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The COVID-19 pandemic was likely to generate the greatest disruption in educational opportunity worldwide in a generation. This disruption has impacted the livelihoods of individuals, and the prospects of their communities. The international and interdisciplinary course was designed by two universities: from Poland and from Israel due to new challenges in high education to consider. The main idea of this course was to develop students’ creativity and innovation by design thinking method. The course also addressed student’s socio-emotional needs. The group of twenty-five education students from both countries took part in online weekly sessions during two months. The evaluation of this project indicated that students were really satisfied with participating in it and they achieved not only their professional goals but personal as well.

Digital accessibility of e-learning provides an opportunity to fully participate in the educational process for all students, including persons with disabilities. Each specialist involved in the development of e-learning content and resources should be competent in digital accessibility and universal design. The authors propose a methodological approach to the development of digital accessibility competencies and present the results of testing this approach in practice. In 2021, on the basis of one of the Russian universities, a methodology for the formation of digital accessibility competences was developed and tested, including a system of competences, tools for testing formed competences, a curriculum and an appropriate online course. In addition, a study sample was formed (177 undergraduate and graduate students), a training course was conducted, and training outcomes were analyzed. It is for the first time that a methodological approach to the formation of digital accessibility competences has been proposed in the Russian Federation. The training outcomes confirmed the efficiency of the proposed approach: 96% of the students successfully completed the training, of which more than 67% achieved intermediate and advanced levels of the competences. A significant positive correlation was found between the successfully completed current tasks and the results of the final tests of self-assessment and formal assessment. It was shown that the training efficiency did not depend on how (voluntarily or compulsorily) the students were enrolled in the course, whether there were pedagogical disciplines in their curricula and what was the level of their university education. The relationship found between the results of final self-assessment and the results of formal assessment can be interpreted as consistency between satisfaction with the training and its success. The developed methodological tools, including the online course, can be used for the professional training of teachers, the formation of professional competences of IT specialists as well as the improvement of the overall digital literacy of specialists involved in the development of digital content.

