Perceptions Of Skill Development Research Articles

Enhancing Evidence-Based Practice Competence and Professional Skills Using Infographics as a Pedagogical Strategy in Health Science Students: Insights from the InfoHealth Project.

Infographics have been recognised as effective visual tools for concise and accessible communication of data and information in various higher education disciplines, particularly in medical education. However, there is a lack of research on their impact on professional skills, difficulty levels, motivation, and overall satisfaction in health science students. Thus, the present study aimed to analyse the knowledge and usage of graphical resources among health science students and evaluate their competencies, the level of challenge they encountered, and their motivation and satisfaction after completing an infographic creation activity. The InfoHealth educational innovation project, conducted by five teachers from the Faculty of Medicine, served as the context for this study, with 143 students voluntarily participating. The intervention involved students working in groups of 2-3 and selecting their own topics for the infographics while receiving instruction, online guidance, and feedback from teachers. A questionnaire was administered to assess students' perception of skill development and satisfaction with the activity. The findings revealed that schemes were the most recognized and used graphical summaries, compared to synoptic tables and Venn diagrams. The activity led to an increase in professional skills acquisition, motivation, and satisfaction, positively impacting students' interest in evidence-based practice and reinforcing their knowledge. This study highlights the potential of infographics as a pedagogical tool for competency development and student engagement in health science education, suggesting the need for further research comparing infographics with traditional study methods and involving multidisciplinary teams to promote essential skills for future clinical practice.

Experiences of Residents and Fellows at Mayo Clinic After the Rapid Implementation of Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to many changes across medical organizations and graduate medical education programs nationwide including the rapid implementation of telemedicine as a modality for delivering health care. The purpose of this study was to investigate the telemedicine experiences of residents and fellows with their self-reported level of preparedness, impact on their education including precepting, skill development, and patient-physician relationships, and perceptions of telehealth platforms and curricula in the future. A total of 365 Mayo Clinic residents and fellows across three sites (Florida, Arizona, and Minnesota) were identified as trainees who conducted at least one telemedicine encounter from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020 and were sent an electronic survey by e-mail. There was a total of 103 completed surveys across various specialties with 58.3% female respondents, 63.1% residents, 35.0% fellows and 77.7% of respondents who attended medical school in the United States. Most trainees reported having very little to no exposure to telemedicine in their medical careers before the pandemic. The majority were satisfied with their first telemedicine encounter and found precepting comparable to in-person visits. The trainees in this study had a favorable view with 98.1% believing telemedicine will play a more prevalent role in the future and most agreed this should be included in medical school and residency training. Our survey found that after the implementation of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, the experiences of trainees at a multi-site academic center were overall positive. More research is needed on the perceptions of skill development (physical exam and history taking) during a telemedicine encounter and outlining an optimal telemedicine curriculum that can improve confidence in trainees.

Perceptions of Skill Development Among Occupational Therapy Students Who Participated in Virtual Fieldwork: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

Perceptions of Skill Development Among Occupational Therapy Students Who Participated in Virtual Fieldwork: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

501 A Change to Virtual Peer Supporter Training and its Effect on Participant Readiness and Satisfaction

IntroductionPeer support gives burn survivors and their loved ones hope for a brighter future helping speed and strengthen recovery for burn survivors and their loved ones. A strategic plan to explore a digital program change from in-person increasing access for burn survivors and burn programs was scheduled for the third quarter of 2021, but the global pandemic expedited the implementation. A 2-week asynchronous and a 4-hour virtual course was designed. This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness and participants' perceptions of asynchronous and virtual training and their post-course readiness in the role of peer supporter.MethodsA 5-point Likert scale was used to evaluate the opinions, perceptions, and satisfaction of the participants. The scale, ranging from strongly agree to disagree strongly, evaluated the modular education (length, relationship to manual, preparation for the virtual course) and the usefulness of a condensed online manual. A 5-point Likert scale (ranging from extremely helpful to not at all helpful) was used to evaluate each component of the course group exercises and the participants' perception of skill development to become peer supporters. Open ended questions collected additional feedback to analyze potential changes to the new platform. The metric Net Promoter Score, or NPS, was used to measure the recommendation of the new program to others.ResultsBurn survivors (n=41) and medical professionals (n=3) participated in 6 courses over eight months. Participants reported the manual helped prepare for the course (86% strongly agree and 14% agree). Respondents felt the asynchronous modular education prepared them for the virtual component of the class (75% strongly agree and 25% agree). Additionally, respondents felt the 2-week timeline for module completion met their expectations (98% yes and 2% no). The participants felt the overall length of the course was just right (89%) to 9% too short and 2% too long. Participants rated their readiness (confidence level) to utilize their learned skills to support another burn survivor (52% extremely confident, 39% very confident, and 9% confident) after the virtual class. The combined courses rated an 82 NPS, equating to a positive participant experience and a course recommendation to others.ConclusionsThis study concluded the asynchronous and virtual education course provided an effective method to train burn survivors to become peer supporters. Overall, burn survivors expressed confidence in utilizing the skills learned from the new training program. Participants also experienced the use of virtual tools to meet the needs of burn survivors for peer support.

