Interprofessional education (IPE) provides students with opportunities to learn about the roles and responsibilities of other professions and develop communication and teamwork skills. As different health professions have recognised the importance of IPE, the number of disciplines participating in IPE events is increasing. Consequently, it is important to examine the effect group structure has on the learning environment and student knowledge acquisition during IPE events. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of group composition on student perceptions of interprofessional teamwork and collaboration when participating in a case-based IPE forum. To examine this construct, six cohorts of students were divided into two groups: Group-one (2010-2012) included students from five professions. Group-two (2013-2015) included students from 10 professions. The only other change for group-two was broadening the case scenarios to ensure a role for each profession. At the conclusion of the case-based IPE forums, both groups demonstrated a statistically significant increase in 'readiness for interprofessional learning' and 'interdisciplinary education perceptions'. However, participants in group-one (2010-2012) demonstrated a greater change in scores when compared to group-two (2013-2015). It was concluded a case-based IPE forum with students from numerous health professions participating in a discussion about broad case scenarios was moderately effective at introducing students to other health professions and increasing their knowledge of others' identities. However, a smaller grouping of professions with targeted cases was more effective at influencing student perceptions of the need for teamwork. When planning an IPE event, faculty should focus on intentional groupings of professions to reflect the social context of healthcare teams so all students can fully participate and experience shared learning.

Introduction: The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) expert panel advocates for health profession students to learn to work together. 1 This study examined the impact of a single interprofessional experience on three cohorts of health profession students' readiness, knowledge, and perceptions of working as a team. Method: Interprofessional student teams were randomly formed (n=594) representing dietetics, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech language pathology. A video-case was presented and students participated in a guided discussion related to roles and team goals. Interprofessional faculty members facilitated discussions and answered questions. A pre-post design was employed using mixed methodologies. Quantitative measures were the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and the Interprofessional Education Perception Scale (IEPS). Results: Pre and post data were evaluated using paired sample t-tests (PAWS 17.0). Statistically significant improvements were seen from pre to post testing on the RIPLS (p=.000) and IEPS (p=.000). A semi-structured interview guide generated focus group qualitative data. Analysis of focus group transcripts revealed three themes: knowledge and respect, communication, and teamwork. Conclusion: The IPE forum had a positive influence on students' attitudes towards working as a team and enhanced professional identity and perceived competency. Qualitative themes were consistent with the IPEC core competency outcomes. 1

As service-learning and community-based learning proliferate in higher education, increased attention has been directed toward gathering evidence of their impacts. While the bulk of the literature has focused on student outcomes, little work has been done to examine how the perspectives of stakeholder groups overlap and intersect. This study uses an exploratory qualitative design to examine the experiences of service-learning students, faculty, and community partners at a four-year public university, which revealed five key themes: the time-intensive nature of service-learning, the added value provided by the service-learning faculty member, the additional benefits created by service-learning connections, the unintended opportunities for discovery of self and others, and the impacts of the liminal space of service-learning transcending traditional academic boundaries. Implications of the study reveal the importance of institutional support and coordination to maximize impacts on stakeholders, as well as the need for further study of overlapping stakeholder perspectives in multiple contexts. Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that applies students' classroom learning to meet a meaningful community need, building upon John Dewey's (1938) call for a pedagogy grounded in experience that prepares students to be active members of a democratic society. Scholarship since the 1990s has recognized the rapid expansion of service-learning programs in higher education and the need for rigorous, structured assessment of the outcomes and impacts of such programs (Chupp & Joseph, 2010; Driscoll, Holland, Gelmon, & Kerrigan, 1996; Eyler, Giles, & Braxton, 1997). The past decade and a half in particular have seen the production of service-learning scholarship that answers this call with unprecedented breadth, including work by Abes, Jackson, and Jones (2002) to understand faculty motivations; Celio, Durlak, and Dymnicki's (2011) meta-analysis of student impacts; Kilgo, Ezell Sheets, and Pascarella's (2015) examination of longitudinal data on high-impact educational practices from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education; and Keen and Hall's (2009) longitudinal study of students engaged in co-curricular service-learning through 23 liberal arts colleges' Bonner Scholar Programs. This study reports assessment findings from a four-year public university located in the southern United States, with a service-learning program that officially launched in 2013. The program assessment plan established program outcomes and measures for students, faculty, and community partners; this research provides results of focus groups conducted with all three stakeholder groups in February and March 2016. Although several service-learning faculty members at the institution have conducted research related to their own servicelearning courses and pedagogy, a program-wide study was needed to report findings on outcomes and impacts on the students, faculty, and community. The primary purpose of this research, then, was to ident...