Improving student engagement in curriculum evaluation: A QR code intervention to boost response rates and feedback quality

Curriculum evaluations are used to plan future revisions and other improvements in curriculum design. Most models are summative and occur at the end of a course, so improvements in instruction may be delayed. In this article, the authors describe the formative curriculum evaluation model adopted at the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In their model, representative student feedback is gathered in real time and used to modify courses and improve instruction. The central features of their continuous feedback model include developing a small cadre of preclinical and clinical student evaluators who are trained to obtain classwide input regarding all aspects of the curriculum, including teacher effectiveness, and meet regularly (weekly or monthly) with relevant faculty and administrators. The authors show how this curriculum evaluation approach maximizes student involvement in course development and provides opportunities for rapid improvements in course content and instruction as well as for the identification of barriers to effective clinical and preclinical educational experiences.

BackgroundThe successful conduct of health and medical research is largely dependent on participant recruitment. Effective, yet inexpensive methods of increasing response rates for all types of research are required. QR codes are now commonplace, and despite having been extensively used to recruit study participants, a search of the literature failed to reveal any randomized trial investigating the effect of adding a QR code on qualitative research response rates.ObjectiveThis study aimed to collect data on rates of response, consent, and decline among patients with cancer, and the average time taken to respond following randomization to receive either a QR code or no QR code on the patient consent form for a qualitative research study.MethodsThis was a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) embedded within a qualitative research study. In total, 40 eligible patients received a recruitment pack for the qualitative study, which included an information statement, a consent form, and an addressed, stamped envelope to return their consent form. Patients were randomized 1:1 to the control (standard recruitment pack only) or intervention group (standard recruitment pack including modified consent form with a QR code).ResultsIn total, 27 out of 40 patients (age: mean 63.0, SD 14.8 years; 45% female) responded to the consent form. A lower proportion of the QR code group (60%) responded (odd ratio [OR] 0.57, 95% CI 0.14-2.37; P=.44), compared to 75% of the standard recruitment group. However, a higher proportion of the QR group (35%) consented (OR 1.84, 95% CI 0.41-8.29; P=.43), compared to the standard recruitment group (20%). A lower proportion of the QR group (25%) declined (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.09-1.38; P=.13) relative to the standard recruitment group (55%). The mean response time of the QR code group was 16 days (rate ratio [RR] 0.79, 95% CI 0.47-1.35; P=.39) compared to 19 days for the standard recruitment group. None of the age-adjusted analyses were statistically significant.ConclusionsThis underpowered pilot study did not find any evidence that offering an option to respond through a QR code on a patient consent form for a qualitative study increased the overall patient response rate (combined rate of consent and decline). However, there was a nonsignificant trend, indicating that more patients who received the QR code consented compared to those who did not receive the QR code. This study provides useful preliminary data on the potential impact of QR codes on patient response rates to invitations to participate in qualitative research and can be used to inform fully powered RCTs.Trial RegistrationOSF Registries 10.17605/OSF.IO/PJ25X; https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/PJ25X

Leveraging QR codes in medical education enhances student motivation, autonomy and engagement. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the use of QR codes as educational tools among 106 Phase 3 MBBS students in India, utilizing online resources such as lecture slides and quizzes. Data collected through surveys and focus group discussions revealed that 98.11% of participants were familiar with QR codes. Data indicated improved engagement and convenience in accessing educational content, although opinions varied on their comfort and effectiveness compared to traditional methods. While QR codes enrich learning experiences, challenges like technology access and internet connectivity must be addressed.

