Traditional Training Courses Research Articles

The effect of virtual reality technology and education on sustainable behavior: a comparative quasi-experimental study

PurposeSustainability is one of the global challenges, individuals and businesses need to change their behavior and consumption patterns to move towards sustainable development. This is not possible without planning for education and related knowledge transfer. On the other hand, disruptive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) have revolutionized the field of education. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of holding traditional training courses and VR-based training courses on sustainable behavior.Design/methodology/approachIt is a quasi-experimental study, in which pretest-posttest design and control group are used. The statistical population includes students of one of the Iranian universities. A total of 105 students were randomly divided into two experimental groups and one control group (35 students in each group). Experimental group 1 underwent a training course using VR and Experimental group 2 received a traditional training course. At first, a pre-test was performed and after completing the eight-session period (two 1-h sessions per week), the post-test was conducted again for the groups.FindingsThe results of analysis of variance test show that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of sustainable behaviors in the post-test phase in the two experimental groups and the control group. Using Tukey’s test, it was found that the scores of sustainable behavior were different among three groups in pairs. That is, holding a training course as well as using VR has been effective on sustainable behavior. Environmental policymakers and planners can use technologies such as VR to teach environmental issues to create a culture of sustainability and sustainable development, in addition to training and educational courses.Originality/valueContribution of this study shows that the use of VR can be effective in learning sustainable behavior. Also, holding training courses is a way to change the consumption pattern and behavior of people to maintain the environment and sustainability.

Simulation‐based training module on urosepsis improves knowledge and skills of urology nurses in Karachi, Pakistan: A brief project report

AbstractSimulation‐based training has become an essential part of medical and healthcare education. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the improvement in knowledge and skills of nurses by introducing a new training methodology simulation‐based training module. A ‘cause and effect’ tool was used to identify care concerns and learning needs experienced by urology nurses in patient care settings. Early identification and management of sepsis/urosepsis was identified as a learning theme. A timeline was set and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Quality Improvement Model, methodology was used to enact a plan‐do‐study‐act cycle to develop a strategy for project execution. To improve care provided by urology nurses and to improve the clinical outcomes, a biannual traditional training course for urology nurses was refurbished converting it into a simulation‐based training module. Via this module nursing staff gained knowledge about a standard sepsis protocol and were able to perform focused assessment on a high fidelity SimMan 3G® simulator. Staff were further able to identify early signs of urosepsis and demonstrate an ability in its initial management. Participants had skills signed off at the end of simulation‐based training session. Improvement in knowledge was assessed by multiple choice questions following pre and post‐tests. An online evaluation form was filled by each participant to assess effectiveness of module and strengths, weaknesses opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis was done. Fifty four out of 93 nurses within a Nephrology‐Urology service participated. Improvement in knowledge was calculated by pre‐test average score about recognition and early management of sepsis which was 59%, with an average post‐test score of 75%. Besides this, nurses were evaluated for skills sign off with at least a ‘satisfactory’ performance. At the end of the session evaluation forms were completed by the participants to determine the perceived usefulness of the training. A SWOT analysis identified the main strength of the project which was that it offered hands‐on skills to identify early warning signs of sepsis along with the opportunity to practice the management of these issues efficiently. Simulation‐based module significantly improved the knowledge and skills of urology nurses and participants demonstrated a positive attitude toward this new pedagogy.

ЭЛЕКТРОННОЕ ОБУЧЕНИЕ ДЛЯ МАЛЫХ И СРЕДНИХ ПРЕДПРИЯТИЙ

This article is aimed at studying the advantages and disadvantages of the e-learning system and distinguishing the concepts of e-learning and distance learning. The companies in question were representatives of the Russian domestic market and did not operate abroad. The introduction of gamification in particular and e-learning in general can be considered a useful strategy for improving organizational performance not only in large companies, but also in SMEs. Moreover, given the lower cost of online training compared to traditional training courses, online training remains an excellent alternative for SMEs, since the costs of its implementation will be fully recouped from the profit received.

