Emory 2016: Day 6
The competition reaches its climax as Saturday arrives. There are teams of students clustered everywhere. Some working earnestly in quietness. Others interacting more raucously driven by visible anxiety and sense of urgency. Every individual and team travelling on their own journey. That’s the beauty of this rich learning experience. Intensive, interdisciplinary and completely dependent on teamwork. A great preparation for future professional employment challenges. As Chirag’s post from yesterday astutely observed only by actually working together on a project can you develop a true appreciation of the skills of others. Content skills, technical skills and relationship skills. Observing the power of this experiential model of learning makes me question why we do not build more of these activities into our signature professional degrees. Clearly cost is a factor. However with the ability, in a blended format, to more efficiently deliver curriculum content we must look more to releasing these funds to reinvest in high impact learning modules. To use a financial dividend to create a greater learning dividend. The additional deeply impressive facet of this case competition format is the volunteer contribution of the students themselves to planning and implementing this program. Both their thoughtful design innovations and their logistic support. TeamUnimelb has succeeded in achieving their goals. They have proudly flown a flag here for our University. Our presence here is immensely appreciated by our Emory and other US colleagues. Growing esteem. GO UNIMELB.
Professor Glenn Bowes
Deputy Dean | Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences