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International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016965

The purpose of this research study is to shift the focus on Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) research by changing the narrative surrounding MOOC effectiveness from issues of course completion and certification to the impact of these courses on participants' actual practices. The "Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning" or HumanMOOC was offered four times with 2,614 participants overall and covered topics on the elements of the Community of Inquiry framework: social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. Through phenomenological inquiry, literature review, demographics, and interviews, the researchers gathered and analyzed information from learners who completed the HumanMOOC. Three themes of the interviews that emerged from the coding analysis process are: "learning journeyers," "I think I can," and "bringing it back to the classroom." The intention to participate and to overcome barriers and the increase in self-efficacy as a result of personal accomplishment, impacted the participants' will to implement what was learned into their teaching practice.

The purpose of this study was to identify emergent themes regarding higher education instructors' perceptions concerning the provision of collaborative learning activities and opportunities in their online classroom. Through semi-structured interviews, instructors described their teaching experiences and reported specifically about the online collaborative opportunities offered in their online classrooms. A multi-phase coding process was used to analyze the information, including the constant comparative coding method for theme and category development. The three main themes that emerged from this study are: the importance of online communication approaches, challenges and supports for online collaborative learning, and online learner support as the core of online learning. In the online classroom, additional factors must be considered in order to develop successful online collaborative learning. Beyond group work, these considerations include additional time and nurturing, scaffolding, instructional design, and understanding students' comfort level with collaborative online work. The findings of this study are discussed, and recommendations are provided for the development and design of meaningful online collaborative learning.

Blended learning is an instructional approach meant to enhance students' learning experiences by merging and deliberately integrating online technology into a face-to-face learning environment. With the increase in online instruction and blended learning comes the need for quality professional development programs that foster learning and encourage real change in the classroom. This paper introduces the design for a four-course professional development series on teaching in a blended learning environment that targets in-service teachers of K-12 students. Mastering the Blend is designed as a professional development opportunity to enhance teachers' face-to-face classroom instruction. The focus of the program as a whole is to assist K-12 teachers in developing the skills needed to design, develop, and facilitate student-centered blended learning environments. Through hands-on experience and activities designed to uncover best practices, participants are expected to develop the ability to effectively integrate a variety of tools into a blended learning experience. To model the methods being advocated, this professional development program is social constructivist in design and includes a blend of synchronous and asynchronous activities. The results of an initial evaluation of the program are described.

University students are at risk of experiencing mental health and diet quality problems during their transition to university. This study aimed to examine the bidirectional associations between the diet quality and mental health of students during their transition to universities in the UK, and the impact of the transition on diet quality and mental health. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and took place during the first semester of year 2021–2022. Participants were first year undergraduate students at four UK universities, living at student halls. They were invited to participate by completing online surveys, including a diet quality instrument (Short Form Food Frequency Questionnaire), a mental health instrument (Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale) and a quality of transition instrument (College Adjustment Questionnaire). Results showed that a healthy diet was associated with good mental health (b = -3.46, 95% CI [-6.14, -.78]). Unfavourable mental health was associated with having an unhealthy diet (b = -.01, 95% CI [-.02, -.00]). Transition did not moderate the relationship between diet quality and mental health of students, or vice versa (ps>.05). Preliminary analyses showed a significant direct effect of good quality of transition to university on good mental health (b = -1.51, 95% CI [-1.88, -1.13]), but did not have an indirect effect via diet quality; there were no significant direct or indirect effects on diet quality, however larger studies are needed to replicate these preliminary analyses. Our current findings can inform university policies and health education research, and further research is needed to determine whether interventions to improve diet quality at the university level could reduce mental health issues, and whether interventions to support students under stress may lead to healthier dietary habits. Cross-sectional studies cannot determine the directionality of effects, hence longitudinal studies are required to enhance our understanding of the relationships between diet quality and mental health over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how care theory and the ethics of care are explained by students in the online environment to clarify the factors that are more relevant in establishing and maintaining caring relations in online learning context. Design/methodology/approach: Utilizing naturalistic inquiry, the researchers interviewed online students and coded transcripts using multiple coding methods within two phases of analysis. Noddings' framework for ethics of care was utilized to identify strategies and practices that enhance each of Noddings' elements in an online course experience. Findings: The findings of this exploratory study provide evidence on how learners perceive being cared for and highlight specific instructor behaviors and course design elements that support the emergence and maintenance of a climate of care in an online learning environment. Indicators of all four elements of Noddings' framework were present in the interviews. Within the themes of each element, strategies and practices to enhance each element in an online course experience are further explained. Research limitations/implications: Establishing a climate of care, whether in traditional or online learning, leads to more inclusive learning experiences that are responsive to the needs of all learners. This study brought to light some of the factors that are more relevant in establishing and maintaining caring relations in online learning context. Originality/value: The findings of this study add to the literature on the role of emotions in an online learning as viewed through the lens of care theory. The findings highlight some strategies and behaviors that promote a climate of care in an online environment from a learner's perspective.

