Photo of a student viewing the heart structure  with the HoloLens

Innovative
Education

TEAMING IN HIGH TECH

Imagine a heart so real you want to reach out and touch it. Turn it around to view from all angles. Take it apart to reveal each chamber and vessel. All without ever actually coming near a body. Case Western Reserve has teamed with Microsoft and Cleveland Clinic to make this vision a reality. Radiology Professor Mark Griswold leads our effort with the Microsoft HoloLens. His group is using the mixed-reality device to reinvent learning. They’re starting with anatomy, but expect to extend to engineering, art history and more.The opportunities are limitless. So is the power of cooperation.

Partnering for Patients

Research shows team-based care improves patient results. Yet generations of health sciences students have trained in silos. No more. The university’s new Health Education Campus with Cleveland Clinic will bring medical, dental and nursing students together in one building. They will learn, study and even eat together. Come graduation, they’ll not only be ready for cooperative care—they’ll lead it.

Collaborating for In-Air Care

Medical helicopters move patients fast. But they do have their drawbacks. Cramped quarters. The possibility of rain. Sleet. Even snow. Plus, at thousands of feet in the air, even a small wind gust can feel like a wallop. With assistance from Redbird Flight Simulations and Hartzell Propeller, the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing found a way to make in-air care less daunting. The new simulator combines a fuselage that pitches and rolls with video “windows” whose images mimic different airborne views. After those experiences, our students will be ready to soar.

Aligning for Interactive Learning

Ever leave a lecture thinking you understood a topic—then started homework and realized you were wrong? Enter the “flipped” classroom. In it, students watch online lessons in advance. Then, in class, they tackle the actual work—with peers and professors right there to help. Faculty at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences tested the new model with help from Information Technology Services. The results after a year: Students reported more positive learning—and closer connections with classmates.

Pairing to Lead in Health Care

Take one of the nation’s most renowned hospitals. Add professors famed for innovative leadership ideas. Together, they create the Cleveland Clinic–Weatherhead School of Management Executive MBA. For those who want to lead in health care, the program offers experts in each. Students graduate in two years, and then it’s their turn: How will they make places better for patients?

Forging Foundations

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s previous award involving Case Western Reserve helped catalyze Joseph and Nancy Keithley’s $15 million commitment to the university and Cleveland Museum of Art. That success inspired a new joint proposal to the Mellon Foundation for a humanities collaborative between Case Western Reserve and Cuyahoga Community College. The foundation responded with a $1.55 million grant for students to earn their associate’s degrees at Tri-C and then earn bachelor’s degrees in the humanities at CWRU. As part of the model, faculty from both institutions will work together to advise and mentor 45 students over four years.