What does sustainable ATu integration look like in a professional athletic training program? Lucas Dargo and Julie Lies from Manchester University will share how they’ve leveraged ATu to support accreditation standards, improve board exam prep, and enhance case-based learning experiences. This session highlights both administrative and clinical education perspectives, offering practical examples you can adapt to your own program. Join these innovative faculty, alongside Chris Schmidt, ATu Education Lead, for a candid conversation followed by live Q&A!

Featured Speaker: Lucas Dargo, DAT, LAT, ATC, ROT, OPE-C, CKPT, GTS

Dr. Lucas Dargo is currently the Director of the Master of Athletic Training Program and Director of Interprofessional Education at Manchester University. Before coming to Manchester, he worked in the secondary and industrial settings. He is the President-Elect of the Indiana Athletic Trainers’ Association (IATA). He has formally served as the Chair of the District 4 Governmental Affairs Committee for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and served nearly a decade as the Chair of the IATA’s Governmental Affairs Committee. He received his Doctorate in Athletic Training from Indiana State University, a Master of Athletic Training from Ohio University, and a Bachelor of Athletic Training from Ball State University.

Featured Speaker: Julie Lies, MPM, LAT, ATC

Julie Lies serves as the Director of the Office of Experiential Education, Director of Clinical Education for Athletic Training, and Assistant Professor of Athletic Training at Manchester University. A Fort Wayne native, she brings extensive experience from her career as a collegiate head athletic trainer prior to joining Manchester. Julie holds a Master of Public Management from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training from Purdue University.

Featured Speaker: Christopher Schmidt, PhD, ATC

An athletic training professional for 30 years, Dr. Schmidt’s career spans clinical care, academic leadership, and professional service. From treating patients across diverse settings to shaping undergraduate and graduate programs, he’s a contributor in the field, influencing best practices through research and committee roles with the NATA and CAATE. His passion extends to curriculum design, interprofessional education, and youth sports injury prevention, helping to shape the future of athletic training.

00:00 ATU Faculty Webinar Introduction

05:13 Manchester Athletic Training Program Overview

10:53 ATU Resources Implementation Discussion

13:08 ATU Resource Integration Success

20:46 Curriculum Integration and Student Engagement

23:34 Enhancing Clinical Education Resources

29:53 Clinical Assessment Resources Implementation Discussion

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How Manchester University Transformed Athletic Training Education with ATu: A Faculty Success Story

As Lucas Dargo and Julie Lies work together in Manchester University’s Master of Athletic Training program, they face familiar challenges: how do you bridge the gap between classroom theory and clinical application while maintaining the kind of standardization that drives student success?

Their answer came through a strategic integration of ATu resources – and the results speak for themselves. A 100% first-time Board of Certification pass rate. Students using and specifically citing simulation cases to prepare for their midterms instead of textbooks. A brand-new faculty member nominated for a university-wide teaching award within her first two years.

Recently, Lucas and Julie joined us for a candid conversation about their journey with ATu, sharing both their victories and the lessons learned along the way. What emerged was a masterclass in thoughtful technology integration, active learning design, and the kind of authentic faculty development that transforms good programs into exceptional ones.

The Challenge: Standardization Without Losing the Human Touch

Lucas, now in his eighth year at Manchester and serving as the Program Director, remembers the pre-ATu days vividly. Like many programs, they relied heavily on YouTube videos and a patchwork of resources that required constant vetting. “The amount of vetting that it takes to have a good ATu resource versus a YouTube resource, there’s no comparison,” he explained. “We needed something that was more evidence-based, something that truly was more geared towards athletic trainers, and that had that language.”

But standardization wasn’t just about quality control – it was about creating consistency across a rapidly evolving curriculum. Manchester’s program follows an intensive two-year format with alternating eight-week blocks of on-campus and clinical immersion experiences. Students move from emergency care through orthopedic evaluation, rehabilitation, non-orthopedic evaluation, healthcare administration, and patient-centered care courses at a brisk pace.

