On-site Course Research Articles

Police Leadership Education: Digital Didactics, Perceived Learning and Perceived Increased Competence as Police Leaders

Police leadership is an essential part of policing, as is the education of police leaders. Our study responds to the call for research on how to transform police leadership education into practice. In this longitudinal mixed-methods single case study we investigate two research questions: 1) How do the digital didactics of the digital police leadership course contribute to students’ perceived learning? 2) How are the knowledge and skills acquired in the digital police leadership course perceived to be applied 1.5 years after course completion? We collected data from students enrolled in a 12-week course. This course offered 24 students a two-day on-site course introduction, while the rest of the course was taught online. Data was collected through five surveys and follow-up interviews with six participants. The results show that police leaders perceived increased competence in being a police leader, report enhanced ability to bridge theory and practice, and improved their digital skills. They also reported increased confidence in the leadership role and increased sharing of competence after study completion. The findings suggest that digital didactics may achieve embedded police education as it can provide an interplay of individual and organizational factors.

VE83 On-site course for augmented reality in partial nephrectomy

VE83 On-site course for augmented reality in partial nephrectomy

Online courses for adults: do they replace or supplement on-site courses?

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic led to a marked increase in the number of online courses in adult education. However, such courses are viewed ambivalently because, on one hand, they are associated with digitalisation processes and an increased accessibility, reach, and flexibility of learning opportunities, whereas, on the other hand, there are concerns about acceptance issues and participation barriers. Given this context, the present study examines whether new online courses for adults have supplemented or replaced existing on-site courses by conducting a program analysis of online courses at public adult education centres (Volkshochschulen, VHS) in Germany. VHS are the largest providers of adult education in the country. A comparison of programs from the years 2018, 2019 (pre-pandemic), and 2024 (post-pandemic) shows that most online courses supplement the existing program, and that the content of approximately every second online course can also be learned on-site at the educational centre. In contrast, 29 per cent of online courses have replaced an earlier on-site course. Hybrid courses, which enable both online and offline learning, are rare. Results are discussed along with their implications for adult education centres and adult learners.

Utilizing programming traces to explore and model the dimensions of novices' code‐writing skill

AbstractStudies have found that most novice programmers have low proficiency in writing code. However, it is unclear what subskills compose code writing and which subskills novice programmers struggle with. This study utilizes programming traces to identify latent subskills that constitute code writing so that teachers can offer specific instruction on the weak subskills. Data were collected from an undergraduate course teaching introductory computer science in Java. Six hundred and fourteen students made submissions to homework programming questions in a web‐based learning system. Based on the submission traces, we computed 11 features related to correctness and time students spent on their submissions. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis on two‐thirds of students selected randomly and identified four factors. The first factor, code style proficiency, was mainly related to code style errors. The second, syntactic proficiency, concerned compiler errors. The third is semantic proficiency, which concerns runtime and logic errors. The fourth, syntactic debugging proficiency, concerned the success rate and time required for fixing compiler and code style errors. A confirmatory factor analysis conducted on the remaining one‐third of the data supported the four‐factor structure. The factor model showed measurement invariance between the data set where the model was developed and two new datasets, one from the same sample but collected at a different time point and another from a different sample and context (onsite course vs. online course). The factors were related to prior programming abilities, programming language familiarity, and future exam performance. These associations provided validity evidence for the factor model.