In this paper, we show how a single web resource can engage a wide student audience with plant science. Developed by the University of Leeds, UK, the Plant Science TREE (Tool for Research Engaged Education (www.tree.leeds.ac.uk)) is an online teaching tool giving access to online research lectures, downloadable lecture slides, practicals, movies and other material on topical plant science to support lecturers in their teaching. The Plant Science TREE complements the annual Gatsby Plant Science Summer School, which has already succeeded in engaging undergraduates with plant science (Levesley et al., 2012). Both initiatives were instigated to address the decline in student numbers in plant science (Sundberg, 2004; Stagg et al., 2009; Jones, 2010; Drea, 2011) at a time when there is concern that future demand for plant scientists will not be met (The Royal Society, 2009). The causes of this decline are unproven but may be the result of a combination of factors including, greater preference by students for animal and medically-based degrees, disengagement from plant science at school, and narrowing of plant-based undergraduate curricula. Where the summer school aims, by face-to-face contact, to inspire relatively small numbers of high-achieving students to consider plant science as a career option, the Plant Science TREE aims to reach a much larger, more diverse global audience through the use of web technologies. By creating, sharing and bringing together engaging plant science educational resources in a one-stop, easy to use repository, we aim to leverage quality research led resources, reduce the workloads of individual educators through a reduction in duplicated effort, broaden the learning opportunities for students and importantly engage students in plant science and research in general, especially in areas where expertise is becoming limited. The swift advancement of web technologies has provided opportunities for learners to access enormous quantities of external information on virtually any topic. Several studies suggest that digital technology, when used together with traditional teaching methods, such as in a blended learning approach, can enhance lectures, increase student interest and knowledge in science (O'Day, 2007; Greenfield, 2009) and even lead to accelerated learning (Lovett et al., 2008). Increasingly, educators have an essential role in guiding students in their use of online resources, ensuring that the information they receive is accurate and relevant, as well as to inspire students by teaching topics de novo. However, the selection and validation of the vast array of resources and their integration into undergraduate curricula can be time-consuming. Furthermore, the number of current research-informed academic resources addressing certain disciplines for example aspects of plant physiology, weed science, entomology, aspects of pathology and soil science is limited, even though these have been identified as vulnerable niche skills (The Royal Society, 2009; Food Research Partnership Skills Sub-Group, 2010; Horticulture Matters, 2013). Unless more students are attracted to acquire knowledge and skills in these topics, there is a risk that valuable knowledge will be lost as academics retire. A recent survey of over 300 UK plant scientists identifies education and training as the single most important risk to the UK's ability to address global challenges such as food security and climate change (UK Plant Science Federation, 2014). The UK plant science research community already contributes to various education and outreach programmes aimed to inspire interest in plant science, including those organized by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation (Gatsby Plant Science Programme, 2014), The UK Plant Science Federation (2014) and its member organizations and other institutional efforts. Consequently, we were able to seek support and contributions from research academics who were already good communicators of plant science to their own students. Research academics who are passionate about their teaching, were invited to champion a plant science discipline, encourage their colleagues to participate and lead subject specific meetings that covered plant development, lifecycles, reproduction, plant structure, cells, genes and proteins, signalling, metabolism, evolution, abiotic environment and biotic interactions. Academics shared and reviewed their lecture slides, selected essential content and built a structure for their respective subjects. The innovative hierarchical TREE structure was thus created and forms an easy to use browsable framework for digital content with the advantage of the structure defining important areas in modern plant science. Modern web technologies, such as open source mind mapping software, were employed in the construction of the TREE to provide a smooth and extensive browsing experience which help the user find relevant content quickly and may even lead to a serendipitous find. The TREE supports a wealth of research-led educational resources from over 90 contributors to date; resources may be freely downloaded and have been licensed for educational use. A key feature of this teaching tool is that it highlights current plant science research. Where a lecture slide is derived from a research paper it is linked to the original source for reference. Uniquely, the TREE holds a collection of 42 online research lectures that were delivered at the annual Gatsby Plant Science Summer Schools between 2006 and 2013 and were successful in engaging undergraduates in plant science (Levesley et al., 2012). The lectures cover a broad range of cutting-edge plant science research that address globally relevant applied initiatives as well as curiosity-driven research. They are pitched at a level to engage undergraduates early in their degree studies, highlighting many of the unanswered questions and providing insight into how discoveries are made and science is carried out. They have been edited into an interactive format for online delivery that shows the speaker, their slides and the capacity to search or select any part of a lecture through slide thumbnails and search facility. A number of good quality digital resources are provided elsewhere by various publishers (e.g. Teaching Tools in Plant Biology from the journal The Plant Cell and instructor resources supporting text books e.g. Plant Biology from Garland Science (Smith et al., 2009). It is our experience (Levesley et al., 2007) that academics also value the opportunity to build their own lectures from individual digital assets rather than pre-packaged learning materials and they value the availability of specific