The objectives of this study are (1) to explore pre-service teachers' needs in using educational technology tools for online learning, (2) to develop an online lesson about the use of educational technology tools for preservice teachers, and (3) to compare the learning achievements before and after taking the lesson. This project comprised research and development, with the methodology divided into three phases. The first phase was a needs assessment, the second phase was a development of an online lesson about the use of educational tools, and the third phase was a comparison of the learning achievements before and after completing the lesson. The results were as follows: ( )1 In respect of the needs analysis concerning the use of educational technology tools in online learning, the pre-service teachers considered that tools for completing learning tasks were the most crucial element. The data collected from openended questions revealed that the most critical problems experienced in online learning were learning tools and poor Internet speed. 2( ) The results from the suitability test showed that the developed online lesson was suitable overall. The pre-service teachers' average post-test score for the achievement test on the use of educational technology tools was higher than the average pre-test score, with a statistically significant difference at a level of .05. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Knowledge of clinical pharmacotherapy is essential for all who prescribe medication. The aims of this study were to investigate differences in the pharmacotherapy and polypharmacy knowledge of medical and surgical residents and consultants and whether this knowledge can be improved by following an online course. Methods: Design: A before-and-after-measurement. Setting: An online course available for Dutch residents and consultants working in hospitals. Study population: Dutch residents and consultants from different disciplines who voluntarily followed an online course on geriatric care. Intervention: An online 6-week course on geriatric care, with 1 week dedicated to clinical pharmacotherapy and polypharmacy. Variables, such as medical vs surgical specialty, consultant vs resident, age, and sex, that could predict the level of knowledge. The effects of the online course were studied using repeated measures ANOVA. The study was approved by the National Ethics Review Board of Medical Education (NERB dossier number 996). Results: A total of 394 residents and 270 consultants, 220 from surgical and 444 from medical specialties, completed the online course in 2016 and 2017. Residents had higher test scores than consultants for pharmacotherapy (73% vs 70%, p < 0.02) and polypharmacy (75% vs 72%, p < 0.02). The learning effect did not differ. Medical residents/consultants had a better knowledge of pharmacotherapy (74% vs 68%, p < 0.001) and polypharmacy (77% vs 66%, p < 0.001) than surgical residents/consultants, but the learning effect was the same. Conclusions: Residents and consultants had a similar learning curve for acquiring knowledge, but residents outperformed consultants on all measures. In addition, surgical and medical residents/consultants had similar learning curves, but medical residents/consultants had higher test scores on all measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-to-one online learning has become pervasive in distance education. However, factors affecting learners' continuance intention toward one-to-one online learning are not well known. This study proposed a model to explain learners' continuance intention toward one-to-one online learning. The model extends previous technology acceptance models and theories by adding instructor-, course-, and system-related factors. A questionnaire was constructed, and a total of 840 samples was collected. Results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that experience was positively related to continuance intention, and self-efficacy and anxiety were significantly related to perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude toward using the system, facilitating conditions, and social influence were significant predictors of continuance intention to use. Instructor quality, course quality, interaction feedback, and system usability were significantly related to continuance intention toward one-to-one online learning. The proposed model could explain 71.5% of the variance in continuance intention to use one-to-one online learning. The results provided practical implications for the design and improvement of one-to-one online learning systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Third International Last Aid Conference was held from October 28 to 29, 2022, as a hybrid event. Altogether, there were 85 participants from 14 different countries. The main topics of the conference were cultural diversity in palliative care, public palliative care education (PPCE), experience with Last Aid courses from different countries, and founding possibilities for courses and research in Last Aid. The speakers from different countries presented their experiences with Last Aid courses for adult and children, as well as the online courses. The contribution of the work of the Last Aid Research Group International (LARGI) for the development of Last Aid was presented. This report provides an overview of the conference and the content of presentations and highlights the most interesting discussions points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mindfulness-based interventions have gained popularity as a means of reducing stress and increasing resilience among the preclinical population. The present study aimed to investigate the eects of an online mindfulnessenhanced course on stress reduction in teachers, especially since online learning and teaching have been frequently applied to respond to emergencies such as COVID-19-relevant school suspension. Methods: The study consisted of two phases. Phase 1 aimed to explore the relationship between teachers’ perceived stress and mindfulness traits. In total of 6,252 teachers completed assessments of stress symptoms using the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS) and occupational stress sources, as well as mindfulness using the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). Phase 2 aimed to examine the eectiveness of the online mindfulness-enhanced course. In total of 132 teachers were randomly assigned to either receive a 3-week online mindfulness course specifically designed for stress reduction and emotion regulation (N = 66) or a matched active control group (N = 66) and their pretraining and post-training self-reported states (e.g., perceived stress, mindfulness level, practice time) were measured. Results: The detection rate of Health Risk Stress (≥26 scores) was as high as 61.72%, and a negative association between the score of FFMQ and perceived stress level was found. Importantly, compared to the control group, the mindfulness training group showed a significant decrease in perceived stress and negative emotion, as well as an increase in understanding of the core mechanisms of mindfulness after training. Additionally, individual improvement in FFMQ scores was predicted by practice time. Conclusions: The study showed a high percentage of teachers experiencing stress, and the data supported the reliability and validity of the brief online mindfulness-enhanced course designed to reduce stress and regulate emotion for frontline teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is very important for nursing students to manage stress effectively, because of the stress caused by the individual problems and the negative consequences reflected in the interaction with the patient. This study analyzed whether the ‘coping with stress’ online course had any effect on the perceived stress levels and automatic thoughts of nursing students based on their behavioral patterns (A or B). This pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research was conducted with 90 students. Data were collected online, using a Personal Information Form, the type-A Personality Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale-10, and the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and dependent samples t-test were used in the data analysis. Of the participants, 53.2% had type-A and 46.7% had type-B personalities. After the course, there were significant decreases in mean perceived stress scores of type-A and all nursing students and mean automatic thoughts scores of type-B and all nursing students (p

Purpose of research. Online platforms are being used as digital solutions in the system of higher education. They are developed by order of not only the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation as well as by commercial structures. The market of educational digital products is oversaturated with various services. It is quite difficult for representatives of the education system to navigate in all their diversity. The interest of researchers is mainly focused on the analysis of online courses and other platform solutions are not considered. The choice of IT solution affects both the educational environment and learning models. Therefore, consideration of online platforms in the context of their functional purpose is an urgent problem, which is the reason for the interest in finding optimal means for evaluating online platforms. The purpose of this study is to develop criteria for evaluating educational online platforms that solve didactic tasks.Materials and methods. The study was conducted over the past five years in three phases and using two types of activities. The first stage: included the collection of data - the results of the subjective perception of web services by participants in advanced training courses. The second stage: we brainstormed a redundant set of evaluation parameters. In parallel, a search was made for various approaches to evaluating platform solutions. The analysis of empirical data from the results of questioning the subjects of education made it possible to identify the main problem of the study, and the bibliographic search method made it possible to identify the existing criteria for evaluating online courses. At the final stage, the systematization and structuring of the obtained results was carried out. The methods used made it possible to move from subjective assessments to objective characteristics of online educational platforms.Results. The article discusses approaches to evaluating online platforms from the standpoint of their effective use in the educational process. The variety of available and created online resources suggests the need to develop skills in evaluating virtual educational environments, which requires the development of evaluation criteria and the necessary quantitative indicators. The authors analyzed the main approaches to the classification of educational platforms and proposed their own typology according to the ways of interaction between participants in the educational process. The paper presents the criteria for evaluating platform solutions and makes their grouping according to three bases: on technical, functional, and didactic possibilities. The formulation of the criteria makes it possible to use indicators of the presence or absence of a certain quality of platforms, which makes it possible to reduce the subjectivity of their evaluation.Conclusion. The digital transformation of the educational space implies the possibility of embedding various resources into the educational process: gadgets, web development and online platforms. The paper proposes a classification of online platforms by types of interaction, which made it possible to distinguish the criteria for their assessment from the solved didactic problems. The two-stage platform evaluation model makes it possible to qualitatively evaluate the possibilities of its use and make a choice in favor of one or another service when you get acquainted with the resource.

