Didactic Quality Research Articles

Survey results of COVID-19 pandemic on female surgical trainees: New normal work environment

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on surgical training globally. We aimed to explore and identify the specific challenges faced by women surgeons during the pandemic and provide recommendations for improvement. MethodsA survey was conducted among trainee members of the Association of Women Surgeons, assessing various aspects of clinical training, mental well-being, and personal and professional life. ResultsThe respondents were distributed across the United States, with the majority (28%) from the Midwest and Northeast. Training settings were predominantly academic university hospital programs (85%). The majority (92%) were resident trainees and 32% were in research. General surgery, constituting 86% of the respondents, was the most common specialty. There was a decline in surgical cases, research, mental health, and quality of didactics. Limited learning opportunities and challenges in job search were reported. Although virtual conferences were deemed affordable, the lack of networking was noted to be significant. ConclusionThe study highlights the need for ongoing support and adaptation in surgical training programs. These programs include the optimization of virtual platforms, prioritizing mental well-being, and ensuring equal opportunities. Strategies to mitigate the impact of future disruptions and promote gender equality are essential. Further research and workflow changes are warranted for effective capacity building.

Principles and Sustainable Perspectives in the Preservation of Earthen Architecture from the Past Societies of the Iberian Peninsula

In recent years, special attention has been paid to the lessons in sustainability offered by traditional and vernacular architecture, especially with regards to the promotion of both material and technical production in earthen construction. However, these systems were already widely found in past societies, whose legacy in terms of construction is presented through the complex cultural framework of archaeological sites, which require highly variable work that lacks professional consensus, usually transcending the adaptive and sustainable nature originally observed. This dual nature aids the social operation of these scenarios and can prematurely hinder earthen construction’s life cycle and didactic quality, cementing its status as a necessary reflection for the identification and prevention of future problems. In terms of sustainability, the aim of this study is to analyze the spectrum of architectural interventions used for the preservation of earthen structures in archaeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula, in natural, social, and economic terms, while examining their capacity to adapt in the face of adverse phenomena. For this reason, following bibliographical review and fieldwork collection, a database was established combining a series of architectural characteristics and a history of interventions in 85 selected archaeological sites conserved in situ. Following reflection on these sites, maps were drawn up to show the geographical scope of these principles and offer a general overview of perspectives, highlighting the aspects deserving of varying levels of attention, as well as proposing strategies for sustainable preservation which will allow its transmission over time for the scientific and cultural enjoyment of coming generations.

Open educational resources for otorhinolaryngology : Apilot study on needs assessment and implementation

Open educational resources (OER) are educational materials licensed openly by authors, permitting usage, redistribution, and in some instances, modification. OER platforms thereby serve as amedium for distributing and advancing teaching materials and innovative educational methodologies. This study aims to determine the present state of OER in otorhinolaryngology and to examine the prerequisites for seamlessly integrating OER into the curricular teaching of medical schools, specifically through the design of two OER blended learning modules. OER content in the field of otorhinolaryngology was analyzed on OER platforms, ensuring its relevance to the German medical curriculum. Data protection concerns were addressed with legal counsel. The blended learning modules were developed in collaboration with medical students and subsequently published as OER. This project yielded the first OER from aGerman ENT department, tailored to the German medical curriculum. One significant barrier to OER use in medicine, more than in other fields, is data protection. This challenge can be navigated by obtaining consent to publish patient data as OER. OER hold the promise to play apivotal role in fostering cooperation and collaboration among educators, aiding educators in lesson preparation, and simultaneously enhancing didactic quality.