Role of hospital leadership in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hospitals all around the world play an essential role in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. During an epidemic event, hospital leaders frequently face new challenges requiring them to perform unaccustomed tasks, which might be well beyond the scope of their previous practice and experience. While no absolute set of characteristics is necessary in all leadership situations, certain traits, skills and competencies tend to be more critical than others in crisis management times. We will discuss some of the most important ones in this manuscript. To strengthen those managerial competencies needed to face outbreaks, healthcare leaders should be better supported by competency-based training courses as it is more and more clear that traditional training courses are not as effective as they were supposed to be. It seems we should look at the COVID-19 pandemic as a learning opportunity to re-frame what we expect from hospital leaders and to re-think the way we train, assess and evaluate them.

Applied theatre, puppetry and emotional skills in healthcare: A cross-disciplinary pedagogical framework

Artists such as actors and puppeteers in health care face emotional challenges in their work. This article investigates the interpersonal competencies and emotional skills of the artist who uses puppets in their practice in health-care contexts and settings. We present initial findings from phase B of a wider longitudinal study. Phase A focused on actors in hospitals and drama trainees; Phase B uses qualitative research methods with actors, puppeteers and therapists as participants. Content analysis of data reveals that the main competencies the artist needs to deal with emotional incidents in health care are empathy, self- and social awareness, self-care, self-reflection, emotional resilience and active listening. These skills are needed alongside acting and puppetry skills to develop competent and professional artists in healthcare. The study offers evidence to further develop strategies of receiving, processing and communicating emotions safely and effectively within the protection of the artform. This study therefore diverts our attention from traditional training courses that are mainly about learning artistic skills to a cross-disciplinary pedagogical framework that aims to enable artists to observe, reflect and process emotions before, during and after a performance with patients as theatre ‘audience’-participants.

Формирование установок безопасного вождения у начинающих водителей

Drinking and driving is one of the most pressing issues in road safety worldwide. Alcohol impaired driving significantly increases the risk of being involved in a road crash and the severity of its consequences. Alcohol related crashes are the leading course of death and disability — they account for up to 60% of the fatalities in road crashes, while “drunk” crashes account for only about 10% of the total number of car accidents. This problem is relevant for all countries where the use of alcoholic beverages is legalized. In this study, we experimentally researched the formation of social attitudes of safe driving among novice drivers associated with drinking and driving. The experimental group of learning drivers received an additional module “Drinking and Driving are incompatible” incorporated into the traditional training course. The experiment revealed statistically significant differences in the cognitive component of the attitude of novice drivers and the absence of such in the affective and behavioral components.

PEDAGOGICAL CONDITIONS OF TRANSFORMATION OF MATHEMATICAL COURSES AT THE AGRONOMIC FACULTY IN CONDITIONS OF DEEPENING THE INTEGRATION TIES IN THE SYSTEM OF «SCIENCE-EDUCATION-PRODUCTION»

Modern high-tech and knowledge-intensive professional environment presupposes the existence of a practice-oriented potential of personnel, the fundamental foundations of knowledge and ways of thinking of future farmers. The aim of the study is to analyze ways to solve the problem of transforming mathematical courses at the agronomic faculty in the context of deepening integration ties in the «science-education-production» system. The aim of the paper: to prove the leading role of the mathematical component of the professional innovation competence of future farmers; justify the pedagogical conditions of the formation of the content of mathematical disciplines. Research methods used: systemic literature analysis; research conceptual apparatus; purposeful construction of a system of new theoretical concepts, the transition from the abstract to the concrete; simulation of theoretically possible situations to characterize both the substantive and procedural sides of the system of mathematical training of specialists; generalisation of pedagogical experience; purposeful observation, questioning, conversation, testing of students, the method of diagnosed examinations; mathematical processing of research results, their qualitative and quantitative analysis. The research results: the pedagogical conditions for the formation of the content of mathematical disciplines are substantiated: the formation of intellectual skills and the development of personal professional qualities based on the strengthening of the mathematical component, as fundamental in the process of preparing agrarians; integration of mathematical disciplines with natural, professionally-oriented disciplines and practical experience gained in production; integrated way to develop information and communication competence. It has been established that the implementation of an integrative approach will allow transforming traditional training courses, giving them a greater professional focus. The ways of introducing the specified pedagogical conditions at the agronomical faculty in the course of teaching the course «Higher Mathematics (professional direction)» for «Agronomy», «Ecology» specialties are demonstrated.

