Postgraduate Learning Research Articles

A Questionnaire-based Survey of Postgraduate Students on Awareness about Direct Printed Aligners.

The purpose of this survey was to assess postgraduate students' knowledge of orthodontic direct printed aligners and their opinions of the treatment modalities that can be used with them. 198 postgraduate learners were given a questionnaire consisting of 25 questions via Google Forms as part of this web-based survey. Results: Compared to their male counterparts, women were more knowledgeable about direct printed aligners. The survey concluded that most postgraduate students have knowledge about direct printed aligners. Females are more aware about direct printed aligners than males. Orthodontists were the predominant source of knowledge regarding direct printed aligners.

ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY THROUGH EDUCATION AND RESEARCH SKILLS

The knowledge economy is a system of consumption and production that is based on intellectual capital. Specifically, this refers to the ability to capitalize on scientific discoveries and applied research including research studies at the university. To develop a successful post-graduate program in research needs a robust and sustainable research environment. A guideline named "Best Practices for PhD Training" was produced by the Organization for PhD Education in Health Sciences in the European System, a European platform to promote best practices in PhD education in health sciences. The extensive advice and suggestions made in the guidelines apply to all aspects of PhD and research programs, of which supervision is a crucial part. The success of a thesis depends on a productive supervisor-student relationship built on respect, accountability, and engagement. Active researchers who obtain training to hone their overseeing abilities should serve as supervisors. They act as both scientific and moral role models in academic life. The employment of a second supervisor in addition to the primary one is strongly advised to boost monitoring student development more effectively and to prevent interpersonal disputes. The obligations of the supervisor should be outlined in institutional regulations. The task could be more clearly defined and may serve as a beginning point in a contract created by the institution and signed by the supervisor and the student. Grievance methods must be plain and obvious in the event of a conflict. Students' professional development should be supported by their supervisors, who should also help them become autonomous researchers. Quite a number of surveys revealed considerable dissatisfaction among students with their supervisors. There is a great deal of strain due to performance pressure on both students and supervisors. Students worry about their future employment opportunities. These stress spots should be taken into account by institutional regulations to improve the welfare of both professors and students. Small-group instruction and learning have become increasingly popular in medical school as a tool to assist research students with their studies and promote deep learning. Postgraduate learners can exercise their higher-order thinking and cognitive abilities by researching the problems with undergraduate medical student supervision. Thus, encourages self-motivation while as a postgraduate researcher and fosters adult learning, accepting responsibility for one's own development, and adult learning.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu/0758/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Adult learners’ online distance learning experience in postgraduate business programme: a qualitative study in a public university in Malaysia

ABSTRACT Amidst the growing demand for lifelong learning, higher education institutions are dynamically navigating the realm of online education, prompted by technological advances and global influences like the COVID-19 pandemic. This research is particularly attuned to the experiences of adult learners within virtual postgraduate programmes, focusing on the implications for business education. Employing purposive sampling, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 active adult learners enrolled in a postgraduate online distance learning business programme at a Malaysian public university. Rooted in grounded theory principles, the qualitative data analysis involved open and axial coding, bolstered by participant quotations, to unveil emergent themes and relationships from their experiences. The study delves into adult learners’ motivations, emotional states, self-development, effectiveness factors, and institutional recommendations. These insights shed light on refining the design, delivery, and impact of virtual education for adult learners in postgraduate business programmes, offering valuable contributions to the evolving landscape of lifelong learning.

학습공동체에서 대학원생의 사회적 지식구성에 관한 경험 이해: BK21사업 참여자를 중심으로

The purpose of the study is to understand the social knowledge construction process from the learning communities experience of postgraduate students participating in the BK21 project. There are two research problems: one is to explore how postgraduate students' learning communities experience contributes to the construction of knowledge from the perspective of Social Constructivist Learning Theory, and the other is to understand the changed perceptions after postgraduate students’ learning communities experience. The research method used was interviews, among qualitative research methods. The study results derived four themes: postgraduate students' motivation and process for participating in the learning communities, passive social knowledge experience, active social knowledge experience, and transition from peripheral to owner. First, the social knowledge construction process is appeared through interaction (communication) and cooperative learning (joint research, seminars) as help (feedback, social relationship) of professors/seniors/colleagues in the zone of proximal development (learning community). Second, postgraduate students showed a change in confidence in social support and a positive attitude toward graduate life after participating in the learning communities. In addition, postgraduate students recognize their tendency to learn about their major and research methods from various majors and perspectives through a learning communities. This study will enable to comprehensive understanding of postgraduate students' learning communities. It will provide basic data to improve the operation of learning communities and create an educational environment based on the social knowledge construction process in graduate schools.