This program profile examines efforts by WPAs at York College, a senior college in the CUNY system, to adapt to externally imposed changes and develop a locally meaningful writing program. 1999 marked the end of remediation at four-year (senior) colleges in The City University of New York. The elimination of developmental writing at CUNY's senior colleges was accompanied by a university-wide mandate for WAC. Fall 2013 marked the start of a university-wide set of general education requirements that will partially eclipse existing local requirements. Between these two bookends, WPAs--drawing on a mindset of relative agency and informed by an awareness of the curricular and institutional positioning of writing--carried out local efforts to build a more effective and coherent program.

At York College, many of the students fit the linguistic and educational profile of basic writers, and yet there is no remediation built into the curriculum. It falls to the writing center, then, to provide our students with the academic support that they need in order to move beyond being classified as developmental writers. In this article, I examine how our students are using the York College Writing Center, with a view to determining how a lower level of academic preparedness influences the kind of services that students seek and the kind of academic trajectory they follow. I suggest that the progress that we see these students making over the course of the semester can be best understood as a move from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation, rather than from lower- to higher-order concerns that is the professed goal of writing center philosophy. This article has implications for how writing centers can best serve less prepared students, especially in light of the national movement to end remediation, as well as for the ways in which we measure student success. (Contains 3 tables and 1 note.)

With increased online course offerings at most higher education institutions, it is important to have a way to determine whether the courses continue to have value to students or outlived their usefulness. Courses are the central means of knowledge delivery for each institution and may be viewed through the lens of the product life-cycle, which is a common way for for-profit corporations to ensure they are aware of when it is time to make adjustments or completely overhaul what they provide to consumers. We leverage this concept to develop a conceptual mode of the life-span and cycle of curricular products; especially, those delivered online, which may have a shorter shelf life than in-classroom courses. To that end, we map a single course that has spanned nearly 20 years and shifted from face-to-face delivery, to a blended mode with learning technologies support, and then into a fully online format. This piece depicts the course life-cycle, which emerged from multi-strategy research analysis of that course. Understanding that online courses have a life-cycle can help department and university managers plan for the investment in the improvement of each as it comes to the end of its useful lifespan. This can ensure high-quality learning and a sustainable portfolio of programs and courses with which students are engaged.

In this study, the usability of a social constructivist online teacher preparation course was examined using a framework developed for asynchronous constructivist courses. In particular, students' approaches to learning through interactivity were examined. Students from around the world participated in the course. Data from weekly feedback were analyzed using phenomenography, a qualitative research approach that examined data from the student perspective and the descriptions of the students' experiences. The findings from the weekly feedback analysis identified three qualitatively distinct types of interactivity: group work, synchronous meetings, and interpersonal interactions in the learning management system. Variation existed in students' approaches to learning in these three types of interaction. Considerations for course designers are discussed at the conclusion of the analysis.

