In-person Experience Research Articles

Lessons Learned From Pandemic-Driven Remote Learning and Sustaining Best Practices in Turbomachinery Laboratory Experiences

Abstract As online educational experiences have become more common for students to engage with while earning an engineering degree, instructors must become more attuned to best practices in digital pedagogies for all courses, including those with heavy laboratory components. Despite potential resistance among faculty to the idea that a laboratory course does not require an in-person experience, pandemic-driven remote learning serves as an intrinsic data point in how, under dire circumstances, laboratory courses could be offered through a digital medium. This paper describes a collaborative autoethnography of four mechanical and aerospace engineering instructors regarding lessons learned while teaching laboratory courses online during the COVID-19 pandemic. To bolster the quality of the research design, an engineering education researcher facilitated the collaborative autoethnography and co-constructed the individual instructor narratives to elicit best practices in online pedagogy for turbomachinery educators.

Empowering Accessibility: A Case Study on Trader Joe's Website Interaction Framework for the Visually Impaired

Individuals with visual impairments have significant challenges in obtaining the essential knowledge necessary for making dietary choices in today's consumer market. Assistive technology is a vital tool for enhancing the daily lives of individuals with disabilities. An important area of research related to expected restrictions on diets, such as "kosher," "gluten-free," "vegan", etc., should be explored. Like many grocery stores, Trader Joe's aims to make their in-person experience accessible to all customers, including those with disabilities. Their efforts might include store layout designs that are navigable for people with visual impairments, training staff to aid, and possibly incorporating technology or tools that enhance shopping accessibility. Our study designed and implemented an automated packaging system for Braille users to assist them in the data visualisation by using a set of pre-determined parameters that are both definite and sensory on a collection of macro-level products. Here, we design a tool that generates the visual/label for each item based on its input data. The design will give an at-a-glance visual or user journey of the entire collection, which can be interactive and printed.

Telehealth access and experiences of older adults with HIV during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons for the future.

Telehealth services are proposed to improve access and retention to care for people with HIV (PWH). Yet the rapid uptake of telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic created equity concerns, especially for already vulnerable populations. Older PWH may face a combination of barriers to telehealth but also stand to benefit given social isolation and the need for multimorbidity management. Few studies have focused on this population, and we aimed to assess the telehealth capability and experiences of older PWH at an urban HIV clinic. We did this in two ways: (1) we contacted PWH aged ≥65 via telephone about telehealth capabilities and (2) we conducted focus groups with older PWH who transitioned from in-person to virtual classes affiliated with the clinic. Among 179 PWH aged ≥65, 80 answered the telehealth questions. Among those who answered, 91% were male with a mean age of 69 (SD 3.0), and 55% were White. One-third did not have internet access or an email address. A total of 65% had at least one telehealth-capable device but 12.5% of respondents with a device did not know how to use it. Thirteen older PWH participated in focus groups with a mean age of 64 (SD 6.9) and 44% female. Themes were grouped into benefits (social/emotional connection and convenience) and challenges (technological barriers and missed in-person experience). Participants preferred in-person classes but felt telehealth was a good alternative for mitigating isolation. Telehealth gave those with mobility and transportation issues improved access to supportive services. As the COVID-19 public health emergency ends, hybrid options should be considered to improve access for older PWH and address social isolation. Ensuring equitable access to devices and digital literacy training will be critical to ensure services can be utilized.

A level playing field? Evaluation of the virtual Objective Structured Clinical Examination in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine: A mixed methods study.

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has been used for clinical assessment of a broad range of medical student competencies in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. However, there has been little research into online assessments. We investigated the virtual OSCE (v-OSCE) from the user perspective to better understand its acceptability, usefulness, benefits, challenges and potential improvements. At the conclusion of the v-OSCE, all participants (medical students, examiners and simulated patients) were invited to participate in a brief online survey, based on the Technology and Acceptance Model. Freeform qualitative feedback was also obtained to explore participants' experiences and attitudes. Participants reported the v-OSCE was acceptable, efficient, convenient and easy to use. It was perceived as useful for demonstrating students' interviewing skills and interacting with the simulated patient. Benefits included greater convenience, reduced stress and travel time. Challenges were similar to those experienced in 'real world' telepsychiatry, primarily related to assessment of non-verbal cues and emotional prosody. Our findings inform recommendations for improving online examinations. These include increased preparation, practice and professionalism, to better simulate the in-person experience. Study credibility was strengthened by the triangulation of qualitative, quantitative and psychometric data.

