Traditional Classroom Courses Research Articles

Developing Intercultural Competence via Virtual Exchange Programs: The Case of Moroccan University Students

This article presents the results of a study conducted at the School of Law and Economics of Casablanca. The study explores the effect of intercultural interventions in developing the learners’ intercultural competence. Two groups of informants representing two different master programs participated in this study. While the control group (29) attended only a traditional classroom course on Intercultural Awareness in Business, the treatment group (37) took the same class and also participated in a virtual exchange program that counted for 15% of their final grades. The study used the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) to investigate the developmental patterns of the learners’ intercultural competence following the two intercultural interventions. The study sought to investigate how virtual exchange programs affected participants' intercultural competence and sensitivity in comparison to those who had a traditional classroom experience. The results exhibited significantly elevated levels of intercultural sensitivity in the treatment group compared to the control group, indicating that the treatment group exhibited markedly significant levels. The findings provide support for the recommendation to implement virtual exchange programs as a practical method to improve employability skills and global awareness among university students. Consequently, these findings substantiate the recommendation to incorporate virtual exchange programs as an efficacious approach for enhancing employability skills and fostering global awareness within formal academic settings, particularly among university students.

The sudden switch to online communication training after 10 years in the classroom – comparing the evaluation results of a course on doctor-patient communication

Objective: The aim of the study was to find out whether it is possible to successfully convert a communication course for around 400 students to a blended-learning format (asynchronous theoretical course/synchronous digital practical course). The main focus thereby was on assessing subjective learning progress and the extent to which the importance of communication and doctor-patient communication can be conveyed online. The study is based on the results of an evaluation of the opinions of both the students and the lecturers that participated in the course. Methods: The students, who were in their fourth preclinical semester in 2020, were asked to fill in a self-assessment sheet at the beginning of the course, and following its completion. The feedback provided by the lecturers was also assessed. In order to compare the results and identify possible discrepancies, the corresponding self-assessment and evaluation results for the past 10 years (stemming from traditional classroom courses) were also taken into account. Results: Participants in the online courses reported distinct subjective learning progress, and greater progress than was reported for traditional courses in previous years. The suitability of the online format was viewed critically by both students and lecturers, while the course atmosphere was seen positively. The relevance of doctor-patient communication was assessed particularly highly in the online format. Conclusion: Based on the results of the evaluation, the experience gained from the blended-learning format will be included into future iterations of the communication course at Goethe University Frankfurt. The results have shown that doctor-patient communication can be learned well online. This format can therefore be recommended for new learning concepts in the future.

Cognitive IoT-Based e-Learning System: Enabling Context-Aware Remote Schooling during the Pandemic.

The 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic had far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease and efforts to cure it. Today, it is obvious that the pandemic devastated key sectors ranging from health to economy, culture, and education. As far as education is concerned, one direct result of the spread of the pandemic was the resort to suspending traditional in-person classroom courses and relying on remote learning and homeschooling instead, by exploiting e-learning technologies, but many challenges are faced by these technologies. Most of these challenges are centered around the efficiency of these delivery methods, interactivity, and knowledge testing. These issues raise the need to develop an advanced smart educational system that assists home-schooled students, provides teachers with a range of smart new tools, and enable a dynamic and interactive e-learning experience. Technologies like the Internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), including cognitive models and context-awareness, can be a driving force in the future of e-learning, opening many opportunities to overcome the limitation of the existing remote learning systems and provide an efficient reliable augmented learning experience. Furthermore, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), introduced in education as a way for asynchronous learning, can be a second driving force of future synchronous learning. The teacher and students can see each other in a virtual class even if they are geographically spread in a city, a country, or the globe. The main goal of this work is to design and provide a model supporting intelligent teaching assisting and engaging e-learning activity. This paper presents a new model, ViRICTA, an intelligent system, proposing an end-to-end solution with a stack technology integrating the Internet of things and artificial intelligence. The designed system aims to enable a valuable learning experience, providing an efficient, interactive, and proactive context-aware learning smart services.

