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The purpose of this study was to evaluate how well a Faculty First-Year Seminar incorporated criminal justice health (CJH) and substance use disorder (SUD) content. Students completed a survey during the first and last classes of the semester, evaluating their level of knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding SUD in criminal justice (CJ) involved persons. Answers to both open-ended and close-ended questions were evaluated. Students reported significantly higher confidence in course content after the semester compared with baseline. Findings indicated students' increased confidence in knowledge of CJH in individuals with SUD, and of CJ policy and advocacy. Social justice course content can be successfully developed and evaluated for nursing curricula.

As study abroad opportunities increase, so too are international teaching exchanges. This article describes the collaborative teaching experience of a course which was jointly developed and offered...

Within the framework of the 'Education Innovation - Modernisation of the training structure, methods and content in higher education, enhancement of its labour market relevance', we conducted a course material development project for the length of two terms at the Institute of Education and Social Sciences, Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Széchenyi István University. We devised course material to be applied in e-learning and in a place-based studying environment (VR course material). The aim of the project was to create support material that assists teacher candidates in processing and acquiring the material of primary school music education. Its necessity and timeliness are justified by the insufficient level of music skills of newly admitted teacher candidates. The present paper is intended to display a summary and short-term evaluation of the project.

OBJECTIVES To develop a novel multispecialty simulation-based course that teaches both technical and nontechnical skills in the management of adult and pediatric critical airways to graduating medical students and 2) to encourage a collaborative, multispecialty approach to the management of a difficult airway amongst fourth-year medical students who have enrolled in otolaryngology, anesthesia, and emergency medicine residency programs. METHODS Fourth-year medical student who had matched into otolaryngology, anesthesia, and emergency medicine participated in an intensive half-day course consisting of a series of hands-on skills stations with increasing complexity, followed by simulated complex patient scenarios designed for shared management of airway emergencies. Participants completed questionnaires prior to and immediately after the course. Fischer's exact test was utilized to compare data between the precourse and postcourse surveys. Free-text responses were qualitatively assessed to inform course development. RESULTS Thirty-four medical students were enrolled (6 otolaryngology, 15 anesthesia, 13 emergency medicine), and 30 students completed both surveys. Fisher's exact test demonstrated improved confidence (P

Introduction An online survey investigated the views of students on the four-year Oral Health Sciences Honours degree course at Edinburgh University regarding the impact of COVID-19 on teaching and assessment. While delivery of remote teaching was generally viewed favourably, problem areas included clinic cancellations and clinical simulated case examinations. Oral Health Sciences graduates can practise as dental hygienist-therapists. Materials and methods An anonymous and voluntary online survey asked students to rate and comment on different formats of remote teaching and assessment. This material is supplemented by internal papers describing the planning and delivery of remote teaching and assessment. Results Nineteen of 29 students completed the survey (response rate: 66%). The interactive platform Collaborate was the most popular remote teaching format, although a number reported connectivity issues. Questionmark software, used to deliver a timed live examination, was rated highly. Cancellation of remaining clinical sessions was rated by Year 3 and 4 students as particularly problematic. Remote clinical simulated case examinations gave several students concerns. Other concerns were the impact on revision and adapting to different exam formats. Discussion The challenge was particularly complex as the curriculum involves a mixture of educational and clinical teaching and assessment, all requiring General Dental Council approval. Responses suggest remote teaching and assessment generally went smoothly. Results may help to inform future course development in this and similar courses in order to overcome or mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19. Conclusion The survey gave valuable and detailed feedback prior to the move to hybrid teaching.