Teaching Medical Microbiology With a Web-Based Course During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Before-and-After Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed unprecedented hurdles on health care systems and medical faculties alike. Lecturers of practical courses at medical schools have been confronted with the challenge of transferring knowledge remotely. We sought to evaluate the effects of a web-based medical microbiology course on learning outcomes and student perceptions. During the summer term of 2020, medical students at Saarland University, Germany, participated in a web-based medical microbiology course. Teaching content comprised clinical scenarios, theoretical knowledge, and instructive videos on microbiological techniques. Test performance, failure rate, and student evaluations, which included open-response items, for the web-based course were compared to those of the on-site course from the summer term of 2019. Student performance was comparable between both the online-only group and the on-site comparator for both the written exam (n=100 and n=131, respectively; average grade: mean 7.6, SD 1.7 vs mean 7.3, SD 1.8; P=.20) and the oral exam (n=86 and n=139, respectively; average grade: mean 33.6, SD 4.9 vs mean 33.4, SD 4.8; P=.78). Failure rate did not significantly differ between the online-only group and the comparator group (2/84, 2.4% vs 4/120, 3.3%). While lecturer expertise was rated similarly as high by students in both groups (mean 1.47, SD 0.62 vs mean 1.27, SD 0.55; P=.08), students who took the web-based course provided lower scores for interdisciplinarity (mean 1.7, SD 0.73 vs mean 2.53, SD 1.19; P<.001), opportunities for interaction (mean 1.46, SD 0.67 vs mean 2.91, SD 1.03; P<.001), and the extent to which the educational objectives were defined (mean 1.61, SD 0.76 vs mean 3.41, SD 0.95; P<.001). Main critiques formulated within the open-response items concerned organizational deficits. Web-based courses in medical microbiology are a feasible teaching option, especially in the setting of a pandemic, leading to similar test performances in comparison to on-site courses. The lack of interaction and the sustainability of acquired manual skills warrant further research.

Penguatan Metode Computational Thinking untuk Guru Madrasah dalam Rangka Meningkatkan Minat Belajar Siswa Pasca Pandemi Covid-19

Madrasah teachers are currently considered to have lower cognitive competence when compared to formal school teachers in general, although this statement is not entirely correct. Researchers have conducted computational thinking training in several madrasa of Central Java Provinces, like MIN 1 Kendal, MTs N 1 Jepara, and MAN 1 Grobogan. Computational Thinking (CT) involves problem solving and system design by breaking it down into several stages that are effective, efficient, and comprehensive, including decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms which are some of the basic concepts of computer science. The purpose of this study is the implementation of CT by madrasa’ teachers on each lesson to students in order to increase student learning interest. The research method used is blended learning which is a combination of an online course (introduction to Bebras Indonesia and CT) and an onsite course (training on CT and implementation of CT to students). The results showed that there was an increase in the average score of the trainees between the pre-test and post-test of the teachers at MIN 1 Kendal, MTs N 1 Jepara, and MAN 1 Grobogan i.e. 70.23%, 70.01% and 80. 64%, respectively. Furthermore, student testimonials after the implementation of CT in subjects taught by the majority of teachers at 66.79% filled in very interesting so that CT learning was very effective in increasing student learning interest in madrasah.

Onlinization of a simulation course that includes minor emergency procedures.

We attempted to convert a simulation course held on-site for primary care physicians to learn about the initial treatment of minor emergencies, including some common surgical procedures, to an online format. We reviewed the subjects covered in the course and evaluated whether it was "decision-making" or "technical skills" that had been primarily taught as simulation-based training for each subject, and then supplemented the contents accordingly. As a result, satisfaction levels with the online course were comparable to those with the on-site course as measured by a postcourse questionnaire (97.6% [83/85 participants] rating it as "excellent" or "good" on a 5-point Likert scale postcourse questionnaire). We showed that it is reasonable to offer simulation in place of in-person training even for some procedures that were once assumed to be difficult to teach online. Of note, the online course is not just a replacement for the on-site course; it can offer other benefits, including opportunities for those who have difficulty attending courses due to distance or work-related reasons. After the COVID-19 pandemic period, both onsite and online courses can be held, allowing participants to choose the style of course that best suits their situation.