Using process mining for Git log analysis of projects in a software development course

Understanding the processes in education, such as the student learning behavior within a specific course, is a key to continuous course improvement. In online learning systems, students’ learning can be tracked and examined based on data collected by the systems themselves. However, it is non-trivial to decide how to extract the desired students’ behavior from the limited data in traditional classroom courses. Software development courses are a domain where student behavior analysis would be especially useful, as continuous teaching improvement in this fast progressing domain is necessary. In this paper, we propose to use process mining for improvement-motivated process analysis of a software development course (web development in particular). To this end, we analyze Git logs of students’ projects to understand their development processes. Process mining has been chosen as it can help us to find a descriptive model of this process. The main contribution of this paper is the detailed methodology of process mining usage for students’ project development analysis, considering various commit characteristics, which are crucial in understanding student coding-behavior patterns. The process mining analysis proved to be very useful, indicating multiple directions for the course improvement, which we also include in this work as a secondary contribution. The third contribution of this work is the summary and discussion of the process mining advantages and current gaps in process mining research for this task. The data we used are made publicly available to other researchers.

Fatores críticos de sucesso percebidos por estudantes na adoção de disciplinas semipresenciais em cursos presenciais

Blended learning has been a short term trend and its wide range of applications has aroused the interest of researchers. Therefore, this research aims to identify which are the critical success factors for adoption of blended learning subjects in traditional classroom courses, from the students' perspective. The investigation took place in a private Higher Education Institution, in south Brazil, through the application of questionnaires to 331 students taking courses in the blendend learning modality. The analysis was performed in a qualitative way, through content analysis, and quantitative way, with the comparison of categorical variables through calculations of the statistics of the relationship between them. The results point to the following critical success factors: first, teachers 'digital competence must be developed, as they need to be well prepared to help in the development of students' digital competence. From this, other factors become decisive, such as technology, which must have a friendly interface, be easy to navigate, promote interaction and collaborative construction of knowledge. In addition, the disciplines must be structured with the application of active learning methodologies and with the adoption of a variety of activities that have, mainly, visual stimulus. All the factors raised are interdependent and need continuous improvement.

Which values determine choice between online courses and traditional classroom courses? perspective of digital natives in Gujarat

The purpose of the study is to find the various consumption values that determine Digital natives “decision to choose between online courses and traditional classroom courses. An exploratory qualitative method was adopted with sample consisting of students pursuing higher education in Gujarat, India. Three focus group discussions (FGD)with a total of 27 participants were conducted to explore the various consumption values that influence the decision to adopt online courses. The FGDs revealed thirty-six consumption values pertaining to functional, emotional, conditional, epistemic and social value. The study is the first to be conducted in the state of Gujarat to determine the consumption values with respect to online learning especially from the perspective of digital natives.

Adoption of e-learning as a supplement and an alternative to traditional classroom courses: A systematic review

The purpose of the paper is to synthesise the literature of e-learning adoption to determine the factors and barriers affecting adoption of e-learning as a supplement and as an alternative to traditional classroom courses. The paper categorises and summarises studies conducted from the perspective of various stakeholders in e-learning through a thematic analysis of extensive literature published. The study has found common as well as unique barriers and factors influencing the adoption of e-learning across different types of e-learning usage (Blended learning, Mobile learning and Online courses) as well as role of the user (User as a technology adopter, user as a learner and user as a consumer). The study will be useful for developing guidelines for adoption of e-learning.

Blended learning in medical physiology improves nursing students' study efficiency.

The rapid development of mobile phones and communication networks is profoundly changing the lives of people in China. With the gradual growth of Wi-Fi on college and university campuses, Chinese schools are setting off a wave of teaching reform combining online material with traditional classroom instruction. We adapted a Chinese University massive open online course physiology course into a private university online course, specifically designed for second-semester bachelor's level nursing students at Taishan Medical University. This online course blended with classroom teaching was offered to 108 freshmen from two parallel reform classes. A third class of 55 students was offered the traditional classroom lecture-based course as a control. Impressive teaching effects were achieved in reform classes, as indicated by significant improvement in student performance on the final examination and positive student feedback. The student surveys showed that 68% of students preferred the blended course over traditional classroom courses. The most highly rated advantages of the blended course were flexible learning time (84%) and improvement of independent study skills (75%). As higher education enters the internet era, exploiting the high-quality cyber resources may be the fastest and most economical way to improve teaching efficiency and enhance students' study experience.

A comparison study of online and traditional student withdrawal rates at a university in the northeastern United States

Since its inception, online education has posed challenges over traditional classroom courses. In particular, withdrawal rates appear to be more likely among online courses than those in traditiona...

