that constantly. We're hearing a lot from, our employer partners about leadership, about innovation, again, about critical thinking and analysis. And so these are the things that, again, that we're we're we're hearing. And as we think about the assessments, we're trying to get a handle on assessing those. And then we're trying to, then, as I mentioned earlier, then we're... Those are what we're looking to to develop. But we're hearing this kind of loud and clear consistently, whether you're going into marketing, whether you're going into finance, whether you're going into HR, whether you're looking to start your own business. People are looking for, you know, their, looking for people who will innovate, and and be creative even if they're inside of organizations. So, again, it's it's this... The quote, unquote softer skills are what people are telling us that they're constantly... That they're they're trying to focus on, Because, again, the harder skills either can be taught or it's just kind of assumed that you're that you're bringing that kind of base level knowledge in. Yeah. That's really interesting to hear. Like, the technical skills are assumed you have to have that at at minimum, but it's really professional skills that are a differentiator and really help set you apart from others as they're entering the workforce. And it's it's really interesting to hear the feedback that you've been getting, from employers on the importance of these skills. So thanks so much for sharing that. Alright. Next, I... As part of that, I wanna hear a little bit more about how expectations for these skills have changed, as the workplace and the professions themselves have evolved. So, Rebecca, you mentioned AI and security and those pieces, some of which are relatively new. So I'd love to hear how how the expectation around these skills has has changed in the workforce and medicine in particular. Thank you. So I I don't know that they've necessarily changed, but I think that we highlight them maybe more in the last five to ten years. Because as new information comes out, we do realize that, you know, we can go to our phones. We can go to up to date. We can find that knowledge that we need. But it's really that... Those softer skills as Joseph talked about that is really going to define how the patients interact with the physician. So I think that there's more emphasis on having curricula that really have discussion groups or sessions that help students identify and understand the importance of that, yes, you're gonna be a physician, but it's more than just knowing what bone join... Joins to which bone or which biochemical process it is. But it's about breaking it down and really talking to the patient because the patient for physicians is really their employer, if you will, and they're the ones who are going to select a physician based on those skills that speak to that individual patient. So I think just really identifying it and allowing the students to really dig deep and see the importance. I think by giving the assessment this year, that, we spent a lot more time... Intentional time. We always spend time on professionalism and orientation, but we spent more time really delving into why is it important that they see this in our curriculum, and we really mapped our curriculum to show them the points, those milestones from first year to second year, third year, and fourth year, where they're seeing opportunities to engage in those professional skills. So I don't think that it's any more important. I think we're just being more intentional about the development. And for me, assessment drives learning. So by using the assessment, students are kinda saying, oh, okay. We we get it. We we see it. We know it, and there's been a lot more engagement with our students just around talking about it. Yeah. Kinda pulls it out of the abstract a little bit. And it it sounds like expectations maybe haven't changed, but how you are expressing the value and importance of these skills has, and you've been adapting your program to reflect that. So that's great to hear. And, Joseph, how have expectations for these skills changed, from a business side in the workplace? Yeah. I think what we're, seeing and what we're trying to, what we're trying to adapt to, is one of the things speaks directly to the impact that AI is having. And so as, and I'll use myself as an example. When I graduated from college, I was an analyst on Wall Street. So I spent two years kind of building models and doing all kinds of analysis. That was probably 90% of what I spent my time doing. If If you look at students coming out now, whether they're the undergraduate or at the graduate level, that work is is gonna be being done, you know, by machine learning and and AI to build to build your financial models for the most part. So the question then becomes kind of, you know, that... That's the first year experience. And that first year experience is is quickly evaporating. So, you know, if you're a first year... If you're a lawyer grad... Just graduating, what do you spend most of your time doing at the upfront is research. Well, research can be done very, very differently now. So from our standpoint, that's why the leadership, the the the analytical skills, all those things are taking on even more importance is because we're trying to best position our students as individuals who can come in and who can, in essence, kind of skip that first year, that first year experience, so to speak, and move as quickly as they can into, you know, the decision making process. So taking data, turning data into information, then turn that into actionable intelligence. So, I'm not saying they're gonna come out and and and and and, you know, be SVPs and run and and run companies. But moving them into that moving them into that space, faster, takes on more importance when, again, a lot of the, the baseline work and tasks that they would be doing isn't there anymore. And, you know, I heard of I heard of, we had somebody at the university a couple weeks ago who kind of framed