slides, images, films, journal figures, etc. from trusted sources that they can incorporate into their teaching. The intuitive TREE browsing structure allows exactly that and aims to simplify the adaptation and re-use of peer selected plant science educational resources. Current content is by no means exhaustive but forms the foundation for key areas in plant science and an online ‘upload’ facility allows users to contribute their teaching materials to the repository so that it may continue to grow. Feedback from academics highlighted the value they placed in keeping current with developments in plant science (Levesley et al., 2007). In response, we developed the ‘Plant News’ with RSS feed and search facility, which links to news articles, research articles, podcasts and videos of current developments and breakthroughs in plant science from leading journals and the media. The Plant News searchable database forms part of the Plant Science TREE and aims to facilitate the use of plant news stories in teaching. Here we describe the creation, technical aspects and evaluation of impact of the Plant Science TREE on learning and teaching practices and on student engagement. Through web statistics, user registration data and online surveys we evidence the audience reach and profile as well as patterns of use and preferences of both educators and learners. We present a case study involving academics and undergraduates from four UK universities that focuses on the use of online research lectures as a learning tool and discuss the value of these as a means to engage students in plant science and research in general. The Plant Science TREE digital repository system consists of an application built in PHP 5.3 (The PHP Group) running on an Apache 2.2 web server (The Apache Software Foundation) on a Redhat Linux server. Data is stored in a MySQL 5.5 cluster (Oracle Corp.). The system accommodates delivery of a variety of educational resources (online lectures, lecture slides, videos, images, documents, web links) and supports most file formats. An innovative hierarchical TREE structure, based on mind mapping open source software, forms an integral feature of the TREE and provides a browsable framework for content. The system is scalable and consists of a user interface and an administrator side. The administrator side has been designed to accommodate content upload, editing of content metadata and of the TREE structure. The system accommodates an upload facility that allows users to deposit and therefore contribute resources to the TREE, all uploaded content is verified by a project administrator before going live. The Plant Science TREE requires registration and login for full access to all resources, however, open access resources may be viewed without registration. The research lectures, available through the Plant Science TREE, were filmed at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer School. Each filmed lecture is cut into short clips, each representing a single slide and edited into an interactive online lecture using Articulate Studio (09 and 13; Articulate Global Inc., New York, NY, USA), that shows the speaker, their slides and the capacity to search for or select any part of a lecture using slide thumbnails or search facility. The research online lectures may be viewed on a desktop or laptop through an Adobe Flash Player enabled web browser and more recent research lectures (from 2013) have been published to multiple formats so learners can view these on their desktops, laptops, iPads, and android mobile devices. Publishers and authors of digital resources to be held within the Plant Science TREE repository were approached and permission sought to license for educational use. Content was licensed through Copyright Clearance Centre RightsLink, or through a bespoke licensing agreement drawn up by the University of Leeds. Permission from the copyright holders was also sought to display all lecture slides used in the online research lectures. The author and copyright holder is acknowledged in the supporting information associated with each downloadable digital resource. The Plant Science TREE ‘terms and conditions of use’, drawn up by the University of Leeds, require all users to attribute the author and copyright holder on every use of the digital resource. Users are free to download and re-use materials for educational non-commercial purposes, resources may be downloaded to their own institution's virtual learning environment or re-used in their lectures or other teaching activities, but they are not openly available for redistribution. The TREE now supports an online upload facility where users may contribute and share their content under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)). This approach has been adopted to reduce costs, but does mean that future content is restricted to materials authored and owned by the contributor. Many contributors and publishers prefer their materials to be restricted to ‘registered users’ only, hence, although materials are free to download and use for educational purposes, all users must first register with the Plant Science TREE and access the materials by logging into the site, where usage can be monitored. The impact of the Plant Science TREE on learning and teaching practices was evaluated based on measurable indicators of impact as defined by Jisc (formerly known as Joint Information Systems Committee, JISC) (Jisc, 2012); these include frequency and patterns of use of a resource; the extent to which it is useful, recommended or linked to; and audience reach. The following methods were employed to gather data for the impact study: At the time of evaluation the TREE supported 1121 registered users from 320 educational or research institutes world-wide. The TREE and Plant News received over 1600 unique site visits per month (57 500 hits per month) from 37 countries, during the evaluation period June 2012–May 2013. The Plant News accounted for 75% of visits from unique sites per month. The profile of registered users is shown in Fig. 1(a) and comprises 34% higher education academics, ranging from Heads of Departments to associate professors and lecturers, and 29% undergraduates, including students recommended the resource by their university lecturer as well as those who heard the lectures live at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer Schools. The remaining 32% comprise a wide-ranging group of professions including researchers, school-teachers and technicians, as well as those involved in the media and other communication and outreach activities. Web statistics revealed that the summer school online research lectures received over 3000 viewings during the 12 month