Comparison of Flipped Model to Traditional Classroom Learning in a Professional Pharmacy Course

The flipped classroom is an approach to incorporate active learning that is being used in secondary education, higher education, and professional schools. This study investigates its impact on student learning and confidence in a professional degree program course. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to evaluate pharmacy students enrolled in a semester-long didactic traditional classroom course compared to students learning the same material using a flipped model through online self-study modules in a hands-on experiential learning course. Before and after each learning experience, students of each group completed a 16-item knowledge assessment on four topic areas and rated their level of confidence with each topic area on a Likert scale. There was a significant difference in knowledge with students in the traditional course scoring higher than students using flipped approach in the experiential course. Furthermore, the flipped experiential course students did not improve assessment scores from pre-test to post-test. For confidence rating, the traditional course group ranked confidence higher than the flipped experiential group for all topics. These findings challenge the notion that the flipped model using self-study in an experiential setting can be a substitution for didactic delivery of pharmacy education.

THE PLAYERS PERSPECTIVES OF ONLINE EDUCATION

ABSTRACT After thirteen years of tracking by expert statisticians, general consensus among researchers is that online courses are well-established into the education culture and will continue indefinitely. Instead of asking if the courses are relevant, therefore, a better approach would be to investigate if the myths surrounding online education are true. Focusing on students, instructors, academic institutions, and employers this paper seeks to sort misconception (myth) from reality. The greatest of these misconceptions is that online courses are a substitute for traditional classroom courses. This is unrealistic as distance learning is only one answer to the changing needs of those desiring an education. Students desiring flexibility or a foreign education benefit greatly, and academic institutions and employers are supporting the online agenda students have of receiving a quality education. Instructors, as well as students, are taking the bulk of the responsibility in ensuring the success of the courses. Hence, if delivered well, distance learning can provide a quality education. Keywords online education, myths of online education, realities of online education, sources less than eight years old regarding online education

SU‐A‐BRA‐01: Introduction

Vic Montemayor ‐ No one has been more passionate about improving the quality and effectiveness of the teaching of Medical Physics than Bill Hendee. It was in August of 2008 that the first AAPM Workshop on Becoming a Better Teacher of Medical Physics was held, organized and run by Bill Hendee. This was followed up in July of 2010 with a summer school on the same topic, again organized by Bill.There has been continued interest in alternate approaches to teaching medical physics since those initial gatherings. The momentum established by these workshops is made clear each year in the annual Innovation in Medical Physics Education session, which highlights work being done in all forms of medical physics education, from one‐on‐one residencies or classroom presentations to large‐scale program revisions and on‐line resources for international audiences.This symposium, presented on behalf of the Education Council, highlights the work of three finalists from past Innovation in Education sessions. Each will be presenting their approaches to and innovations in teaching medical physics. It is hoped that audience members interested in trying something new in their teaching of medical physics will find some of these ideas and approaches readily applicable to their own classrooms.Rebecca Howell ‐ The presentation will discuss ways to maximize classroom learning, i.e., increasing the amount of material covered while also enhancing students’ understanding of the broader implications of the course topics. Specifically, the presentation will focus on two teaching methodologies, project based learning and flip learning. These teaching methods will be illustrated using an example of graduate medical physics course where both are used in conjunction with traditional lectures. Additionally, the presentation will focus on our experience implementing these methods including challenges that were overcome.Jay Burmeister ‐ My presentation will discuss the incorporation of active learning techniques into a traditional medical physics classroom course. I will describe these techniques and how they were implemented as well as student performance before and after implementation. Student feedback indicated that these course changes improved their ability to actively assimilate the course content, thus improving their understanding of the material.Shahid Naqvi ‐ My talk will focus on ways to help students visualize crucial concepts that lie at the core of radiation physics. Although particle tracks generated by Monte Carlo simulations have served as an indispensable visualization tool, students often struggle to resolve the underlying physics from a simultaneous jumble of tracks. We can clarify the physics by “coding” the tracks, e.g., by coloring the tracks according to their “starting” or “crossing” regions. The regionally‐coded tracks when overlaid with dose distributions help the students see the elusive connection between dose, kerma and electronic disequilibrium. Tracks coded according to local energy or energy‐loss rate can illustrate the need for stopping power corrections in electron beams and explain the Bragg peak in a proton beam. Coding tracks according to parent interaction type and order can clarify the often misunderstood distinction between primary and scatter dose. The students can thus see the “whole” simultaneously with the “sum of the parts,” which enhances their physical insight and creates a sustainable foundation for further learning.After the presentations the speakers and moderator will be open to questions and discussion with the audience members. Learning Objectives: Be able to explain Project‐Based Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain Flipped Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain active‐learning strategies for the teaching of Medical Physics. Be able to explain how Monte Carlo simulations can be used to deepen a student's understanding of radiation physics and dosimetry.