AI thinking in a way that's very interesting is that AI can do what is complicated, but it cannot do what is complex. And so, you know, we're trying to focus on, and Rebecca mentioned it, you know, the the ethics, the the kind of guardrails around that. You know, how do you use it? When do you use it? There is an expectation that people coming out are AI fluent, and that doesn't mean that I can use Chat GPT to write an email. It's a lot more than that. And so as we're thinking about rebuilding the, the the curriculum, you know, there's a heavy focus on bringing that into every single classroom. So right now, it's kind of deemed more techy, so we're gonna have it in kind of some of the hard... It's gonna quote hard skill classes. But it's also gonna be in HR. It's gonna be in marketing. It's gonna be everywhere, because it's something that you can't avoid. There's gonna be a lot of projects, because, again, you wanna be be able to demonstrate leadership skills. You're gonna have to work with people, from all different types of backgrounds and experiences. So the project based work becomes incredibly important, because you're gonna have to learn some of those skills to work with other people, and learn those leadership skills, and learn how to kinda navigate those worlds. So we're actively looking at the assessment piece, understanding what those skills needs are, and then beginning to bake some of those into the curriculum as we're as we're redesigning it. And we're intentionally redesigning it as modular as we can. So we don't even necessarily talk about a... We don't necessarily talk as much about AI in the building, as much as we're calling it emerging technologies, because it'll be it'll be AI, then it'll be something else AI, then it'll be agentic AI, then it'll be something else tomorrow. So we're, that's how we're trying to think about it so that we're we're marrying the skills and what you're doing in the curriculum with the expectations of what folks want on the outside. And so I think, you know, at a baseline level, some of these expectations haven't changed, but I think they're, especially with the advent of AI, they're coming into much sharper focus as we're now thinking about things again like, like leadership and then around... And did all things around AI, the governance, the ethics, etcetera. Yeah. No. That's definitely very, that resonates very well with, I'm sure, a lot of, folks watching this webinar. It's great that you're not focused on just what is the technology right now, but preparing your students for the continuous evolution of technology moving forward and really focusing on those decision making skills, strategy, leadership, and those, skills that can't be easily replicated, Yeah. by, these Jews. yeah, So, yeah, we're we're not in the... We all... By the DLs, I like to say, we're we're not in the technology business. That's what engineering and math does. We're in the management business. And so it's the management of these... Of the information, of the processes, that we're, that that we're that we're heavily focused on, because that's just, you know, that's... The the technology piece is not our... It's it's it's not where we wanna hang our hat. It's not where we have any any, any background and skill set. So we're we're focused on what is it from a from a management standpoint. And we think that's where a lot of the, a lot of the challenge is going to be anyway. The ethics, the governance, etcetera, that's where a lot of the challenge is gonna be, and we're quite frank, where where a lot of the opportunity is as well. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. Great. Let's, talk a little bit about how professional skills show up, in each of your disciplines. So, Rebecca, could you tell me a little bit about how the stakes and application of professional skills, how they appear in medical education? Sure. So they show up every day in clinical practice, and that comes in communicating effectively with patients and their colleagues, whether it be colleagues that are other physicians or nurses or the physician assistants, you know, whoever that might be, the social worker, the pharmacist. So communication shows up every day. And then really lifelong learning. You know, we've been talking a lot about AI. Yes. And to Joseph point, you know, it's AI today, but who knows what it'll be tomorrow or the next day. So really developing the motivation to keep learning and to keep being, you know, current in what's going on, whether they're a surgeon and being current in the new ways to do surgery safer, more effectively, and really thinking about all of that. And then the critical thinking, problem solving. You know, patients are coming in with already knowing a lot about, you know, their their problem, their, chief complaint, because they've looked it up. There's so much information. And so they really need to think critically, again, know how to communicate with the patients, to acknowledge that they do know a lot, but that some of what they know looking at the resources may not be totally accurate. But really problem solving that and helping the patient through that journey, I think, is really important. Yeah. Definitely. I mean, you're totally right. Everyone has more access to more information now than ever before. So not only how do they explain this to patients and work with them, but also how do they approach it in a way where patients are feeling heard and understood, but they're able to apply their expertise and knowledge as well. So that's really, great to hear that that is a a key focal point. And the stakes obviously can be quite high in medicine, so definitely very important. Jes, could you talk a little bit about how the stakes and application of professional skills apply in business? Sure. Again, it's the, it's the kind of leadership, it's negotiations, it's efficiencies. You know, these are these are what we're, what we are again hearing from from partners and what we are, and with faculty through their... Through through any any research they're