Be sensei, my friend: Aikido training with a remotely controlled proxy trainer

Contact sports such as Aikido are preferred to be trained in person with an experienced trainer, as the attempts of remote training before and during the COVID-19 pandemic failed to reproduce the quality of the in-person training benefiting from the trainer’s physically present body. To address this issue of replicating in-person experience remotely, we proposed “Sensei possession,” an xReality-based training method for contact sports in which the trainer remotely guides a person who performs the physical interaction with the trainee on behalf of the real trainer in real-time. In this study, to test the effectiveness of “Sensei possession” on training performance and examine the concerns about its possible side effects on motivation, we conducted a between-participants experiment with an Aikido training task [N = 10 pairs (20 people)]. We compared the groups with or without live feedback on the proxy trainers under our hypothesis that live feedback would enhance trainees’ performance gain. As a result, the trainees in the group with live feedback on proxy trainers had more performance gain than those without live feedback, and no indication of negative effects on motivation was shown. We discussed our results concerning the previous research on micro-adaptive training and reported technical insights to improve the design of Sensei possession further.

Comparison of on-campus and virtual self-assessment outcomes for incoming Appalachian STEM undergraduates’ first research experience

The First2 Network is an alliance of higher education institutions across the State of West Virginia striving to improve science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) education by supporting rural, first-generation, and underrepresented college students pursuing STEM majors. Over the summers of 2019 and 2020, the First2 Network delivered two-week summer research immersion experiences at various institutions throughout West Virginia. The 2019 program was delivered on-campus at four universities while the 2020 program was delivered virtually, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, across nine sites. Before and after the immersion experience, students who participated in the program completed a variety of survey questionnaires for the assessment of their interests, expectations, identity and belonging in STEM. We found that the in-person experience in 2019 had better outcomes compared to the virtual experience, suggesting students conducting research directly under their faculty supervisors in-person and on-site will have a more positive impact on their STEM education and career. However, participation in the virtual format still resulted in an improvement in belonging and STEM identity, indicating that connecting with students remotely is still worthwhile when it is the most viable option. The student population in Appalachia faces a number of academic barriers, so there is much to gain by finding new ways to reach as many students as possible with early career development programs.

Patient and caregiver perceptions of the possibility of home blood transfusions.

Patients with hematologic malignancies (HM) often develop transfusion dependence. The patient and caregiver burdens associated with the need for frequent transfusions are high. Home blood transfusions has the potential to reduce these burdens, but is not widely practiced in the United States. We designed a qualitative study to evaluate the patient and caregiver perceptions of the potential for a home blood transfusion program. Eligible patients included Adult (≥18 years) patients who were English speaking and met the definition for transfusion dependence within 3 months of study enrollment. We identified and interviewed eligible participants (patients and caregivers), using a semi-structured interview guide to elicit patient perceptions of the acceptability, barriers, and benefits related to home blood product transfusions. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Results were imported into NVivo 12 (version 12; QSR International, Burlington, VT) for coding and analysis. We recruited participants until we reached thematic saturation, which occurred at 29 participants (20 patients, 9 caregivers). Among the 20 patient participants, nine had MDS (45%) and 11 had acute leukemia (55%). Most of the patients (60%) reported getting one transfusion per week. Four themes emerged when the participants discussed their perception regarding the potential of a home blood transfusion program: (1) current in-person experience, (2) caregiver burden, (3) perceptions of home blood transfusions, and (4) interest in participating in a home blood transfusion program. The concept of home blood transfusions was well received and further research to study its implementation is warranted.

Virtual student-led neuroscience conferencing: a UK multicentre prospective study investigating delegate outcomes and delivery mode

BackgroundClinical neuroscience training programmes are becoming increasingly competitive to enter. UK university neuroscience societies act as a local environment for students to develop their career interests and provide portfolio building opportunities through hosting events such as annual conferences. Recently there has been a transition to more of these events being held online yet the impact of this, if any, remains unclear. This prospective study aimed to identify the impact of student-led neuroscience conferences on delegates and examine attitudes towards an online delivery approach.MethodsMulti-centre prospective survey study using pre-conference, post-conference, and 6-month post-conference online questionnaires distributed at 6 virtual student-led neuroscience conferences in 2021. The questionnaires had five-domains: demographics, career aspirations, academic skillsets, an educational manipulation check (EMC) and mode of delivery preference.ResultsNine hundred twenty-four surveys were completed across 559 conference attendances. 79.9% of delegates were medical students. Interest in a neuroscience career (p < 0.001), preparedness to undertake research (p < 0.001) and presentation (p < 0.001), as well as EMC scores (p < 0.001) increased immediately post conference. Most participants at 6 months post-attendance had completed an academic project (71.9%) or presentation (50.9%), although 88.8% were lost to follow up. Online format was preferred (65%) with reasons including elimination of travel and access to home facilities whilst lack of face-to-face interaction and engagement were recognised limitations.ConclusionUK student-led online neuroscience conferences play a role in developing knowledge and may facilitate career interest, academic skillset and longer term portfolio building. A hybrid virtual and in-person experience would offer an ideal solution to future conferencing, providing options promoting engagement and interactivity whilst advocating sustainability, accessibility and widening participation.