Background: Online forums are widely used for mental health peer support. However, evidence of their safety and effectiveness is mixed. Further research focused on articulating the contexts in which positive and negative impacts emerge from forum use is required to inform innovations in implementation. Objective: This study aimed to develop a realist program theory to explain the impacts of online mental health peer support forums on users. Methods: We conducted a realist synthesis of literature published between 2019 and 2023 and 18 stakeholder interviews with forum staff. Results: Synthesis of 102 evidence sources and 18 interviews produced an overarching program theory comprising 22 context-mechanism-outcome configurations. Findings indicate that users' perceptions of psychological safety and the personal relevance of forum content are foundational to ongoing engagement. Safe and active forums that provide convenient access to information and advice can lead to improvements in mental health self-efficacy. Within the context of welcoming and nonjudgmental communities, users may benefit from the opportunity to explore personal difficulties with peers, experience reduced isolation and normalization of mental health experiences, and engage in mutual encouragement. The program theory highlights the vital role of moderators in creating facilitative online spaces, stimulating community engagement, and limiting access to distressing content. A key challenge for organizations that host mental health forums lies in balancing forum openness and anonymity with the need to enforce rules, such as restrictions on what users can discuss, to promote community safety. Conclusions: This is the first realist synthesis of online mental health peer support forums. The novel program theory highlights how successful implementation depends on establishing protocols for enhancing safety and strategies for maintaining user engagement to promote forum sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teaching assistantship is a venerable model for funding graduate studies, staffing undergraduate courses, and providing pedagogical support for emerging college and university instructors. In this article, we present a variation of this model of graduate student support: the WAC Fellowship at the City University of New York. Using survey data and interviews with former fellows from one CUNY campus, York College, we explore the impact of the WAC Fellowship on their professional development. Our results suggest that the WAC Fellowship does a better job of preparing graduate students for life as faculty members than traditional teaching assistantships for three reasons: the WAC fellowship we studied provides an opportunity for training in and reflection on writing and WAC pedagogy, exposure to the types of service and administrative work that form a significant part of a faculty member's working life, and a structure for mentoring and collaborative learning that allows graduate students to develop as professionals in academe. In addition, the WAC-specific pedagogies woven into the fellowship shape fellows' conceptions of both the value of writing for learning in discipline-based courses and the importance of the writing process.

There is a need for a holistic usability evaluation framework that accommodates social constructivist online courses. Social knowledge construction may not be adequately evaluated using current frameworks. This qualitative research study examined the usability needs of a social constructivist online course. Data from an online course were analyzed using phenomenography. The data were applied to an existing framework for usability evaluations. It is recommended that usability researchers classify usability concerns as either challenge or hindrance stress in order to eliminate hindrance stress and to appropriately select and pace challenge stress. Hindrance and challenge stress identified in this study are discussed.

Purpose: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology detects specific mutations that can provide treatment opportunities for colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Patients and Methods: We analyzed the mutation frequencies of common actionable genes and their association with clinicopathological characteristics and oncologic outcomes using targeted NGS in 107 Saudi Arabian patients without a family history of CRC. Results: Approximately 98% of patients had genetic alterations. Frequent mutations were observed in BRCA2 (79%), CHEK1 (78%), ATM (76%), PMS2 (76%), ATR (74%), and MYCL (73%). The APC gene was not included in the panel. Statistical analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model revealed an unusual positive association between poorly differentiated tumors and survival rates (p = 0.025). Although no significant univariate associations between specific mutations or overall mutation rate and overall survival were found, our preliminary analysis of the molecular markers for CRC in a predominantly Arab population can provide insights into the molecular pathways that play a significant role in the underlying disease progression. Conclusions: These results may help optimize personalized therapy when drugs specific to a patient's mutation profile have already been developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of definite and indefinite articles in English is well known to be a major point of difficulty for many nonnative English speakers. These difficulties prevail even when the speakers are fluent in most other aspects of English grammar and style. This article investigates the pedagogical and linguistic reasons why article use is such a persistent problem area for ESL writers, and it presents a system for teaching the use of articles in English. It shows how the inherent meaning of a noun phrase interacts with other elements in the linguistic environment and with authorial intention in determining which article is most appropriate for that noun phrase. Finally, it provides an apparatus with which ESL writers can track the various components of article use and demonstrates how this apparatus can help make decisions about which article is the best choice for expressing the writer's intended meaning. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 11 footnotes.)

When the nature of science (NOS) is reinforced, middle school students will be able to appreciate scientific inquiry processes and communication, as outlined in the National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996). To this end, the authors developed a mummy-making and dissection activity to help sixth- and seventh-grade students learn more about anthropological research and reinforce NOS. Students become scientists who ask questions, collect data in a methodical and objective manner, make inferences, and form conclusions that are supported with evidence. In addition to reinforcing the foundations of scientific inquiry, this interactive activity is recommended by the authors because it not only engages students in learning, it integrates social studies (geography) standards with science standards and promotes the use of writing genres that are important for scientific studies. (Contains 4 figures and lists 5 resources and 7 web sites.)

