Dr. Hanni Flaherty

On May 5, 2022, Dr. Hanni Flaherty, assistant professor and associate director of curricular and pedagogical innovation at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, published “Teaching Note—Using Technology to Enhance Experiential Learning Through Simulated Role Plays” in Journal of Social Work Education. Here is the abstract of the paper:

Practitioners are required to have both practice knowledge of theoretical approaches and professional competence and skills. For student social workers, acquiring the former has been traditionally associated with academic teaching. With practice placement learning, the latter has required unique consideration with the incorporation of the online learning platform, which has been escalated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We suggest that there is a role for simulation-based education to link knowledge and skills, with technology offering improved facilities to provide opportunities to learn for practice. In this teaching note, we discuss how we integrated Eleos Health, a new technology, into the classroom that allowed students to apply and practice their newly learned skills through simulated role-plays under the professor's guided supervision.

What is remarkable about the paper, outside of Dr. Flaherty’s conclusion that “Eleos offered a unique opportunity to augment the learning from digital, simulated role plays; was reported on favorably by the students; and was easy to use for both students and faculty,” is that Wurzweiler was the first American university/social work school to adopt the Eleos Health solution, demonstrating its technology-forward leadership in the educational and clinical spheres. Eleos Health was introduced to Wurzweiler and the Yeshiva University ecosystem by Maccabee Ventures (MV), an early-stage venture capital fund founded by two YU alumni: Moshe Bellows, himself a 2008 graduate of Wurzweiler and 1990 graduate of Yeshiva College, and Bruce Taragin ’89YC. (Maccabee Ventures is associated with, but independent of and separate from, Yeshiva University.) Maccabee’s investment in Eleos Health and introduction of Eleos to Wurzweiler is part of the core mission of the fund: to actively assist emerging companies in achieving market penetration, growth and scale by collaborating with the talented alumni, faculty and students that make up the YU community.YU students guide the funds’ investment strategy and learn how to manage a venture capital firm, helping to shape the next generation of business leaders. As Bellows has described it, “Maccabee Ventures is part of the virtuous flywheel that is now a hallmark of Yeshiva University’s vibrant strategy and entrepreneurship model, which includes coursework and experiential learning such as Maccabee Ventures and the YU Innovation Lab.” An excellent example of that is an MV limited partners meeting run this April entirely by the students from MV’s Fund Formation and Administration and Management course. Dr. Flaherty’s positive experience with Eleos Health prompted her to encourage educators “to become comfortable with integrating technology and see it as a tool for enhancing students’ education and not as a hurdle to overcome.” And the business world seems to share her optimism: Chedder News recently reported that Eleos Health raised a $20 million Series A round co-led by F-Prime Capital and Eight Roads Ventures. Bellows reiterated that “Maccabee Ventures looks forward to additional collaborations with YU’s real estate, health care, and finance affinity groups and alumni, strengthening, growing and giving value to the ecosystem.”