Extended Window Thrombolytics for Ischemic Stroke: A Telestroke versus In-person Experience.

Telestroke evaluation of patients with acute ischemic stroke is supported by American Heart and Stroke Association Guidelines. However, there is no data on outcomes or safety of administering IV thrombolytic stroke therapy using extended window criteria (>4.5h since onset of symptoms with a hyperacute MRI diffusion T2/FLAIR mismatch) via telestroke. Here, we report adverse events and outcomes of extended-window thrombolysis by telestroke vs in-person care. We performed a retrospective cohort review from 2020 to 2022 of prospectively collected multinstitutional databases from a large, not-for-profit health system with both in-person stroke and telestroke care. The primary outcome was frequency of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH). Secondary outcomes were favorable functional outcome at hospital discharge (modified Rankin Scale, mRS, 0-3) and discharge disposition. A total of 33 patients were treated with extended-window thrombolysis (n = 20 in-person, n = 13 telestroke). The median NIH stroke scale was 6, and time since last known normal was similar (median [95% CI]: in-person 13h [11-15h] vs telestroke 12h [9-16h], P = .33). The sICH frequency was low and occurred in one patient (4.8% in-person vs 0% by telestroke). Favorable outcome at discharge was not different between in-person and telestroke care (median mRS [95% CI]: 2 [1-3] vs 1 [0-2], OR .0 [.0-1.8], P = .27), and discharge deposition was also similar. In patients eligible for extended window acute stroke treatment with thrombolytics, there was no difference in adverse events between telestroke and in-person care.

Prospective Physician Assistant Student Perspectives on an In-Person vs. Virtual Admissions Interview Process.

The pandemic strained many usual methods of communication and training, forcing changes to selection processes for health professions programs. The purpose of this study was to determine, through interviewee feedback, the effectiveness of a virtual interview process when compared with a previous in-person interview process at one physician assistant (PA) program. During the pandemic, the PA program adapted to a virtual holistic interview process to include interaction with current students and faculty. The effectiveness of the virtual platform was measured comparatively using the program's existing interviewee evaluation format for previous in-person experiences. Prepandemic data showed high ratings from interviewees regarding the interview process. Intrapandemic data suggest an interview process can be duplicated in a virtual format without compromising experience and goals of the program. Through virtual interviews during a pandemic, the PA program mirrored the effectiveness of their previous in-person experience.

The importance of the English language for the early Engels–a comparison between Engels’ and Marx’s research on English political economic literature before their collaboration

ABSTRACT The current research on Engels’ and Marx’s early economic studies often neglects the language and geographical differences between Engels and Marx which directly lead to the disparity between them in political economy. This study, based on MEGA2 , finds that before the collaboration with Marx, Engels, with his proficiency in English, studied plenty of first-hand English literature on political economy while having in-person experience and doing field investigation in Britain which most German intellectuals of the same period such as Marx lacked. With access to the newly published English literature, Engels transformed his literature advantage into a theoretical edge and formulated his original ideas. Yet Marx in German states and Austrian Empire mainly studied French translations of limited English literature on political economy, although presenting critical insights. Engels’ advantage is that he proposed many ideas that would become the basis of Marxian political economy, some of which had not yet been explored by Marx but were later affirmed by Marx.

Music and Sound in Toyama City Up-close and from Afar: A Close Reading of Online Materials Informed by In-person Experience

Music and Sound in Toyama City Up-close and from Afar: A Close Reading of Online Materials Informed by In-person Experience

JU Open Plus: American Urological Association Annual Meeting 2023: Time With Our Science and the Mentors that Make It Happen

JU Open Plus: American Urological Association Annual Meeting 2023: Time With Our Science and the Mentors that Make It Happen

Healthcare Providers' Experience Using Telehealth During the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Predominantly Rural Patient Base: An Online Survey.

