An online educational model in andrology for student training in the art of scientific writing in the COVID-19 pandemic.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Agarwal A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7995002 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundAs a result of the COVID-19 pandemic a rapid transformation from face-to-face curriculum delivery to an online teaching and learning environment, was adopted in a number of higher education institutions globally. Allied Health Profession courses such as physiotherapy, traditionally utilising an in person teaching model to prepare students for practice, needed to swiftly adopt new methods of delivery, involving both synchronous and asynchronous approaches. Understanding physiotherapy student perceptions of this transition is important to allow faculty to develop their delivery of online teaching and provide an evidence base for future course curricula.MethodsCross-sectional survey of UK higher education students studying either an undergraduate or post-graduate pre-registration degree in physiotherapy was conducted between October 2020 and February 2021. The survey investigated the student's perception of the transition to either an online or hybrid model of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed method approach was adopted allowing respondents to share their experiences and facilitate the exploration of questions which required in-depth thought.ResultsTwo hundred thirty-six respondents completed the questionnaire. Online learning was perceived to be a flexible (49%, n=116,CI 95% 43 to 55) and convenient (49, 116, 43 to 55) method of learning. Despite this, 79% of the students surveyed felt that the online learning experience had a negative impact on their understanding of the subject and were disadvantaged compared to traditional face-to-face teaching provision (mean 4.14 ± SD 1.06). Online physiotherapy delivery produced low student satisfaction, leaving respondents feeling disadvantaged. Decreased levels of engagement and the lack of ability to practice 'hands-on' skills were detrimental aspects of the online approach, with 55% (n=106) reporting they did not perceive the academic staff had the necessary skills to deliver effective online content.ConclusionsThe majority of UK physiotherapy students surveyed were dissatisfied and lacked engagement with an online learning approach within the curricula, compared with the traditional face-to-face delivery. Although several positives of both a synchronous and asynchronous delivery were highlighted, faculty must consider how they best deliver online learning content, making use of pedagogical strategies that will create as many learning and engagement opportunities as possible.
| S-EPMC9172598 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Online college courses can lack much-needed student interactions without live synchronous sessions. The need for socialization is particularly important for first-year students and has been of particular concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, when isolation is the new norm outside the classroom. Here we provide a perspective on the use of online synchronous sessions in a first-year biology course that encouraged student-student interactions and employed the culturally responsive teaching approach. We used group assignments, modeled on the jigsaw method, during our meetings and provided extra time outside of the dedicated class period to foster student collaboration, conversation, and social presence. We noted high attendance and participation in the synchronous sessions, suggesting effectiveness of the methods we used in student engagement and satisfaction.
| S-EPMC8012041 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Objective This cross-sectional national study determined which educational approaches are associated with the effectiveness of online clerkship for medical students. Method A survey was conducted for medical students at 78 medical schools in Japan from May 29 to June 14, 2020. It comprised the following aspects: (a) participants' profiles, (b) number of opportunities to learn from each educational approach (lecture, medical quiz, assignment, oral presentation, observation of a physician's practice, clinical skill practice, participation in interprofessional meetings, and interactive discussions with physicians) in online clerkship, (c) frequency of technical problems, and (d) educational outcome measurement (satisfaction, motivation, knowledge acquisition, skill acquisition, change in self-study time, and understanding of the importance of medical care team). Results Of the 2,640 respondents, 2,594 (98.3%) agreed to cooperate. Ultimately, 1,711 matched our inclusion criteria. All educational approaches but assignments were positively associated with satisfaction and motivation. All educational approaches excluding assignment submission and interprofessional meeting were positively associated with knowledge acquisition. Observation, practice, and interprofessional meeting were positively associated with skill acquisition. Only assignment submission was positively associated with the change in self-study time. Educational approaches excluding medical quizzes were positively associated with understanding the importance of the medical care team. Technical problems were negatively associated with motivation, knowledge acquisition, and skill acquisition. Conclusions Educators should implement various educational approaches, especially observation and practice, even in online clinical clerkship. They also need to minimize the technical problems associated with the Internet, as they reduce the effectiveness of online clerkship.