Virtual auscultation course via video chat in times of COVID-19 improves cardiac auscultation skills compared to literature self-study in third-year medical students: a prospective randomized controlled cross-over study

Background: Cardiac auscultation is a core clinical skill taught in medical school. Due to contact restrictions during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, interaction with patients was very limited. Therefore, a peer-to-peer virtual case-based auscultation course via video conference was established.Methods: A randomized controlled cross-over study was conducted to evaluate whether participation in a virtual auscultation course could improve heart auscultation skills in 3rd-year medical students. A total of sixty medical students were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group after informed consent was obtained. Due to no-shows, 55 students participated. Depending on allocation, students attended three ninety-minute courses in intervals of one week in a different order: a virtual case-based auscultation course held via video chat, literature self-study, and an on-site course using a high-fidelity auscultation simulator (SAM II). The study's primary endpoint was the performance of the two groups at the simulator after participating in the virtual auscultation course or literature self-study. To evaluate their auscultation skills, students participated in five assessments using the same six pathologies: stenosis and regurgitation of the aortic and mitral valve, ventricular septal defect, and patent ductus arteriosus. Moreover, participants rated their satisfaction with each course and provided a self-assessment of competence.Results: Compared to literature self-study, participation in the virtual auscultation course led to a significantly improved description of heart murmurs at the auscultation simulator with regard to the presence in systole and diastole, low- and high-pitched sounds, and volume dynamics. There was no significant difference between the groups in diagnostic accuracy and identification of the point of maximal intensity. After the virtual course, students showed higher satisfaction rates and a higher increase in self-assessed competence compared to participants who engaged in literature self-study.Conclusions: For the first time, this study demonstrates that a case-based virtual auscultation course can improve aspects of cardiac auscultation skills on a simulator. This may facilitate the further acquisition of an essential clinical skill, even when contact restrictions will be lifted.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Future of Nursing Education.

Nursing is the largest health profession, with nearly 4 million providers practicing across acute, primary, and public health care settings. In response to the pandemic, nursing schools halted on-site course delivery and redesigned programs to attenuate risks to students and faculty. Key challenges faced by schools included financial cutbacks, rapid increases in online learning technology, maintaining student academic progression, disruption to clinical learning opportunities, and meeting accreditation standards, while addressing the stress and loss experienced by faculty, staff, and students. Despite challenges, nursing organizations provided guidance for decision making, new learning resources, and faculty development opportunities. Schools of nursing leveraged their resources to redesign nursing curricula, strengthen partnerships for student clinical experiences, and address needs of the community.Nursing education will look different from its prepandemic profile in the future. Lessons learned during the pandemic point to gaps in nursing education, particularly related to disaster and public health preparedness, health equity, and technology. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s new Essentials—standards for professional nursing education—were finalized during the pandemic and reflect these lessons. The need for nurse scientists to conduct emergency response research was made evident. The importance of strong academic–practice partnerships was highlighted for rapid communication, flexibility, and responses to dynamic environments. For the future, nursing education and practice must collaborate to ensure that students and practicing nurses are prepared to address emergencies and pandemics, as well as the needs of vulnerable populations.

As Similar As Possible, As Different As Necessary - On-Site Laboratory Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Most of the available information on studying under the challenging conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes a variety of aspects on how to digitalize the whole teaching process. Thus, several useful and potentially game-changing strategies have been reported recently. In contrast to the digitalization of teaching, in this article, we focus on the reverse process: transitioning back to offline teaching, which is unavoidable especially for the acquisition of practical skills during chemistry studies. In this work, we describe our own experience acquired during the Organic Chemistry practical course at the University of Vienna, which was held in June 2020 and onwards. The article contains descriptions of precautions and measures that were taken, additional materials, and necessary changes made in order to safely continue on-site course teaching. We anticipate that this set of precautions can be used in an adapted fashion for any type of laboratory course. Further, we offer a critical analysis of students’ and instructors’ opinions concerning the changes and well-being during the course. Those opinions were collected via a detailed survey. From our experience, with careful planning and responsible behavior, a return to on-site education is possible and warmly welcomed by all involved participants. The detailed description of our course may also be useful for those who need to start a new organic laboratory course or want to improve an existing one.