doing may may uncover. And so we're really focused on how do we end up delivering... How do we end up identifying the various organizational stakeholders and then make sure that the, that the students... That the skills are bringing... The students that skills are bringing are are aligned with those, with those organizational stakeholders and those organizational objectives. You know, what are those what are those what are those urgent issues that you're dealing with? At the end of the day, what we want students coming out with, and we think probably, you know, among the most valuable skills is the is the, you know, marrying, an an innate curiosity, with the... With with problem solving. So situations come up. How do you navigate through them? You know, how do you how do you problem solve? You know, how do you how do you get students focused on, you know, what what people like to call failing fast? So if we're doing something and it's not working, then, alright, then it's time to now pivot and to try something else. Again, not kind of willy nilly, but it's time to pivot and have a have a hard think so you're not spending time, you know, going down something where, where it's not... Where your net... Where it's not going to work. That's typically kind of a, you know, kind of a scientific approach. But we're seeing more and more, I guess, especially if you're in the if you're in in the innovation space, where you wanna try something, you wanna move, it's not working, move on. But, again, you know, that takes discipline. That'll take leadership. That'll take the analytic abilities to recognize that, and the, and in some cases, just simply the guts to make that call that we are stopping this and starting this and moving in a different direction. And then the ability to be able to explain that, to, you know, to the various stakeholders, that you're gonna try something different, not kinda not being afraid to, you know, not being afraid to fail. And so I think as we're thinking about, you know, kind of an overall skills package that we are hoping students will develop, You know, these are some of the markers that we're trying to, trying to lay down, again, because, you know, companies are telling us that in a in a in a increasingly more competitive landscape and in a competitive landscape where things happen much faster than they used to. You know, new challenges arise, new opportunities arise. You know, people have to be willing... Have to be able. rather to, to make decisions and move quickly. And so we're trying to make sure that, that from a skill standpoint, again, hard skills are kind of assumed, but some of these softer skills, we're trying to make sure that we're finding ways to, to work those, if you will, you know, practice, if you will, through, what we... What we're assessing and then what we're doing from a, from a curricular standpoint. Yeah. Definitely. It's great that you're focusing on practicing those skills because I think skills when you're teaching them can make sense in theory, but giving students the opportunity to actually use them in practice becomes really important. And I like what you said about, being able to pivot and be adaptable in the workforce, and that's, you know, one one thing in it... In and of itself, but then being able to communicate to your stakeholders why you've made those decisions or why you're doing this. So definitely a lot of various different skills needed in order to do that effectively. Alright. So the last topic I wanted to discuss today is developing students throughout your program. So, Rebecca, could you kinda walk me through what is the value of looking at professional skills development over time, like you said, in those various milestones in your program versus at a single point, maybe at the end of a student's education, for example? Sure. So as I said at the beginning, we know that our students are achieving professional skills. We'd really like to know whether our curriculum is intentionally helping the students engage in that and then what parts of our curriculum, and then how can we support our students throughout their journey. So, you know, based on one class, we do know that over ninety five percent of our students are have developed very well and have a very strong baseline. And I think that has to do with students choosing medicine as their career and what they do before they come to medical school. So I think a lot of the professional skills have already been developed organically. But if but if we just use that one time point, we would lose the ability to see where in our curriculum do students need more support. It is well known that during the core clinical phase or the, normally third year, late second year to third year phase, the students get a little burned out because the expectations are high. They're seeing a lot of patients, which is great. They love to do that, but they also get burned out. And it's been reported, and researched and, in publications that during that time, students' empathy scores go down. So it would be interesting to see in our new curriculum, have we developed, you know, times in their curriculum to support them so that that burnout doesn't happen or that. it happens less than in previous classes? So by looking at their growth throughout the four years, so we have nine time points that we will be assessing the students about two per year. And it has to do with when they go into clinical practice, when they see their first patients, out in a clinic, and then what happens over the summer where they're not engaging in clinical practice? Do they fall down, or are there other enrichment things that they're doing during their summer between first and second year? And so really tying intention to the development and not leaving it just to an organic development, which is great, but we wanna be intentional in making sure that our students are ready for the rigors and the importance of clinical care when they get out to their residencies where they're really expected to be at a high level to, you know, increase