Perspectives From the RadDiscord Annual Survey: Overview of the Top Study Tools and Evaluation of Study Time and Various Resources

Each year, senior radiology residents take the American Board of Radiology Qualifying (Core) exam to evaluate competency. Approximately 10% of first-time examinees will fail this exam (1). Understanding factors that contribute to success will help residency program directors and trainees prepare for future exams. RadDiscord (www.raddiscord.org), an international radiology educational community, is in the unique position to evaluate different study materials and resources. The goal of this paper is to report the results from the RadDiscord survey and analyze the factors that correlate with higher exam performance and passing. Following the February 2021, June 2021, and June 2022 exams, RadDiscord members were provided an anonymous survey, collecting information on study resources and exam scores. The collected data were analyzed using various statistical methods. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were performed. A total of 318 residents responded (95% passed). Significant variability in Qualifying (Core) exam performance and perceived quality of internal didactics existed between program types. Residents who did less than 2000 practice questions performed lower on the exam. The Diagnostic Radiology In-Training (DXIT) exam was the most predictive for passing and performance. Qualifying (Core) exam performance negatively correlated with study time, though certain residents did receive some benefit from study time. Many factors correlate with passing and Qualifying (Core) exam performance. Residency programs with fewer resources should consider alternative ways to support residents beyond offering study time. Residents who complete at least 2000 practice questions are more likely to pass and DXIT results can be a useful gauge to identify exam readiness.

Evaluation of the GeSRU-Steps educational video concept (German Society of Residents in Urology e. V.)

Surgical educational videos represent acontemporary, multimedia supplement to surgical education and training. The German Society of Residents in Urology e. V. (GeSRU) developed an educational video platform (steps.GeSRU.de) with free, quality-assured educational videos for urologists, especially for residents. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the GeSRU Steps teaching videos. Prospectively, 29GeSRU Steps training videos were made available (03/2019-05/2023) via amboss.com, and an online questionnaire was inserted following the videos. This comprised 12items on medical, technical, and didactic quality, usefulness for own knowledge acquisition, and sociodemographic data of respondents. Aspects of video quality were assessed with the Acceptability E‑scale and the Global Quality Score. During the survey period, the GeSRU Steps videos implemented on the amboss.com website were viewed 49,698 times. Atotal of 474 questionnaires were answered (rate 0.25%). The collective of respondents consisted of 419 (88%) students, 47 (10%) physicians in training, and 5 (1%) specialists; 351 (74%) were female, 107 (23%) were male, and 4 (1%) were diverse. Each educational video was rated amedian of 10times (range 5-65). The six questions of the Acceptability E‑scale and the Global Quality Score were rated good and very good (81.6-95.8%), respectively. GeSRU teaching videos achieved avery good rating with high user satisfaction. By specific promotion of these teaching videos, which are quality-assured through supervision, the portfolio of surgical videos available at alow threshold can be expanded and can serve as acontemporary education tool.

Preparation of future science teachers for cognitive visualization of the educational process

The issue of designing a qualitative educational environment for the formation of a flexible personality in the light of global world changes has been actualized in the article. Its main essential characteristic is the ability to adapt to the changing conditions of the modern natural and social environment. We consider the visualization of the educational process as a means of improving the quality of educational services, forming a holistic perception of the environment that combines logical and visual thinking. According to the purpose of the article, based on the analysis of existing visualization techniques and their expert evaluation, the most effective ones for mastering the content of natural sciences disciplines as well as professional and methodological training of future natural sciences teachers have been identified and substantiated. The significance of visualization techniques for the educational environment has been determined by the method of expert evaluation according to the criterion of «didactic quality». Its indicators are: the possibility to use information educational environment of the higher education institution on the base of existing material and technical support; importance for creating a positive emotional background for teaching; importance for organizing interactive pedagogical interaction of participants in the educational process; accessibility for perception of educational information; expediency of use in the future natural sciences teachers professional training; easy to use both for teachers and students. The five most effective visualization techniques for ensuring a holistic perception of knowledge by combining logical and imaginative thinking (scribing, mind map, infographics, timeline, tag cloud) have been identified by ranking. The effectiveness of the scribing technique and its influence on the formation of indicators of the fully assimilated knowledge quality such as depth and awareness has been experimentally proved.

Successful implementation of online educational lectures of the German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO).