SU‐A‐BRA‐02: Making the Most of a One Hour Lecture with Alternative Teaching Methodologies: Implementing Project‐Based and Flipped Learning

Vic Montemayor ‐ No one has been more passionate about improving the quality and effectiveness of the teaching of Medical Physics than Bill Hendee. It was in August of 2008 that the first AAPM Workshop on Becoming a Better Teacher of Medical Physics was held, organized and run by Bill Hendee. This was followed up in July of 2010 with a summer school on the same topic, again organized by Bill.There has been continued interest in alternate approaches to teaching medical physics since those initial gatherings. The momentum established by these workshops is made clear each year in the annual Innovation in Medical Physics Education session, which highlights work being done in all forms of medical physics education, from one‐on‐one residencies or classroom presentations to large‐scale program revisions and on‐line resources for international audiences.This symposium, presented on behalf of the Education Council, highlights the work of three finalists from past Innovation in Education sessions. Each will be presenting their approaches to and innovations in teaching medical physics. It is hoped that audience members interested in trying something new in their teaching of medical physics will find some of these ideas and approaches readily applicable to their own classrooms.Rebecca Howell ‐ The presentation will discuss ways to maximize classroom learning, i.e., increasing the amount of material covered while also enhancing students’ understanding of the broader implications of the course topics. Specifically, the presentation will focus on two teaching methodologies, project based learning and flip learning. These teaching methods will be illustrated using an example of graduate medical physics course where both are used in conjunction with traditional lectures. Additionally, the presentation will focus on our experience implementing these methods including challenges that were overcome.Jay Burmeister ‐ My presentation will discuss the incorporation of active learning techniques into a traditional medical physics classroom course. I will describe these techniques and how they were implemented as well as student performance before and after implementation. Student feedback indicated that these course changes improved their ability to actively assimilate the course content, thus improving their understanding of the material.Shahid Naqvi ‐ My talk will focus on ways to help students visualize crucial concepts that lie at the core of radiation physics. Although particle tracks generated by Monte Carlo simulations have served as an indispensable visualization tool, students often struggle to resolve the underlying physics from a simultaneous jumble of tracks. We can clarify the physics by “coding” the tracks, e.g., by coloring the tracks according to their “starting” or “crossing” regions. The regionally‐coded tracks when overlaid with dose distributions help the students see the elusive connection between dose, kerma and electronic disequilibrium. Tracks coded according to local energy or energy‐loss rate can illustrate the need for stopping power corrections in electron beams and explain the Bragg peak in a proton beam. Coding tracks according to parent interaction type and order can clarify the often misunderstood distinction between primary and scatter dose. The students can thus see the “whole” simultaneously with the “sum of the parts,” which enhances their physical insight and creates a sustainable foundation for further learning.After the presentations the speakers and moderator will be open to questions and discussion with the audience members. Learning Objectives: Be able to explain Project‐Based Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain Flipped Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain active‐learning strategies for the teaching of Medical Physics. Be able to explain how Monte Carlo simulations can be used to deepen a student's understanding of radiation physics and dosimetry.

SU‐A‐BRA‐03: Creative Stimulation: A Flexible Hands‐On Approach to Building a Deeper Understanding of Critical Concepts in Radiation Physics