Os cursos de bacharelado em Secretariado Executivo existem desde os anos 1970, e nos anos 2000, com a mudança nos Parâmetros Curriculares dos cursos de graduação, constatou-se a necessidade de estabelece-lo como ciência. Para atingir esse fim, é necessário o desenvolvimento de pesquisas, tanto por parte dos profissionais formados na área, quanto, e sobretudo, por parte do corpo discente. Entretanto, verifica-se que não há muito engajamento, por parte dos alunos, em atividades de natureza científica. O presente trabalho pretendeu, por meio de pesquisa de campo com a aplicação de questionários junto aos alunos do curso de Secretariado Executivo Trilíngue da Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM), matriculados do 1º ao 4º ano, no período letivo de 2017, investigar e analisar as causas do baixo interesse por pesquisa observado no meio acadêmico. Nos apoiamos nos trabalhos de autores como Cantarotti (2016), Durante, Gonçalves, Nascimento e Pontes (2015), Müller e Sanches (2014), entre outros. Justifica-se, portanto, fomentar esse interesse na pesquisa por parte dos alunos de Secretariado para o desenvolvimento do curso e da relevância da pesquisa científica aliada às atividades acadêmicas. Utilizamos de análise estatística dos dados apurados nos questionários para averiguar os fatos influentes dessa realidade e verificar possíveis direcionamentos e/ou estratégias para fomentar a pesquisa na área, visto haver uma necessidade premente em desenvolver o Secretariado como ciência, a fim de fortalecer o curso em sua modalidade de bacharelado.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) offer a powerful approach to engage students at all academic levels in the process of scientific discovery. In comparison to prescriptive laboratory exercises, CUREs have been shown to promote students’ science process skill development, positive attitudes toward scientific research, and persistence in STEM. While this is the case, descriptions of CUREs within the literature vary widely, particularly in the extent to which they explicitly address the five posited dimensions of CUREs. This can present as a challenge to both novice CURE facilitators, who may be unfamiliar with CURE terminology, as well as the CURE community as a whole, who seek to understand what facets of CUREs impact student outcomes. In response, we created the “Dimensions of CUREs Informational Template” (DoC IT), a professional development tool amenable for use with CURE designers, facilitators, and evaluators. Application of this tool is intended as a viable step in achieving a unified way to discuss CUREs in both intra- and interinstitutional contexts.

The research achievements of a university chemistry lab regarding dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were transformed into a high school hands-on course by simplifying the experimental steps and equipment. Our research methodology was action research. We verified the DSSC course step by step. First, 10 members of a high school science study club helped to revise the course over a school semester. A questionnaire survey revealed that all students agreed that the course increased their understanding of DSSCs and solar cells. Second, 35 students were enrolled in a 10th-grade elective energy course to study the revised DSSC topics for 3 weeks. A five-point Likert scale was used to collect students’ feedback, and students reported looking forward to making their own high-performance DSSC modules (4.60) and stated that being able to make their own solar cell was a great accomplishment (4.49). Third, the course was implemented at a junior high school science camp, and the 37 participating students were all able to complete the hands-on experiment. In the questionnaire survey, the students expressed that they enjoyed learning about scientific principles through a hands-on approach (4.59). Fourth, most of the 12 schoolteachers who voluntarily participated in the DSSC workshop agreed that integrating DSSC activity into school courses would be conducive to multidisciplinary learning. This course could facilitate participants’ self-evaluations in science knowledge, experimental skills, learning motivations, and positive attitudes toward sustainability.

A qualitative case study was conducted to triangulate student interviews, a teacher’s reflection report, and classroom observation data to understand how a local language course prepared Taiwanese administrative staff for international communication across working contexts in an international university. The findings firstly show that the teacher treated course planning as a teacher and student process of co-developing, co-moderating, co-revising, and co-managing learning resources and content. The teacher empowered the administrative staff by giving them the authority to select language targets for study that the staff thought would be useful to fulfil their job duties. Secondly, participation of the administrative staff was important in creating and managing language resources for international communication. The teacher used vocabulary and dialogue writing and speaking practices that were contextualised to the needs of the administrative staff. The targeted vocabulary was selected by the administrative staff based on gaps in their knowledge and was then used to co-construct dialogues that addressed scenarios the staff had previously encountered that necessitated the use of English with internationals. Thirdly, developing the course to address the administrative staff’s communication needs was a process of rebalancing teacher autonomy, learner autonomy, and course development. Both the teacher and the students perceived the course effective in encouraging practical changes in the administrative staff’s learning and use of English, which they mostly attributed to the non-formal nature of the course and the support from higher management. Implications for planning and implementing English language courses for international communication were drawn from the findings

