CTSI Offers Digital Badges in Two New Areas

By Ashley Regling, MA

CTSI digital badges are designed to enhance knowledge and skills related to clinical and translational research. Two new badges, Good Clinical Practice and Effective Teaching, will be offered with the workshop series beginning this spring. These add to the two digital badges launched by the CTSI last year on Responsible Conduct of Research and Scientific Communication.

Digital badges are becoming increasingly popular nationwide. They are clickable icons with information about the awarding institution, date earned, skills gained or enhanced, and evidence of strengthened competencies in the area of interest. Learners may display digital badges on their e-Portfolios, LinkedIn accounts or digital resumes to showcase their enhanced knowledge and skills, allowing them to become more competitive candidates for future employment opportunities.

To receive a digital badge, interested individuals attend all workshops in the series (ranging from four to six sessions depending on the core competency) and complete weekly assignments. The CTSI digital badges are offered free of charge to those affiliated with the Buffalo Translational Consortium. Learners from across the entire workforce from undergraduates to faculty are invited to take advantage of this opportunity.

The Good Clinical Practice workshop series explains the fundamental principles of the protection of human subjects, the main authoritative bodies, key codes and scope of enforcement. This series investigates how to prepare an application for IRB approval and how to describe the essential elements of voluntary informed consent.

The Effective Teaching workshop series prepares participants to be effective educators of diverse individuals. Attendees develop foundational knowledge of adult learning principles, educational strategies for small and large learner groups, content delivery techniques, and learner and program assessment techniques.

The Responsible Conduct of Research workshop series investigates the integration of research ethics into the design, conduct, oversight and dissemination of research. Workshops focus on conflicts of interest, procedures to ensure ethical procedures are used with animals and human subjects, and criteria for determining authorship and responsible data management.

The Scientific Communication workshop series investigates methods to communicate clinical and translational research findings to different groups of individuals. Workshop topics include working with institutional communication offices, translating the implications of research findings, effective communication and commercialization of research findings.

The CTSI Workforce Development Core will eventually award digital badges for all 10 core competency workshop series. In the future, learners will have the opportunity to stack digital badges to earn specific micro-credentials in an area of clinical and translational research.

Schedules for the core competency workshop series offering digital badges during the spring 2020 semester will be announced shortly. For more information, please contact scholar1@buffalo.edu.