Faculty Focus: Dr. Alice Lim

All through middle school and high school, Alice Lim, OD '18, Resident '19, took art classes. Although she never officially studied art once she started college, she always maintained an interest in drawing and painting as a long-term hobby.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, though, Dr. Lim drew on that interest and incorporated it into her teaching. "I do a lot of traditional drawing. Last year I got myself a digital tablet and learned more about digital illustrations," she said.

An instructor in the University's Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) she sees patients at The Eye Institute (TEI), and also teaches in the clinical skills lab, usually for first-and second-year students, as well as in the Clinical Problem Solving (CPS) small group classes.

Quarantine provided an opportunity for her to improve her skills. "I taught myself to do a couple of digital drawings, a little animation, and I was able to put that into my work," she said.

Dr. Lim believes medical learning - like optometry - has a lot to do with visualization, especially in a 3D structure. That has been particularly valuable since the pandemic has forced many facets of teaching and learning to be virtual.

"So I've been trying to re-create diagrams and make them easier to understand for the students," she said. "There are a lot of things you can do nowadays with digital illustration."

Dr. Lim, who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Sciences from Arcadia University, was a student and resident at Salus PCO before becoming a faculty member last year.

"That was a nice transition between seeing what PCO is like from a student's perspective, then during residency you're kind of in between, and then when you become faculty, you're kind of on the flipside," said Dr. Lim. "I clearly remember being in clinical skills lab myself, learning all the different skills. And, now I get to teach those skills to the students. It's a nice little roundabout coming full circle."

As a student, there is a boundary between the students and faculty, she said, that changes when one joins the faculty.

"You don't feel as close to the faculty as a student," she said. "I greatly respected the faculty as a student, but now as a faculty member, I get to be closer to them and treat them more like friends and colleagues. They don't treat me any different because I was a student here. At this point, they all treat me like a colleague and I can feel the mutual respect."

The biggest adjustment for Dr. Lim during the pandemic has been very much like what a lot of faculty members have faced - transitioning to virtual teaching.

"I'm used to seeing the students in person and now I have to see them virtually. So some of these students that I'm in with small groups, I've never met them before in person and I'm now meeting them for the first time through a computer. That was different," she said. As the University transitions to be open more, she now has the ability to meet some of those students in person.

One opportunity she mentioned about virtual learning is the creation of course material that can be revisited online.

"Even as a student I remember I liked live lectures, but I also like re-watching the lectures online," said Dr. Lim. "Everybody learns at a different pace, so it's nice to have something available as an online source where you can rewind and watch again, or watch it at a faster pace. I think that's a nice opportunity that we're going to continue to implement."

But for now, both the teaching and the learning approaches remain fluid as the University transitions back to having students and faculty return to campus and its clinical facilities.

"This whole situation is new for everybody. But I like how we're opening things slowly and not rushing into anything," she said. "The students and the faculty members both have a chance to adjust. I do feel like a lot of changes that we're implementing now are here to stay for a little while. All the new rules and precautions will probably be around for the new semester and beyond."

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