Undergraduate Perspective Research Articles

The 2019 P-MIG Student Survey report and capturing the undergraduate perspective of physiology programming

The aim of the 2019 Student Survey was to inform the Physiology Majors Interest Group (P-MIG) of characteristics of undergraduates enrolled in physiology courses or degree programs from across the United States, to be used as one input source for the development of program-level guidelines. There were 1,389 participants from seven universities who completed the 2019 P-MIG Student Survey. Thirty-seven percent reported enrollment in a physiology/human physiology major; allied health-related programs were the second most common (24%). Sixty-one percent of respondents reported attending a community college, the majority of whom enrolled in one or more courses at a community college while in high school (44%). Of participants who reported transferring coursework from one institution to another, 72% reported coursework transferred as expected. Homeostasis and structure/function were the two core concepts common to the top rankings for self-reported mastery, the expectation to be remembered in 5 yr, and deemed to be career relevant. Survey respondents indicated high engagement in co-curricular activities, with 72% participating or planning to participate in job shadowing opportunities, followed by volunteering (57%) and internships (50%). Over one-half of all survey participants indicated they "strongly agree" that their coursework and undergraduate programming has prepared them for success in their field of study. While the majority of respondents were satisfied with the academic advising received, additional guidance with regard to career choices and non-coursework professional development opportunities may be beneficial. Taken together, the collective data provides information from current physiology students that may inform development of consensus guidelines regarding curriculum, professional skills, and advising for undergraduate physiology degree programs.

Students' Perspective on Online Medical Education Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nepal.

The lockdown strategy adopted to contain the spread of current pandemic of coronavirus disease has affected all sectors of life globally. Nepal also instructed all the educational institutions to shut down, medical colleges being no exception. One month into the lockdown all the medical colleges in Nepal started online classes to keep pace with the academic calendar. This preliminary survey analyses the students' perspective on newly introduced online medical education system. This cross-sectional survey used an online questionnaire typed in Google forms. The link to the survey was then emailed to the student representative of each semester of Lumbini Medical College, Palpa, Nepal, who were then instructed to forward it to their classmates. The questionnaire consisted of demographic variables and perspective of medical undergraduates towards online classes and also a space to comment or opine their perspective on current medical education. A total of 226 students responded the survey. Almost one-third of the students (n=173, 76.5%) admitted of never having attended the online classes. Most of the students used smartphones to attend online classes; broadband internet service being the source of internet in 65.5%. Two-third of the students rated online classes to be poorer than the traditional classroom teaching and 77.8% of the students preferred traditional classroom teaching in future. Medical students did not find online classes as effective as the traditional classroom teachings; it could be made more interactive and productive by introducing interactive and brainstorming sessions complementing the conventional face?to?face education.

World regional geography and distant suffering: student and faculty perceptions of moral obligation

ABSTRACT The purpose of the research was to examine perceived moral agency beliefs, attitudes, and prosocial actions of 226 undergraduate World Regional Geography students and eight instructors at two Midwestern U.S. universities. The context of the research is positioned within the study of world regional geography courses in order to better understand students’ and professors’ perspectives and expectations for prosocial action while learning and teaching about global environmental and human issues. Theoretical backgrounds include living in a globalizing world, witnessing distant suffering, and moral education. Using a socio-psychological lens for examining geography learning related to motivations for prosocial behavior and moral agency, the research context included a framework for investigating student and instructor perspectives of prosocial behavior in response to human suffering and environmental crises. The cross-case study included mixed methodology, with analysis of student survey responses, student and professor interviews, and written reader-responses to global issues. Findings showed a significant correlation between when students felt disturbed by global crises and subsequent thoughts on moral agency. Results reveal diverging and contrasting views between students and professors, with undergraduate participant perspectives, requests, and significant suggestions for explicitly addressing pro-social actions in world regional geography for educators and students for the future.