evaluation period, which accounted for 81% of all downloads during that period (Fig. 1b). The lecture slides and images were also popular and accounted for 12% of downloads (452 per year). An online survey was sent to all registered users to evaluate their use and preferences for the resource. Ninety-seven responses (9% survey response rate) were received from educators, learners, researchers and those working in outreach from 15 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. Of the 39 educators who responded to the question, 85% had downloaded resources. Educators mostly downloaded lecture slides and images followed by online research lectures, whereas learners and researchers mostly viewed the online research lectures. It is worth noting that the user and student survey response rates (of 9% and 8%, respectively) fall within the range expected for an external email prompted survey, for example a recent study found that online surveys generate a response rate of 5% and email delivered 9.3% response rates (ServiceTick, 2012). Regarding user preferences, 95% of 59 respondents rated the research lectures and lecture slides/images as very valuable or valuable. From the 29 replies from educators, the most valued resources were the lecture slides/images, movies and animations and the online research lectures, with > 85% of educators rating all of these as very valuable or valuable. Seventy-six percent of educators found the Plant News valuable. Unsurprisingly, the most valued resources amongst undergraduate students were the online research lectures. Of the 22 student respondents, 95% found them valuable and 86% stated that they had viewed an online lecture to learn about a subject and to enhance their personal understanding. Educators valued the quality of the TREE with all 28 respondents to this question either strongly agreeing (61%) or agreeing (39%) that the resources were of a high standard. Ninety-six percent found the unique TREE browsing structure valuable with users agreeing that the browsing function was a clear, quick and easy way to find relevant content and identify areas of interest. Eighty-nine percent of educators agreed that the resources enhanced their teaching. Educators who responded to this question (31 replies) reported that they mainly (81%) used the resources to develop or plan a new course, lecture or tutorial, which is supported by web statistics showing that usage peaks at the start of each UK academic term. Other uses include to enhance personal understanding (32%), enhance teaching (32%), or to keep current in developments in plant science (29%). Our user survey captured narratives of the value of embedding materials, for example many educators stated that they had used the slides and movies in their lectures to explain a concept or as examples of current research; others had provided access to selected online for their students to their own others used the slides to provide and structure for their own teaching and others their students to the site for the from both learners and educators about the online lectures, we a case study to evaluate the of the online lectures as a learning students from four UK who had already been to or more online research lectures by their university lecturer as part of their Information were to in an online Each academic their students to online lectures as information for diverse topics and academic linked the online research lecture to a The case study involved undergraduate students from to on a range of programmes of study and diverse Information students survey response rate) responded to our survey, but statistics through the University of virtual learning environment suggest that a of students viewed the online research lectures when to so by their university these statistics that more than a of the students from undergraduate programmes of study viewed recommended online research lecture and between and viewed a recommended a may not to the it does a to find more Information shows how lectures are can and the lecturer and view the slides They can also select of the lecture to view We were to the experience of the lecture online the experience of the lecture live at the summer school and so the of students were Information when undergraduate students an online lecture at 86% rated it good or very good with who it live (Fig. that students very well to research lectures in of the resource the quality of the lecture and its engaging the to the lecture in their own time and and so as to time to or and learn at their own the unique interactive the to to any slide using a slide or search facility and the lecture (Fig. and the that they the on rather than only, as in a the that there was no with the and that they were to they found it more time than a lecture and to their responses to specific are shown in Fig. were that an online research lecture is a good way of learning about a subject Of 37 were of the that the online research lectures were valuable in them an understanding of their lecture percent that the online lectures were valuable in them an understanding of the subject and it their data suggest that the online research lectures are an learning of this of 37 students reported that a single online lecture was to plant science more and for of the it was to research more (Fig. the students it was valuable for the lecture to be delivered by a research in the and who the research. percent of students stated that the lectures them to new about plant science and of students also stated that the online lecture their understanding of how research is carried out. students reported that they to more plant science online research lectures and to of students to these even they were not to their of students stated that they be in a research the online research A good measurable of a impact is the extent to which it is recommended (Jisc, 2012). The that the TREE is recommended is supported by our registration data where of a of registered who provided information on where they had heard of the TREE, stated that it had been recommended to them by a or their lecturer Furthermore, of the 59 who responded to the TREE user survey had either already recommended it to a or were to so Fig. were amongst educators of which of a of had already recommended the TREE to colleagues and a were to academic the TREE is a resource that provides a trusted source of current and relevant plant science research in to the academic The research lectures available are a and a in the of a career in plant Of the 37 undergraduate who responded to the online student survey, stated that they the online research lecture they had viewed to The Plant News is also recommended with 81% of registered