Professional Development- Differences in teachers' attitudes between online and traditional training courses

The basic need for man to be constantly engaged in learning on the one hand and the technological revolution on the other hand lends itself to an interesting combination of change in the learning process. This change has not overlooked the teachers who have also undergone changes in their professional development at the Pisgah centers. The technology age has brought with it online learning. The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of the teachers training in the Pisgah centers in Israel on the differences between online and traditional training courses. This study was conducted using the quantitative method with 495 teachers participating. The study findings indicate four main areas related to teachers' attitudes. Effectiveness and application, environment, course assignments and attitudes towards ICT. Significant differences were found in the environment variable and the ICT variable between online and traditional training in favor of online training. In addition, a multi regression analysis found that the effectiveness of the course can be explained by the variables: environment, course assignments, and ICT.

Training community mental health staff in Guangzhou, China: evaluation of the effect of a new training model.

BackgroundIncreasing numbers of people with mental disorders receive services at primary care in China. The aims of this study are to evaluate impact of a new training course and supervision for community mental health staff to enhance their levels of mental health knowledge and to reduce their stigmatization toward people with mental illness.MethodsA total of 77 community mental health staff from eight regions in Guangzhou in China were recruited for the study.4 regions were randomly allocated to the new training model group, and 4 to the old training model group. Levels of mental health knowledge were measured by purpose-made assessment schedule and by the Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS). Stigma was evaluated by the Mental Illness: Clinicians’ Attitudes Scale (MICA) and the Reported and Intended Behavior Scale (RIBS). Evaluation questionnaires were given at the beginning of course, at the end, and at 6 month and at 12 month follow-up.ResultsAfter the training period, the 6-month, and the 12-month, knowledge scores of the intervention group were higher than the control group. At 6-month and 12-month follow-up, means scores of MAKS of the intervention group increased more than the control group (both p < 0.05) when age, sex, marriage status, title and time were controlled for. At 6-month follow-up, means scores of MICA of the intervention group decreased more than that of the control group (p < 0.01). At after-training, at 6-months, and at 12-months, mean scores of RIBS of the intervention group increased more than the control (p < 0.01, p < 0.001, p < 0.001) when age, sex, marriage status, title and time were controlled for.ConclusionsCompared with the traditional training course and supervision, the new course improved community mental health staff knowledge of mental disorders, improving their attitudes toward people with mental disorder, and increasing their willingness to have contact with people with mental disorder.

용접인력양성을 위한 가상용접훈련 시뮬레이터 효과성 분석

Welding is one of the most fundamental and necessary work in the industry that demand sophistication of skilled workers. This study is to introduce welding simulator as a training tool, to verify its effectiveness and to measure satisfaction of the trainees. A group of freshman students at a Korea Polytechnics College in their twenties with less experience of welding participated in the study. They were divided into two groups and took a traditional training course (comparison group) and a training course with welding simulator applied reality/haptic technology (experimental group) for same hours respectively. To evaluate training effect, a national certificate test and a survey based on Phillips` ROI (Return on Investment) methodology were conducted by the students and the college respectively. And satisfaction survey among the students based on Kirkpatrick`s Four-Level Evaluation Model was also carried out. The results showed that all students in the experimental group passed the national certificate test and the ROI of the experimental group for five years were 110% higher than the comparison group. Furthermore, 25% more students in the experimental group replied satisfied about the overall training course and 75% more students in the same group found that the simulation was very similar to the real welding.