Undergraduate medical research perspective among medical students in university of Khartoum: a cross-sectional study from Sudan

Background: Research is one of the crucial factors in the advancement of health. Undergraduate medical research training is a cornerstone in medical students’ education. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of medical students toward medical research.
 Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study included 200 medical students in their fifth and sixth years at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire, assessing students’ knowledge and attitudes toward medical research, which were scored out of 100. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software.
 Results: Of the 200 students, 69% were females and 31% males; 81% of them held a Sudanese secondary school diploma and reported future clinical career choice. Their mean academic score was 16 out of 32 6.6 points. Students’ mean knowledge score was 36 out of 100, which was considered low. Their mean attitude score toward medical research was 48.2 out of 100, which was considered moderate. 
 Conclusions: This study concluded that the knowledge of fifth- and sixth-year medical students about medical research was low. However, moderately positive attitude was reported among them. It is recommended that students’ engagement in active research ought to be started early in their medical school. Additionally, more engaging and interactive methods of teaching research are endorsed to be implemented.
 Keywords: attitude; knowledge; medical research; medical students; University of Khartoum

Framing Undergraduate Perspectives on Experiential Learning Within Soka Education Theory

Framing Undergraduate Perspectives on Experiential Learning Within Soka Education Theory

Authentic Learning though Role Play in Learning Financial Reporting: Malaysian Undergraduate Perspective

This paper examines whether role-playing provides student with learning opportunities in financial reporting and motivates student to reflect the practical financial reporting issues. The research is conducted in Advance Financial Reporting class under an undergraduate accounting program in a public university during semester two in 2019. The participants were divided into two roles within the context of an audit firm, audit associate and audit supervisor in preparing and reviewing the consolidation of financial statements audit working paper (financial reporting). The results of the study show that role-playing allowed students to improve their knowledge and increase their confidence in preparing consolidated financial statements. It also motivates student to reflect the practical financial reporting issues. Hence, the results suggest that role-play model can be applied to other accounting learning activities with inter-related subjects within accounting.

Student Views of the Online Learning Process during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison of Upper-Level and Entry-Level Undergraduate Perspectives

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, chemistry faculty across the globe quickly converted courses to an online format. Resources rapidly became available that reflected the views...

Perspective of Medical and Dental Undergraduates towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Background: The prevalent use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) requires health professionals including doctors and dentists having the essential knowledge to have better recommend their patients. This has lead to an increased need for integration of CAM teaching at the undergraduate level. Thus, the purpose of the study was to assess the perspective of complementary and alternative medicine among Pakistani medical and dental undergraduates. Methods: A questionnaire based cross sectional survey was conducted among first to fifth year undergraduate medical and dental students at Sindh Medical College and Ziauddin University in Karachi, during April until May 2019, using a structured 13-item questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were calculated for baseline characteristics. Frequency and proportions were calculated for categorical variables using SPSS version 20. Results: The response rate was 100% (40.7% for males and 59.3% for females). The mean age of medical and dental students was 20.5±1.39 years. Almost three-fourth of students (75.1%) had the knowledgeof CAM. The most experienced CAM modality amongst all was Yoga (23.4%) and Homeopathy (20%). Nearly 69.4 % of students believed that CAM is beneficial for medical and dental healthcare and 44.1% students will recommend CAM to their patients in future. Almost 39% of students think that CAM should be included into undergraduate medical and dental curriculum. Conclusion: This study showed an encouraging interpretation of both medical and dental students regarding CAM knowledge and benefits. Majority of the students have optimistic attitude towards CAM practice in future and for the integration of CAM studies at undergraduate level.

Multi-disciplinary tumour board establishment through a medical undergraduate's Perspective.

Multi-disciplinary tumour board establishment through a medical undergraduate's Perspective.

