Collaborative Setting Research Articles

Comparing learning outcomes of two collaborative activities on random genetic drift in an upper-division genetics course

Abstract Background Random genetic drift is a difficult concept for biology undergraduates to understand. Active learning activities in a collaborative setting have the potential to improve student learning outcomes compared to traditional lectures alone and have been shown to help foster success for underrepresented students. However, few activities in this content area have been evaluated for effectiveness in improving student outcomes using peer-reviewed instruments backed by evidence of their validity and reliability. Our aim in this study was to use the Genetic Drift Instrument (GeDI) to evaluate and compare student learning gains in an upper division genetics course in which two different genetic drift activities, a faculty-developed collaborative exercise and a commercially published lab tutorial, were administered in an active-learning classroom with students working in small groups. Methods The GeDI was administered in both pre- and post-testing in two semesters (n = 95 and 98 students), with the semesters differing in which activity was assigned. Instrument dimensionality, person and item fit, and reliability were evaluated using Rasch analysis. Hierarchical Linear Models (HLMs) with two-way interactions were fitted to assess whether being in a certain Intervention Type, Race/ethnicity, Gender, or First Generation Status affected learning gains. HLMs with three-way interactions were used to assess whether the activities benefited students of all backgrounds equivalently. Results We found that the GeDI demonstrated unidimensionality, with high item reliability and relatively low person reliability, consistent with previous studies. Both the faculty-developed activity and the commercially available lab tutorial were associated with significant learning gains on genetic drift concepts. Students in the SimBio group had higher learning gains but the difference in effect size was small. No significant differences in learning gains were found between students from different demographic groups, and both activities appeared to benefit students of different backgrounds equivalently. Conclusions The GeDI instrument could be improved by adding items that more consistently differentiate students of different ability levels, especially at high ability levels. The greater impact on learning gains in the SimBio group while statistically significant does not translate into actual meaningful differences in student understanding. While students of different background variables in the sample have equivalent learning gains and are benefitted equivalently by the different interventions, our interventions did not ameliorate inequities in genetic drift understanding as measured by the GeDI that were uncovered in pre-testing.

Understanding Teachers’ Lived Experiences of Instructional Collaboration in Inclusive and Mainstream Settings: A Transcendental Phenomenological Approach

ABSTRACT This project investigates teachers’ lived experiences of instructional collaboration in mainstream and inclusive education settings, looking both at the factors that special and general education teachers believe hinder instructional collaboration, and those that teachers identify as critical to facilitating it. The study draws upon a transcendental phenomenological approach, with initial in-depth and follow-up interviews with nine special and general education teachers from the southern region of Saudi Arabia. The data analysis generated several themes and a number of sub-themes that helped provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. These themes were school culture, work pressure, and facilitating factors. Thus, examining the experiences of teachers in inclusive instructional collaboration settings revealed various factors that influence the successful implementation of this practice. Recommendations for future directions that may contribute to strengthening instructional collaboration in schools are discussed in the paper.

Instructional strategies and challenges for implementing teledentistry in dental hygiene curricula: A qualitative study.

Research has documented the implementation of telecommunications and virtual technology use in health care disciplines to expand accessibility. Despite the current trend of digital innovations in healthcare systems, telehealth technology is not readily adopted in the dental hygiene profession yet. Currently, no standardized educational framework exists in dental hygiene curricula to prepare professionals with the technical skill set and professional knowledge necessary for telehealth applications. The aims and objectives of this research were (1) to investigate existing dental hygiene educators' pedagogical frameworks for incorporating telehealth technology into dental hygiene curricula, (2) explore these educators' instructional strategies for teaching telehealth technology, and (3) examine the theoretical implications and practical outcomes of teaching telehealth technology for professional development and transferrable work-force ready skills. A nine-item, open-ended, semi-structured interview guide was prepared and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) in January 2023 to qualitatively investigate accredited entry-level dental hygiene programs in the United States. Thematic interpretational analysis was conducted using NVivo software. A total of 54 of the 328 dental hygiene programs volunteered for participation. Thirteen full-time and part-time dental hygiene educators met inclusion criteria. The core salient themes identified included (a) curriculum mapping, (b) technology integration, (c) professional collaboration, and (d) supplemental skill set. These findings provide guidance to dental hygiene programs for bridging the teledentistry knowledge gap in curriculum development. Incorporating telehealth applications into dental hygiene curricula prepares future dental hygienists with the specialized training needed to function as a member of contemporary health care teams addressing access to care.