Vic Montemayor ‐ No one has been more passionate about improving the quality and effectiveness of the teaching of Medical Physics than Bill Hendee. It was in August of 2008 that the first AAPM Workshop on Becoming a Better Teacher of Medical Physics was held, organized and run by Bill Hendee. This was followed up in July of 2010 with a summer school on the same topic, again organized by Bill.There has been continued interest in alternate approaches to teaching medical physics since those initial gatherings. The momentum established by these workshops is made clear each year in the annual Innovation in Medical Physics Education session, which highlights work being done in all forms of medical physics education, from one‐on‐one residencies or classroom presentations to large‐scale program revisions and on‐line resources for international audiences.This symposium, presented on behalf of the Education Council, highlights the work of three finalists from past Innovation in Education sessions. Each will be presenting their approaches to and innovations in teaching medical physics. It is hoped that audience members interested in trying something new in their teaching of medical physics will find some of these ideas and approaches readily applicable to their own classrooms.Rebecca Howell ‐ The presentation will discuss ways to maximize classroom learning, i.e., increasing the amount of material covered while also enhancing students’ understanding of the broader implications of the course topics. Specifically, the presentation will focus on two teaching methodologies, project based learning and flip learning. These teaching methods will be illustrated using an example of graduate medical physics course where both are used in conjunction with traditional lectures. Additionally, the presentation will focus on our experience implementing these methods including challenges that were overcome.Jay Burmeister ‐ My presentation will discuss the incorporation of active learning techniques into a traditional medical physics classroom course. I will describe these techniques and how they were implemented as well as student performance before and after implementation. Student feedback indicated that these course changes improved their ability to actively assimilate the course content, thus improving their understanding of the material.Shahid Naqvi ‐ My talk will focus on ways to help students visualize crucial concepts that lie at the core of radiation physics. Although particle tracks generated by Monte Carlo simulations have served as an indispensable visualization tool, students often struggle to resolve the underlying physics from a simultaneous jumble of tracks. We can clarify the physics by “coding” the tracks, e.g., by coloring the tracks according to their “starting” or “crossing” regions. The regionally‐coded tracks when overlaid with dose distributions help the students see the elusive connection between dose, kerma and electronic disequilibrium. Tracks coded according to local energy or energy‐loss rate can illustrate the need for stopping power corrections in electron beams and explain the Bragg peak in a proton beam. Coding tracks according to parent interaction type and order can clarify the often misunderstood distinction between primary and scatter dose. The students can thus see the “whole” simultaneously with the “sum of the parts,” which enhances their physical insight and creates a sustainable foundation for further learning.After the presentations the speakers and moderator will be open to questions and discussion with the audience members. Learning Objectives: Be able to explain Project‐Based Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain Flipped Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain active‐learning strategies for the teaching of Medical Physics. Be able to explain how Monte Carlo simulations can be used to deepen a student's understanding of radiation physics and dosimetry.

SU‐A‐BRA‐00: Education Council Symposium: Revitalizing Your Medical Physics Classroom: Some Examples and Thoughts from the Trenches

Vic Montemayor ‐ No one has been more passionate about improving the quality and effectiveness of the teaching of Medical Physics than Bill Hendee. It was in August of 2008 that the first AAPM Workshop on Becoming a Better Teacher of Medical Physics was held, organized and run by Bill Hendee. This was followed up in July of 2010 with a summer school on the same topic, again organized by Bill.There has been continued interest in alternate approaches to teaching medical physics since those initial gatherings. The momentum established by these workshops is made clear each year in the annual Innovation in Medical Physics Education session, which highlights work being done in all forms of medical physics education, from one‐on‐one residencies or classroom presentations to large‐scale program revisions and on‐line resources for international audiences.This symposium, presented on behalf of the Education Council, highlights the work of three finalists from past Innovation in Education sessions. Each will be presenting their approaches to and innovations in teaching medical physics. It is hoped that audience members interested in trying something new in their teaching of medical physics will find some of these ideas and approaches readily applicable to their own classrooms.Rebecca Howell ‐ The presentation will discuss ways to maximize classroom learning, i.e., increasing the amount of material covered while also enhancing students’ understanding of the broader implications of the course topics. Specifically, the presentation will focus on two teaching methodologies, project based learning and flip learning. These teaching methods will be illustrated using an example of graduate medical physics course where both are used in conjunction with traditional lectures. Additionally, the presentation will focus on our experience implementing these methods including challenges that were overcome.Jay Burmeister ‐ My presentation will discuss the incorporation of active learning techniques into a traditional medical physics classroom course. I will describe these techniques and how they were implemented as well as student performance before and after implementation. Student feedback indicated that these course changes improved their ability to actively assimilate the course content, thus improving their understanding of the material.Shahid Naqvi ‐ My talk will focus on ways to help students visualize crucial concepts that lie at the core of radiation physics. Although particle tracks generated by Monte Carlo simulations have served as an indispensable visualization tool, students often struggle to resolve the underlying physics from a simultaneous jumble of tracks. We can clarify the physics by “coding” the tracks, e.g., by coloring the tracks according to their “starting” or “crossing” regions. The regionally‐coded tracks when overlaid with dose distributions help the students see the elusive connection between dose, kerma and electronic disequilibrium. Tracks coded according to local energy or energy‐loss rate can illustrate the need for stopping power corrections in electron beams and explain the Bragg peak in a proton beam. Coding tracks according to parent interaction type and order can clarify the often misunderstood distinction between primary and scatter dose. The students can thus see the “whole” simultaneously with the “sum of the parts,” which enhances their physical insight and creates a sustainable foundation for further learning.After the presentations the speakers and moderator will be open to questions and discussion with the audience members. Learning Objectives: Be able to explain Project‐Based Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain Flipped Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain active‐learning strategies for the teaching of Medical Physics. Be able to explain how Monte Carlo simulations can be used to deepen a student's understanding of radiation physics and dosimetry.