Greek and Spanish Undergraduate Perspectives on Academic Librarianship, Within and Beyond Library Science Curricula

Library and information science undergraduate programs’ adequacy to prepare new information professionals has become the topic of an ongoing debate, with opposing arguments about curricular structure and focus. Within this context, this study, forming part of ongoing doctoral research, analyzes students’ opinions on how to enhance library school curricula to effectively respond to academic librarians’ new roles and functions. By repositioning the lens on the practical and experience-driven student perspective, away from standard educational practices, the researchers pilot-tested a library science student survey. The mix-methods, student codeveloped, survey instrument was tested with a small self-selection sample of future information professionals in Spain and Greece. The study’s goal was to contribute to the limited body of research concerning students´ perceptions and awareness about library science education. Survey participants were provided the opportunity to critically evaluate their library school undergraduate programs’ responsiveness to the changing academic librarianship landscape. Responses, analyzed by using descriptive statistical and inductive thematic techniques, revealed a limited academic librarianship related content in library and information science curricula. Furthermore, results highlighted a reserved optimism with respect to the library’s prospects of upgrading its role in the university, an ambivalence towards librarian’s future roles, and a diffuse skepticism around the system’s potential to grasp the opportunities that the new information and communication technologies offer. The merit of the study resides in both the diversity of participants’ insightful comments and the use of a student validated survey instrument making them active contributors to the library school program’s assessment process. Dissimilar to stereotypical research projects, this initiative opens a different perspective to program evaluation and its subsequent alignment with academic library stakeholders’ needs.

The Art of the Sciences Through the Lens of Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate perspective.

Periodontology from an undergraduate perspective.

'Another day of gum gardening', 'more cleaning below the gum line', 'I had to stabilise their perio before I could start my treatment'; quotes overheard from peers on a shared teaching clinic. Gardening, weeding and cleaning have never been popular hobbies for undergraduate students! However, the importance of healthy gums resulting from satisfactory periodontal treatment should never be underestimated by either patient or dental student.

EFL Undergraduate Students' Perspectives of the Curriculum Employed in the English Language Department at the Hashemite University

This current study aimed to investigate EFL undergraduate students' perspectives of the curriculum employed in the English Language Department at the Hashemite University. More specifically, the study attempted to explore their perspectives of the literature, linguistics, translation and the four language skills courses they had during their study at the university. The research instruments used was a questionnaire and questionnaire interview. One hundred and seventy seven students (40 males and 137 females) took part in the study. Eighty two of them were in the third year of study and 95 were in the fourth. Results showed that the students perceived the curriculum positively and regarded the translation and four language skills courses as the most beneficial. Results also indicated the reasons behind which the students regarded each course as more/less beneficial. In addition, they revealed statistical significant differences in the students’ responses due to gender in favor of females and no significant differences according to study-year. In light of these results, recommendations were suggested. Keywords : EFL undergraduates, perspectives, EFL curriculum, EFL courses, The Hashemite University DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-26-01 Publication date :September 30 th 2019

Exploring the perspectives of dermatology undergraduates with an escape room game.

A UK dermatology curricula review has suggested that undergraduate delivery relies on lectures and is subject to clinical and staffing pressures. Many UK undergraduate students feel less than adequately prepared to manage dermatological conditions, and misconceptions about dermatology are common. Educators have called for innovative solutions, including small group teaching. Escape rooms are games requiring teams to solve puzzles to escape from a room. To assess the impact of an escape room game on perceptions of dermatology among undergraduate medical students. Students were invited to an escape room to consolidate lessons taught in a previous lecture. Students were first asked to complete a questionnaire about their preferred learning environments, perceptions of dermatology and confidence in content. Following the escape room event, these questions were revisited. Focus groups were then held to explore themes raised. In total, 16 students took part in the escape room sessions and in 3 focus groups. Feedback was strongly positive, with 100% of students expressing 'strongly agree' on whether they enjoyed the session. Qualitative data were coded for themes of accessibility, variety of taught content and awareness. The majority (94%) of students stated the escape room made them want to experience more dermatology. Prejudices about dermatology exist among medical students, and may act as a barrier to perceived accessibility to the specialty. Escape rooms can provide a shift to a more learner-centred approach, which may aid in combating these negative perceptions. They may act as an enjoyable means of consolidating lecture-based and clinical teaching, and require minimal resources.