who responded to this question on the TREE user survey, that they had already recommended the Plant News to colleagues or were to The upload facility provides opportunity to engage the community and the impact of this resource. Our data show how web technologies can be used by a community of academics to engage undergraduate students with plant science. We have a of of this resource to the UK research involving them in its and an easy to use that is already used and recommended by educators and learners. We have the facility to upload new content so that the resource can be up to The TREE an audience of educators, learners and researchers from over 320 research and educational institutes world-wide. is the most important usage of a web resource and at 1600 unique per the TREE well in with other sites higher education educational resources for example Jisc such as digital unique per project unique per unique per month) (Jisc, but not received visits than sites educational resources for a wide range of such as the University of visits per month its in 2013) of Furthermore, for 75% of unique the Plant News was key in users to the The TREE was developed for use by the higher education and has this with of registered users academics and It be that the TREE was developed to provide resources for educators only, based on the that educators have a reach and greater impact than students used these resources for However, it that resources, especially the online research lectures, to learners and access to these areas were up to registered students. Our evidence from both educators and students shows that embedding online research materials from the TREE in undergraduate teaching the learning experience of students. users the high quality of the TREE content and the browsing structure was well with many that it was easy to topics, find resources and the that it for serendipitous educators stated that a single quality trusted site had them time in for resources in the availability of online educational resources to the will to and the TREE is to this role for plant science to other The that the vast of survey respondents had either already recommended the TREE to colleagues or were to so (Fig. provides evidence to support the view that the TREE has been adopted by the plant science academics to consider embedding open educational resources within their learning and teaching practices has been elsewhere to be a 2013). in the of digital resources, use within higher education is and digital an to educators and students 2009). Our are and we that engaging the higher education plant science community in its has provided a of that was essential for a and trusted repository of peer selected content with wide amongst The most popular of resource within the TREE is the Gatsby Plant Science Summer online research lectures by research who are passionate about their subject and who have delivered the lecture at a level to and engage undergraduates (Fig. Our case study shows when placed within the of a lecture and as supporting the online research lectures are an learning tool that students their lecture course, their subject and their students are of the that an online research lecture is a good way of learning about a that such as and can be through plant science research our show that undergraduates as to an online lecture as it live (Fig. which have delivery of lectures with delivery support our and have reported either no in the academic of students et al., 2011) or have even reported in amongst students who to lectures with lecture et al., 2009). Furthermore, online lectures the advantage of the student to of the lecture to but not the opportunity to with the lecturer and A was that a single online research lecture was to plant science and research more for a of students (Fig. Our also that students to more online research lectures even they are not to their The online research lectures students from a wide range of and and show when many students can be in that not part of their their Furthermore, students value the of and the opportunity to the speaker, which is not present in all sources of online lectures (e.g. the online lectures to other which an for of this valuable resource. An important attribute of the TREE resources is their for global audience reach. and students summer school lectures between and at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer Schools that accommodate students each (Levesley et al., 2012). editing for online delivery these lectures were viewed online through the TREE between and 2013 by a wide representing a audience with the and of the educational repository that the materials from who are passionate about they are and to share 2009). This is our experience and is by the important role by the research lectures in engaging students in plant science at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer (Levesley et al., and by this where we have shown that this and of the summer school can be to a student audience through the use of web technologies. Other studies also support the use of to enhance student the use of podcasts and mobile led to in and a study where students the content online and to to use of their time with the instructor led to accelerated learning (Lovett et al., 2008). The examples a range of for educators to use the TREE resources in their teaching which free up time to understanding of the or to cover have and open up of using in to engage students through quality online research Our show that students a high value on the opportunity to research about their research. through the TREE, students have the opportunity to by of who about the research on into on an to and use on science and the of global to but a Through these and other research undergraduates are supported to not the of but also the and the of that In we present a web resource that is at engaging both educators and learners with plant science. such it is an educational tool for wide and application and may also be a for other The authors are to and for to generate the TREE and to and for engaging their colleagues and leading at TREE content The authors and for to the for to the TREE structure and and for part in the case study and for The authors are to the Gatsby Charitable Foundation for and all contributors at are not for the content or of any supporting information by the than be to the New employed to gather data for the Plant Science TREE impact study information from a case study to the impact of online research lectures as a learning tool and as a means to engage students into plant science or research in The is not for the content or of any supporting information by the than be to the author for the

Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics

Aims Aim: The quality improvement (QI) project aimed to improve the response rate of teaching feedback from medical students at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Background information: Universities and health care settings use students' feedback to improve the teaching and other services. The feedback is a valuable source to evaluate a service delivery and improvement. Following the COVID-19 pandemic a large majority of teaching switched to being held online. Feedback plays an important role in evaluating these new methods of teaching. However, response rates were noted to be low. This QI project aims to improve the response rate from students. Methods The project was registered on LifeQI and carried out during the psychiatric teaching for 4th year medical students at QMUL. The team emphasized the importance of feedback to students and produced online feedback forms which are mobile-friendly and concise. These were provided to students immediately after lectures and in an email reminder. As a change idea, five multiple choice practice questions from the topics of the day were included as a follow-on activity from the feedback form, with the expectation that this would motivate the students to complete the feedback. The response rate was calculated as a percentage (number of responses/number of attendees x 100%) and compared before and after the change was introduced using the independent t-test. Results Introducing practice MCQs at the end of the feedback form resulted in a significant improvement: the response rate increased from 22.3% to 50%, more than doubled. The independent t-test found a significant increase in the number of feedback forms returned from the original rates (M = 13.8, SE = 3.0) to rates after practice questions were introduced into feedback (M = 30.6, SE = 1.7), t= -4.9 p = 0.001. Conclusion Students’ motivation to complete feedback plays a major role in the response rate of medical students’ feedback at QMUL. Adding five MCQs on the topics of the day to the feedback form has significantly increased the response rate of 4th year medical students at QMUL. This project was limited to 4th year medical students who received online psychiatric lectures. It is important to try other change ideas in future in order to compare the outcomes.

Aims To investigate whether the use of QR codes to distribute information from brochures online would be accepted and preferred by patients compared to physical paper brochures; If paper waste can be reduced - fewer brochures being printed and discarded and hence eco-friendly and cost effective Methods Benign breast conditions were chosen for this project and QR codes generated with specific URLs for each booklet linked to a scannable QR code. At the end of clinical consultation, the Consultant invited and guided patients to scan the QR code brochure specific for their symptoms. 60 patients, from October 2022 to March 2023 were invited to take part in this original study, as a part of their consultation, with their responses gathered and analysed. Results 60 patients completed the feedback form with a 100% response rate. The age range was 20 to 70 (mean age = 45 years), of which 76.7% were aged under 50 years, and 96.7% were female. The majority (78.3%) preferred accessing an electronic leaflet via a QR code instead of a paper leaflet, and 88.3% found it easier to access information online via the QR code over other methods to access websites. Conclusions The majority of the patients were satisfied/very satisfied with the use of QR codes to access the online brochures. Although this was a simple study, it provides the basis to design a larger trial with a standardised methodology procedure, so that we can draw meaningful results from appropriate statistical analyses.

The National Cancer Institute has prioritized a focus on an inclusive and diverse workforce as an essential component to advancing the science and quality of cancer care. New requirements for cancer centers to intentionally demonstrate a commitment to inclusion have made understanding organizational climate critical. Organizational culture is an essential, necessary, but not sufficient, component to understanding how members of a hospital perceive their leadership, peers, and progress. This quality improvement project aims to share best practices and lessons learned from a climate survey conducted at an NCI-designated matrix and consortium cancer center. We engaged in a mixed methods improvement cycle to understand the universe of survey activities across not only the cancer center, but also our academic partners which house all faculty affiliated with the cancer center including cancer researchers located at two external universities within our catchment area. In partnership with experts, stakeholders, and leadership we developed, tested, and deployed an equity, diversity, and inclusion focused climate survey to N=2355 members over a period of 3 week in 2024. Recipients included trainees, staff, and faculty using multiple modalities including word of mouth, personalized emails, and targeted pop-ups around the cancer center that allowed for in person contact. In particular the pop-up was part of a “warm” campaign to ensure responses, we also posted flyers with a QR code across the hospital, and deployed reminders were shared via the hospitals weekly via electronic newsletter. More specifically, the pop-ups were tables that were announced on the day they were deployed so that participants could visit a different part of the hospital and complete the survey, receive merchandise, and sign up for additional drawings and incentives. We had an 18% response rate, slightly better rates among faculty and staff. We also found that participants were more likely to respond to invitations sent directly to their email, this was closely followed by QR codes. Pop-up visitors ranged from 50-100 persons per instance for the six throughout the 3-week survey period. We observed similar increases in our utilization of both emails and QR codes, however, personalized emails had a greater more immediate impact than the QR codes likely due to convenience. We found that multi-method approaches to targeting membership for surveys is essential in the present era of information overload. There were at least 2 other enterprise-wide surveys going to faculty and trainees that overlapped with our cancer center member faculty and trainees thus increasing their burden for fatigue. We learned that it was key to work with all survey leadership to minimize redundancy. We also plan to meet to discuss best practices and will be sharing information across silos to improve these efforts collectively, a major accomplishment resulting from our efforts. Citation Format: Melody K. Schiaffino, Van "Vannie" K. Nguyen, Xochitl Villanueva, Jonathan Phan, Jennifer Tillman, Yariela Freeman, Mateo Banegas. Best practices for surveying climate at a matrix and consortium comprehensive cancer center to promote inclusive excellence [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr C140.