Novel Management of Ocular Surface Inflammation in Patients With Ocular Graft-Versus-Host Disease in the Setting of Cataract Surgery.

To report the outcomes of cataract surgery in patients with ocular graft-versus-host disease (oGVHD) using a novel preoperative immunomodulatory regimen in a collaborative subspecialty care setting. Retrospective case series of patients with oGVHD who underwent cataract surgery using a novel preoperative immunomodulatory regimen in a collaborative care setting. A preoperative regimen consisting of pooled human immune globulin 1%, autologous serum 50%, and methylprednisolone 1% eye drops was prescribed. Outcome measures included visual acuity (VA), ocular surface disease index (OSDI) score, lissamine green staining, and complications with a minimum of 2 years of follow-up. Thirty-five eyes from 20 patients with oGVHD were studied. The mean age was 59 years (range 30-70 years). A healthy comparison group included 35 eyes from 24 patients with a mean age of 63 years (range 44-74 years). At the 2-year follow-up, the mean corneal staining score was 2.3/15, the mean OSDI score was 37.5, and the mean VA was 20/30 (logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution 0.17). The global complication rate was 2.8% at the last follow-up with no difference versus a healthy comparison group. A collaborative care model improving ocular surface health before cataract surgery with dry eye and cataract subspecialists can optimize outcomes in patients with oGVHD.

Automatic Control of Virtual Cameras for Capturing and Sharing User Focus and Interaction in Collaborative Virtual Reality

As VR technology advances and network speeds rise, social VR platforms are gaining traction. These platforms enable multiple users to socialize and collaborate within a shared virtual environment using avatars. Virtual reality, with its ability to augment visual information, offers distinct advantages for collaboration over traditional methods. Prior research has shown that merely sharing another person’s viewpoint can significantly boost collaborative efficiency. This paper presents an innovative non-verbal communication technique designed to enhance the sharing of visual information. By employing virtual cameras, our method captures where participants are focusing and what they are interacting with, then displays these data above their avatars. The direction of the virtual camera is automatically controlled by considering the user’s gaze direction, the position of the object the user is interacting with, and the positions of other objects around that object. The automatic adjustment of these virtual cameras and the display of captured images are symmetrically conducted for all participants engaged in the virtual environment. This approach is especially beneficial in collaborative settings, where multiple users work together on a shared structure of multiple objects. We validated the effectiveness of our proposed technique through an experiment with 20 participants tasked with collaboratively building structures using block assembly.

Creating inspiration by developing digital mood boards in student teams

Mood boards have notable potential to serve as inspirational tools in design. However, we still do not fully understand how mood boards are created utilizing material found online in collaborative educational settings. The purpose of our study is to deepen our understanding of both team design and the creation of shared digital mood boards through a qualitative analysis on how three student teams created shared mood boards using computers, and how they gathered inspirational material from the Web. We discuss how the creation of a shared mood board is a complex process, including deepening and broadening cycles, where a key idea is either explained more thoroughly, or then expanded with additional, related ideas. In relation to mood board ideas, the teams decided the specific keywords to be used to gather images online, balancing the design constraints, with an intuitive yet systematic way of working. We encourage to acknowledge a digitally created mood board as a collaborative method for creating meaningful starting points for designing, and for finding inspiration outside the direct design problem. Our study provides information which is beneficial for developing pedagogies that include collaboration and the use of online inspirational material.Keywords: team ideation; mood board; sources of inspiration; online material; metaphor; design education

Comparison of nurse and resident physician paging frequency by sex in the emergency department.