Highlights of the National Academies Report on "Undergraduate Data Science: Opportunities and Options”

In 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine of the United States established the Committee on Envisioning the Data Science Discipline: The Undergraduate Perspective. The committee issued a 120-page report in 2018, setting forth a vision for the undergraduate education in data science. This interview of the co-chairs of the committee, Laura Haas, the Dean of the College of Information and Computer Sciences at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Alfred Hero, the co-director of the Michigan Institute for Data Science, is conducted by Rob Lue, the co-editor of data science education for Harvard Data Science Review. It provides a succinct summary of the key findings and recommendations of the Report, highlighting the call to equip students with “data acumen.” It also probes beyond the Report, including the possible roles of data science for reimagining liberal arts education in the digital age.Keywords: data ccumen, data ethics, data science curriculum, data science programs, digital-age education, liberal arts education

Critical Consciousness and Empowerment Issues in Undergraduate Classrooms

It is important to practice critical skills in the classroom in order to empower learners and to have a critical consciousness, such as critical thinking, dialogue, and problem solving. In the present study, undergraduate students' perceptions (by gender) of the practice of critical consciousness in the classroom at Taif University, Saudi Arabia is investigated. Freire's conceptualization of critical consciousness is used as the study's theoretical framework. That conceptualization is focused on critical thinking, dialogue, and problem-solving. A quantitative approach is utilized with a self-administered questionnaire in collecting data from the respondents. The results of this study indicated that Saudi undergraduate students' perspective was positive about the practice of the three elements of critical consciousness. Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences at α = 0.05 among undergraduate students' perspective on the practice of critical consciousness, including dialogue, critical thinking, and the total practice based on their gender. The direction of the differences was a benefit for females.

Proposed reforms in medical education in India: Perspective of undergraduate students

IntroductionIndian medical schools contribute significantly to the global pool of doctors. To strengthen the medical education system further, this study was aimed at identifying existing lacunae and proposing solutions, from perspective of medical undergraduates. MethodologyMedical undergraduates participated in group discussions under mentorship of an expert in medical education. Identification and prioritisation of problems was done based on demand and impact on medical education. After critically reviewing available literature, solutions were reached by consensus. ResultsSix interested students participated in discussions. Classification of identified problems was done into domains of knowledge, skill training, and research. Major problems in ‘knowledge’ were: inefficient utilisation of time of students and teachers, and unyielding assessments; in ‘skill training’: inadequate training in skills; and in ‘research’: insufficient awareness and interest in research among undergraduates. Some solutions suggested for respective domains were prioritisation of teaching and training of medical students, advocation of innovative methods of teaching and assessment like flipped classroom approach and clinical vignettes respectively; early initiation of undergraduate training in skill development following the principle of competency-based education; and sensitization of undergraduates towards research by introducing it as basic core and advanced elective subject, besides setting up research advisory cells and organising research conclaves. ConclusionProblems were classified into domains of knowledge, skill training, and research. Proposed solutions involve a radical alteration in perception of students and teachers in terms of teaching-learning principles. There is a need to highlight these points before policy makers and implementers for a more robust medical education system.

Perspectives of Foreign-Born Undergraduates on Campus Community Life

The numbers of foreign-born undergraduates in the United States have increased in the 21st century, yet literature exploring their perceptions of and experiences with campus communities and sense of school belonging is limited. This cross-sectional study includes self-report data from 153 foreign born undergraduates. Data were collected during the first year of the Donald J. Trump Presidential administration, a sensitive socio-historical time period for this population. Correlations between students’ sense of school belonging were calculated using variables related to discrimination and rejection, concerns about deportation, access, importance of campus space, social capital, support, and civic engagement. Analysis of variance were calculated to ascertain group differences based on immigrant status. Results indicate that macro-level sociopolitical contexts impact this population negatively, but colleges and universities may support foreign-born undergraduates by creating and maintaining safe campus spaces for peer-to-peer and peer-to-faculty interactions. Civic engagement and preventive education could be critical for promoting success. Family Science and Family Life Education programming may be particularly useful; this is discussed as implications for practice.

Undergraduate Perspective: the Benefits of Performing Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate Perspective: the Benefits of Performing Undergraduate Research

Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs: Research and Publishing From the Undergraduate Perspective.

Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs: Research and Publishing From the Undergraduate Perspective.