A virtual emergency: learning lessons from remote medical student education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancelation of traditional on-site clinical rotations for medical students across the country. Radiology educators have had to rapidly adapt to a new, virtual educational landscape. We describe our experience restructuring a Trauma and Emergency Radiology Elective to an online format and present survey data obtained from students who completed the course.MethodsThis elective is a 4-week course offered to third and fourth year medical students at a large Level 1 Trauma Center. Changes to the traditional rotation included assigning an increased number of self-study educational resources, independent review of unknown cases using a virtual workstation, and online interactive conferences. At the conclusion of each block, students were asked to complete post-course feedback surveys.ResultsThirteen students enrolled in this online course; 92% submitted post-course surveys. Students strongly agreed that the course was clinically relevant, with accessible, engaging material (average score, 4.92/5), and 91.7% of students were very likely to recommend this rotation to others. Students reported improved post-course confidence in ordering and interpreting imaging studies. A majority (60%) of students who had previously taken an on-site course would have preferred a course that combined traditional and online learning elements.ConclusionsThe success of our online rotation highlights the merits of self-directed learning and flipped-classroom techniques. Many of the principles incorporated into this course could be applied and/or modified to increase medical student engagement when students return to the hospital.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10140-020-01874-2.

Blended Collaborative Learning Supporting Pedagogy Students’ Reflective Practice

Educating the pedagogy students as teachers is one of the main aims of the Department of Education and Social Work Sciences, University of Patras, Greece. Teachers in Reflective Practice is a compulsory module; groups of 20 students are obliged to shadow teachers at the schools for reflective practice, active engagement in the educational activities and teachers’ shadowing, reflective meetings with the tutors and students’ final assignments. The aim of the intervention was to advance and modernize the module with new pedagogical methods and associated tools widely available to the tutors and the students. Following the literature review and the current trends in university students’ education, collaborative and flipped classroom learning supported by both an online course and an onsite course was decided to be implemented in addition to their involvement in the school. The research design and methods followed mixed-methods research design for validation and generalization. As such, the findings derived from an online questionnaire, the eClass logs, a focus group discussion, and tutors’ observation notes are presented and discussed. It appears that reflective engagement and accelerated learning were evident; the online course and discussions were utilized for active engagement; lastly, digital literacy and more time in the classroom are needed for better results. As a result, the implications and best practices are extracted for similar reflective practice courses.

Teaching psychiatry to large groups in society

BackgroundThere is a need to educate a range of professionals in caring for individuals with long-term mental disability who reside within our communities. Empathy alone is insufficient. The Kognus 4-Step Education Program was developed to achieve this goal.MethodThe program consisted of independent courses, including an 18-session basic course on psychiatric disability (on-site or online), advanced courses, and highly specialized training programs (Nidotherapy/Peer Consultation). Experts lectured together with clients with psychiatric disabilities. We first report Swedish reforms in which institutionalized patients were relocated to semi-independent individual households. We then describe the design and implementation of the education program. Approximately 50% of participants who were younger than 36 years old lacked any healthcare education. The participants’ backgrounds, perceptions, participation in the education program, and costs are presented.ResultsBetween 2009 and 2014, 8959 participants attended the Kognus psychiatry courses online or on-site in Stockholm (basic on-site course, n = 2111; online course, n = 4480; advanced courses, n = 2322; highly specialized programs, n = 46). A total of 73% of the participants satisfactorily attended the basic sessions on-site compared with 11% of the online participants. The developers conducted the education program for the first 3 years. Thereafter, another course provider continued the program with other types of participants. The program was perceived to be equally interesting and meaningful to participants with low and high levels of education, demonstrating the generalizability of the program. The quality of the basic and advanced courses was rated as 4.4 and 4.3, respectively, on a 5-point Likert scale.ConclusionsPersonnel without appropriate education who work with people with psychiatric/intellectual disabilities can be educated in large numbers. The Kognus program represents a novel and successful way of training people who have no formal education about some essentials of good mental healthcare. Moreover, the model can be easily implemented elsewhere.