COVID-19 led to the rapid adoption of telemedicine with a significant spike in the literature concerning the patients' perspective of its use. The providers' perspective has been less well studied. Med Center Health is a healthcare network that provides services in 10 southern Kentucky counties that are home to over 300,000 people with approximately 61% of this population living in areas defined as rural. The goal of this article was to compare the experience of providers serving a predominantly rural population to their patients and compare the experience of providers between each other based on the obtained demographic data. An online electronic survey was developed and sent out from July 13th, 2020 to July 27th, 2020 for completion to the 176 physicians of the Med Center Health Physician group. The survey gathered basic demographic information, telemedicine use during COVID-19, and perceptions of telemedicine use during and the role of telemedicine after COVID-19. Perceptions of telemedicine were gauged using Likert and Likert-style questions. Cardiology provider responses were compared to the previously published patient responses. Differences between providers were also analyzed based on the demographic data obtained. Fifty-eight providers responded to the survey with nine providers indicating that they did not use telemedicine during COVID-19. Significant differences between eight cardiologists' and cardiology patients' perceptions of telemedicine visits were seen for internet connectivity (p <0.001), privacy (p = 0.01), and clinical exam (p < 0.001) with cardiologists ranking these as more concerning or worse in all instances. These results continued when comparing perceptions of patients' in-person experience and providers' perception of telemedicine visits with significant differences observed with clinical exam (p < 0.001), communication (p =0.048), and overall experience (p = 0.02). No statistically significant differences were seen between cardiologists and other providers. Providers who indicated more than 10 years of practice rated their experience with telemedicine significantly lower in the domains of effective communication (p = 0.004), level of care provided (p = 0.02), thoroughness of clinical exam (p = 0.047), patient comfort discussing concerns (p = 0.04), and overall experience (p = 0.048). Despite this, only three providers indicated that they would not use telemedicine post-pandemic with a majority indicating that they would feel comfortable using telemedicine for follow-up visits and medication refill visits. This is the first study to our knowledge to compare patient and provider satisfaction concerning telemedicine across a wide array of topics using Likert-style and Likert scale questions and the first to investigate the perception of providers who serve a predominantly rural patient base during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar results have been found in a few previous studies concerning telemedicine being less favorably rated by more experienced providers. Further studies need to be conducted to identify and correct the barriers that exist for providers and the adoption of telemedicine.

Negative impact of daily screen use on inhibitory control network in preadolescence: A two-year follow-up study

The COVID-19 pandemic has made an unprecedented shift in children’s daily lives. Children are increasingly spending time with screens to learn and connect with others. As the online environment rapidly substitutes in-person experience, understanding children’s neuropsychological trajectories associated with screen experiences is important. Previous findings suggest that excessive screen use can lead children to prefer more immediate rewards over delayed outcomes. We hypothesized that increased screen time delays a child’s development of inhibitory control system in the brain (i.e., fronto-striatal circuitry). By analyzing neuropsychological data from 8324 children (9–11ys) from the ABCD Study, we found that children who had more screen time showed a higher reward orientation and weaker fronto-striatal connectivity. Importantly, we found that the daily screen exposure mediated the effect of reward sensitivity on the development of the inhibitory control system in the brain over a two year period. These findings suggest possible negative long-term impacts of increased daily screen time on children’s neuropsychological development. The results further demonstrated that screen time influences dorsal striatum connectivity, which suggests that the effect of daily screen use is a habitual seeking behavior. The study provides neural and behavioral evidence for the negative impact of daily screen use on developing children.

Virtual LIS practicums: Student and supervisor experiences during COVID-19, part 1

Pre-professional fieldwork helps graduates pursue specialized library careers, addressing the well-documented experience barrier that many graduates lack. Because COVID-19 required remote learning, virtual practicums may continue, offering LIS graduates the chance to learn from experts and develop skills beyond traditional LIS curriculum. Virtual practicum benefits have been addressed in previous literature, but student perspectives are not usually included. In this two-part series, the student and supervisor describe challenges with their virtual practicum experience so others may replicate similar experiences. Part 1 will set the stage for the structure of the practicum, introducing background information about participating institutions, preparation for the experience, student learning objectives, and reporting for course credit. The host institution and practicum site agreed to modify the existing in-person experience into a virtual format because of COVID-19. The virtual activities aligned with the student-defined learning objectives. Structure was essential to the success of this virtual practicum. Expectations were established early on about workload, communication, file management software, and designated virtual meeting spaces. Others who seek to replicate a similar experience may use part 1 of this series as a template for designing a virtual practicum. Part 2 will reflect on the student and supervisor’s experiences and lessons learned. The following two appendices are available as supplementary files from the link in the right sidebar: - Appendix One: Practicum Guidelines - Appendix Two: Database Discovery – Health Science