| S-EPMC9449622 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To provide an overview of the current situation, challenges, and trends in online medical services from the perspective of andrology and promote the development of online medical services. Users of the Learning Alliance of Urology, who mainly worked in central regions of China, were invited to complete the questionnaire that included information on the participants and their institutions and their involvement in and concerns for online medical services. We received 875 complete responses. The percentage of online andrology patients at most institutions was less than 30%. The most common services were online appointment registration (92.7%) and online payment (81.8%). Online chat consultation (77.7%) was the most common form of consultation. Only 1 in 5 of the institutions had constructed their Internet hospital. Factors related to the percentage of online andrology patients included specialized andrology clinics and wards, sufficient time for doctors to provide online services, more diversified services, and online clinic training. The biggest challenge for online medical services was diagnosis and treatment safety. It is essential to raise awareness of online medical services for hospitals and patients and strengthen standardized management and training of online medical services, especially applicable to central regions of China. However, online medical services cannot wholly replace offline services due to insufficient diagnosis and treatment.
| S-EPMC9720060 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC7747881 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The paper presents the results of a students' survey carried out at "Vasile Alecsandri" University of Bacau, Romania, on the quality of educational process on online platforms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was addressed to students from the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports. The results of survey highlighted that most of students were satisfied with the measures taken by the university during the lockdown period and the way the teaching-learning-assessment process took place. However, some negative aspects were reported as: lack of an adequate infrastructure for some students, less effective teacher-student communication and interaction, impossibility of performing practical applications, lack of socialization, lack of learning motivation, less objective examination (e.g., possibility of cheating), possibility of physical and mental health degradation (e.g., too much time spent in front of screens, installation of a sedentary lifestyle). Consequently, for the new academic year, effective, and efficient measures must be implemented by the management of the university to remove, as much as possible, these negative issues and to improve the performance of online educational process.
| S-EPMC7660608 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted clinical practice, research and teaching. During peaks, virtual courses were implemented but these changes are poorly described, especially for oncology postgraduate students and faculty teachers.Patients and methodsWe administered two surveys from June 2021 to October 2021 to students and faculty teachers (250 and 80 responses, respectively) who registered at Gustave Roussy School of Cancer Sciences (Université Paris-Saclay) during 3 consecutive university years (October 2018 to October 2021), where a major shift to e-learning was associated with COVID-19 pandemic.ResultsMost students were female (53%), attending physicians (50%), aged 30-39 years (54%) and 2020-2021 (66.4%) was the main year of training. Most faculty teachers were male (58%), aged 40-50 years (44%) and had participated in training for at least 3 years (83%). More than half of the students received 100% virtual training [55% versus 45% face-to-face/mixed teaching modalities; online (84%) versus remote teaching (16%)]. Only 34% of students declared >80% 'active listening' and only 16% of teachers considered e-learning to be more suitable (compared with face-to-face) for postgraduate education. Virtual teaching decreased student-teacher interactions as compared with mixed/face-to-face (lessons were sufficiently interactive for 54% students if virtual only teaching versus for 71% if other teaching modalities; P = 0.009). Teachers stated that virtual learning did not lead to any improvements in terms of attendance (68%), interaction (74%) and quality of teaching (68%). However, most faculty (76%) acknowledged that partial e-learning training should be maintained outside the pandemic, if it represents ≤50% of the whole teaching (teachers: 79% versus student: 66%; P = 0.04).ConclusionsCOVID-19 accelerated the transition toward novel practices. Students and faculty teachers agreed on the need for future mixed (≤50% e-learning) teaching modalities. Adequate formation and the use of codified best newer virtual practices are required.
| S-EPMC8888032 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of the extent and rapidity of the disruption forced upon formal clinical education, most notably the extensive transition of clinical skills learning to interactive video-based clinical education.MethodsIn a phenomenologic study, we used thematic analysis to explore the COVID-19 disruption to clinical training and understand processes relating to adaptation in a large academic medical center. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 clinical teachers and 16 trainees representing all levels of clinical learning. Interviews occurred within the initial three months of the crisis, and data were analyzed following a thematic analysis coding process.ResultsWe constructed eight themes synthesizing our participants' perceptions of the immediate unanticipated disruption, noting in the process their alignment with a change management framework. These included: urgency in adapting, with an obvious imperative for change; overcoming inconsistent involvement and support through the formation of self-organized frontline coalitions; attempts to develop strategy and vision via initially reactive but eventually consistent communication; empowering a volunteer army through co-creation and a flattened hierarchy; and efforts to sustain improvement and positive momentum with celebration of trial, error, and growth. The majority of participants found positive outcomes resulting from the tumultuous change process. Moreover, they were now more readily accepting of change, and tolerant of the ambiguous and iterative nature inherent in the education change process. Many anticipated that some innovation would, or would at least deserve to, continue post- crisis.ConclusionsThe COVID-19 pandemic afforded an opportunity to study the content and process of change during an active crisis. In this case of clinical education, our findings provide insight into the ways an academic medical system adapts to unanticipated circumstances. We found alignment with broader organizational change management models and that, compared with crisis management models (and their shorter term focus on resolving such crises), stakeholders self-organized in a reliable manner that carries the potential advantage of preserving such beneficial change.