patient safety and decrease medical errors, be able to hand off patients effectively from one team to another, just to be effective in that patient journey and to allow the patients to feel supported. And if we can model that by supporting our students, then they can see what that support can look like for their patients. Yeah. That's great. I love hearing about the intentionality piece because like you said, a lot of your students already have these skills to some level, and they are develop... Developing them organically and will continue to do so with your curriculum. But be intentional especially during times where, you know, they have heavy course load and they're seeing a lot of patients, and they might be getting tired or burnt out, like you said, to to be able to maintain those skills throughout and assess where those milestones might be happening and where intervention could support. I think that's really, great value to to do that longitudinally. So thank you for sharing that. Joseph, same question to you. So what is the value you mentioned you're assessing kind of at the beginning of the program and then again at, in their capstone? So what what are you seeing as the value for being able to assess at multiple points, across the program? Well, it's it's, it's twofold. First, it's, you wanna be able to show growth and development. You wanna show that you're... That there... That there's been... For no... For nothing else, there's been an ROI on the investment the students have made. They came in at one point, we're now at another point. And so you wanna be able to, you wanna be able to demonstrate that to the students. And then, you wanna also make sure that as you're thinking about what those skills are, that you are, that you're making the you're making the changes in the curriculum necessary to support them. So as an example, right now, as I mentioned, we have two professional development courses. One is this 30,000 foot view, and one is is is much more tactical, resume writing, social media profiles, interviewing skills, etcetera. And, but as we're... But there's no hard deliverable coming out of either one of them, really. And so as we're revamping them, there is gonna be a hard deliverable that students are are... We're gonna probably combine the two of them in some way, shape, or form. And, you know, I came out of a case, a case methodology for my business school. And so I think we're gonna end end up having the students developing a case for themselves, for whatever that professional development looks like. And then we wanna make sure again that we're marrying what we need to be assessing, from a skill standpoint throughout the curriculum. Right now, the curriculum was not designed explicitly to do that. It may happen because you're... You know, you have projects you're working on, but the projects are not explicitly tied to some of the some of these... The skill development. And so as we're thinking about the revamp of the curriculum, we wanna be able to make sure that we're building some of these pieces in. So, for example, if it is not just giving a presentation, but it is giving a pitch, it's demonstrating innovation. If you're leading projects, it's demonstrating leadership. It's demonstrating critical thinking skills. We're bringing the AI in, so it's now that demonstrating that analysis, that desire again to turn data into information, into intelligence, but it's being demonstrated. So so hopefully when we get to the end, and we're now assessing in the capstone, that we're seeing that growth and development, but it's being married up with what... With with explicitly what employers, at a baseline are telling us that they're looking for. And if those things change over time, great. Then we'll be able to adjust, the the career course that everybody's gonna have in their first semester, to be able to address those things. You can still assess them at... On their way in. And we're actually even... We're contemplating... I'm not sure we're going to do this. We're contemplating some kind of an assessment, in the admissions process, not to screen people in or out, but to be able to have a better sense of what people are bringing into the program so that we can begin to adjust what we're doing, kind of in real time, if you will, that the, you know, the fall intake may need more focus on one or two items, where the spring intake, may need to focus on the same items or different items. But being able to maybe do something to catch some of that on the way in, we don't wanna, you know, burden the admissions process, and maybe it's something we do for those people once they're admitted, that we that we provide the assessment at that point. But that's how we're trying to think about making sure that we're, you know, to use Rebecca's word, intentional about integrating the two pieces, so you end up getting... The students end up getting that better ROI and that real meaningful change, you know, while they're coming through the program. Again, not on the hard skills, but on these, but on these, clinical softer skills that are becoming more and more important in the workplace. Yeah. Definitely. It sounds like there's... You'll be able to adapt, your approach and curriculum, for students being able to see which skills they're coming in with, for example, where they may need more support because to your point, that can continue to change over time. You know, if critical thinking is a big focus right now, it might be something different five years from now. How can you adapt? But also that piece around measuring the changes that you're actively making to your curriculum and seeing if they make a real impact. So that's great to hear. Great. Well, I wanna make sure we have some time for q and a. But before we jump to that, I just wanted to say thank you both for sharing, all of that great insight with us. It's been really helpful to hear how both medicine and business are approaching your goals for professional skills development. A lot of things stood out to me today around, you