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NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award (ATEA) 2021

Assistant Professor Gopu Sriram has been conferred the prestigious NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award (ATEA) 2021 (Individual Category) for his innovative teaching efforts. ATEA recognizes positive contributions by an individual to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of high-quality teaching and assessment at the module level in a sustained and impactful way.

Dr Sriram consistently strived to enhance his students' learning experience and outcomes. Oral biology and oral pathology involve the need to correlate the complex organisation of the tissues in health and diseased states as seen through a microscope lens. As the NUS Faculty of Dentistry's leading instructor of these subjects, Dr Sriram saw how his undergraduate students struggled with them and endeavoured to design a better learning approach to achieve the desired outcome.

Dr Sriram eventually developed a multi-modal blended learning approach to assist students in visualizing concepts as well as their clinical correlation. This approach blends the use of various technology-based tools, flipped classroom, activities using hands-on 3D models, and clinically oriented problem-based activities. Students have since found this approach to be highly engaging and compelling, improving their overall learning experience.

"I am honoured to be conferred the ATEA. I firmly believe that 'Teachers are a key mediator of student's active learning and not a mere conveyer of knowledge'. This encourages me to continue seeking better ways to enhance students' learning experiences. I want to acknowledge all my students for their constructive feedback, which actively helped in shaping my lectures and approach towards teaching. I also want to thank my colleagues who immensely supported me towards achieving this milestone," said Dr Sriram.