SU‐A‐BRA‐05: Panel Discussion

Vic Montemayor ‐ No one has been more passionate about improving the quality and effectiveness of the teaching of Medical Physics than Bill Hendee. It was in August of 2008 that the first AAPM Workshop on Becoming a Better Teacher of Medical Physics was held, organized and run by Bill Hendee. This was followed up in July of 2010 with a summer school on the same topic, again organized by Bill.There has been continued interest in alternate approaches to teaching medical physics since those initial gatherings. The momentum established by these workshops is made clear each year in the annual Innovation in Medical Physics Education session, which highlights work being done in all forms of medical physics education, from one‐on‐one residencies or classroom presentations to large‐scale program revisions and on‐line resources for international audiences.This symposium, presented on behalf of the Education Council, highlights the work of three finalists from past Innovation in Education sessions. Each will be presenting their approaches to and innovations in teaching medical physics. It is hoped that audience members interested in trying something new in their teaching of medical physics will find some of these ideas and approaches readily applicable to their own classrooms.Rebecca Howell ‐ The presentation will discuss ways to maximize classroom learning, i.e., increasing the amount of material covered while also enhancing students’ understanding of the broader implications of the course topics. Specifically, the presentation will focus on two teaching methodologies, project based learning and flip learning. These teaching methods will be illustrated using an example of graduate medical physics course where both are used in conjunction with traditional lectures. Additionally, the presentation will focus on our experience implementing these methods including challenges that were overcome.Jay Burmeister ‐ My presentation will discuss the incorporation of active learning techniques into a traditional medical physics classroom course. I will describe these techniques and how they were implemented as well as student performance before and after implementation. Student feedback indicated that these course changes improved their ability to actively assimilate the course content, thus improving their understanding of the material.Shahid Naqvi ‐ My talk will focus on ways to help students visualize crucial concepts that lie at the core of radiation physics. Although particle tracks generated by Monte Carlo simulations have served as an indispensable visualization tool, students often struggle to resolve the underlying physics from a simultaneous jumble of tracks. We can clarify the physics by “coding” the tracks, e.g., by coloring the tracks according to their “starting” or “crossing” regions. The regionally‐coded tracks when overlaid with dose distributions help the students see the elusive connection between dose, kerma and electronic disequilibrium. Tracks coded according to local energy or energy‐loss rate can illustrate the need for stopping power corrections in electron beams and explain the Bragg peak in a proton beam. Coding tracks according to parent interaction type and order can clarify the often misunderstood distinction between primary and scatter dose. The students can thus see the “whole” simultaneously with the “sum of the parts,” which enhances their physical insight and creates a sustainable foundation for further learning.After the presentations the speakers and moderator will be open to questions and discussion with the audience members. Learning Objectives: Be able to explain Project‐Based Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain Flipped Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain active‐learning strategies for the teaching of Medical Physics. Be able to explain how Monte Carlo simulations can be used to deepen a student's understanding of radiation physics and dosimetry.