Through a Tainted Lens: A Qualitatve Study of Medical Learners' Thinking About Patient 'Deservingness' of Health Advocacy.

While health advocacy is a key component of many competency frameworks, mounting evidence suggests that learners do not see it as core to their learning and future practice. When learners do advocate for their patients, they characterize this work as 'going above and beyond' for a select few patients. When they think about advocacy in this way, learners choose who deserves their efforts. For educators and policymakers to support learners in making these decisions thoughtfully and ethically, we must first understand how they are currently thinking about patient deservingness. We conducted qualitative interviews with 29 undergraduate and postgraduate medical learners, across multiple sites and disciplines, to discuss their experiences of and decision-making about health advocacy. We then carried out a thematic analysis to understand how learners decided when and for whom to advocate. Stemming from initial inductive coding, we then developed a deductive coding framework, based in existing theory conceptualizing 'deservingness.' Learners saw their patients as deserving of advocacy if they believed that the patient: was not responsible for their condition, was more in need of support than others, had a positive attitude, was working to improve their health, and shared similarities to the learner. Learners noted the tensions inherent in, and discomfort with, their own thinking about patient deservingness. Learners' decisions about advocacy deservingness are rooted in their preconceptions about the patient. Explicit curriculum and conversations about advocacy decisions are needed to support learners in making advocacy decisions equitably.

Interprofessional collaboration between health professional learners when breaking bad news: a scoping review of teaching approaches.

The objective of this scoping review was to examine teaching approaches used to teach interprofessional health professional learners how to break bad news collaboratively. When breaking bad news, health professionals must be equipped to deliver it skillfully and collaboratively; however, the literature shows that this skill receives little attention in program curricula. Consequently, health professionals can feel inadequately prepared to deliver bad news, which may lead to increased burnout, distress, and compassion fatigue. Studies that describe teaching approaches used to teach learners how to break bad news collaboratively were considered for inclusion. Studies must have included 2 or more undergraduate and/or postgraduate learners working toward a professional health or social care qualification/degree at a university or college. Studies including lay, complementary and alternative, or non-health/social care learners were excluded. Due to the primary language of the research team, only English articles were included. The JBI 3-step process was followed for developing the search. Databases searched included MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Embase, Education Resource Complete (EBSCOhost), and Social Work Abstracts (EBSCOhost). The initial search was conducted on February 11, 2021, and was updated on May 17, 2022. Title and abstract screening and data extraction were completed by 2 independent reviewers. Disagreements were resolved through discussion or with a third reviewer. Results are presented in tabular or diagrammatic format, together with a narrative summary. Thirteen studies were included in the scoping review, with a range of methodologies and designs (pre/post surveys, qualitative, feasibility, mixed methods, cross-sectional, quality improvement, and methodological triangulation). The majority of papers were from the United States (n=8; 61.5%). All but 1 study used simulation-enhanced interprofessional education as the preferred method to teach interprofessional cohorts of learners how to break bad news. The bulk of simulations were face-to-face (n=11; 84.6%). Three studies (23.1%) were reported as high fidelity, while the remainder did not disclose fidelity. All studies that used simulation to teach students how to break bad news utilized simulated participants/patients to portray patients and/or family in the simulations. The academic level of participants varied, with the majority noted as undergraduate (n=7; 53.8%); 3 studies (23.1%) indicated a mix of undergraduate and graduate participants, 2 (15.4%) were graduate only, and 1 (7.7%) was not disclosed. There was a range of health professional programs represented by participants, with medicine and nursing equally in the majority (n=10; 76.9%). Simulation-enhanced interprofessional education was the most reported teaching approach to teach interprofessional cohorts of students how to break bad news collaboratively. Inconsistencies were noted in the language used to describe bad news, use of breaking bad news and interprofessional competency frameworks, and integration of interprofessional education and simulation best practices. Further research should focus on other interprofessional approaches to teaching how to break bad news; how best to incorporate interprofessional competencies into interprofessional breaking bad news education; whether interprofessional education is enhancing collaborative breaking bad news; and whether what is learned about breaking bad news is being retained over the long-term and incorporated into practice. Future simulation-specific research should explore whether and how the Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice are being implemented and whether simulation is resulting in student satisfaction and enhanced learning.