Due to COVID-19, almost all educational institutions were temporarily closed across the globe. As a result, many educators have focused on delivering courses through emergency remote teaching. Preparation for remote teaching was itself a great challenge. In this reflective paper, I have presented my own experience of preparation for emergency remote teaching for one of my courses in one of the Canadian universities. I have mentioned in the paper the factors that were helpful in the preparation for remote teaching such as my own background knowledge of online learning, training for remote teaching, designing and developing the course, using synchronous and asynchronous, engaging students, and presences.

This research explores the student expectation on using Mobile Devices (MD) such as smartphones, tablets, and iPad for their learning activities which can enhance the learning experience. The data obtained through survey questionnaires were analysed and presented in this paper. The responses were analysed to identify how comfortable they are using MD in learning, level of impact on their learning and difficulties in introducing MD to Teaching and Learning (TL 52.1% postgraduate and 76.5% undergraduate are not satisfied with the features in the current mobile Apps. This study indicates that students are willing and comfortable to use MD and they understand that there is a positive/ high impact on using MD for learning and conversely, they are not satisfied with the existing Apps. However, about 3.1% of the students are using only MD for assessment preparation. Some of the reasons contributing to not using MD for learning may be; (1) the lack of awareness of existing Apps among students, (2) many courses did not offer opportunities/ tasks to use MD for assessments, and (3) lack of suitable Apps / existing Apps do not provide support to use. The study demonstrates the need to adopt mobile learning (ML) tasks into course curriculum; develop suitable Apps and improve awareness among students. The study concluded with a suggestion to future developers to consider an appropriate course development framework to adopt ML by contemplating learners’ behaviour and their cultures.

The education sector in India has seen a strong change in terms of professional courses. The public and private sectors have both been working toward making the students employable. The professional courses are designed at graduate and postgraduate levels to provide the skills to students that make them job ready. The colleges are teaching a predefined course curriculum in every course, and on the basis of this curriculum, exams are conducted and students are assessed. But this curriculum is not enough to make the students’ job ready. The students need to be trained on the current trends in the industry, especially for the courses related to information technology. These extra efforts that the colleges provide for the students are termed as pre-placement activities. In this paper, we have conducted an analysis of the factors that impact the placement of students after the completion of Masters in Computer Application (MCA) course. This is higher education a postgraduate university course of 3 years. In this study, we have considered the marks obtained in university examination and other pre-placement activities including technical tests, technical interviews and personal interviews. The results of the analysis indicate how these different factors influence the placement of students after the course.

Background All UK Educational Supervisors (ES) must comply with the Professional Development Framework for Educators (PDFE). ES based at the west London site of a large NHS Foundation Trust found accessing ES training challenging. Demand for in-house training addressing local challenges led to the development of the ES Update Course (ESUC). Methods The ESUC ran in February (Feb-19), June (Jun-19) and November (Nov-19) 2019. It comprised six sessions. Five core sessions were delivered in all iterations, covering the PDFE in two parts, local responses to National Training Surveys, the trainee contract, and trainees’ perspectives on educational supervision. A sixth session, ‘Trainees and the GMC’, ran in Feb-19 and Jun-19 but was replaced in Nov-19 by sessions covering Less Than Full Time trainees and Locally Employed Doctors. Post-course questionnaires collected quantitative and qualitative data to aid course development. Session content was rated using a Likert scale from 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent). Thematic analysis of blank space questions elicited the most and least useful sessions, impact on behaviour, and ongoing learning needs. Results Attendance was 19 (Feb-19), 17 (Jun-19) and 8 (Nov-19). Median ratings were consistently high for all sessions (≥8) and increased to 9 for four of the five core sessions in Nov-19. ‘Trainees and the GMC’ received mixed feedback and was replaced in Nov-19. Qualitative feedback from Feb-19 requested more information on supporting trainees in difficulty (n=5). This was implemented in Jun-19 with a decline in subsequent requests (n=1). Learning from shared experiences was identified as the most useful aspect of the course overall (n=8). Conclusions Actively developing the ESUC in response to feedback improved the quality of the educational experience. Peer learning was a key benefit and embedding this within the course created a highly effective environment for senior doctors to develop as ES.