REALIZATION OF REQUIREMENTS OF COMPETENCE MODEL OF GRADUATE IN THE DESIGN OF E-LEARNING COURSE

The problem of designing e-learning courses under the competence approach to preparing students is considered. The competence model is focused on the formation of common cultural and professional competences, which requires processing of traditional training courses in accordance with the new requirements. The article describes the various models used in the design of e-learning courses. The stages of design of the structure and content of the competence-based e-learning course are defined; an example of the design of e-learning course «System Software» is introduced.

Remote access technology offers tremendous possibilities to the cytometry community

THE opportunity for low cost, high quality training and supervision is an attractive one to most scientists in the cytometry field. Many have had little if any training, no expertise based locally, or may not have the funds to attend regional or international training courses. In addition, rather than general cytometry they may require assistance with a particular application, which could be accomplished in a number of hours through support from an expert. Separately, shared resource scientists, also known as core facility staff, are generally responsible for the performance and upkeep of multiple complex instruments, as well as monitoring, training etc. Some acquisitions or cell sorts may take hours for a single run, and with limited staff the scientist is usually multitasking on an hourly basis. Also, if users of the core facility are having problems and staff is unavailable, valuable samples or time may be lost. There is potential for error at many steps of flow cytometry, including sample preparation, experimental design and fluorochrome selection, instrument set up, compensation, gating, analysis, and interpretation. External/offsite tracking may improve monitoring, and perhaps limit such errors. Also interand intra-instrumentation variations can lead to different results for the same sample. A means of unifying performance, setup, and interpretation is vital, in particular with multicenter collaborations. Peer-review of results and analysis, as well as hierarchical approval systems, provides some solutions, but further stream-lining is clearly beneficial. Remote access technology for cytometry (or remote cytometry) may offer solutions to many such issues and can be performed at very low costs to the institution. There is potential for such systems to facilitate instrumentation monitoring, control equipment in containment areas, speed up vendor service, improve training courses, increase collaborations, and further promote cytometry globally.

A Blocking Prediction for Volleyball Using Neural Networks

Volleyball is a popular exercise. There are not only lots of sports enthusiasts but also many professional athletes. In a variety of tactics and globalization of volleyball sport, the match situation becomes complex and intense a lot in the relative. However, for the professional athletes, the focus of training is still just the specific skills and fitness training, so only doing the traditional training courses will make the athletes more difficult to get the winning. Therefore, in this paper, a new training conception is proposed to enhance the volleyball players successful blocking rate by neural network.

The Use of Virtual Measuring Devices in Teaching Modeling of Physical Processes

Informatization of education makes to reconsider traditional training courses of computer science, methods, technologies and the means of informatization applied in teaching other subjects. In this article we consider the problem of the creation and use of virtual measuring devices in teaching modeling of physical processes. The difficult or costly experimental conditions, the new equipment, the risks connected with carrying out of tests, bulky procedure of mathematical calculations, frequently lack of material resources, considerably constrain process of physical researches. Emergence of virtual laboratory of stands and simulators became one of solutions of a problem. The resulting stage of modeling is computing experiment, so in teaching modeling it is necessary to use virtual laboratory work - connected animated images, which simulate the experimental installation. The special system of virtual switches, windows to set parameters of experiment and manipulation with the mouse allow students to change operatively conditions of experiment and to make calculations or to build charts. Pedagogical meaning of laboratory researches is that students do the analysis results of modeling and conclusions himself. Application of such laboratory complexes allows making experiments, to observe and manage them in real time using a personal computer, that provides improvement quality of teaching and learning of teaching materials by students. Virtual laboratory installations supplement real laboratory installations. This is explained by the modeling capabilities of real experiment, high reliability of their work and rather low cost. As at performance of laboratory works most part of time is spent on understanding how to work with the installation, by downloading a virtual installation, the student has the opportunity to prepare in advance, having mastered the laboratory equipment, examining its performance in different modes. Using technology of virtual devices, it is possible to fully reproduce the actual installation as a virtual model, keeping all its functionality. Virtual installations on the monitor screen have visual similarity to real installations. Convenient management of the program facilitates understanding of studied processes. Also it is possible to create virtual devices. For today the most powerful and reliable tool for the development of virtual devices is the environment of graphic programming LabView of company National Instruments. This article contains the steps in conducting of laboratory workshop, their sequence promotes increase of effectiveness of the work, increases relationship of steps and lowers their complexity.