With multiple instructors teaching across these domains, Lucas needed a way to ensure foundational content remained consistent even as individual faculty brought their unique clinical experiences to the classroom. ATu provided that backbone – a standardized, evidence-based framework that instructors could build upon rather than construct from scratch.

Active Learning in Action: When Students Do the Talking

Julie’s experience illustrates how powerful the right resources can be in the hands of an eager educator. Coming to academia after 13 years of clinical practice, she admits to feeling nervous about her transition. “Lucas convinced me that the faculty role was a good role. I was a preceptor for 8 years, but man, stepping into a faculty role, was I nervous.”

Then came her second week of teaching, when students confessed they weren’t grasping heat illness concepts. Julie pulled up an ATu heat illness simulation and ran it as a class activity. What happened next became a defining moment in her teaching career.

“We did it as a class. They had to decide as a class what the answer was going to be,” she recalled. “Some of the questions, like, class was torn, half wanted answer A, half wanted answer B. And I didn’t have to do anything for those discussions.”

This is active learning at its finest. Rather than passive consumption of information, students were wrestling with clinical decision-making in real-time, defending their reasoning, considering alternative perspectives, and building the kind of critical thinking skills that can’t be assessed through multiple-choice exams alone.

Julie found herself in the ideal teaching position: facilitator rather than lecturer. She could observe how students processed information, identify gaps in understanding as they emerged, and guide discussions without dominating them. “I can see their brain work,” she noted. “I can see them process through.”

Supporting New Faculty: Structure as a Confidence Builder

For new educators transitioning from clinical practice, the confidence gap can feel insurmountable. You know your content – you’ve lived it for years – but translating that expertise into structured, assessable learning experiences is an entirely different skill set.

Julie’s story illustrates how thoughtfully designed resources can accelerate that transition. Rather than spending hours creating cases from scratch or worrying about whether her goniometry demonstrations captured every technical detail, she could lean on ATu’s vetted content. This freed her mental energy for what mattered most: sharing her clinical wisdom and connecting with students.

“For me to have the resource[s] that I didn’t have to think [about creating], right? I could be like, alright, we’re pulling up ATu, I will show you, we’ll watch the video, so now you’ve seen it twice from two different instructors.”

The result wasn’t just adequate teaching – it was excellence. Within her first year, students came to Lucas’s office not with complaints but with praise for Julie’s classes. By her second year, she’d been nominated for a university-wide teaching award.

Integration Strategy: Learning from the Stumbles

Lucas is refreshingly honest about their implementation journey. Their approach was decidedly zero-to-ninety. After limited use during the pandemic, they dove into full integration relatively quickly, particularly when their simulation director departed and they needed alternative ways to provide case-based learning. They started curriculum mapping after implementation rather than before, discovering along the way that they’d perhaps assigned too many simulations too quickly.

Student feedback revealed important lessons. Their second-year cohort, who experienced the rapid rollout, felt overwhelmed at times and questioned whether some resources added value. Their first-year cohort, benefiting from lessons learned, had a much more favorable experience with better organization and intentional pacing. “The organization piece, that is the one thing that I think both first and second years did [mention],” Lucas admitted. “I think we’re getting better, but I think that there is opportunity for improvement.”

The key insight? Timing and scaffolding matter enormously. Introducing content too early or assigning too many simulations without classroom integration diminishes their impact. Students who waited until the night before to rush through thirty therapeutic intervention simulations predictably struggled more than those who engaged with them gradually and discussed them in class.

The Accreditation Advantage: Evidence-Based Program Outcomes

As Manchester prepared for their Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) self-study, Lucas discovered an unexpected benefit of ATu integration: robust program assessment data.

Each ATu resource comes mapped to accreditation standards and board exam references. This made it relatively straightforward to demonstrate how specific simulations addressed CAATE standards, particularly the challenging Standard 18 requirements around diverse patient populations. “If you look at Standard 18, [ATu is] just phenomenal for that,” Lucas noted. “I truly don’t know, other than requiring every student to work in an outpatient clinic for all rotations, how you would be able to get as many of these non-ortho… or … non-athletic patients throughout these sims.”