This chapter discusses how a US Air Force (USAF) technical training organization shifted instructional strategies to employ student-centered instruction (SCI). Technical training leaders are leaning forward to meet this challenge because they have found that traditional instructional methods are hindering the development of flexible lifelong learners required in today’s Air Force. Due to an ever-changing and innovative environment, the USAF needs members who can think for themselves and learn in a self-regulated way. To address the need the USAF technical training headquarters developed an educational workshop titled Student-Centered Instruction designed to demonstrate and practice student-centered learning. After conducting six workshops with 64 participants, the workshop developers assessed their effectiveness. A multi-method approach was employed utilizing end-of-course surveys, worksite interviews and student interviews to determine the impact of the workshop on technical training course development and facilitation by workshop participants.

To help professors develop, design and improve second auditing classes, we surveyed members of the American Accounting Association's Auditing Section to identify programs that offer second auditing courses, the textbooks used for such courses, and the learning activities used. Total and second auditing course only respondents (n = 252 and n = 80, respectively) identified university, program, and auditing course demographics, while second auditing course respondents identified the classroom activities that extend the second auditing course beyond the basics found in textbooks. Results reveal the textbooks used for first and second auditing courses, learning objectives, website resources, manual and computerized cases, group projects, software programs, video presentations, supplementary materials, and an analysis of national syllabi. These results, drawn from a diverse group of institutions, can serve as a resource to help professors develop and improve the content for a second auditing course.

Online courses have become an important educational delivery tool for institutions of higher learning throughout the world. While popular among students and administrators, many faculty members have expressed concerns with online courses. Therefore, this article highlights online team teaching as a potential solution to many of the concerns harbored by faculty members. In particular, we discuss the potential challenges that can be faced by an online teaching team during the various stages from conceptualization to implementation, and offer prescriptive guidelines that would help future teams in navigating those challenges. Importantly, this article explores online team teaching from the perspective of marketing faculty and outlines positive educator outcomes associated with the development of a team-taught marketing course.

Background Clubfoot is a common congenital musculoskeletal disorder that causes mobility impairment. There is a lack of trained mid-level personnel to provide clubfoot treatment in Africa and there is no standard training course. This prospective study describes the collaborative and participatory approach to the development of a training course for the treatment of clubfoot in children in resource constrained settings. Methods We used a systems approach to evaluate the development of the training course. Inputs: The research strategy included a review of context and available training materials, and the collection of data on current training practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven expert clubfoot trainers. A survey of 32 international and regional trainers was undertaken to inform practical issues. The data were used to develop a framework for training with advice from two technical groups, consisting of regional and international stakeholders and experts. Process: A consensus approach was undertaken during workshops, meetings and the sharing of documents. The design process for the training materials took twenty-four months and was iterative. The training materials were piloted nine times between September 2015 and February 2017. Processes and materials were reviewed and adapted according to feedback after each pilot. Results Fifty-one regional trainers from Africa (18 countries), 21 international experts (11 countries), 113 local providers of clubfoot treatment (Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya) and local organising teams were involved in developing the curriculum and pilot testing. The diversity of the two technical advisory groups allowed a wide range of contributions to the collaboration. Output: The resulting curriculum and content comprised a two day basic training and a two day advanced course. The basic course utilised adult learning techniques for training novice providers in the treatment of idiopathic clubfoot in children under two years old. The advanced course builds on these principles. Conclusion Formative research that included mixed methods (both qualitative and quantitative) was important in the development of an appropriate training course. The process documentation from this study provides useful information to assist planning of medical training programmes and may serve as a model for the development of other courses. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-018-1269-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In response to accreditation of our Master of Public Health program, integration of Indigenous public health competencies, and implementation of the health promotion practitioner accreditation in Australia, we designed a core Master of Public Health promotion course. In this article, we begin by describing the three sets of competencies that informed our course development. Despite consensus that reflexivity is central to effective health promotion practice, there was limited reference to reflexive practice within established competencies. However, given our broader alignment with Freire’s philosophy of “conscientization,” we came to realize that reflexivity was central to our pedagogical framework. In what follows, we describe the conceptualization of reflexivity that guided course development and how reflexivity was integrated into the lecture and assessment content. We highlight how reflection, as part of the assessment, was applied as a means of engaging students in their journey through understanding the inextricably social, political, economic, and cultural nature of health and health promotion practice.