Modern digital teaching formats have become increasingly important in recent years, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, an online-based webinar series was established by the German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO) and the young DEGRO (yDEGRO) working group. In the monthly 120-minute courses, selected lecturers teach curricular content as preparation for the board certification exam for radiation oncology. The evaluation of the 24courses between 01.2021 and 12.2022 was performed using astandardized questionnaire with 21items (recording epidemiological characteristics of the participants, didactic quality, content quality). ALikert scale (1-4) was used in combination with binary and open-ended questions. Acombined total of 4200individuals (1952 in 2021 and 2248 in 2022) registered for the courses, and out of those, 934participants (455 in 2021 and 479 in 2022) later provided evaluations for the respective courses (36% residents, 35% specialists, 21% medical technicians for radiology [MTR], 8% medical physics experts [MPE]). After 2years, 74% of the DEGRO Academy curriculum topics were covered by the monthly webinars. The overall rating by participants was positive (mean 2021: 1.33 and 2022: 1.25) and exceeded the curriculum offered at each site for 70% of participants. Case-based learning was identified as aparticularly well-rated method. The DEGRO webinar expands the digital teaching opportunities in radiation oncology. The consistently high number of participants confirms the need for high-quality teaching and underlines the advantages of e‑learning methods. Optimization opportunities were identified through reevaluation of feedback from course participants. In its design as ateaching format for amultiprofessional audience, the webinar series could be used as apractice model of online teaching for other disciplines.

ХИБРИДНА НАСТАВА У ВИСОКОШКОЛСКОМ ОБРАЗОВНОМ КОНТЕКСТУ

The Covid-19 pandemic caused profound changes in all of the educational systems around the world, and these developments have had a considerable impact on how organizational forms of instruction are approached. Distance learning, online instruction, and hybrid instruction are substituting traditional face-to-face instruction. Hybrid instruction, an organizational style of learning that blends direct instruction with online education, actually becomes more prominent during this time of crisis. It held a unique position and function within the higher education system. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the didactic qualities and principles of hybrid instruction from the viewpoint of the students. The research sample was made up solely of university students who participated in some type of hybrid method of instruction during their studies in order to assure the most accurate results. The study findings indicate that students have favorable opinions of the didactic elements of hybrid instruction and its principles. The most important didactic aspects of hybrid instruction were the high-quality integration of online and direct teaching tactics, the effectiveness and balancing of personal and student commitments, and the availability of settings that allowed students to study and advance at their own pace. Students, on the other hand, believe that the core principles of this teaching model are efficiency in time and finance management, as well as their use of time. In terms of additional support to attain effective higher education, the demonstrated positive student impressions clearly indicate a range of pedagogical implications concerning the worth, necessity, and use of this instruction model in the post-pandemic age.

PEDAGOGICAL CONDITIONS FOR THE FORMATION OF AN EFFECTIVE INFORMATION AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

The article deals with the information and learning environment as a component of integral training system of the educational system in higher education institutions. The main function of the information and learning environment, which is ensuring the coordinated functioning of subjects of educational activity, has been established. The concept of «effective information and learning environment» has been introduced. It is defined as the ability to ensure high-quality, mutually coordinated functioning of students, teachers and information and learning environment as a network subject of the educational process. The pedagogical conditions for the effective functioning of the information and learning environment as a network subject of the educational process have been identified , namely: existence of vividly structured system of information and learning environment as the subject of the educational interaction with taking into consideration its hierarchical links to other components of the educational process in higher education institutions; purposeful training of students for the fluent operation of information and communication tools; improvement of the IT competence of research and teaching staff in the implementation of teaching methods based on modern information and computer technologies. The effectiveness of the suggested methodological system for the improving the IT competence of research and teaching staff of higher education institutions has been developed and experimentally confirmed. The following approaches are considered to be dominant in its construction: holistic, competence-futurological, andragogical and narrative-digital. The core idea is the idea of content modelling based on the combination of key competences of the 21st century «4 С» (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication) with digital competence and the ability to predict the possibilities of developing a modern educational environment in the future. The basis of the methodological system is the introduction of a scientific and methodological seminar on the topic «The Use of activity components and online communications of the Moodle system», which is considered to be an element of non-formal education of teachers. Criterion apparatus of the determining of the effectiveness of its introduction has been developed: subjective and objective criteria and indicators. It has been determined that it is appropriate to use the «didactic quality» criterion to determine the quality of content.