| S-EPMC8942055 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Over the last few decades, there has been a shift in the classroom from lecture-based to active learning settings with the argument that students retain more information when they are involved in the learning process. This correlation is even stronger when the active learning setting incorporates a real-world or personal connection. Using active learning activities that develop students' ability to comprehend primary scientific literature is particularly important in the field of immunology, due to the rapid expansion of information in the field, which has been further accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By nature, immunology is interdisciplinary, requiring an integrated knowledge of concepts from several scientific disciplines to understand complex immune processes. Engaging undergraduate students through the use of primary literature can improve scientific literacy, develop critical thinking, and enhance understanding of complex topics. To explore this, we utilized a group learning activity in an introductory immunology course that incorporated both a coronavirus-related review and COVID-19 clinical research article. We found that this learning activity significantly enhanced student confidence in key scientific literacy skills: reading scientific literature, clearly explaining relevant points, and describing conclusions generated from the data. Moreover, all students reported that they enjoyed the activity and that it helped them understand more about the current COVID-19 pandemic in the context of the immune response.
| S-EPMC7756788 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundCommunicating scientific uncertainty about public health threats such as COVID-19 is an ethically desirable task endorsed by expert guidelines on crisis communication. However, the communication of scientific uncertainty is challenging because of its potential to promote ambiguity aversion-a well-described syndrome of negative psychological responses consisting of heightened risk perceptions, emotional distress, and decision avoidance. Communication strategies that can inform the public about scientific uncertainty while mitigating ambiguity aversion are a critical unmet need.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate whether an "uncertainty-normalizing" communication strategy-aimed at reinforcing the expected nature of scientific uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic-can reduce ambiguity aversion, and to compare its effectiveness to conventional public communication strategies aimed at promoting hope and prosocial values.MethodsIn an online factorial experiment conducted from May to June 2020, a national sample of 1497 US adults read one of five versions of an informational message describing the nature, transmission, prevention, and treatment of COVID-19; the versions varied in level of expressed scientific uncertainty and supplemental focus (ie, uncertainty-normalizing, hope-promoting, and prosocial). Participants then completed measures of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral manifestations of ambiguity aversion (ie, perceived likelihood of getting COVID-19, COVID-19 worry, and intentions for COVID-19 risk-reducing behaviors and vaccination). Analyses assessed (1) the extent to which communicating uncertainty produced ambiguity-averse psychological responses; (2) the comparative effectiveness of uncertainty-normalizing, hope-promoting, and prosocial communication strategies in reducing ambiguity-averse responses; and (3) potential moderators of the effects of alternative uncertainty communication strategies.ResultsThe communication of scientific uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic increased perceived likelihood of getting COVID-19 and worry about COVID-19, consistent with ambiguity aversion. However, it did not affect intentions for risk-reducing behaviors or vaccination. The uncertainty-normalizing strategy reduced these aversive effects of communicating scientific uncertainty, resulting in levels of both perceived likelihood of getting COVID-19 and worry about COVID-19 that did not differ from the control message that did not communicate uncertainty. In contrast, the hope-promoting and prosocial strategies did not decrease ambiguity-averse responses to scientific uncertainty. Age and political affiliation, respectively, moderated the effects of uncertainty communication strategies on intentions for COVID-19 risk-reducing behaviors and worry about COVID-19.ConclusionsCommunicating scientific uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic produces ambiguity-averse cognitive and emotional, but not behavioral, responses among the general public, and an uncertainty-normalizing communication strategy reduces these responses. Normalizing uncertainty may be an effective strategy for mitigating ambiguity aversion in crisis communication efforts. More research is needed to test uncertainty-normalizing communication strategies and to elucidate the factors that moderate their effectiveness.
| S-EPMC8064708 | biostudies-literature