QR codes are increasingly used in postal invitations to web surveys to facilitate participation. We experimentally tested how a QR code in the invitation letter affects participation in a push-to-web survey of the German family panel (pairfam). The response rate was three percentage points higher with QR codes than without. The QR code effect on response did not differ by gender or education, but it was significantly higher for middle-aged than for younger individuals. Additionally, the proportion of respondents using mobile devices to complete the survey increased substantially. This increase was exclusively due to a 12-percentage-point higher proportion of smartphones, with no increase in the proportion of tablets.

University of Missouri—Kansas City School of Medicine

The study investigated librarians’ awareness and willingness to deploy QR code in libraries. Three (3) research objectives were raised to guide the conduct of the study and three hypotheses were also tested in the study. The survey type of the descriptive research design was adopted and a population of 51 librarians from selected universities in Nigeria was used. The total population sampling type of purposive sampling technique was adopted while questionnaire was used as the tool for data collection. Out of the 51 copies of questionnaire distributed, 50 were retrieved and found useable, constituting 98% response rate. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that the level of librarians’ awareness of the use of QR code is low. The study further revealed that librarians are willing to deploy QR code in libraries (and in discharging library services). However, there are perceived challenges of lack of technical knowhow, lack of awareness of the use of the technology by library users, non-availability of QR code reader to all library users, and poor internet connectivity. In addition, the study revealed that a significant relationship exists between librarians’ awareness, willingness and deployment of QR code in libraries. Thus, the study recommended that awareness/sensitization/trainings on the use of QR code and other emerging technologies in libraries should be organised periodically for librarians by the Nigerian Library Association (NLA) and the Librarian Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN) as this will ensure that librarians are kept up-to-date with the latest technological innovations in libraries.

BackgroundProfessional development for health practitioners is essential in maintaining knowledge and acquiring new skills. Until now, formations provided to pharmacy technicians have not been subjected to a knowledge acquisition assessment....

The purpose of this research is to describe the feasibility of physics learning media and user responses when using Google Sites with QR codes as physics learning media on particle dynamics material. This research is research and development (R&D) using the Borg & Gall teaching model. The data collected in this research were in the form of student response data and media feasibility tests. Media feasibility sheets and student questionnaires as research instruments. Data analysis used descriptive qualitative and quantitative analysis. The results showed that the proportion of material experts and media experts for Google Sites-based physics learning media with QR codes on particle dynamics material was 88.9% with very good criteria. Overall, the user response rate was 88.9% after using Google Sites-based physics learning media with QR codes on particle dynamics material having very good criteria. From the results of this development study, it was concluded that the Google Sites-based physics learning media with a QR code on particle dynamics material met the requirements and criteria, was very useful, and was very good and feasible to be used as a physics learning tool for high school class X students.