The impact of a Personal Learning Environment on Chinese postgraduates’ online self-regulated learning skills / Impacto de un Entorno Personal de Aprendizaje en las aptitudes de aprendizaje autorregulado en línea de estudiantes de posgrado en China

This study investigated the impact of Personal Learning Environments (PLE) on the development of self-regulated learning (SRL) skills among postgraduate learners in China. 213 participants, divided into an experimental group ( n = 113) using a researcher-designed PLE platform and a control group ( n = 100) employing face-to-face instruction, joined a course on International English Language Testing Systems (IELTS). A mixed-methods approach was adopted, utilizing the Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ) to explore SRL experiences, and weekly goal-achievement reports. Results demonstrated improvement in SRL skills in both groups, with the experimental group exhibiting significantly greater gains. Quantitative and qualitative results revealed that participants excelled in goal fulfillment but struggled with time management, help-seeking and self-evaluation skills. The study confirmed the positive influence of the PLE on postgraduates’ SRL skills, with implications for online learning design and the potential for PLEs to effectively promote SRL skills in online learning contexts.

Insights into professional learning for intensive Block Model: Lessons from a participatory evaluation for capacity building

We share lessons gained through supporting an institution-wide curriculum innovation via a post-graduate professional learning program. At the inception of the innovation, an intensive Block Model (BM) was unfamiliar to both the institution and its professional learning facilitators. The Graduate Certificate of Tertiary Education was re-modelled with BM as the heart of professional learning so academics would encounter BM as students. The program modelled BM principles, reinforced by meta-conversations to provide students with a reflective, immersive experience. Through a participatory evaluation, professional learning facilitators’ individual reflections were distilled to generate collaborative insights into academics’ capacity building for BM. Their lessons inform strategies to cultivate institution-wide capability-building including their own professional growth. Lessons shape the study recommendations. Recommendations originate from effectively engaging time-poor, diverse cohorts. (1) In recognition of the ease with which students can fall behind, embedding strategies to manage their time and stress helps to maintain a realistic study pace. (2) Authentic assessments provide students with useful products for their teaching. (3) Peer-feedback and examples of students’ work exposes them to how their colleagues present their work and illustrates good BM practices. (4) Modelling BM principles must be reinforced by meta-conversations to provide students with a reflective, immersive experience of the pedagogical principals. We observed that well planned efficiencies for students often provide consequent efficiencies for staff. These insights are captured in a model for scalable institutional-based professional learning practice. Capability growth flourishes at the intersection of action, reflection and evaluation. Professional collegial conversations are the catalyst for developing context-relevant professional learning.

An analysis of English writing errors of Kurdish EFL post-graduate students

This study aims to recognize, categorize, and assess the errors in English writing done by Kurdish post-graduate learners enrolled at Language Center (LC) of the University of Zakho, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This is conducted via applying the error analysis technique, which is considered a vital part of EFL research. By using a quantitative and qualitative method, the researchers limited their literature review and data analysis to the writing errors by several scholars from various angles, excluding types of writing errors (i.e., interlingual and intralingual errors are the two main classifications of errors.) according to Brown (2000). Thirty-two (32) postgraduate students from different disciplines took part in this study. The major data collection tool was the students' answer sheets from the elementary and pre-intermediate academic English curriculum at different English language levels (cutting edge). The current study seeks to address the type of writing errors and how frequently such writing errors occur in Kurdish EFL students’ writing. The researchers implemented process of coding for finding out writing errors, and tabulated their frequencies and percentages on bar charts. According to the findings of this study, the participants made fourteen different types of writing errors: grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, literal translation, misuse of verbs, articles, unnecessary prepositions, misuse of pronouns, subject-verb agreement, misuse of prepositions, apostrophes, misuse of conjunctions and sing of wordiness. The findings of this study also revealed that the most common errors committed by the Kurdish learners were in grammar, punctuation, using of wordiness, spelling, and capitalization. Such results are important for EFL teachers because they encourage them to pay careful attention to their students' writing errors and utilize them as pedagogical guidelines while designing activities.