Reflect, Analyze, Act, Repeat: Creating Critical Consciousness through Critical Service-Learning at a Professional Development School

Universities engage students in traditional service-learning projects that often yield “good feelings”, even a savior mentality, but typically leave the root causes of social justice issues unexamined and untouched. In contrast to traditional service-learning, critical service-learning bridges this gap with an explicit focus on justice and equity, situating scholars’ work with the community rather than for it. A public university in the southeast offered a doctoral course that focused on critical service-learning in the context of a professional development school partnership. Designed as an ethnographic multi-case study, each graduate student in the on-site course represents a case. Data collection included interviews, observations, written reflections, and artefacts. The analysis revealed that developing critical service-learning projects with educators—rather than for them—supported participants’ critical consciousness. Findings and discussion highlight that facilitating community-engaged scholarship through critical service-learning impacts graduate students and middle-grades educators’ research interests, work, and future directions.

FELASA accreditation of education and training courses in laboratory animal science according to the Directive 2010/63/EU.

This document describes how the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) accreditation addresses both the Directive 2010/63/EU and the related European Commission guidance document.The four EU Functions and beyond: FELASA accredits courses that fulfil the requirements of Functions A, B, C and D as defined by EU Directive, Article 23, as well as for designated veterinarians and specialists in laboratory animal science.Modularity and mobility: Cohesive courses for Functions and for very specific topics are accredited, but flexibility and mobility are possible: a researcher can start his/her training with one FELASA accredited course and complete other modules with another. A course organizer will deliver a FELASA certificate relating to the successfully completed modules.Accreditation process: The process consists of two major steps: (1) a review of full course documentation provided by the applicant will lead, if successful, to FELASA accreditation. The course is posted on the FELASA website as ‘FELASA accredited’ and the course provider can deliver FELASA certificates upon successful completion of the course; (2) successful accreditation is followed by an on-site course audit. In the case of a negative outcome of the audit, FELASA accreditation is withdrawn, the course is deleted from the list of FELASA accredited courses and FELASA certificates cannot be issued. To ensure that quality is maintained, continuation of accreditation requires regular revalidation.

Past Performance Probably IS Indicative of Future Results.

Past Performance Probably IS Indicative of Future Results.

ICT 기반의 융합전문가 양성을 위한 교육모형 개발

To train convergence experts ICT infrastructure must be learned IoT use capabilities of things. In this paper, targeted to students that are majoring in computer science, and for the design of the curriculum and the educational model that handles education of operation in general for training IoT-related education for five months to experts of convergence training describe the contents. Course is the basic ability of the process, core competence course, is divided into real-life capability process and on-site training course, was constructed in a total of 10 stages of the process details. Curriculum, it was designed to learn sensing technology, network technology, security, and content production technology. This educational model is utilized for job creation human resource training project of 2015 Ministry of Employment and Labor, it demonstrated the utility to contribute in order to achieve a high completion and the employment rate. Applicable to future university education plans to expand the curriculum, including courses that complement the Java.

A New Approach to Educational Offerings at ASM International

ASM International has long been known as an educational resource for materials engineers and scientists. The society offers a wide range of courses for working professionals, in a variety of formats, including self-study and DVD courses, customized on-site training, online only courses, and traditional instructor-led classroom courses. The classrooms and laboratory courses held at ASM headquarters in Cleveland, OH, are the most popular and make use of ASM’s extensive collection of laboratory equipment and software. Topics for these courses span a wide range; examples include Aluminum and Its Alloys, Practical Fractography, Reverse Engineering, Principles of Failure Analysis, and Vacuum Heat Treating. Both authors have each recently served as instructors for a new blending learning model of courses being offered by ASM International. In this model, a portion of the content is addressed online and the balance is taught on-site at ASM headquarters. There are several motivations for adopting this course model; principle among them is the fact that many students find it difficult to be away from work for the four-day period that a traditional on-site course requires. We all are dealing with smaller budgets and staff reductions, requiring us to do more with less. This new reality means that it is more challenging than ever to be out of the office for an entire week. Reducing the on-site days for an ASM course to two or three days allows for a reduction in both time away from work and travel expenses.