The influence of fieldwork design on student perceptions of skills development during field courses

ABSTRACTEmployability is a key issue for students and Higher Education Institutions and a key component of employability is possessing the skills a role requires. In the environmental sciences, fieldwork provides an opportunity for students to develop employability-enhancing technical and transferable skills. However, students can have difficulty identifying the transferable skills they develop both during fieldwork and throughout their degree programmes. We investigated whether different pedagogical approaches to fieldwork (staff-led and student-directed) influenced student’s perception of skill-development. Additionally, we explored whether students recognised that skills developed during fieldwork might enhance their employability. Overall, students recognised technical skills more frequently than transferable skills. However, when fieldwork investigations were staff-led, students recognised more technical skills, but when students designed their fieldwork investigations themselves they recognised more transferable skills. Upon reflection, students were readily able to link skill-development to employability. We suggest that to maximise the skills development benefits of fieldwork, field courses should include a variety of fieldwork teaching designs to allow students to develop the widest array of skills possible. Additionally, students should be encouraged to reflect on their experiences throughout a field course as reflection is thought to aid their ability to recognise how their skills have developed.

First-Year Undergraduate Student Expectations of two UK Chemistry Degree Programmes

Recent work on student perceptions of skills development and engagement with different teaching and learning approaches have provided useful evidence bases for practitioners aiming to enhance the student learning experience. Although there has been some useful research on student expectations in non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines, there remains an opportunity to measure and analyse the expectations of students in STEM disciplines, particularly chemistry. The aim of this study was to measure the expectations that first year undergraduate chemists have of the types of learning experiences that will be included in their degree programmes, the amount of time per week that they will devote to different aspects of study and the types of learning behaviours they will adopt. Data was collected using questionnaires deployed at the Universities of Leicester and Sussex in the 2017/18 academic year. The study has shown that many students overestimate the amount of lecture based (59%) and small group based (57%) contact time they expect to have. Students appear to place a high value on the importance of feedback in the learning process but the proportion of students who agree they will read and act on feedback decreases over the course of the academic year. A number of factors feed into student reflections on the difference between expectation and reality including the quality of student life (e.g. quality of accommodation and social activities), value-for-money concerns (e.g. the amount of contact time and the quality of teaching) and matters related to workload and learning support.

Inquiry and industry inspired laboratories: the impact on students’ perceptions of skill development and engagements

Many examples exist in the chemical education literature of individual experiments, whole courses or even entire year levels that have been completely renewed under the tenets of context-based, inquiry-based or problem-based learning. The benefits of these changes are well documented and include higher student engagement, broader skill development and better perceived preparation for the workforce. However, no examples appear to have been reported in which an entire school's teaching laboratory programme has been significantly redesigned with these concepts in mind. Transforming Laboratory Learning (TLL) is a programme at Monash University that sought to incorporate industry inspired context-based, inquiry-based and problem-based learning into all the laboratory components of the School of Chemistry. One of the ways in which the effect of the programme was evaluated was through the use of an exit survey delivered to students at the completion of seven experiments that existed before the TLL programme as well as seven that were generated directly by the TLL programme. The survey consisted of 27 closed questions alongside three open questions. Overall, students found the new experiments more challenging but recognised that they were more contextualised and that they allowed students to make decisions. The students noted the lack of detailed guidance in the new laboratory manuals but raised the challenge, context and opportunity to undertake experimental design as reasons for enjoying the new experiments. Students' perceptions of their skill development shifted to reflect skills associated with experimental design when undertaking the more investigation driven experiments. These results are consistent with other literature and indicate the large scale potential success of the TLL programme, which is potentially developing graduates who are better prepared for the modern workforce.

Formative Evaluation of Skill Development Programme among School Students

Formative evaluations are evaluation for learning. They are often ungraded and informal. The institution aims to provide both the students and teachers on the ways and means of conducting evaluation of the programmes. Formative evaluations are mainly important because they agree to us to make changes that affect the school students, while the end of term forms only affect future programmes or classes. The formative evaluation of the skill development computer programme was conducted for school students in computer science in select schools of Tamil Nadu, India. This study approach explores formative evaluation of computer based skill development programmes organized by IECD (Institute of Entrepreneurship and Career Development), Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, in the state of Tamil Nadu. The research method used in the study was descriptive. The survey questionnaire includes indicators of perceptions of skill development (computer) programme. This survey consists of 244 students. The study concluded that the skill development programme implementations and performance such as, material, syllabus, examinations were found more effective to the school students on computer science.

HRD Practitioners' Perceptions of Skills Development in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Its Implications for Policies

HRD Practitioners' Perceptions of Skills Development in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Its Implications for Policies