Exploring in-person self-led debriefings for groups of learners in simulation-based education: an integrative review

BackgroundFacilitator-led debriefings are well-established for debriefing groups of learners in immersive simulation-based education. However, there has been emerging interest in self-led debriefings whereby individuals or groups of learners conduct a debriefing themselves, without the presence of a facilitator. How and why self-led debriefings influence debriefing outcomes remains undetermined.Research aimThe aim of this study was to explore how and why in-person self-led debriefings influence debriefing outcomes for groups of learners in immersive simulation-based education.MethodsAn integrative review was conducted, searching seven electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, ERIC, SCOPUS, CINAHL Plus, PsychINFO) for peer-reviewed empirical studies investigating in-person self-led debriefings for groups of learners. Data were extracted, synthesised, and underwent reflexive thematic analysis.ResultsEighteen empirical studies identified through the search strategy were included in this review. There was significant heterogeneity in respect to study designs, aims, contexts, debriefing formats, learner characteristics, and data collection instruments. The synthesised findings of this review suggest that, across a range of debriefing outcome measures, in-person self-led debriefings for groups of learners following immersive simulation-based education are preferable to conducting no debriefing at all. In certain cultural and professional contexts, such as postgraduate learners and those with previous debriefing experience, self-led debriefings can support effective learning and may provide equivalent educational outcomes to facilitator-led debriefings or self-led and facilitator-led combination strategies. Furthermore, there is some evidence to suggest that self-led and facilitator-led combination approaches may optimise participant learning, with this approach warranting further research. Reflexive thematic analysis of the data revealed four themes, promoting self-reflective practice, experience and background of learners, challenges of conducting self-led debriefings and facilitation and leadership. Similar to facilitator-led debriefings, promoting self-reflective practice within groups of learners is fundamental to how and why self-led debriefings influence debriefing outcomes.ConclusionsIn circumstances where simulation resources for facilitator-led debriefings are limited, self-led debriefings can provide an alternative opportunity to safeguard effective learning. However, their true value within the scope of immersive simulation-based education may lie as an adjunctive method alongside facilitator-led debriefings. Further research is needed to explore how to best enable the process of reflective practice within self-led debriefings to understand how, and in which contexts, self-led debriefings are best employed and thus maximise their potential use.

Vascular Anastomosis Course for Core Surgical Trainees (VACT)

Abstract Introduction: On completion of Core Surgical Training, Core Surgical Trainees (CSTs) are expected to have an understanding of emergency and elective vascular conditions as well as practical experience of vascular suturing. A proportion of CSTs will have a vascular rotation and may have been unable to acquire these skills during their placement. We used the postgraduate virtual learning environment (PGVLE) developed by Health Education England West Midlands (HEEWM) in combination with practical sessions to provide a Vascular Anastomosis Course for CSTs (VACT). There are few courses aimed at teaching CSTs the practical skills needed to become a vascular surgeon. VACT aims to improve tissue handling and teach anastomotic technique to CSTs whilst exposing them to the vascular specialty and increasing their knowledge of vascular disease and its management. Methods: VACT is a one-day course consisting of one hour of online material and a one day in-person session. The online content was distributed via the PGVLE platform and included pre-course video tutorials, information and a survey. The in-person portion of the day included two lectures on vascular surgery and trauma and four practical stations covering embolectomy, inlay grafting, end-to-side anastomosis and patch repair. Course feedback was collected anonymously on PGVLE with automated certificate distribution after completion. The results were analysed qualitatively. Results: Thirty East and West Midlands trainees attended the course, of whom 25 (83%) completed the post-course feedback. Three had been on a previous vascular course and 15 would consider applying for higher level vascular training. Eight trainees (32%) self-scored their knowledge of common vascular conditions as good/excellent before the course; this increased to 20 (74%) post-course. The number of trainees self-scoring themselves as confident/very confident with vascular emergencies increased from 0 (0%) pre-course to 15 (56%) post-course. The delivery, content and equipment for the practical stations was rated as excellent/good by all participants in the embolectomy station and by 96% of participants in all other stations. Prior to the course one person (4%) rated their practical skills in vascular surgery as good/excellent. After the course this increased to 14 (56%). In all four practical stations, self-rated confidence levels increased after completing the course.100% of attendees would recommend this course to their colleagues. Conclusion: Feedback from VACT was extremely positive with comments requesting further similar courses. With an increasing need for vascular surgeons, it is essential we provide CSTs with the skills required to complete core surgical training and pursue a career in vascular surgery. VACT could be replicated and adapted to provide vascular training to CSTs across the country.