College Student Satisfaction Typology and Its Relationship With Engagement Patterns Jihee Hwang (bio) and Felix Wao (bio) College student satisfaction and engagement are important indicators of the quality of student learning experiences and outcomes in higher education. Researchers have found student satisfaction to be positively related to student persistence and academic success (Kuh, 2009; Strahan & Credé, 2015). On the other hand, student engagement "represents the time and effort students devote to activities that are empirically linked to desired outcomes of college and what institutions do to induce students to participate in these activities" (Kuh, 2009, p. 683). The extent to which students express satisfaction with their educational experience and overall success is influenced by the extent to which they are engaged in the college experience (Korobova & Starobin, 2015). Therefore, understanding the level of student satisfaction and how this relates to engagement patterns is important for practitioners at institutes of higher education to foster an institutional environment which students are both engaged in and satisfied with various aspects of their college experience (Webber et al., 2013). One way to achieve a better understanding of the closely related concepts of student satisfaction and engagement is to uncover the dynamics between them—only partially addressed by researchers to date (Webber et al., 2013). Using student satisfaction as the sole data source provides an incomplete picture of what students experience on campus, because student satisfaction surveys pertain only to students' personal perceptions and evaluations of their experiences. Student satisfaction should be examined as a multifaceted construct rather than as a single dimension (Strahan & Credé, 2015). Using a global satisfaction measure (with questions such as "Are you satisfied with your institution overall?") as a foundation for making institutional decisions is problematic. For example, students may have had a very poor experience with parking spaces, which may have an unduly negative impact on their satisfaction overall even when their academic advising experience was satisfactory; thus, disaggregating multifaceted dimensions of student satisfaction is important to better understand students' experiences and viewpoints (Thomas & Galambos, 2004). We classified student satisfaction groups based on 5 dimensions of satisfaction measured by a home-grown Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS) and examined students' engagement patterns in relation to the groups identified. We focused on two research questions: Based on data collected from the SSS, can students be classified into groups that have distinctive satisfaction patterns? How do satisfaction groups differ in their engagement patterns? METHOD Data Collection and Sample The data used in this study were drawn from the Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS) and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) administered at a large research university located in the Midwest. The SSS [End Page 118] instrument consists of 25 items measured using a 5-point Likert scale. It is administered every spring semester via email. In Spring 2016, 3,114 undergraduate students responded, yielding a 16% overall response rate. In the same semester, the institution also participated in the NSSE: 1,314 first-year students and 2,029 senior students completed that survey, yielding an overall response rate of 28%. The final sample for this study comprises first-year and senior students who responded to both the SSS and the NSSE (N = 1,185: 505 first-year students and 680 senior students). This sample was derived in two steps. First, of the students who responded to the SSS, only undergraduate students were included in order to identify clusters of undergraduate student satisfaction. For the second stage of the analysis, the satisfaction clusters to which the undergraduate students belonged were considered in relation to their NSSE responses. The NSSE is designed to collect data from first-year and senior undergraduate students, as both these groups of students are regarded as being in critical transition, that is, at a point of entry and a point of exit, respectively (Gardner & Van der Veer, 1998; Hurtado et al., 1996). For this reason, we focused on the satisfaction typology and engagement patterns of first-year (FY) and senior students (SR). Variables To identify student satisfaction variables, we performed an exploratory factor analysis for the 25 items included in the SSS, which resulted in 5 scale items: academic experiences, academic advising, campus involvement, campus diversity, and student support...

Medical student education in geriatrics is a critical need for every doctor-in-training as the population ages, with fewer than 7,000 geriatricians, and older patients, who now approach 20% of the U.S. population, having unique health care needs. This study presents the updated competencies in geriatrics for graduating medical students, framed by the Geriatrics 5Ms (Mind, Mobility, Medications, Multicomplexity, and What Matters Most). From 2019-2022, a working group of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) drafted the updated medical student geriatrics education competencies, using a modified Delphi approach.The working group reviewed the literature, conducted an initial survey of working group members, and drafted and refined proposed updates to the competencies. The 27 resulting competencies were disseminated as a national survey to geriatrics experts and medical school education deans. Following the national survey, the competencies were updated and presented at the 2021 AGS Annual Scientific Meeting and open to public comment before they were finalized. The 27 updated geriatrics competencies for medical students included several new competencies, such as a focus on health equity, frailty, deprescribing, and patient priorities. A total of 211 respondents completed the national survey, including geriatrics experts (187/398, response rate: 47.0%) and education deans (24/191, response rate: 12.6%). All 27 proposed competencies met the predetermined threshold of 70% cumulative agreement, with a range of 93.0% (174/187) to 100% (187/187) among geriatrics experts and 87.5% (21/24) to 100% (24/24) among education deans. The updated Geriatrics Competencies for Graduating Medical Students met with broad agreement among the geriatrics experts and medical school education deans who responded to the national survey. By focusing on the Geriatrics 5Ms, the competencies highlight key knowledge and skills graduating medical students need for the first day of internship to be prepared to deliver age-friendly care to older adults under their care.