KUŞ SEMBOLİZMİ VE KÜLTÜREL HAFIZA: TÜRK VE AMERİKAN EDEBİYATINDA BİYOÇEŞİTLİLİK VE KENTLEŞMENİN İNCELENMESİ

This article aims to examine one of the key principles of environmental philosophy, the direct relationship between cultural memory and biodiversity, in the context of three literary works selected from Turkish and American literature. These works trace a process of change in cultural texture due to rapid urbanization and population growth, as well as social transformations experienced just before and after rapid industrialization periods. Another common point is that all three of them deal with different aspects of bird hunting. Bird symbolism has been used effectively to highlight the contrast between rural and urban cultures. In addition to these symbolic relationships based on the natural characteristics of the birds, these texts use different aspects of avian life to interpret multiple layers of meaning, enriched by intercultural and intracultural references provided by history and tradition. It should be underlined that these fictional narratives, which sometimes use the natural environment for allegorical purposes, do not have didactic qualities. These ecocentric texts use birds not only in their traditional symbolic meaning, but also, either as a character or a theme, as real beings. By establishing a direct relationship between urbanization and reduction of biodiversity, inseparable role of birds in the cycles of nature, of which human beings are also a part, is emphasized. Finally, in this study, besides their cultural and historical importance, contribution of birds to the sustainability of biodiversity is discussed through the following literary works: Two of them, 'The Last Birds' and The Birds Have Also Gone, compare the value judgments and lifestyles of Istanbul’s pre-industrial urban era with the post-industrial situation. The last one, ‘A White Heron’, focuses on the relationship between rural life experiences and environmental awareness. This comparison leads to the conclusion that industrial urban life poses a significant obstacle to appreciating the intrinsic value of nature.

Bilingual education as a means of improving future natural sciences teachers quality of education

The article deals with the problem of introduction of the elements of bilingual education in professional training of future natural sciences teachers. It has been found out that Ukraine has some historical experience of introducing bilingual education in general secondary education institutions. It has been revealed that the main drawback, in this perspective, is the training of future teachers who would be able to provide the opportunity for school students to study natural sciences subjects in two languages. The content of the elective course "Science teachers training in US universities" which is taught in English, as one of the means of ensuring a "parity model" of bilingual education for future natural sciences teachers and a "displacing model" has been revealed. Learning of this course involves a dual purpose - the formation of students’ knowledge of the concept of natural sciences teachers training in the United States (structure, features of the content, forms and methods of natural sciences teachers training under conditions of continuous pedagogical education) and adaptation of this knowledge to the educational process in Ukraine; formation of intercultural interaction skills. The peculiarity of the training technology is that teaching is carried out in English depending on the level of students’ foreign language competence formation and educational tasks complexity. It has been established that the teaching methods which include the use of different doses of assistance during the performance of cognitive tasks and differentiating of their complexity level are effective while teaching this course. The use of such teaching methods allows to provide each student with the optimal conditions for the maximum satisfaction of his cognitive needs and formation of communicative skills. These methods involve a gradual transition from collective forms of work to partially independent and fully independent and performing of the tasks, the complexity of which is growing. The effectiveness of the content of the course "Science teachers training in US universities" according to such a criterion as didactic quality has been experimentally proved. The quality of its study by the criterion of formation of methods of mental activity and development of types of speech activity has been confirmed.

Development, implementation, and results of a simulation-based hands-on brachytherapy workshop for medical students

PurposeThe new Medical Licensing Regulations 2025 (Ärztliche Approbationsordnung, ÄApprO) require the development of competence-oriented teaching formats. In addition, there is a great need for high-quality teaching in the field of radiation oncology, which manifests itself already during medical school. For this reason, we developed a simulation-based, hands-on medical education format to teach competency in performing accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) with interstitial multicatheter brachytherapy for early breast cancer. In addition, we designed realistic breast models suitable for teaching both palpation of the female breast and implantation of brachytherapy catheters.MethodsFrom June 2021 to July 2022, 70 medical students took part in the hands-on brachytherapy workshop. After a propaedeutic introduction, the participants simulated the implantation of single-lead catheters under supervision using the silicone-based breast models. Correct catheter placement was subsequently assessed by CT scans. Participants rated their skills before and after the workshop on a six-point Likert scale in a standardized questionnaire.ResultsParticipants significantly improved their knowledge-based and practical skills on APBI in all items as assessed by a standardized questionnaire (mean sum score 42.4 before and 16.0 after the course, p < 0.001). The majority of respondents fully agreed that the workshop increased their interest in brachytherapy (mean 1.15, standard deviation [SD] 0.40 on the six-point Likert scale). The silicone-based breast model was found to be suitable for achieving the previously defined learning objectives (1.19, SD 0.47). The learning atmosphere and didactic quality were rated particularly well (mean 1.07, SD 0.26 and 1.13, SD 0.3 on the six-point Likert scale).ConclusionThe simulation-based medical education course for multicatheter brachytherapy can improve self-assessed technical competence. Residency programs should provide resources for this essential component of radiation oncology. This course is exemplary for the development of innovative practical and competence-based teaching formats to meet the current reforms in medical education.