Ideological roadblocks to humanizing dentistry, an evaluative case study of a continuing education course on social determinants of health.

BackgroundFront line providers of care are frequently lacking in knowledge on and sensitivity to social and structural determinants of underprivileged patients’ health. Developing and evaluating approaches to raising health professional awareness and capacity to respond to social determinants is a crucial step in addressing this issue. McGill University, in partnership with Université de Montréal, Québec dental regulatory authorities, and the Québec anti-poverty coalition, co-developed a continuing education (CE) intervention that aims to transfer knowledge and improve the practices of oral health professionals with people living on welfare. Through the use of original educational tools integrating patient narratives and a short film, the onsite course aims to elicit affective learning and critical reflection on practices, as well as provide staff coaching.MethodsA qualitative case study was conducted, in Montreal Canada, among members of a dental team who participated in this innovative CE course over a period of four months. Data collection consisted in a series of semi-structured individual interviews conducted with 15 members of the dental team throughout the training, digitally recorded group discussions linked to the CE activities, clinic administrative documents and researcher-trainer field notes and journal. In line with adult transformative learning theory, interpretive analysis aimed to reveal learning processes, perceived outcomes and collective perspectives that constrain individual and organizational change.ResultsThe findings presented in this article consist in four interactive themes, reflective of clinic culture and context, that act as barriers to humanizing patient care: 1) belief in the “ineluctable” commoditization of dentistry; 2) “equal treatment”, a belief constraining concern for equity and the recognition of discriminatory practices; 3) a predominantly biomedical orientation to care; and 4) stereotypical categorization of publically insured patients into “deserving” vs. “non-deserving” poor. We discuss implications for oral health policy, orientations for dental education, as well as the role dental regulatory authorities should play in addressing discrimination and prejudice.ConclusionHumanizing care and developing oral health practitioners’ capacity to respond to social determinants of health, are challenged by significant ideological roadblocks. These require multi-level and multi-sectorial action if gains in social equity in oral health are to be made.

The Business Engineering Surgical Technologies (BEST) teaching method: incubating talents for surgical innovation.

Technological innovation in surgical science and healthcare is vital and calls for close collaboration between engineering and surgery. To meet this objective, BEST was designed as a free sustainable innovative teaching method for young professionals, combining surgery, engineering, and business in a multidisciplinary, high-quality, low-cost, and learning-by-doing philosophy. This paper reviews the initial outcomes of the program and discusses lessons learned and future directions of this innovative educational method. BEST educational method is delivered in two parts: the first component consisting of live streaming or pre-recorded online lectures, with an interdisciplinary profile focused on surgery, engineering, and business. The second component is an annual 5-day on-site course, organized at IRCAD-IHU, France. The program includes workshops in engineering, entrepreneurship team projects, and in-depth hands-on experience in laparoscopy, robotic surgery, interventional radiology, and flexible endoscopy with special emphasis on the interdisciplinary aspect of the training. A panel of surgeons, engineers, well-established entrepreneurs, and scientists assessed the team projects for potential patent application. From November 2011 till September 2013, 803 individual and institutional users from 79 different countries attended the online course. In total, 134 young professionals from 32 different countries applied to the onsite course. Sixty participants were selected each year for the onsite course. In addition, five participants were selected for a web-based team. Thirteen provisional patents were filed for the most promising projects. BEST proved to be a global talent incubator connecting students to high-quality education despite institutional and economical boundaries. Viable and innovative ideas arose from this revolutionary approach which is likely to spin-off significant technology transfer and lead the way for future interdisciplinary hybrid surgical education programs and career paths.