Background: Relatives of people with psychosis or bipolar disorder experience high levels of distress but are typically not offered the support they need. Online peer forums may offer a solution, but knowledge about who uses them, how, and why is limited. This study reported on online forum use during the Relatives Education and Coping Toolkit (REACT) trial. Objective: We aimed to report who used the forum and why; how sociodemographic factors are associated with participation; the relationship among frequency, type of use, and outcomes; and how the forum was used. Methods: The relationships between key sociodemographic characteristics, levels of forum use, and distress were statistically analyzed. We used thematic and semantic analyses to understand the reasons for relatives joining the forum and the key topics initiated by them. We also used the University Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language Semantic Analysis System to compare how relatives and REACT supporters (moderators) used the forum. Results: A total of 348 participants with full forum use data from REACT were included in this study. The forum was accessed by 59.4% (207/348) of the relatives across the entire age range, with no significant associations between sociodemographic factors and forum participation, or between level or type of use and relatives' distress levels. Relatives joined the forum primarily to find people in similar circumstances, express concerns, and talk about stressful events. Relatives were most concerned about recent events, negative emotions linked to caring, experiences of conflict or threat, and concerns about suicide. These posts underscored both the challenges the relatives were facing and the fact that they felt safe sharing them in this context. Conclusions: Although only a proportion of REACT participants engaged actively with its forum, they were widely distributed across age and other sociodemographic groupings. Relatives used the forum for information, support, and guidance and to offer detailed information about their experiences. The topics raised highlighted the burden carried by relatives and the potential value of easy-access, moderated, peer-supported forums in helping relatives to manage the challenges they faced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) and exercise training have proven effective for dyspnea and exercise tolerance for individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) but little is known of its effect on interstitial lung disease (ILD). There is a need in the literature to systematically review the effect of these interventions on individuals with ILD concerning exercise tolerance and/or dyspnea. This systematic review utilized PRISMA guidelines to conduct the reporting of the findings and was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020186513). Databases searched included: PubMed, CINAHL, ProQuest, Scopus, and Web of Science. Independent screening was performed by two authors with a third acting as a tiebreaker when consensus was not reached. Randomized control trials (RCTs) were included with subjects over 18 years old with a diagnosis of ILD who complete either pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) or exercise training interventions and included the six minutes walk test (6MWT) to measure exercise tolerance and/or outcomes to measure dyspnea. Studies were also included if they were published between 2008 through the date of study collection. A quality assessment was then performed on each RCT using the PEDro score with those with a rating of six or greater being included. Eight studies meeting inclusion criteria were included in this review with statistical significance reported in seven of the studies for short-term improvements and in two of the studies for long-term improvements in exercise tolerance. Six reported statistical significance for short-term improvements in dyspnea and two studies reported statistical significance for long-term improvements of dyspnea. Individuals with ILD demonstrate improvements in exercise tolerance and symptoms of dyspnea after participating in PR or exercise training interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overlooked figure of modernist circles, Violet Hunt was a suffragette, novelist, and author of ghost stories. In her second collection of haunted narratives, More Tales of The Uneasy (1925), Hunt explores the ghostliness of the Great War, both for those on the front and at home. In this essay, we focus on the third story in this volume, "Love's Last Leave", and argue that Hunt includes both ghost story tropes and communications media to articulate the real deadliness of the Great War. Communications technology and spiritualism share a similar historical evolution, and in "Love's Last Leave" both types of medium fail to connect those at home with those "who are gone". By re-narrating the shared history of spiritualism and communications media, Hunt implies the devastation and deadliness of war even when the plot fails to do so. In this essay, we use media theory and narratology to show how the gaps, absences, and uncertainties in the story's narrative structure are replicated by the communications technology in the story. The failure of narrative, technological, and spiritual mediums to transmit clear messages throughout "Love's Last Leave" emphasizes how deadly the disconnect between sender and receiver can be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utility of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) as a surrogate for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test-Revised (WAIS-R) was investigated in 61 brain-injured adult participants in a postacute rehabilitation setting. Idiographic comparison revealed substantial disagreement in clinical classification between the two instruments, and it is concluded that the PPVT-R is not a good surrogate for the WAIS-R for this purpose. In contrast, the PPVT-R was judged an adequate surrogate for the WAIS-R for the purpose of group comparison, as is common in biomedical research. Finally, contrary to prior report, the PPVT-R was demonstrated to measure more than simply Vocabulary. As such, in the absence of independent validation research, perhaps the most parsimonious conclusion regarding what the PPVT-R is measuring is that like each of the various subtests of the WAIS-R, the PPVT-R shares some of the variance of the construct termed intelligence, as well as demonstrates some unique variance that is likely comprised of error and, perhaps, a unique or different facet of intelligence.