SU‐A‐BRA‐04: Incorporating Active Learning Into Medical Physics Education

Vic Montemayor ‐ No one has been more passionate about improving the quality and effectiveness of the teaching of Medical Physics than Bill Hendee. It was in August of 2008 that the first AAPM Workshop on Becoming a Better Teacher of Medical Physics was held, organized and run by Bill Hendee. This was followed up in July of 2010 with a summer school on the same topic, again organized by Bill.There has been continued interest in alternate approaches to teaching medical physics since those initial gatherings. The momentum established by these workshops is made clear each year in the annual Innovation in Medical Physics Education session, which highlights work being done in all forms of medical physics education, from one‐on‐one residencies or classroom presentations to large‐scale program revisions and on‐line resources for international audiences.This symposium, presented on behalf of the Education Council, highlights the work of three finalists from past Innovation in Education sessions. Each will be presenting their approaches to and innovations in teaching medical physics. It is hoped that audience members interested in trying something new in their teaching of medical physics will find some of these ideas and approaches readily applicable to their own classrooms.Rebecca Howell ‐ The presentation will discuss ways to maximize classroom learning, i.e., increasing the amount of material covered while also enhancing students’ understanding of the broader implications of the course topics. Specifically, the presentation will focus on two teaching methodologies, project based learning and flip learning. These teaching methods will be illustrated using an example of graduate medical physics course where both are used in conjunction with traditional lectures. Additionally, the presentation will focus on our experience implementing these methods including challenges that were overcome.Jay Burmeister ‐ My presentation will discuss the incorporation of active learning techniques into a traditional medical physics classroom course. I will describe these techniques and how they were implemented as well as student performance before and after implementation. Student feedback indicated that these course changes improved their ability to actively assimilate the course content, thus improving their understanding of the material.Shahid Naqvi ‐ My talk will focus on ways to help students visualize crucial concepts that lie at the core of radiation physics. Although particle tracks generated by Monte Carlo simulations have served as an indispensable visualization tool, students often struggle to resolve the underlying physics from a simultaneous jumble of tracks. We can clarify the physics by “coding” the tracks, e.g., by coloring the tracks according to their “starting” or “crossing” regions. The regionally‐coded tracks when overlaid with dose distributions help the students see the elusive connection between dose, kerma and electronic disequilibrium. Tracks coded according to local energy or energy‐loss rate can illustrate the need for stopping power corrections in electron beams and explain the Bragg peak in a proton beam. Coding tracks according to parent interaction type and order can clarify the often misunderstood distinction between primary and scatter dose. The students can thus see the “whole” simultaneously with the “sum of the parts,” which enhances their physical insight and creates a sustainable foundation for further learning.After the presentations the speakers and moderator will be open to questions and discussion with the audience members. Learning Objectives: Be able to explain Project‐Based Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain Flipped Learning and how can it be incorporated into a Medical Physics classroom. Be able to explain active‐learning strategies for the teaching of Medical Physics. Be able to explain how Monte Carlo simulations can be used to deepen a student's understanding of radiation physics and dosimetry.

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.

Predicting Grades

To increase efficacy in traditional classroom courses as well as in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), automated systems supporting the instructor are needed. One important problem is to automatically detect students that are going to do poorly in a course early enough to be able to take remedial actions. Existing grade prediction systems focus on maximizing the accuracy of the prediction while overseeing the importance of issuing timely and personalized predictions. This paper proposes an algorithm that predicts the final grade of each student in a class. It issues a prediction for each student individually, when the expected accuracy of the prediction is sufficient. The algorithm learns online what is the optimal prediction and time to issue a prediction based on past history of students' performance in a course. We derive a confidence estimate for the prediction accuracy and demonstrate the performance of our algorithm on a dataset obtained based on the performance of approximately 700 UCLA undergraduate students who have taken an introductory digital signal processing over the past 7 years. We demonstrate that for 85% of the students we can predict with 76% accuracy whether they are going do well or poorly in the class after the 4th course week. Using data obtained from a pilot course, our methodology suggests that it is effective to perform early in-class assessments such as quizzes, which result in timely performance prediction for each student, thereby enabling timely interventions by the instructor (at the student or class level) when necessary.

Teaching Online Versus Teaching hybrid and in class

This paper deals with the question: How is hybrid teaching different from online and conventional teaching? In this paper we compare hybrid, face-to-face class-room and online teaching. We found that the numbers of students enrolled in online courses are significantly higher than the number of students enrolled in face-to-face courses. Furthermore, online degrees now offer the same exact course work as hybrid and traditional classroom courses. So the choice of mode of learning comes down to students’ personal preferences. Some students often try out an online course only to find that they like hybrid or traditional classroom instruction better. We believe hybrid courses better meet the needs of most students: they provide a learning style that requires students participate in classroom instruction where they can visually and verbally interact with the instructor and their peers, but yet has the convenience of reducing the need for driving, which saves gas, and also serve to develop students’ Internet, technology and virtual team skills by participating in online discussions, tests and other virtual learning activities.