A specialized course of basic skills training for single-port laparoscopic surgery

Single-port laparoscopy (SPL) requires specialized skills; however, there are currently no specialized training courses for SPL. The aim of this study is to present an effective specialized training course of basic skills for SPL. We designed a specialized training course for single-port laparoscopic basic skills. The study included 10 male urology residents. The trainees practiced the traditional training course for laparoscopy basic skills for 5 days. Basic skills were assessed on day 6 and a self-efficacy confidence index was measured. On day 7, all trainees performed a traditional laparoscopic nephrectomy and single-port laparoscopic nephrectomy. The participants were then randomized into 2 groups: 5 trainees performed the specialized training course and the other 5 trainees continued to practice the traditional training course. Both groups were trained for 5 days. After completion, the trainees were tested on completing a porcine single-port laparoscopic nephrectomy. Operative performance was measured by 2 experts who were blinded to which training the student had received, using an altered global rating. In addition, participants completed a general self-efficacy instrument after performing surgeries. The overall operative performance score for single-port laparoscopic surgery was significantly better in the specialized training group. A significant difference in confidence index was seen between the traditional laparoscopy training and specialized single-port training groups (18.40 ± 2.70 vs 29.4 ± 3.51, respectively; P = .001.). Four relative instrument locations which avoided the problem of crowding were also noted in the specialized training group. The specialized training course is effective for developing SPL skills.

Situated learning in the practice placement.

Nurses who had just completed their training in Scotland were interviewed with regard to their experiences on placements. The nurses had either completed a traditional training course or came from the first cohort of the Project 2000 diploma level course. The interviews focused on the way in which the student nurses had learned in their practice placements. The results suggest that the placement is a complex social and cognitive experience in which there are elements of situated learning. Acceptance into the community of practice is important but this can be separated, conceptually at least, into a social acceptance which might be extended to any student and a professional acceptance which relies on the display of appropriate competence. The nurses described the way in which their mentors had interacted with them in terms which suggested that cognitive apprenticeship strategies had been used to further their learning in practice. It is concluded that, in view of the central importance of the placement for training nurses, explicit use of mentoring techniques derived from situated learning and cognitive apprenticeship might be beneficial.

An analysis of the scope and value of problem‐based learning in the education of health care professionals

Whilst on teaching practice at an institute of higher education, I became increasingly aware of the limitations of subject-based, teacher-centred courses in the education of health care professionals. My involvement in problem-based learning indicated the possibility of this innovative form of education bridging the gap between theory and practice. This investigation reveals the dissatisfaction of some educationalists with traditional training courses and the spread world wide of problem-based learning as an alternative method of developing curriculum. The process of using problem-based learning in the classroom is discussed and its strengths and weaknesses analysed for both teachers and students. This article suggests that problem-based learning is more likely to equip health care professionals to deal with the demands of a changing society than conventional courses.

University Education of Engineers in France

SUMMARY In France, training in engineering was exclusively provided by the ‘Grandes Ecoles’. In this context, the French universities have been developing engineering training alongside traditional training courses. The growth in engineering training has been particularly important during the last five years. The author describes the conditions of the setting up and the nature of the different training courses and gives an evaluation after the first twenty years of their existence. The statistics regarding the profiles of the applicants, the distribution over the different specializations and the salary progression are given.