Bringing Face-to-Face Engagement to Online Classes

The trend to shift courses online is accelerating. Some students are gravitating toward asynchronous online classes; however, many still prefer in-person educational experiences. These students often are less engaged when taking online courses, and their willingness to pay for online courses is frequently less than for in-person courses. There is a need to bridge the gaps between online and traditional class delivery formats. This paper reports on a high-presence online teaching method that approximates the in-person experience by affording face-to-face conversations, real-time interaction, and features the instructor placed front-and-center with the lecture material. The paper reports a case study test of this method as applied to a graduate process reengineering course. Students in the course report that the method provides better student-instructor interaction and overall engagement than they expect from in-person classes. Students also report that the method approximates what they expect from in-person courses regarding the quality of interactions they have with their classmates.

Small groups satisfy: A descriptive analysis of engagement in virtual learning

Background: Due to COVID-19 restrictions, students participated in a virtual Summer Leadership Program (SLP), consisting of small group discussions and large lectures, instead of a more traditional in-person experience. The purpose of this paper was to assess what forms of virtual learning students found most engaging during their summer leadership training. Methods: Students were surveyed prior to and after the SLP. The pre-survey included seven Likert-scale questions and one free response question (Google form survey open from 7/14/20-7/16/20). The post-survey included 24 Likert-scale questions and four open-answer questions (Google form survey open from 7/23/20-7/24/20). Both surveys were administered to all first year students at Uniformed Services University (N=176). There were 158 responses for the pre-SLP survey and 123 responses for the post-SLP survey. Topics focused on expectations, engagement, self-assessment, and areas for improvement. Results: Survey results showed that students were most engaged with small group sessions where they were asked to apply their knowledge and skills. Students felt less engaged in large lectures. Conclusion: In the virtual environment, students are more engaged in small group settings where they are asked to apply their knowledge and skills. This information can be used to plan sessions within the virtual environment to garner increased engagement from students.

Il Cinema Ritrovato 2022

FQ contributing editor Carla Marcantonio returns to Il Cinema Ritrovato, the festival dedicated to the rediscovery of old films organized every summer by the Cineteca di Bologna. This year’s edition marked the first time its audience of international cinephiles reassembled for a wholly in-person experience since the onset of the COVID pandemic. With a total of close to four hundred films and thirty-five to forty screenings a day, the festival offers a unique encounter with film history.

Home-based laboratory experiences during COVID-19 pandemic in undergraduate biochemistry students

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) pointed out new challenges to teaching in laboratory-based disciplines, such as chemistry, biology, and biochemistry with on-site practical sessions interrupted or suspended during 2020 and 2021. Observation and experimentation are part of education in science-based disciplines and provide necessary skills for professional and academic careers. In an effort to solve this disruption to experimental observations, we designed a set of home-based experiences related to chemistry and biochemistry. These included visual identification of lipids, sugars, proteins, and DNA in biological samples using materials easily found at home, such as alcohol, soap, and oil, among others. Each activity was documented with smartphones and discussed in a final portfolio. Fifty-two students were part of an introductory cell biochemistry course. The home-based laboratories were organized into 2.5-h sessions that included a lab session, a post lab session, and a period for preparing the experiment at home. Thirty-six (17 men and 19 women) students answered a survey designed to assess three major domains: (1) student’s demographics and home environment, (2) general perceptions of the laboratory activities, and (3) specific perceptions of each laboratory activity. Sixty two percent of the students thought that these activities helped them to understand how to isolate and identify macromolecules. Eleven percent said these home activities did not contribute to their understanding while 27% stated the activities were not significant for the topic. We conclude that, although the addition of in-house experiments provides a complementary tool for understanding the main concepts in biochemistry along with improving skills in scientific thinking, this should be accompanied by a good feedback mechanism from the instructors. In addition, student to student interaction should be part of the at home activities to increase student motivation. A Flipped laboratory methodology plus tools where metacognition is evaluated, appear to be appropriate to promote the understanding of concepts in the context of the laboratory. And although some aspects of the experimental experience can be substitute with online resources and in home experiences, others can only be achieved by the in-person experience.