Traditional career preparation courses provide students with a variety of benefits. Students taking these courses report a better understanding of psychology-related careers, less indecision about their future careers, and are more knowledgeable about themselves in relation to careers. Yet only 37% of undergraduate psychology programs offer formal career preparation through the curriculum. Given the lack of experience and training faculty have on career preparation issues, they may be uncomfortable developing such courses. This article addresses considerations one should make when developing a career preparation course for undergraduate psychology majors as well as potential topics and assignments for the course. It also outlines how to place career preparation within the major using modules when career preparation courses are not available.

BackgroundMedical postgraduates’ demand for data capabilities is growing, as biomedical research becomes more data driven, integrative, and computational. In the context of the application of big data in health and medicine, the integration of data mining skills into postgraduate medical education becomes important.ObjectiveThis study aimed to demonstrate the design and implementation of a medical data mining course for medical postgraduates with diverse backgrounds in a medical school.MethodsWe developed a medical data mining course called “Practical Techniques of Medical Data Mining” for postgraduate medical education and taught the course online at Peking Union Medical College (PUMC). To identify the background knowledge, programming skills, and expectations of targeted learners, we conducted a web-based questionnaire survey. After determining the instructional methods to be used in the course, three technical platforms—Rain Classroom, Tencent Meeting, and WeChat—were chosen for online teaching. A medical data mining platform called Medical Data Mining - R Programming Hub (MedHub) was developed for self-learning, which could support the development and comprehensive testing of data mining algorithms. Finally, we carried out a postcourse survey and a case study to demonstrate that our online course could accommodate a diverse group of medical students with a wide range of academic backgrounds and programming experience.ResultsIn total, 200 postgraduates from 30 disciplines participated in the precourse survey. Based on the analysis of students’ characteristics and expectations, we designed an optimized course structured into nine logical teaching units (one 4-hour unit per week for 9 weeks). The course covered basic knowledge of R programming, machine learning models, clinical data mining, and omics data mining, among other topics, as well as diversified health care analysis scenarios. Finally, this 9-week course was successfully implemented in an online format from May to July in the spring semester of 2020 at PUMC. A total of 6 faculty members and 317 students participated in the course. Postcourse survey data showed that our course was considered to be very practical (83/83, 100% indicated “very positive” or “positive”), and MedHub received the best feedback, both in function (80/83, 96% chose “satisfied”) and teaching effect (80/83, 96% chose “satisfied”). The case study showed that our course was able to fill the gap between student expectations and learning outcomes.ConclusionsWe developed content for a data mining course, with online instructional methods to accommodate the diversified characteristics of students. Our optimized course could improve the data mining skills of medical students with a wide range of academic backgrounds and programming experience.