The role of biological sex in interprofessional relationships is an important factor in collaborative health care settings such as the emergency department (ED) but one that has been sparsely studied. While there is anecdotal evidence on gender-based differences in communication, little research has focused on this topic. The goal of this study was to determine whether there are differences in paging frequency between nurses and male and female residents. We conducted a retrospective review of patient visits to our urban, tertiary care academic ED between January 1 and April 1, 2021. Only pages from nurses to emergency medicine (EM) residents were included. Outcome variables included number of pages received by sex, number of unique ED visits, and mean number of pages per unique visit. Pearson's chi-square tests were used to analyze differences between observed and expected results. A total of 15,617 pages from nurses to residents over 6843 unique patient visits to the ED were analyzed. This included 187 nurses, 162 (87%) of whom were female and 25 (13%) were male. Of the 39 residents, 12 (31%) were female and 27 (69%) were male. Female residents received 4500 pages over 2228 unique patient ED visits, or a mean of two pages per patient with a mean of 186 unique ED visits per female resident. Male residents received 11,117 pages over 4615 unique patient ED visits, or a mean of 2.4 pages per patient, with a mean of 171 unique ED visits per male resident. This difference in pages per patient was statistically significant (χ2(1) = 369, p < 0.001). We found that male residents received significantly more pages per patient than their female colleagues. Overall, further research is required to understand the factors, such as characteristics of patients or preferred communication methods of providers, that drive this disparity and what the implications are for patient outcomes.

Beating the empty pelvis syndrome: the PelvEx Collaborative core outcome set study protocol

IntroductionThe empty pelvis syndrome is a significant source of morbidity following pelvic exenteration surgery. It remains poorly defined with research in this field being heterogeneous and of low quality. Furthermore,...

Telemedicine Plus Standard Care Versus Standard Care Only in Specialized Outpatient Palliative Care: A Randomized Controlled Noninferiority Trial.

Background: Patients suffering from incurable diseases are more likely to die in the hospital than at home. Specialized outpatient palliative care (PC) may be able to counteract this tendency. Similarly, potential benefits of telemedicine in health care were scientifically reported. The aim of this research was to compare patients receiving specialized outpatient PC plus telemedicine with those receiving standard specialized outpatient PC only. In this study, telemedicine is assumed to decrease the number of home visits and therefore should not be considered a mere add-on. Methods: This is a randomized controlled noninferiority trial. Recruitment lasted between January 2020 and October 2021. Quality of care was evaluated using the Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale (IPOS) at day 0, 7, and 14 after randomization. Change from day 0 to 7 was defined as the primary outcome (noninferiority margin = 4 points). This study was conducted in an urban setting in collaboration with a university hospital and a local specialized outpatient PC service. Results: A total of 196 patients were screened with 34 patients included (18 telemedicine/16 standard care). The mean change in the total score of the IPOS from day 0 to 7 amounted to -1.8 ± 3.9 (telemedicine) versus 1.2 ± 5.7 (standard care). The telemedicine group was statistically not relevantly inferior to the standard care group (t-test for noninferiority, p = 0.005). Conclusions: Although, due to COVID-19, the sample size remained rather small, our findings indicate that telemedical approaches offer a promising and equally effective option to provide specialized outpatient PC. Clinical Trial Registration Number: NCT06054048.

‘I'm more than a PE teacher’: teachers’ perspectives of social and emotional learning in PE and classroom at a rural elementary school

ABSTRACT Despite a growing attention on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in Physical Education (PE), there has been limited literature on how PE can provide SEL experiences in continuity with other subjects within a specific school context. This study aimed to investigate perspectives and experiences of teachers in PE and classroom for a school-wide SEL implementation at a rural elementary school. Adopting a qualitative case study design, four types of data were collected with 13 teachers. Inductive qualitative data analysis was implemented with constant comparison. Four themes were generated in this study: Learning how to support personal and cultural differences; Promoting an inclusive learning environment; Building a whole school community with care; Shared understandings with school-wide interactions. This study provided in-depth qualitative evidence that PE can be positioned as an effective and collaborative setting for a school-wide SEL implementation.