A Study on the Construction of Graduate Student Guided Learning Community Model

“Three-whole nurturing”, i.e., all-member, all-process, all-round nurturing, is an important principle to strengthen the ideological and political work of colleges and universities under the new situation, and is also the premise for colleges and universities to answer the fundamental question of “what kind of people to train, how to train people, and for whom to train people”. In the training of postgraduates, the relationship between “guidance” and “learning” runs through the whole process of postgraduate training. In recent years, the relationship between supervisors and postgraduates has caused many problems, and in order to better solve the relationship between postgraduates’ supervision and learning, the postgraduate supervision and learning community has emerged. The article describes the basic connotation of the graduate student guidance community, and puts forward the relevant path to build the graduate student guidance community.

E-Learning and Psychological Wellbeing of Postgraduate Learners in Selected Universities in Nairobi Kenya

This study explores the impact of various e-learning modes on the psychological wellbeing of postgraduate learners in selected universities in Nairobi County. Utilizing the PERMA framework, which assesses Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment, the research evaluates how different e-learning approaches—namely Pure Online Teaching, Distance Learning with access to video recordings, a Combination of Online and Video Recorded Sessions, and Blended Learning (Online and In-Person)—affect psychological wellbeing. A total of 246 postgraduate students participated in the study. Results indicate that Pure Online Teaching yielded the highest overall psychological wellbeing (M=7.40), followed by Blended Learning (M=7.29). Distance Learning with video recordings and the Combination mode showed similar results (M=7.03 and M=7.04, respectively), while Blended Learning exhibited the lowest impact on engagement and the highest levels of loneliness. A One-Way ANOVA revealed that loneliness was significantly affected by the mode of e-learning (p=0.014). These findings suggest that while Pure Online Teaching offers substantial psychological benefits, the effectiveness of e-learning modes in promoting psychological wellbeing varies. This variation has important implications for designing future e-learning frameworks, emphasizing the need to address psychological outcomes to enhance student experiences and support mental health in educational settings. By tailoring e-learning strategies to foster positive emotions and engagement, institutions can better meet the psychological needs of their learners.

Telemedicine and remote training: the impact on obstetrics and gynaecology training

Key content The use of telemedicine in obstetrics and gynaecology clinical practice increased significantly during the COVID‐19 pandemic. This article presents a framework to ensure training opportunities continue during telemedicine consultations, allowing trainees to develop their skills within the framework of telemedicine to optimise consultations and safe clinical practice. Remote teaching offers several advantages and disadvantages over face‐to‐face teaching. The value of each teaching method needs to be considered for the specific setting and the content tailored accordingly. Hybrid delivery is an option now that the infrastructure is in place. Telementoring includes remote supervision of clinics and expert review of, for example, colposcopy and ultrasound images. The technology is available for live‐stream remote supervision of ultrasound and surgery, allowing expert input out of hours or in geographically isolated areas. Telesimulation training can occur remotely and offers the possibility of remote assessment with artificial intelligence. The use of simulation technology may facilitate the standardisation of practical skills assessment in obstetrics and gynaecology. Learning objectives To consider a framework to ensure training opportunities and safe clinical practice during telemedicine consultations. To understand the range of remote training modalities available to improve accessibility to practical skills training and wider access to theoretical knowledge. Ethical issues How can we provide adequate supervision during telemedicine and is there an effect on patient safety? How can trainers and trainees optimise continuing postgraduate learning opportunities as telemedicine and telementoring are established in mainstream clinical practice?

