NEW! Medical Education Research & Scholarship Intensive Course (Pathway 1)

Overview

This new faculty development course (Pathway 1) will advance clinical faculty across the entire UF College of Medicine with core knowledge, essential skills, and key deliverables in designing, implementing and publishing medical education research and scholarship. The course consists of a mix of synchronous core educational sessions and asynchronous independent study to guide faculty on each step of the process in developing and completing a medical educational research or scholarship protocol. Faculty participants will receive targeted mentorship/coaching from the MedEd Research and Scholarship Interest Group (UF Jacksonville) and MedEd Incubator community of expert scholars (UF Gainesville) based on the type of research/project being developed. This course will accrue total of 24 AMA credits in CME.

Expectations for faculty participants are to:

  • complete their medical educational research capstone project, whether it be an educational research protocol or scholarship project, ready for immediate implementation by end of the course
  • present capstone project as a poster at the next UF COM Celebration of Research Event and at a regional or national academic conference
  • Ultimate goal of external manuscript publication or grant submission. 

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: APPLY NOW!

Apply now to advance your career in medical education research and promote scholarship in your educational efforts!  Applications are due by June 30, 2026

Review application criteria prior to applying by clicking on the link. Use Gmail account.
* A short Statement of Interest including details of proposed educational research capstone project and potential departmental mentor for the course (<250 words)
* Letter of Support from Department Chair (or equivalent leadership) required to ensure support of faculty time and mentorship for the course

Applicants may wish to prepare their application in a WORD document and cut and paste into the application.

Dates of the Course

Course will run August 7, 2026 through April 9, 2027

Total 9 sessions, starting with a Welcome Reception and ending in a Capstone Reception. See below Course Outline for session content

Sessions are in-person once a month on specific Fridays from 1:00p.m. – 4:30p.m. with half the sessions in Jacksonville and the other half in Gainesville. Travel stipends available to faculty cohorts.

Target Audience

In the 2026 pilot year, plan for total cohort of 15 junior or mid-career clinical faculty (across both Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses) with teaching responsibilities seeking expertise in research and scholarship in medical education

Facilitators

Internal and external national experts and scholars in medical education research and scholarship.

Course Outline of Sessions

Session 1: Welcome Retreat – Introduction to Medical Education Research and Scholarship 
Date:  August 7, 2026 in-person at UFCOM-Gainesville campus 
Speakers:  Drs. Colleen Kalynych, Margaret Lo, and Phuong Huynh at UF College of Medicine 

Specific Lectures: 
* What is Medical Education Research and Scholarship? 
* Yes, You Can Publish MedEd Research and Scholarship: Tips and Tricks 
* Overview of Study Design Considerations 
* Effective Research Team & Mentoring Relationship 
 
Session 2: Theories, Conceptual Frameworks, Frameworks; Literature Review and Find the Gap; Introduction/Background 
Date:  September 11, 2026 in-person at UFCOM-Jacksonville campus 
Speakers:  Drs. Colleen Kalynych, Margaret Lo, Terrie Vasilopolous, Nicholaus Maldonado and Hannah Norton, Mary Edwards at UF College of Medicine 

Specific Lectures: 
* Theories, Conceptual Frameworks: The Alphabet Soup 
* How the Alphabet Soup Frames Your Research
* Question, Specific Aims or Learning Objectives 
* Conducting a Needs Assessment 
* Approach to an Effective Literature Search and Review 
* AI in Medical Education Research and Scholarship  
* Writing Your Background 
 
Session 3: Formulating the Study Design and Learning About the IRB and Submissions 
Date:  October 9, 2026 in-person at UFCOM-Jacksonville campus 
Speakers:  Drs. Patricia O’Sullivan at UCSF School of Medicine 

Specific Lectures: 
* Selecting Your Study Design – Research Question vs. Specific Aims vs. Learning Objectives 
* How to Define Your Target Population and Meet Power or Not 
* IRB Process for Medical Education Research: Tips and Considerations 
* Authorship- The Important Upfront Conversation: Tips  
 
Session 4: Qualitative Study Designs: Important Considerations 
Date:  November 13, 2026 in-person at UFCOM-Gainesville campus 
Speakers:  Drs. Easton Wollney and Anne Seraphine at UF College of Medicine and Dr. Aba Black at Yale School of Medicine 

Specific Lectures: 
* Overview of Qualitative Study Designs    
* Developing a Qualitative Research Study: Key Considerations 
* So, You Want to Do a Survey: Key Concepts 
* Conducting Focus Groups and Semi-Structured Interviews    
 
Session 5: Methods, Protocol Development and Data 
Date:  December 11, 2026 in-person at UFCOM-Jacksonville campus 
Speakers:  Drs. Colleen Kalynych, Terrie Vasilopolous and Philip Case, RedCap, UF College of Medicine 

Specific Lectures: 
* Protocol Development- Your Roadmap for Success 
* Importance of Your Methods 
* Describing Your Study Participants 
* Defining Your Study Outcomes 
* Data, Data, and Data: What, Where, When, How and Storage 
 
Session 6: Research Methodology, Project Evaluation, Statistical Analyses   
Date:  January 8, 2027 in-person at UFCOM-Gainesville campus 
Speakers:  Drs. Phuong Huynh and Terrie Vasilopolous at UF College of Medicine 

Specific Lectures: 
* Importance of Project/Program Evaluation 
* Evaluation Models for Educational Projects/Programs   
* Developing Your Project/Program Evaluation Plan   
* Preparing to Meet with the Statistician   
* Elements of a Statistical Plan 
* Alignment of Statistical Plan to Study Design   
 
Session 7Crossing the Finish Line!  Writing the Study Results & Discussion 
Date:  February 12, 2027 in-person at UFCOM-Gainesville campus 
Speakers:  Drs. David Winchester and Terrie Vasilopolous at UF College of Medicine 

Specific Lectures: 
* Developing Your Timeline: Key Considerations 
* Tips to Writing Results Section   
* Constructing Tables, Figures, and Appendices     
* Tips to Writing Discussion Section   
 
Session 8: Make It Count!  Scholarship in Medical Education Research  
Date:  March 12, 2027 over Zoom livestream 
Speaker:  Dr. Nital Appelbaum, Baylor School of Medicine 

Specific Lectures: 
* Timeline for Scholarly Writing    
* Components of a Medical Education Scholarly Paper 
* Selecting the Right Medical Education Journal   
 
Session 9: Capstone Reception – Project Presentations and Graduation  
Date:  April 9, 2027 (tentative) in-person at TBD campus  
Plenary Speaker:  TBD 
 
Specific plenary topic TBD 
* Culminate into the Celebration of Teaching Excellence event that evening 
 

Interested? More Information?

Contact Colleen.Kalynych@jax.ufl.edu, Associate Dean for Medical Education (Jacksonville) or Margaret.Lo@medicine.ufl.edu, Associate Dean for DIMERS (Gainesville) or Terrie Vasilopoulos, Ph.D, Program Director of AIMES, Gainesville at TVasilopoulos@anest.ufl.edu