Assessment of effectiveness of practice teaching biology methods in collective learning: The pilot study

This study constitutes a pilot investigation conducted in the absence of a control group. Its objective was to evaluate the efficacy of practical learning within a collaborative setting among first-year students specializing in biotechnology. The research session focused on the topic “Methods for the development and production of biological products: The role of biological products in human life.” Sixteen students were divided into four groups of four students each. The lesson was facilitated using the Jigsaw group teaching method, integrating both theoretical and practical components. Pre- and post-class tests were administered to evaluate students' performance, revealing significant improvements after the session.The assessment of students who underwent the post-class test significantly exceeded their performance in the pre-class test. For theoretical questions, this yielded: T=14.478, P&lt;0.001, and for practical questions: T=19.104, P&lt;0.001. Additionally, the study revealed that the implementation of the Jigsaw method leads to a substantial increase in the percentage of students achieving high grades and a significant decrease in the proportion of students receiving low grades. The percentages of students receiving high grades increased by 43.75% (excellent) and 6.25% (good), while the percentage of low grades decreased by 50% (fair) and 12.5% (bad). This study provides empirical evidence supporting the utilization of collaborative, experiential learning approaches in enhancing biology education, particularly in fostering both theoretical understanding *and practical skills among students in the field of biotechnology.

Distributed Control of Collaborative Multi-Agent Systems using Interpreted Petri Nets through Indirect Interactions

This work introduces a framework to describe and control collaborative systems in a distributed manner. Within this framework, both a set of agents and a specification to be accomplished are modelled using Interpreted Petri nets. The agents’ output states are partially known, and the specification describes a subset of relevant states to be reached by the agents without explicitly detailing which agents are involved in achieving such specification or the precise states that each agent must reach individually. This framework enables agents to collaboratively discover how to fulfill a shared, high-level specification, even in the absence of detailed instructions. The approach promises to enhance scalability, flexibility, and efficiency in collaborative settings. For illustrative purposes, a simplified collaborative assembly system is showcased to demonstrate the proposed framework.

Facilitating Students’ Adaptive Help-seeking and Peer Interactions through an Analytics-enhanced Forum in Engineering Design Education

Design often takes place in collective and collaborative settings, and interactions and mutual support among peers have been a critical component of design education. However, in most of the existing design courses, students often work in small groups and peer interactions are limited to group members, which limits the range and depth of knowledge exchange. To complement the group-based activities, this study designs and assesses an analytics-enhanced discussion forum for whole-class interactions. The forum adopts ontology-based recommender systems and anomaly detection techniques to tailor the threads and contents for individual students in a personalized way. This analytics-enhanced forum was implemented in a large-size undergraduate design course (n = 313), and data about student responses to this forum was compared with data from the previous year’s course that adopted a conventional forum (n = 280). From the statistical analysis, students learning with the analytics-enhanced forum demonstrated significantly higher degrees of design practices (specifically, empathize, define, ideate, and test), collaborative learning, and course satisfaction. Qualitative analysis of students’ focus-group interviews shows their perceived benefits and concerns of the analytics-enhanced forum. The study also suggests integrating generative artificial intelligence and large language models to support students’ design thinking and collaborative design.

Secure data sharing in collaborative network environments for privacy-preserving mechanisms

In today’s world where everything is linked, shared network settings are necessary to share info between companies. However, making sure that data is safe and private in these kinds of settings is very hard. This paper describes a new way to share data safely, focusing on privacy-protecting features that keep private data safe while making it easier for people to work together.To keep data safe at different steps of sharing and processing, the suggested answer uses a mix of cryptography, access controls, and anonymization techniques. Unauthorized access is stopped and privacy is kept by encrypting data both while it is being sent and while it is being stored. Access controls are also used to make sure that only people who are allowed to can see or change private data. These controls are based on rules that have already been set. Also, methods like differential privacy are used to make privacy even better by adding noise to question results. This stops individual records from being identified while still allowing useful analysis. Together, these methods make it possible to share data safely and privately, which encourages cooperation without jeopardizing accuracy or privacy.Overall, this method provides a complete framework for dealing with the tricky issues of data security and privacy in collaborative network settings. It lets businesses share information freely while still following strict privacy rules and keeping private data from getting into the wrong hands or being shared without permission.