Fostering students' understanding of models is a challenge. However, in particular for learning quantum physics an elaborate understanding of models is required. We investigated activities to foster students' functional thinking about (quantum) models in a synchronous online course. The results of an evaluation study (N = 59) showed that the participants improved in their quantum physical thinking about photons and had slightly improved their understanding of physics models in general. A correlation analysis indicates that there are no significant correlations between the students' general understanding of models in physics and their functional understanding of quantum models. Implications of our findings for both teaching and future research with regard to quantum physics education are discussed.

This article delves into the crucial issue of effectively implementing usability principles in educational internet resources. By engaging with the latest research in the field, we investigate the influential factors shaping the outcomes of online education. Through a comprehensive analysis, we identify and examine six well-established criteria of usability design: Information Quality, System Navigation, System Learnability, Visual Design, Instructional Assessment, and System Interactivity. Additionally, we propose the existence of a seventh criterion termed Responsiveness. To shed light on the practical application of usability principles, we focus on the open platform "Higher School Mathematics Teacher" as a case study. Through a survey administered to 203 respondents, comprising both teachers and students, we sought to gather their valuable perspectives as the initial users of the platform. The insights gained from this study provide guidance for the implementation of usability criteria on the platform, particularly during the development of online courses. The findings strongly suggest that all seven subcategories of usability are pivotal in the design of online courses on the platform. This research contributes to the ongoing discourse on usability implementation in educational technology, offering valuable insights for developers, educators, and researchers alike. By recognizing the significance of these criteria, educational internet resources can be enhanced to create more engaging, accessible, and effective learning environments.

Дистанционное / смешанное обучение русскому языку является вынужденной мерой, тем не менее имеющей потенциал и перспективы развития. В сложившихся условиях дистанционного / смешанного обучения онлайн-курсы являются эффективным и оптимальным форматом обучения русскому языку. Наиболее эффективно в целях усвоения всех уровней и аспектов русского языка преподавание лингвистических дисциплин в комплексе, состоящем из дисциплин «Русский язык как иностранный», «Лингвокультурология» и «Русский речевой этикет». Они обогащают и взаимодополняют друг друга. Так, первая из них дает знания о фонетике, лексике, грамматике и синтаксисе современного русского литературного языка. Лингвокультурология служит формированию и развитию лингвокультурологической компетенции, без которой жизнь и обучение иностранца в России представляются затруднительными. Русский речевой этикет дает необходимые практические навыки использования русского языка в разнообразных ситуациях общения. Необходимо разработать и внедрить онлайн-курс «Научный стиль речи» как фундамент для освоения языка образования и науки. Онлайн-курсы как базовая часть цифрового подготовительного факультета требуют дальнейшей разработки и внедрения с учетом многих факторов.