Clinical educators of the medical colleges of South Asia need to be trained for educating clinical reasoning skills to medical students

Clinical reasoning is the process of reasoning to decide for managing the patient using data and applying medical knowledge and experience. Clinical reasoning skills are essential skills for the novice learner of medical education to learn the process of clinical diagnosis, thereby providing safe and effectual health care. These skills learning help clinicians arrive at a diagnosis and prevent making diagnostic errors which are reported to occur in five to 15% of cases. Poor clinical reasoning leads to a diagnostic error which may jeopardize the patient’s safety. The clinical reasoning skills are not generally explicitly imparted to the learners especially during their undergraduate learning period even though these may be documented in the curriculum of medical undergraduate study. The key elements in the clinical reasoning process are the patients’ story, data acquisition, problem representation, hypothesis generation, search and selection of illness script, differential diagnosis, and a leading diagnosis. Clinical reasoning is a complex process, difficult to teach learners and assess their skills, consumes clinical medical educators’ time, and requires resources for teaching and learning. There must be educational strategies both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels to promote diagnostic reasoning skills; for this, clinical medical educators must be acquainted/trained in how to convey the reasoning approaches to beginners. The clinical medical educator has to a play dual role; provide quality care to the patients, teach clinical reasoning skills to the learners, and assess their skills to make them independent decision-makers and problem solvers in clinical settings. Clinical reasoning skills are among the core competencies to be learned by medical learners to become competent clinicians. The clinical competence of the clinician cannot be superseded by the advancement of technology and evidence-based medicine. All these three need to be integrated to minimize the errors in diagnosis. Clinical educators must unequivocally nurture and enhance the capacity of learners to include and integrate both analytical and non-analytical clinical reasoning strategies into their approach to arrive at diagnosis. The clinical medical educator must identify the learners’ approach to clinical reasoning and enable them to follow the right approaches towards clinical reasoning. Clinical reasoning skills are better learned/imparted during clinical encounters and deliberate practice enriches learning of these skills. Enhancement of clinical reasoning skills learning can be achieved through deliberate practice. The clinical medical educator may organize and supervise the simulation-based deliberate practice sessions for the learners to boost their clinical reasoning skills. For the deliberate practice of clinical reasoning skills, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has developed an application NEJM Healer, a screen-based interactive patient encounter (Virtual Bedside Encounter) through which learners are involved in each element of clinical reasoning process. Virtual Reality (VR) is also gaining popularity in educating the medical students and has been demonstrated to be beneficial in enhancing students’ comprehension and memory as well as in the development of transferable skills like surgical methods. The medical schools in South Asian countries need to reiterate the development/enhancement of clinical reasoning skills of both medical undergraduate and postgraduate learners. To achieve this objective, medical colleges must regularly organize training for clinical medical educators to facilitate students’ learning in reasoning skills, and for assessing their skills, and provide feedback to the learners. The institutes should also invest in infrastructure to pursue the use of modern technologies like VR, skills labs, etc. to attain this objective.

An In-Depth Analysis of Canadian Medical Students and Physicians Concussion Knowledge: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Research has shown that concussion education in a proportion of Canadian medical school curriculums is lacking. The objective of this study was to measure concussion knowledge among medical trainees, while comparing the impact of lecture-based and clinical learning on their concussion knowledge scores. Methods: A validated concussion knowledge survey was distributed to MS1, MS2, MS3, and MS4 students, as well as post-graduate learners in family medicine, pediatrics, and emergency medicine. Results: Participants with clinical learning experience (MS3 + MS4 + Residents) scored significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the concussion knowledge test when compared to pre-clinical (MS1 + MS2) participants. 42.2% of participants learned about concussions from a lecture and 28.1% learned from a student organized interest group. Only 25% of participants correctly identified the red flags associated with a concussion. Conclusion: More emphasis should be placed on teaching concussion diagnosis and management in medical education.