Experiencing discrimination based on body size has numerous health consequences and negatively affects motivation for positive health behaviors. Because weight bias is particularly prevalent among health professionals, interventions to reduce weight bias in this group are essential. The purpose of this mixed-methods, 15-week study was to develop and examine the effect of a college course focused on reducing weight bias in health promotion undergraduates. In this study ( N = 64), quantitative change in implicit and explicit weight bias among students enrolled in a course to reduce weight bias was compared with a control group and two other groups of students in the health promotion degree program. Qualitative data were also analyzed through content analysis of pre- and postsemester writing assignments among students in the course focused on weight bias. Statistical analyses revealed a significant reduction in explicit weight bias among students in the course focused on weight bias with no significant changes in explicit weight bias for any other group. There were no significant changes in implicit weight bias for any group. Content analysis of qualitative data was consistent with the quantitative reductions in extrinsic weight bias. Students shared substantially more nuanced understandings of obesity postsemester. Furthermore, the persistence of internal contradictions in students’ analyses illustrates the particular challenge in reducing implicit bias. These results demonstrate that, although intrinsic weight bias may be more difficult to change, a college course focused on reducing weight bias can facilitate significant reductions in extrinsic weight bias among health promotion undergraduates.

The possible roles of the undergraduate student as instruc- tor and colleague in the teaching of undergraduate biol- ogy are discussed. These roles include laboratory UTA, peer instructor, collaborative group facilitator, tutor, learning fa- cilitator, and associate in learning and teaching. The latter role involves the undergraduate student in course development and design

This work aims to develop a Temporary Shelter Management course for the Brazilian context. It was carried out by a multidisciplinary group, led by members of OFDA, using the method of Course Design and Development and Interactive Teaching. The resulting proposal aims to qualify professionals to work in disaster response.

Desenvolvimento e avaliação de um curso sobre administração de vacinas no vasto lateral da coxa, por meio da Plataforma Moodle. Pesquisa quantitativa, descritiva e transversal, realizada em 2016 e 2017, com 39 estudantes de enfermagem. A Teoria da aprendizagem multimídia e o design instrucional nortearam o desenvolvimento do curso, que contou com três módulos e material de apoio didático, vídeo de cenário simulado, fórum de discussão. O Inquérito COLLES foi utilizado para avaliar a qualidade do AVA; 97,5% dos graduandos consideraram a formatação, o acesso, a navegação e a imagem “adequado” e “muito adequado”. Os itens relevância, reflexão crítica e compreensão obtiveram melhores resultados, segundo o Inquérito COLLES; 92,3% dos estudantes disseram que gostariam de utilizar o AVA em outras disciplinas. Conclui-se que a tecnologia educacional desenvolvida é uma potente ferramenta para a atualização sobre a temática, visando uma prática segura do futuro profissional enfermeiro nos serviços de saúde.

Clinical relevance in the teaching of biomedical sciences within health care courses presupposes that there is internationally agreed core material within the curricula. However, with the exception of a syllabus for neuroanatomy and gross anatomy of the head and neck for medical students, core syllabuses within many of the specialized anatomical sciences have yet to be developed. The International Federation of Associations of Anatomists aims to formulate internationally accepted core syllabuses for all anatomical sciences disciplines initially using Delphi Panels that comprise anatomists, scientists, and clinicians who evaluate syllabus content. Here, the suggestions of a Delphi Panel for embryology and teratology are presented prior to their publication on the website of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists. Hence, to obtain a more definitive syllabus, it is required that anatomical and embryological/teratological societies, as well as individual anatomists, embryologists and clinicians, freely comment upon, elaborate and amend, this draft syllabus. The goal is to set internationally recognized standards and thereby provide guidelines concerning embryological and teratological knowledge when involved with course development.

Background We aimed to develop and implement a laparoscopic skills curriculum in an Ethiopian surgical residency program. We hypothesized that residents would improve with practice. Methods We developed a laparoscopic curriculum by adapting existing training models. Six courses were conducted during 2012 and 2013 in a teaching hospital in Ethiopia. Eighty-eight surgical residents participated. Main outcome measures were laboratory task completion times and student survey responses. Results Students showed improvement in time needed to complete skills tasks with practice. Mean times improved for all 5 tasks ( P ≤ .01). Students uniformly reported that the course was valuable. The curriculum is now taught and sustained by local faculty. Conclusions The development and implementation of a collaborative and sustainable laparoscopic curriculum is possible in a low-resource environment. Such a curriculum can result in improved laparoscopic expertise, surgical trainee satisfaction, and may increase utilization of laparoscopy.