Analysis of organic chemistry students’ developing reasoning elicited by a scaffolded case comparison activity

Recent efforts in organic chemistry education research focus on investigating activities and strategies designed to elicit students’ mechanistic reasoning. This study investigates how a scaffolded case comparison activity implemented in an introductory organic chemistry course elicits and supports students’ mechanistic reasoning in an authentic classroom setting. The activity included an adaptation of a previously reported reasoning scaffold to support small-group student discussions comparing organic reactions. We analyzed students’ written responses to the in-class activity using Hammer's resources framework and Toulmin's argumentation model, interwoven to create an anti-deficit approach to exploring students’ developing reasoning. The analysis of students’ written artifacts sought to identify ways in which a scaffolded case comparison implemented in a collaborative class setting may support students’ engagement in complex reasoning and argumentation development. We found that the in-class activity elicited students’ writing about various aspects of mechanistic reasoning, including identifying explicit and implicit properties, dynamic reasoning, and multivariate reasoning. These findings indicate that the activity can engage students in complex mechanistic reasoning aspects in the classroom setting. Furthermore, this study extends the literature by detailing the nuances of students’ developing causal reasoning with energetic and electrostatic accounts as shown in their writing. The results highlight students’ emerging causal reasoning with varying levels of complexity and conceptual integration. This study provides direct implications for instructors seeking to implement similar classroom activities. The findings indicate directions for future research on the development of instructional activities and tools that further support students’ developing causal reasoning, such as adapting existing scaffolding structures to support argumentation development and the integration of challenging concepts such as energetics.

Leveraging Generative AI Prompt Programming for Human-Robot Collaborative Assembly

In manufacturing, traditional robotic programming methodologies have often been focused on independent operation, offering limited capabilities for seamless human-robot collaboration. This paper introduces a paradigm shift in collaborative production systems by leveraging generative artificial intelligence (AI), specifically large language models (LLMs). Contrary to traditional methods that rely on pre-defined assembly instructions, this paper introduces a novel framework employing primitive knowledge of the production process, including product design and required assembly steps. By integrating LLMs and a behavior tree-based system control, this approach enables programmers to rapidly deploy collaborative assembly procedures by expediting the programming of robotic operations. The system also incorporates Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies, which facilitate real-time alterations in assembly steps, leading to reduced overall production time. The framework’s behavior tree-based control architecture allows for dynamic adaptability, offering optimized solutions across a range of assembly scenarios. The results of the framework’s deployment suggest that this innovative programming paradigm significantly enhances both the adaptability and efficiency of collaborative manufacturing settings.

May I Have Your Attention?! Exploring Multitasking in Human-Robot Collaboration

Human-robot collaboration promises to free the human to multitask and engage in cognitive work while the robots assists with physical tasks, therefore increasing productivity. However, this collaborative paradigm requires continuous attention from human operators, which could potentially strain their cognitive resources. Excessive attention demands can lead to safety hazards, increased errors, and reduced efficiency. Despite its critical importance, there is limited empirical research on attentional factors in industrial human-robot collaboration. In this study, we explore attentional multitasking in collaborative human-robot assembly settings. Our experimental setup involves participants performing a wire harnessing task with a collaborative robot while simultaneously completing a Go/No-Go test as a secondary task. To observe the effect of multitasking, we varied the difficulty of the secondary task across two levels and analysed its impacts on work performance and workload. Our results confirm threaded cognition theory, suggesting that human-robot collaboration could reduce cognitive capacity by depleting attentional resources, leading to higher errors and cycle times during multitasking. This underscores the importance of a detailed understanding of attentional factors in human-robot collaboration. We discuss our findings and their implications, and provide insights into the adjustment and design of human-robot collaboration tasks in the industry.