Does Virtual Video Endoscopy simulation training aid postgraduate endoscopy trainee learning of pathology in the era of COVID-19?- A single centre experience in a Dublin Teaching Hospital

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on post-graduate gastrointestinal endoscopy education in Ireland. The signature pedagogy of endoscopy education is the hands-on apprenticeship model however this was impeded during the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. To progress endoscopy learning at a time when exposure was reduced, we, as consultant trainers, focused on teaching pathology recognition, a known deficit in the current endoscopy curriculum. A series of five virtual endoscopy simulation sessions consisting of endoscopic videos and pictures demonstrating upper gastrointestinal pathology were taught to six endoscopy trainee specialist registrars in a single Dublin teaching hospital. Pathology quizzes were administered to trainees pre and post undertaking the sessions to measure learning. Semi-structured interviews were used to assess the utility of the sessions and a qualitative analysis of responses was undertaken. Amongst the six trainees, virtual video endoscopy simulation training led to a statistically significant increase in endoscopy trainees’ pathology recognition scores in the post-intervention quiz. All trainees found the virtual video simulation sessions to be useful and relevant to their stage of training, with demonstration of active learning after the teaching sessions. However, the personal and professional effect of the pandemic on trainees was profound, with senior trainees being disproportionally affected. Trainees also identified that the current apprenticeship model for endoscopy learning is no longer fit for purpose. Given the effect of the pandemic on trainee learning it is important that we take a systematic approach to analyse teaching tools that were used during the pandemic to ensure that they are helping trainees reach their learning goals.

The impact of subtitles and transcripts in disciplinary videos for EAL learners

Existing research on instructional videos primarily explores subtitles and transcripts in vocabulary and listening comprehension for English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners, with limited focus on content and language integrated learning (CLIL). This pilot case study investigates how these tools mediate postgraduate EAL learners’ mathematics learning, spotlighting their video consumption approaches and thinking processes. Findings from video-stimulated recall (VSR) and semi-structured interviews highlight the distinct advantages of both transcripts and subtitles in facilitating CLIL. While transcripts provide a robust textual reference, enabling learners to navigate through complex mathematical concepts efficiently, bilingual subtitles foster translanguaging and crosslinguistic strategies, empowering learners to leverage their full linguistic and cognitive repertoire for understanding mathematical concepts. Our findings enhance and refine existing knowledge of video designs, highlighting the crucial, complementary roles of subtitles and transcripts for EAL learners, with implications for developing and implementing instructional videos, endorsing strategic use of both tools to accommodate varied learning needs.

Factors Impacting Art Major Postgraduate Students’ Academic Engagement in Online Learning at the University of Chengndu China

Background and Aim: Amidst China's swift embrace of e-learning, this study delves into the interplay between quality management, e-learning, and academic investigation in higher education. It aims to identify strategies blending academic research, institutional growth, and practical enhancement for optimal educational quality. By addressing the myriad elements affecting e-learning quality, this research offers insights for educational stakeholders, promoting enlightened quality management in modern digital education. Research Method: A survey targeting students, educators, and administrators will quantitatively gauge e-learning quality perceptions and the influence of academic research. Additionally, detailed interviews with a subset of respondents will shed light on their e-learning quality governance experiences. The 425 participants are from Chengdu University and Chengdu Normal University, engaged in online learning in 2021-2022. Results: Students' online engagement inefficiencies arise from distractions like mobile phones, subpar materials, and familial disruptions. Online learning presents challenges for college students, such as tracking progress and teacher-student interaction. The shift from traditional teaching due to the epidemic has introduced hurdles like diminished focus, limited instant communication, and eye strain. Conclusion: The University of Chengdu's study on factors impacting art major postgraduate students' online learning engagement offers valuable insights for enhancing online education during the pandemic, underlining crucial areas requiring attention and development to ensure a successful transition while upholding instructional standards.

Parasitological Laboratory diagnosis of operculated eggs: A Competency-Based-model by Microbiology Postgraduate Learners at Armed Forces College of Medicine

Parasitological Laboratory diagnosis of operculated eggs: A Competency-Based-model by Microbiology Postgraduate Learners at Armed Forces College of Medicine