Design and Transition of an Emergency E-Learning Pathology Course for Medical Students-Evaluation of a Novel Course Concept.

Around the world, the emergency brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic forced medical schools to create numerous e-learning supplements to provide instruction during this crisis. The question now is to determine a way in which to capitalize on this momentum of digitization and harness the medical e-learning content created for the future. We have analyzed the transition of a pathology course to an emergency remote education online course and, in the second step, applied a flipped classroom approach including research skills training. In the summer semester of 2020, the pathology course at the Technical University of Munich was completely converted to an asynchronous online course. Its content was adapted in winter 2021 and incorporated into a flipped classroom concept in which research skills were taught at the same time. Screencasts and lecture recordings were the most popular asynchronous teaching formats. Students reported developing a higher interest in pathology and research through group work. The amount of content was very challenging for some students. Flipped classroom formats are a viable option when using pre-existing content. We recommend checking such content for technical and didactic quality and optimizing it if necessary. Content on research skills can be combined very well with clinical teaching content.

Tablet-based versus presentation-based seminars in radiology: Effects of student digital affinity and teacher charisma on didactic quality.

Tablets are being adopted as teaching medium in medical education more frequently. Here we compared two teaching formats in a radiology seminar using a tablet-based student-centred approach guided by teachers and traditional presentation-based, teacher-centred instruction. The aim was to investigate the effects on academic performance, estimated learning gain, didactic quality, as well as how teacher charisma and student digital affinity influence these elements. Data from 366 students were collected. Student digital affinity, didactic quality of, and overall satisfaction with the seminars were rated for each teaching format over three semesters, whereby in the last semester, students additionally estimated their learning gain, took a knowledge and image interpretation test, and rated teacher charisma. The tablet-based seminars yielded significantly higher ratings for didactic quality and overall satisfaction. However, the presentation-based seminars proved superior with respect to academic performance as well as estimated learning gain. When employing tablets, teacher charisma correlated with estimated learning gain, and digital affinity affected didactic quality. Additionally, good seminar organization, comprehensible learning objectives, and optimal variation of learning activities were identified as important factors. This study suggests a complex interplay of various factors concerning teachers, students, and didactics that can be assessed and improved to assure the successful curricular implementation of tablets. Of note, tablet integration and thereby active engagement of students with imaging analysis skills does not automatically result in greater declarative knowledge. Nevertheless, understanding the complexities of structuring and delivering tablet-based, teacher-guided instruction is essential to creating meaningful educational experiences.