know, professional skills mattering, you know, a lot as as work changes and and as society is changing and graduates need to be able to apply these skills to complex scenarios and kind of high stakes environments as well. So, all really good insights, and I'm I'm glad that you're able to really focus on how you wanna apply these in your program and be intentional about it as you mentioned. So we do have some questions in q and a, so I'm going to, bring those up. Folks can feel free to add more questions to the q and a if you haven't asked your question yet. So let me see where I'm gonna start here. I'm gonna start with you, Rebecca. There's a question. Doctor Keller, do you use a situational judgment test as part of your admissions process? We do not. Okay. So... Simple. Simple. Simple. Wait. So do baseline use it. So. The baseline is really the assessment that you're doing right at the beginning of the program and kind of that orientation time then. correct. I will say that some of our students have done a situational judgment assessment for other schools that they've applied to during the application process, but our school does not Okay. require that. probably good to know. Yeah. Okay. Great. What are you hoping to learn from assessing professional skills at multiple points? I think we touched on that, in the last question. So maybe for you, Joseph. How could professional skills assessment support accreditation requirements such as AACSB assurance of learning? Yeah. We're, as we're thinking about the, the skills development and the new curriculum design, it's being married up with the, with the new... With the most recent AACSB standards, specifically around, assurances of learning. And so we're we're looking to bring those in, where it may... I'll I'll bring bring them in because we'll we'll need to make sure that the curriculum is is is is married up with those. So we are actively looking at that. It is a, it's a, it's a data point, if you will, in the, in the... As we're thinking about assessment and in the, end of the redesign process, that we wanna make sure that we're, that we're aligned. It's not a focal area, but it is something we just wanna make sure that as we're as we're revamping, we are aligned, with, with the, with the new AACSB standards. Okay. Great. Yeah. Rebecca, go ahead. I just wanted to add that with the LCME and MSCHE accreditation that we go through, we're also using this as support evidence for our students developing professional skills. We definitely have other outcomes of professional skills such as their, clinical evaluations, but this is just one more assessment that we can show that our students are achieving the professional skills. So also on the medical side and just, basic accreditation through MSCHE, we will be using this as additional support. Great. I'm glad to see here it's useful in in in both in both disciplines and different accreditations. What I've learned from this conversation so far is while you're in very different disciplines, there is a lot of overlap and importance. of skills for sure. Another question is how are you integrating professional skills development, into your existing curriculum without adding significant work? Do either of you wanna take that one? I can start. So four years ago, we, changed our curriculum, and our curriculum always had courses such as health care and society, a clinical skills course that did touch on professional skills and did very well with that. But in our new curriculum, we were very intentional and have four weeks within the... Well, actually, five weeks within the first year and a half called professional identity formation that really allows the students... There's no test during that week. There's no, medical knowledge assignments that are due. It's really a time to discuss, like, trauma informed care to assess, social determinants of medicine, to discuss, patient physician communication, interprofessional education. So it's a time that students can really just sit and talk about professional skills within those times. So we're not adding any work. We already had developed sessions. But to your point, we are looking at this assessment to see, have we gone far enough? Do we have enough intentional. sessions, or do we need to add more? Yeah. That's great that you're able to weave it in already because you're already being intentional about, bringing these skills to the forefront and really making the value very clear to students so you can weave it into what you're already doing, which is great. Joseph, did you wanna share anything on that, how you're weaving it in without adding kind of extra work? Yeah. So we're, we basically have three opportunities to impact students, and that's kind of what, we run. Because the professional development courses I mentioned are run out of the master's office. They're not run out of the out of the rest of the school. They sit inside of our business business administration department, but the curriculum, which was designed by one of... We just... We designed one, and then the design your life was designed with another, with actually an entrepreneurship innovation professor. But we we instruct both of those. And then there's experiential pieces, the case competitions and, conferences and and other opportunities, that, that, again, that our office primarily drives. And then there's, like, the classroom and curriculum. And so right now, the professional development really lies in those first two for the graduate level. It doesn't really, lie in the in the curriculum. And when we revamp the curriculum, it still won't... It it won't explicitly lie in the curriculum. I think, from from a professional development standpoint, from a skills and whatnot standpoint, I think some of that is better suited at the... In the in the in the classroom explicitly, you know, across curriculum may be better suited at the undergraduate level, kinda working with students. But what we wanna make sure, as I mentioned earlier, is that if we're thinking about specific skills development, students are