Educators' Collaborative

Welcome to the Educators' Collaborative
The EC is a home for educators across and beyond OHSU.
We are a community of practice for everything education, including teaching, assessment, scholarship, curriculum design, mentoring and more.
We bring educators together to improve practice, share innovative ideas and support one another in attaining new skills.
EC membership is available to anyone at OHSU – students, trainees, staff and faculty, from all missions, schools, departments and programs. As a member, you will have multiple opportunities to connect with people who share your passion for education and to access a network of resources to support your practice as an educator.
Learn more about our guiding principles, the leadership structure of the EC and the responsibilities and requirements for advisory group members.
Benefits of membership
- Receive the monthly edition of the EC Digest, a collection of education-related activities, calls for collaboration, professional development opportunities, and a list of recent publications by fellow EC members.
- Join (and/or facilitate) EC Pods and Seeds (see below for more information).
- Receive Outlook calendar invites for monthly Education Grand Rounds, which cover a variety of broadly applicable education-related topics (see below for more information).
- Access the EC Member Dashboard, which allows you to identify colleagues for potential collaboration and mentoring.
All OHSU members are welcome to participate in the annual Symposium on Educational Excellence and to attend the monthly Education Grand Rounds. See below for more information.
Get involved
There are many ways to get involved in the EC. Activities are driven by our members, so be creative and reach out to let us know how we can support you.
- Propose an education-focused activity and the EC Advisory Group (ECAG) will help you bring it to fruition. Some options include:
- Presenting at Education Grand Rounds or suggesting a potential speaker or topic
- Hosting a workshop
- Providing mentorship
- Starting a new seed (see below for more information)
- Advertise educated-related events or publications in the monthly EC Digest (contact Devon Ritter with details)
Members are also eligible to participate in institutional service activities associated with the EC, such as joining the planning committee for the annual Symposium on Educational Excellence or taking on a role with the Educators’ Collaborative Advisory Group.
Pods and seeds
As an EC member, we invite you to get involved and join one of our pods! Pods are overarching areas of professional and academic interest shared by many of our members. We currently have four pods, which were formed based on EC member feedback:
- Teaching, Learning and Assessment Pod
- Training and Instructional Design Pod
- Educational Scholarship and Research Pod
- Health Equity Pod
As you can see, each pod is a pretty big category. In practice, pods bring members together through individual “seeds;” there are multiple seeds within each pod.
Seeds are groups that meet around a common purpose, where you can grow your expertise alongside peers and connect with potential collaborators. Seeds may be long-standing writing groups or communities of practice, short-term book groups, or something else. See seed descriptions below for more information and how to sign up.
Please note that pods and their seeds are open only to members of the EC. Not yet a member? Sign up now!
- Writing Instruction Seed: Are you invested in improving student writing? Whether you're an instructor, tutor or staff support who works with student writing, we invite to join this seed that brings together people to talk writing. Complete the Writing Instruction Seed interest form to receive invites to our meetings!
- Visuals in Teaching & Learning (VTL) Seed: The VTL seed is a group of people interested in incorporating the use of visuals and graphics to improve understanding, deepen thinking and engage the self and others. We meet quarterly to share ideas about improving the craft/practice. Asynchronously, the Teams channel allows us to share events, resources and ideas. Sign-up here.
- AI in Education Seed: The AI in Education "seed" is a community of practice for discussing and sharing best practices and use cases for generative AI in teaching and learning in health education. Contact Jeffrey Jones or John Ansorge to learn more.
- Learning and Development Seed – more information coming soon.
- Writing Seed: Are you interested in joining with your peers to focus on writing as it pertains to education scholarship? Whether you are looking for accountability partners, peer review or inspiration, you've found the right place. Sign-up to learn more.
- Qualitative Research Book Club Seed: Join us to read “Rocking Qualitative Social Science,” by Ashley T. Rubin. From the description, “Ashley Rubin provides an entertaining treatise, corrective vision, and rigorously informative guidebook for qualitative research methods.” (The e-book is available through the OHSU library). The group will meet the first Wednesday of each month from 3 - 4 p.m., from March 2023 - October 2023. Join anytime! Register to receive invites.
Interested in starting a Health Equity related seed? Complete the interest form below!
Are you interested in starting another “seed” within one of these pods? Do you have a seed that doesn’t fit within one of our pre-existing pods? Or just have questions? Complete this interest form and we will be in touch with you soon!
Our Events
Education Grand Rounds
The Educators' Collaborative hosts monthly Education Grand Rounds, which are held online. All sessions are recorded.
Held on the third Wednesday of the month, from noon - 1 p.m.
Upcoming sessions
October 18: Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Health Professions Education, presented by Bill Hersh, M.D., Professor of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology.
November 15: Reaching Rural Residents with IPE, presented by Peggy Wros, Ph.D., R.N. and Molly Osborne, M.D., Ph.D.
CME Credit
Accreditation: Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Credit: OHSU School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Session archive
Almost all Education Grand Round sessions since 2017 have been recorded. Our archive has an index of past session topics and speakers, and links to recordings of available past sessions.
Are you interested in presenting at a future Ed Grand Rounds? Know of someone else who would be a great presenter? If so, you can now submit your interest or suggestions via this quick form.
Symposium on Educational Excellence
The Symposium on Educational Excellence is our annual event that brings together the OHSU education community.
Each year we seek to:
- Provide professional development in education.
- Highlight educators’ teaching and scholarship.
- Promote networking, collaboration and community.
2023 SEE
Thank you to all who attended and participated in this year's Symposium on Educational Excellence, which was held on May 19, 2023. The theme for this year's event was, Advancing Educational Scholarship and Skills in Health Sciences.
If you were not able to attend the event live, there are many resources available to view and engage with asynchronously, including session recordings and scholarly posters.
Join the SEE planning committee
We are currently seeking volunteers to join next year’s Symposium on Educational Excellence planning committee (including someone who would like to take on the role of SEE Chair-Elect, to serve as SEE Chair for the 2025 Symposium). Those interested in learning more about the committee or signing up to join the planning committee should contact our current SEE Chair, Pam Pierce.