Developing Resident Course Directors for MS4 Geriatric Psychiatry

<h3>Introduction</h3> Geriatric psychiatry interest among medical students and residents is waning. This poses an existential crisis to the field and to AAGP. Fresh creative teaching modalities are needed to re-invigorate and sustain learner interest in geriatric psychiatry. Fourth year medical student rotations are one space amenable to creativity and leadership development for residents interested in academic teaching careers. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to improve the Geriatric Psychiatry fourth year medical student rotation by introducing a PGY-2 resident with a passion for education and geriatric psychiatry as the "assistant course director". Our goal is to sustain resident enthusiasm for geriatric psychiatry and to inspire students to consider careers in geriatrics. <h3>Methods</h3> We identified a PGY-2 resident with a passion for education and geriatric psychiatry to review the MS4 Geriatric Psychiatry course with the course director. This resident was appointed assistant course director and mentored by senior education leadership. The assistant director identified faculty enthusiasm and diverse clinical sites as course strengths. They identified the following deficiencies and opportunities of improvement: poor course orientation materials, minimal inclusion of high interest reading material, no formal assessments of knowledge, and no student specific didactic instruction or case conferences. The assistant course director developed a formal orientation packet with goals and expectations, identified key readings for four weekly didactics with quizzes to assess knowledge and guide discussion, and developed pre- and post-course written exams to assess student knowledge. The resident coordinated student clinical rotation schedules between VA and university clinics and APS home visits. The success of these course quality improvements was measured using learner interviews and formal course and resident evaluations. <h3>Results</h3> Twelve students enrolled in the course. Pre- and Post-course test evaluations show improved and retained geriatric psychiatry medical knowledge. Qualitative feedback yields positive results in terms of overall clerkship organization, clinical experience, and quality of didactics. Students specifically appreciate didactics focused on neurocognitive assessment and clinical opportunities to implement the learned skills. The PGY-2 "assistant course director" reports an enhanced education portfolio and ongoing interest in a geriatric psychiatry academic career. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Mentoring resident interest through formal course directorship may be one path to enhance student interest in geriatrics and sustain resident interest in academic geriatric psychiatry. We observed improved medical knowledge and favorable rotation and resident evaluations. Resident-student learning may generate new enthusiasm for geriatric psychiatry while growing the academic skills of future geriatric psychiatrists. <h3>This research was funded by</h3> N/A

My face turned red, but it led me … nowhere. Notes on epistemically pointless embarrassment in ethnographic practice

The personal character of ethnography makes it meaningful to pay attention to emotions during fieldwork, not the least of which is awkwardness or embarrassment. To make a fool of oneself or to commit a faux pas in the field belongs to the palette of the ethnographic experience, and is often defined as helpful for obtaining new knowledge about the setting. But whereas many ethnographers emphasize the didactic quality of shameful mistakes, this article takes a closer look at instances which proved to be epistemically pointless. By analysing five different instances of embarrassment during fieldwork, the author argues that not all situations in which ethnographers do the ‘wrong’ thing lead somewhere. Embarrassment may present itself in more prosaic manners, stemming from the ethnographer being relatively uninformed, incompetent or out of place, and they need not enrich field knowledge. Attending to such instances may help us further understand and discuss the conditions of ethnographic practice.

Wizer.me – organizational tool for interaction in the education system

The article considers a program that will help teachers in the process of traditional and distance learning based on didactic ideas, quality education and innovative thinking. In the field of education, it is important not only to provide ready-made materials and valuable resources, but also to present them in visual aids so that the student can quickly understand them. The fundamental issues in the development of new curricula are the strengthening of practice-oriented work through the implementation of a systematic activity approach, the development of functional literacy of students, the systematization of the content of the discipline by redistributing educational material by education levels and strengthening interdisciplinary integration. In the proposed article, in the traditional and remote geographical educational process, the section "Physical Geography" is used for the purpose of mastering and repeating in Wizer.me the ways of using the digital platform and the ways of building a system of tasks are given. The effectiveness of work on the assessment and reflection of the sequence of tasks proposed to students, feedback is revealed. The main feature of this platform is an accessible, user-friendly, multicomponent sequence of tasks that includes functions at all stages of the lesson (brainstorming, in order to consolidate the topic, summing up and feedback).

Teaching Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Postgraduate Health Care Professionals in Times of COVID 19 - An Asynchronous Blended Learning Environment Proved to Be Non-inferior to In-Person Training.