getting an ample opportunities to practice those across the core, and then to practice those in whichever areas of concentration, HR, finance, accounting, etcetera, that they may be thinking about. So we're not gonna be asking professors, you know, did you work on, you know, this particular skill set? And is this particular skill set necessarily, explicitly identified as professional development in your in your syllabus? But the, but you'll be working on that skill, in the new curriculum in a much... In a in a very intentional way, which, again, it's it's it's in there now. It's just not... It's not as intentional, but we're gonna be making that explicit link between what they cover in the classroom, what they're doing experientially, and then, what what they're doing in the in the in the career course, match up with the assessments, match up with the experiential pieces, and now making sure that the classroom is where you actually begin... Is where you have the the best opportunity to actually demonstrate what those things are. So in the revamp, that's the approach that we're gonna be, that we're gonna be taking. And I think that'll I think that'll probably be the best way to make sure that it's fully integrated across the two years or eighteen months or ever long the, graduate program is. Yeah. So it's not acting as just a stand alone add on. It's kind of weaved. in and integrated with a lot of the work that you're already doing in your curriculum. Yeah. It it has to be... It can't be it can't be a stand alone. It has. to be woven in so that there... You can learn it. An example I always like to use is, you know, I was... I used Excel a lot, and people say, well, teach me how to do a pivot table. I said, well, sure. But if you don't actually use pivot tables, then you'll forget it. They said, no. I won't. I said, I'll guarantee you if you don't use it, you'll be back here in a week asking me how do I do this. And sure enough, that was the case. So it's important that they just get a chance to do this on a consistent basis throughout so that just becomes a learned skill. It becomes more second nature and and and more natural, so that they... It seems that way or it it is that way, I should say, when they're going for interviews and kinda going on to whatever their, professional career is gonna be. Yeah. Definitely. Consistency is important. I've been there with the pivot tables for sure. We only have a couple minutes left, but I wanted to ask, how do you encourage students to take professional skills development seriously when they're already focused on grades and technical knowledge and other academic priorities? How do you make sure that they are engaged and they're participating, using this tool. Whoever wants to answer for... I will tell you that's been one of the... That's probably been one of the biggest challenges. And, you know, we'd... We've developed courses, and we we do some other things to kinda get them to take, quote unquote, take the professional development seriously. I quite frankly have a hard time understanding why somebody comes to business school and uses my, you know, where my world and is not focused on professional development. That's, to me, their entire reason that you're coming back. And we we make it a lot more explicit in the redesign. Right now, the professional development courses are zero credits, and that's because I don't believe in charging for professional development. I think that should be part and parcel of what you get going through the curriculum. But to drive that point home, I think that that could change. Maybe it's one credit, so it's minimal cost. But I think it's it's it's... The message needs to come not from us. They get tired of hearing Joseph Wells say something. I need them hearing the people hiring at Nike and at Under Armour and at Goldman Sachs and it would... And Anthropic. They need to hear the message from them. So part of it is also making sure that we provide ample opportunities to bring those folks in. And, again, not just in the first professional development course, but sprinkled throughout the curriculum, through projects. So they get to they get to hear that message, and they and they get to see that kind of in action. So it it does drive home the point that these classes are important, and we do see a very, very good correlation between those that engage with our office, are engaged in professional development courses, and those end up having having the most success, from a placement standpoint. It's not... It's it's not rocket science. We see it, and we. try to impart that. But, again, sometimes they don't wanna hear from, you know, Joseph Wells and mister Fletcher. Totally fair. Dr. Rebecca Keller, I know we have, just a minute left, but do you wanna share what you do to, encourage and see the Sure. I think, medical school is a little bit? easier to encourage students because they've either, you know, shadowed physicians, so they've seen it. You know? They've role modeled it. They kinda know what they're getting into. Also, our students are our best advocates. We have a lot of... We have tons of interest groups, and those are all student driven. And often, they'll have physicians come in and talk about their story through, you know, medical school, residency. And so, again, seeing that modeling. So we don't have a problem with that. I think it's more getting them to pay attention when they have an exam coming up, but they are engaged in other ways. Yeah. Great. That's great to hear. Well, thank you both so much, for today and for joining us. And thank you everyone who's watching this or maybe you're watching the recording later. Thanks so much for joining us. Great insights today, on this call. So really, really thank you so much for for participating. We will be sending an email out, later this week, including a recording as well as any resources. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out at contact@acuityinsights.com. Thanks so much, everyone. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you. Thank you.