SummaryThis article is aimed primarily at psychiatry trainees, MRCPsych course organisers, College tutors, educational supervisors and clinical supervisors. It describes recent changes to the MRCPsych curriculum and examinations and discusses the different approaches that educators can utilise to best help their trainees. We describe how the content of MRCPsych courses can help prepare trainees for both the written papers and the clinical assessment of skills and competencies (CASC). We discuss ways of incorporating patients and carers into course development, innovative approaches using technology to enhance learning, the role of workplace-based assessments and how international graduates may maximise their pass rate.

With the recent move toward competency-based gerontology education, incorporating humanities and arts will be necessary for accreditation. This article describes the pedagogical approaches and lessons learned during 5 years of development and implementation of an asynchronous online course in Aging and the Arts. Fifty graduate and undergraduate students participated in the course over five semesters. Discipline diversity increased subsequent to designation as a fine arts general education course. Students expressed appreciation for multimedia resources, an initial fear of creating a wiki, and online redundancy was reduced through increased community engagement that also augmented application in real-world settings. The visual nature of arts and aging lends itself to a compelling and interactive online course experience that can be adapted to synchronous, hybrid, and face-to-face formats. Opportunities for community engaged learning will increase as art programs for older adults become more prevalent.

This chapter identifies effective ways to address learner and faculty support. It introduces methods for building a successful learner support system by providing sufficient resources and proactively addressing learner motivation. It also addresses effective faculty support through institutional policies, resources, training, and course development.

This column describes the development and implementation of a responsive library course designed to train third-year medical students as they begin their clerkships. The course design consisted of a brief face-to-face introduction during third-year orientation and an online course developed in Canvas, an online learning management system. The objective of the course was to not only introduce students to the resources but also to teach them how to effectively use those resources at the point-of-care. Students evaluated the course to assess the overall effectiveness of the instruction. Course development and content, feedback provided by students, as well as suggestions for improvement are discussed.

Disparities in health outcomes between U.S. population subgroups, related to factors like race/ethnicity, income, and geographic location, are alarming. By integrating health disparities awareness content into the curriculum, academic institutions can play an important role in developing conscious health practitioners to help close gaps in health outcomes. This paper presents the implementation, results and feedback of efforts to incorporate health disparities awareness content into two undergraduate public health courses at a rural Midwestern U.S. university. Throughout this process, the author’s work was supported by a faculty development program. Students completed pre- and post-surveys to report health disparities knowledge and attitudes and online course evaluations to rate instructor and curriculum elements. A statistically significant increase in mean scores occurred for survey items pre- to post-survey. Online course evaluation ratings revealed student progress on related outcomes and positive student experience. Findings suggest promise for teaching health disparities content in public health courses.

A Medical Radiation Science (diagnostic radiography) instrumentation course historically taught face-to-face was taught fully online. The purpose of this study was to assess differences in academic achievement as well as gather feedback on student experiences. An anonymous online survey relating to student engagement and directions for future course development was distributed to all students who completed the course. The results clearly supports online delivery as students appreciated the ability to pause and rewind (94%) course content and work at their own pace (88%) whilst maintaining almost identical course results (p = 0.96). Future improvements would see the inclusion of interactive on-line modules and the re-introduction of face–face tutorials, appealing to students' desire for more support and human contact (27%) therefore reflecting the flipped classroom approach.