The Role of Teamwork on Employee Performance; A Survey of State Corporations in the Energy Sector in Kenya

Employees are crucial for the success and sustainability of the energy sector. However, employee performance remains a major issue facing the sector. The energy sector in Kenya is grappling with a multifaceted challenge in the distribution of electricity, characterized by substantial technical and non-technical power losses. Employee performance directly influences the efficiency of operations, cost-effectiveness, and the ability to achieve organizational objectives. Strong relationships within the workplace enhance communication, foster innovation, and contribute to a positive organizational culture therefore the study sought to assess the effect of relational empowerment and employee performance in State Corporations in the energy sector in Kenya. The study specifically sought to assess the effect of teamwork on employee performance in State Corporation in the energy sector in Kenya. The study was anchored on relational exchange theory. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population was 204 employees from where a sample of 135 respondents was drawn using Taro Yamen formula. The study collected data using structured questionnaires and the data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation and Pearson’s correlation. The findings from the analysis revealed that assigning responsibilities helps employees to understand their roles which enhance performance. The study also revealed that setting collaborative goals ensures that team efforts are aligned with the broader objectives of the organization. The study concluded that there exists a positive and significant relationship between teamwork and employee performance in State Corporation in the energy sector in Kenya. The study also recommended that Kenyan Energy State Corporations should encourage collaborative goal setting and define clear roles and responsibilities within teams, foster trust among team members and promote a culture of innovation to enhance teamwork and performance.

Interdisciplinary cooperation in the outpatient practice: results from a focus group interview with occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists / Gestaltung der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit in der ambulanten Therapie: Resultate eines Fokusgruppeninterviews mit Ergotherapeut*innen, Logopäd*innen und Physiotherapeut*innen

Abstract The complexity and diversity of healthcare conditions, as well as the financial and personnel challenges requires effective interdisciplinary collaboration (IDC) among various healthcare professionals (Robert-Bosch-Stiftung, 2011; Robert Koch Institute, 2015). In contrast to the inpatient practice, IDC has not established yet in primary care settings. There is a lack of concrete solutions that illustrate how IDC can be implemented in outpatient practice (Schmitz, Atzeni &amp; Berchtold, 2020). The study aims to present realization possibilities of the IDC among occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists based on case examples from outpatient neurorehabilitation practices. Necessary framework conditions and support factors should be identified from successful applications. In an online focus group, five therapists from three outpatient therapy centers were interviewed about the interdisciplinary measures taking place at their workplace. The therapy centers implemented interdisciplinary team meetings, collaborative target setting and therapy planning as well as co-therapies in their everyday primary care practice. Digital communication channels and the use of digital practice software represent support measures that enable communication independent of location and time. Educational policy changes are needed to impart the corresponding attitudes, knowledge and skills to the healthcare professionals during the vocational training/study. The results of the study show that IDC can be implemented in the outpatient setting under appropriate conditions. Legal requirements are needed to enable the application of interdisciplinary measures through adequate remuneration systems and available time slots. Further calls address content in vocational trainings/studies to provide a basis for readiness and competencies for IDC.

Manufacturer's Contexts, Supply Chain Risk Management, and Agility Performance

The dynamism of the current business environment emanates significant challenges and disruption risks for supply chains. These vulnerabilities in contemporary supply chains have motivated a substantial academic focus on supply chain risk management (SCRM). In the empirical literature on SCRM, a firm's external environment is conceptualized as a source of risk, and various organizational and technological factors are discussed as influencers of SCRM. However, the factors studied in the literature are generally narrow and analyzed in isolation, which has resulted in a fragmented and inconsistent understanding of the role of organizational and technological setups in SCRM. This study offers a systematic understanding of the antecedents and consequences of effective SCRM by investigating the associations between a manufacturer's environmental, organizational, and technological contexts, SCRM, and agility. The study employs the information processing view as the primary theoretical lens and relies on large-scale multi-industry and multicountry survey data for empirical analysis. In contrast to the threat-rigidity thesis, the findings of this study suggest that manufacturers seek collaborative and flexible work settings to respond to environmental challenges. Besides increasing efficiency, such organizational settings and enhanced technological setups can increase information processing capability to enable SCRM and agility. These findings challenge the suggestions that initiatives taken for efficiency can increase the risk factor and deteriorate performance. The study provides novel insights into the underlying information processing mechanisms for effective SCRM and highlights the importance of organizational and technological setups in enhancing these core mechanisms.