Perhaps more importantly, they could demonstrate measurable improvement in student performance on formative assessments. Comparing cohorts before and after full ATu integration revealed substantial gains in exam scores and skill mastery – the kind of quantifiable outcomes that tell a compelling story to peer reviewers.

ATu resources also helped fill a crucial gap in their assessment strategy. Students were tested on knowledge (lower-level cognitive skills) and evaluated through OSCEs and clinical experiences (application in authentic contexts), but the middle ground – clinical reasoning and decision-making – was harder to assess formatively. Simulations provided that missing link, allowing faculty to observe how students thought through problems before sending them into high-stakes clinical situations.

Practical Wisdom: What Students Really Want

Near the end of their conversation, Lucas shared a humbling reminder. He’d asked students for ATu feedback just before they sat for their BOC exam, and one student offered this perspective: “We couldn’t care less about the CAATE standards. We want to know how we can take what’s being taught and apply it.”

It’s a gentle correction to program directors everywhere who sometimes get so focused on accreditation standards that we forget what drives student engagement. Students want relevance. They want to understand how today’s lecture connects to next month’s clinical rotation and next year’s first job.

This doesn’t mean abandoning standards – far from it. But it means framing resources in terms of clinical application rather than competency checkboxes. It means acknowledging when a video demonstrates one approach while explaining how students might adapt it based on context. It means using simulations not just as assessment tools but as springboards for discussing the messy, complicated reality of clinical practice.

Julie and Lucas both emphasized the importance of pairing structured resources with authentic clinical stories. ATu provides the standardized foundation, but faculty expertise brings it to life. “This is a resource, …” Lucas stressed. “Use this as a beginning place, not as an end.”

Looking Ahead: Building Faculty Community

As our conversation wound down, Lucas and Julie expressed enthusiasm about sharing what they’ve learned with other programs. They’ve offered to share curriculum maps, discuss integration strategies, and help colleagues avoid the stumbles they experienced.

This spirit of collaboration reflects something we value deeply at ATu: the idea that we’re all in this together. Athletic training education faces significant challenges – enrollment pressures, accreditation demands, rapidly evolving practice standards, and the constant need to demonstrate value to institutional stakeholders. No program director should feel like they’re navigating these waters alone.

That’s why we’re committed to creating spaces for faculty to learn from each other, whether through webinars like this one, individualized consultations, or facilitated program director roundtables. Lucas and Julie’s willingness to share both successes and struggles openly creates a model for the kind of professional community that makes everyone stronger.

The Bigger Picture

Manchester University’s story isn’t just about one program’s success with one technology platform. It’s about thoughtful pedagogy, faculty development, and the courage to iterate based on feedback. It’s about recognizing that standardization and personalization aren’t opposing forces – they’re complementary elements of excellent education.

Most importantly, it’s about keeping students at the center. Whether it’s Lucas’s focus on preparing quality athletic trainers for Northern Indiana, Julie’s commitment to building student confidence through authentic engagement, or their shared dedication to evidence-based teaching practices, everything comes back to one question: What do our students need to succeed?

The 100% pass rate is gratifying, certainly. But the real win is in those classroom moments when students are so engaged in a simulation discussion that they forget to be nervous. It’s in the confidence of a new faculty member who realizes she can teach, and teach well. It’s in the program director who can point to clear evidence of student growth when peer reviewers come calling.

We’re grateful to Lucas and Julie for sharing their journey with such candor and generosity. Their experiences offer a roadmap for other programs considering how to integrate active learning resources effectively – complete with caution signs where they hit bumps and directional arrows pointing toward what worked well.

If you’re interested in learning more about how ATu might support your program’s teaching and learning goals, we’d love to talk. Reach out for a personalized consultation, join us for an upcoming faculty webinar, or simply explore the resources available through our Educator Events page. Like Lucas and Julie, we believe in the power of community and the importance of supporting each other in this vital work of preparing the next generation of athletic trainers. Because at the end of the day, that’s what this is all about: giving students the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities they need to provide exceptional patient care.