Introduction As one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world, human trauma and injury disproportionately affects individuals in developing countries. To meet the need for improved trauma care in Egypt, the Sequential Trauma Emergency/Education ProgramS (STEPS) course was created through the collaborative effort of U.S. and Egyptian physicians. The objective of course development was to create a high-quality, modular, adaptable, and sustainable trauma care course that could be readily adopted by a lower- or middle-income country. Methods We describe the development, transition, and host nation sustainability of a trauma care training course between a high-income Western nation and a lower-middle-income Middle Eastern/Northern African country, including the number of physicians trained and the challenges to program development and sustainability. Results STEPS was developed at the University of Maryland, based in part on World Health Organization’s Emergency and Trauma Care materials, and introduced to the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population and Ain Shams University in May 2006. To date, 639 physicians from multiple specialties have taken the 4-day course through the Ministry of Health and Population or public/governmental universities. In 2008, the course transitioned completely to the leadership of Egyptian academic physicians. Multiple Egyptian medical schools and the Egyptian Emergency Medicine Board now require STEPS or its equivalent for physicians in training. Conclusions Success of this collaborative educational program is demonstrated by the numbers of physicians trained, the adoption of STEPS by the Egyptian Emergency Medicine Board, and program continuance after transitioning to in-country leadership and trainers.

Online courses offer students’ flexibility and universities more opportunities to expand their student enrollment. With the increase in online degrees to accommodate nontraditional students and working professionals, online courses serve as an avenue to reach more people and increase the dwindling public health workforce. With the start of accreditation of undergraduate baccalaureate programs in public health, the need for work on public health course development at the undergraduate level is needed. This article outlines how an online undergraduate introduction to public health course was developed. All elements of the course are discussed from course structure, design, and assignments. In addition, evaluations of the course from the instructor and the students are discussed along with lessons learned.

A first-year undergraduate course at Uppsala University has been redesigned in a process exploring different levels of student participation. In the first part of the project, the student voice was heard through interviews focusing on the role of the course in the degree program. In the second part, a student-teacher team was formed to develop course curriculum and teaching material in partnership. Among the implemented changes were new seminars focusing on conceptual understanding, redesign of all lectures to include active student participation, and a change of the course literature. The redesigned course significantly increased student satisfaction compared to previous years. Important success factors were involvement of the student organization to promote the project, institutional support, early selection of concrete development tasks, and allowing team members to choose what they wanted to develop according to their own expertise.

Physical assessment is an important component of professional nursing practice. New nurse graduates experience difficulty transitioning the traditional head to toe physical assessment into real world nursing practice. This study was conducted to provide current data concerning physical assessment competencies utilized consistently by registered nurses. This quantitative study used a 126 item survey mailed to 900 Registered Nurses. Participants used a Likert-type scale to report frequency of use for physical assessment competencies. Thirty seven competencies were determined to be essential components of the physical assessment, 18 were determined supplemental, and 71 were determined to be non-essential. Transition of the new graduate nurse into professional practice can be enhanced by focusing content in physical assessment practicum courses on the essential competencies of physical assessment. Faculty for the university has analyzed data from this study to support evidence based changes to the undergraduate nursing program physical assessment practicum course.

For the past nine years, we have been offering an interdisciplinary course for science majors: The Biology and Chemistry of Brewing. This course is primarily laboratory- and inquiry-based; from a total of 24 h of student/instructor contact time, approximately 6 h are devoted to lecture, and the other 18 h are divided between laboratory exercises, research, and field trips. Here, we describe course development as well as a summary of the laboratory assignments, with complete details of laboratory exercises available in the supporting information. This course is appropriate for students who have one year of general chemistry and general biology.

In Hong Kong, service-learning is commonly regarded as a pedagogy for facilitating students’ learning of specific subject knowledge; rarely does it serve as an independent course focusing on developing students’ knowledge and skills of service-learning itself. At Lingnan University, however, the Office of Service-Learning offers an independent, credit-bearing service-learning course outside of other academic departments. The course aims to equip students with knowledge, skills, and attitudes about service-learning and to prepare them for future engagement in service activities within communities. This article reports on a case study of this independent service-learning course, with particular emphasis on the course development process. Assessment and evaluation data from students are also reported, followed by a discussion of the merits and challenges of implementing such a course, and a consideration of ways forward. The authors argue that the lessons learned from this study can help to inform the design of independent service-learning courses specifically and improve the quality of service-learning courses and programs in higher education in general.