Training of postgraduate health professionals on their way to becoming licensed therapists for Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) came to a halt in Germany in March 2020 when social distancing regulations came into effect. Since the German healthcare system almost exclusively relies on this profession when it comes to the implementation of CBT and 80% of those therapists active in 2010 will have retired at the end of 2030, it is critical to assess whether online CBT training is as satisfactory as classroom on-site CBT training. An asynchronous, blended, inverted-classroom online learning environment for CBT training (CBT for psychosis) was developed as an emergency solution. It consisted of pre-recorded CBT video lectures, exercises to train interventions in online role-plays, and regular web conferences. Training was provided at five different training institutes in Germany (duration 8–16 h). Postgraduate health care professionals (psychiatrists and psychologists) (n = 43) who received the online CBT training filled out standard self-report evaluations that assessed satisfaction and didactic quality. These evaluations were compared to those evaluations of students (n = 142) who had received in-person CBT training with identical content offered by the same CBT trainer at the same training institutes before the COVID-19 crisis. Both groups were comparable with respect to interest in the subject and prior knowledge. We tested non-inferiority hypotheses using Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney ROC-curve analyses with an equivalence margin corresponding to a small-to-medium effect size (d = 0.35). The online training evaluations were non-inferior concerning information content, conception of content, didactic presentation, assessment of the trainer as a suitable role-model, working atmosphere, own commitment, and practical relevance. In contrast, we could not exclude a small effect in favor of in-person training in professional benefit and room for active participation. Our results suggest that delivering substantial CBT knowledge online to postgraduate health-professionals is sufficient, and at most incurs minimal loss to the learning experience. These encouraging findings indicate that integrating online elements in CBT teaching is an acceptable option even beyond social distancing requirements.

From blended to online due to the COVID outbreak: the case study of a data science course

ABSTRACT Different approaches exist in delivering courses. The traditional face-to-face, the blended approach that combines the strengths of face-to-face with the application of technologies, and the online approach, which is the form of learning that takes place over the Internet. This article reports on the impact of the forced transformation of a data science course, previously provided through a blended approach, into a fully online course, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The impact is reported in terms of the effort required by the teacher, the students’ feedback and the didactic outcomes. The students’ feedback and the didactic outcomes were compared with the students of the 2018/2019 academic year and between students directly involved or not in the management of the outbreak. The results show an increase in the perceived didactic quality, in the engagement and in the didactic outcomes (only the latter not statistically significant). Also, a specific tool used for the blended approach was very much appreciated by the students and we collected useful feedback for its improvement. The paper ends by summarising the main results, also discussed with colleagues, in order to consider our results alongside other experiences.

Commenting on Culture-Bound Elements in Fiction: Overcoming Social and Political Bias in M. Bulgakov’s “A Dog’s Heart”

This paper is focused on the analysis of translator’s notes and commentary, represented by meta- and paratexts, as an integral part of translation process. These are essential to help the foreign reader overcome the cultural bias in general, guiding them through its intricate culture-bound elements, and the space and temporal distance separating them from the source text, in particular. Our source text is M. Bulgakov’s satirical novella “A Dog’s Heart” (translated also as “A Heart of a Dog”) written at the very beginning of the Soviet social project. As no piece of satire can be fully grasped - neither in source nor in target language - without making sense of the social conflict described in it, we view comprehension and explanation as the basis for cognition; they constitute two main working procedures of our approach. This means that our attention is focused on the way culture-bound words relating to the facts of social and political life appearing in this tale are conveyed in translations and interpreted in meta- and paratexts. So, author’s in-tention is deemed crucial in text interpretation. And the unity of explanation and understanding is considered to be the basis of academic knowledge To establish what metatext relating to Bulgakov’s story should be like in accordance with an academic approach, we’ve attempted to identify the presuppositions necessary for its adequate perception by the readership. To this end, we have studied the following metatexts: 1) J. Meek’s Introduction to Bromfield’s translation; 2) Bromfield’s A Note on the Text to his own translation (pub. by Penguin Books, 2007); 3) Introduction to M. Glenny’s translation by the Ukrainian writer A. Kurkov (pub. by Vintage Books, 2009); 4) Note by M. P. V. Salgado to the translation by A. Bouis (pub. by KARO, 2020). We also added our brief research-informed notes to some concepts of the novella English versions made by: M. Ginsburg (pub. by New-York Grove Press with no preface provided), Glenny, Bromfield and Bouis. Our major conclusion is that commenting on the translation should become more text-oriented to enhance its academic and didactic quality. More importantly, the paper is to exemplify the kind of methodology that should underlie the research leading to creation of helpful translator’s notes. Pertinent academic notes should help foreign reader to understand his or her bias and to discover the relevant cultural background of the text without which it would seem commonplace and unremarkable.