Abstract Background There is increased recognition of the importance of breastfeeding at a national level as evidenced by the increased number of Canadian mothers initiating breastfeeding. However, adolescent mothers ( Methods The principles of interpretive description guided this qualitative study. A purposeful, homogenous sample of 16 adolescent mothers (15–19 years) were recruited to complete individual, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Conventional content analysis was used to code data, identify concepts and synthesize them into overall themes. Results Adolescent mothers in this study expressed that the decision to breastfeed was made prenatally and while partner and family member opinions about breastfeeding initiation were influential, the decision was made independently. Mothers were primarily motivated to initiate breastfeeding due to the health benefits for the infant. Lower breastfeeding duration rates were found among mothers who decided to only “try” breastfeeding when compared to the mothers who committed to breastfeeding. Influences on continued breastfeeding included: 1) the impact of breastfeeding on social and intimate relationships; 2) the availability of social support; 3) the physical demands of breastfeeding; 4) mothers’ knowledge of breastfeeding practices and benefits; and 5) mothers’ perceived sense of comfort in breastfeeding. Conclusions The results of this study provide health care providers new conceptual insight and understanding of the factors that influence adolescents’ decisions to “try” breastfeeding and to continue providing breastmilk to their infants. Professional implications drawn from this study include active engagement of adolescents in the pre and postnatal periods, including early assessment of potential barriers surrounding breastfeeding decisions. This early professional interaction highlights the professional as a form of support, and allows for sharing of evidence-informed breastfeeding information and practical breastfeeding skills. Inclusion of adolescents’ positive social support networks should be emphasized in professional breastfeeding support. Motivational interviewing is a promising prenatal strategy to influence behavior change and reduce ambivalence in decision-making about breastfeeding, creating opportunities for health care providers to tailor interventions.

This article examines the ways in which embodiments of femme within administrative academic settings intervene in dominant discourses that (incorrectly) frame us as being "in service" of male-identified colleagues, supervisors, and institutionalized heteropatriarchies. We posit femme as an important and complex counternarrative to the heterocentric, cissexist, and masculinist discourses that are ubiquitous within academic administration in both historical and present-day contexts. Additionally, we consider femme as a site of resistance to feminized discourses of nurturance and of (re)productivity. In this collaborative project, we study the labor involved in administering an English Department and a Writing Program at a four-year public college, interrogating, through autoethnographic reflections and analyses, the ways in which this service labor often falls to/gets thrust upon those of us who identify as femme faculty members. Our article illustrates how we resist the imposition of care work and assert our own agency while conducting administrative work on our own, femme, terms. We offer a list of usable interventions to common, predictable, yet sometimes disorienting situations, and although we do not advance these responses as easy conclusions to problematic interactions, we consider how this list might aid femme administrators in managing quotidian, misguided, at times hostile scenarios. Our work calls allies and comrades to identify systemic asymmetries and generate collaborative solutions within a paradigm of affirmation: One that places a commitment to "femme witnessing" at its center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research study is to shift the focus on Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) research by changing the narrative surrounding MOOC effectiveness from issues of course completion and certification to the impact of these courses on participants' actual practices. The "Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning" or HumanMOOC was offered four times with 2,614 participants overall and covered topics on the elements of the Community of Inquiry framework: social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. Through phenomenological inquiry, literature review, demographics, and interviews, the researchers gathered and analyzed information from learners who completed the HumanMOOC. Three themes of the interviews that emerged from the coding analysis process are: learning journeyers, I think I can, and bringing it back to the classroom. The intention to participate and to overcome barriers and the increase in self-efficacy as a result of personal accomplishment, impacted the participants' will to implement what was learned into their teaching practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]