Within higher education, students and institutions are increasingly moving towards blended components and fully online learning coursework. Best practice online pedagogy is understood to be student-centred with a strong emphasis on social learning through collaboration. The social aspect supports frequency of engagement while collaborative activity supports cognitive engagement. Research that guides online pedagogy draws substantially from studies identifying type and frequency of students' cognitive engagement, usually along a continuum but without the nuance of social learning. To build on that and to identify profiles of cognitive-social engagement, this study examined the content of 3,855 student posts from one course within a chat-based platform. The findings suggested six student engagement types: lurk, superficial, task, respond, expand, create. These types were then further examined along two continuums of complexity and intensity of engagement. The results present a new typology of cognitive-social learning engagement defined by four profiles: bench sitter, hustler, striker, champion. The typology was purposely fashioned using team-play acronyms to build a useable language for educators to recognise student engagement profiles and to guide learning design in social spaces online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to advance statewide student leadership and advocacy, the Connecticut Association for Adult and Continuing Education (CAACE) funded and developed an online course in community and civic engagement that is open to adult learners across the state and can be counted for credit in the adult high school credit diploma program. The course is a student- focused, project-based class that has received very positive feedback from the students, some of whom participated in state and national conference presentations of the program. In addition to supporting learner leadership development, the course offering also demonstrated that an online class could successfully be offered to students from a diverse array of programs with differing IT platforms and class schedule times. Future options for the course and its materials are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The relationship between learning modalities and nursing students' sleep quality during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is unknown. Purpose: This study examined the relationships between remote learning and the sleep quality of nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Using a cross-sectional descriptive design, 890 nursing students were surveyed online to identify sleeping habits and learning modalities. Results: There were no significant correlations between remote learning hours, self-reported sleep hours, and sleep quality. The asynchronous-only group reported better sleep quality than the in-person and online hybrid group after controlling for health conditions and grade point average. Students who reported that remote learning had impacted their sleep had poorer sleep quality. Conclusions: This study provides insight into how different learning modalities impact nursing students' sleep quality during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translation of research to practice is essential for competent practitioners but requires skills and experience in reading and understanding research. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) may be a means of developing research skills for all students in a course. For successful CUREs, faculty evaluate students' research skill development and decide on a project that appropriately promotes student learning. In this case, we chose an open-ended project. We then evaluated the experiences of music students (music therapy, music performance, and music digital media) as they participated in a virtual CURE during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design with two surveys and open-ended responses of the whole group (n = 22) and a focus group with a volunteer subsample of students (n = 7) indicated important gains in understanding research articles, writing a scholarly paper, understanding the relevance of research to their coursework, and developing communication and teamwork skills. Student suggestions for improvement included clarification of the expectations and timelines, particularly in a virtual setting, and better distribution of effort during the semester. Overall, a virtual CURE may support student research skill development and help them become more effective research consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article carries out a quantitative analysis of online courses on learning the Python programming language as of October 2022. Such online platforms as Codecademy, Alison, FutureLearn, Udemy, Edx were considered. The main requirements for software engineers training, as well as features of online courses on learning programming languages were highlighted. The authors analyzed samples of online courses, which were a) generated with an automatic search by the keyword "Python" and b) found manually by relevant thematic sections. The analysis was carried out separately for each sample according to various criteria: a number of courses, an approximate level of student training, the cost of taking an online course, and a possibility of obtaining a certificate/diploma. The largest number of courses on learning Python is presented on Udemy platform. Alison platform offers the fewest number of courses for learning the Python language. All platforms are aimed at different level of student training (beginner, intermediate, advanced). On Alison and Edx platforms, 100% of the courses are free, while on FutureLearn platform, all courses are payable. After completing online courses, students can receive a certificate (all MOOC) and/or a diploma (Alison, Edx). As Python popularity is growing, further research is planned to analyze online courses which are represented on various MOOC and are related to the use of the Python programming language in different areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article draws on the VM project, Digital Transformation of Histology and Histopathology by Virtual Microscopy (VM) for an Innovative Medical School Curriculum, funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ framework. The project has as its focus VM, which has come to be regarded as a modern tool boasting increased quality and utility in microscopy education in European medical schools. We aim therefore at digitally transforming microscopy teaching and learning in order to achieve a cost-effective implementation and successful use of virtual microscopy technology towards the improvement of the histology and histopathology curriculum. The paper looks into the project's objectives and results, among which standard E.U. curricula for histology and histopathology, a virtual slide library, a training guide on advanced VM teaching in microscopy, and an open online course on VM. As an add-on, we also introduce the parallel text reading approach and its beneficial effects on the quality of foreign language learning by medical students. In view of the transferability potential of its deliverables and its relevant methodology, we are confident that the VM project contributes to the overall modernization of the educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the instructional design of an integrative Business English course for master's students of a technical university (a case study of the Saint Petersburg Mining University) for blended and/or flexible learning. The main goal is to design a course that can be used as a full-fledged online course in asynchronous learning and is at the same time adjustable to the existing offline Business English course. The research uses methods such as observation, focus groups, surveying, empirical research and analytical and descriptive methods. The authors see a solution in a special instructional design based on the integration of traditional teaching approaches in offline learning, information technology and elements of infotainment and edutainment. The article presents the results of the target audience analysis and the needs analysis, outlines the structure of the course, specifies approaches to enhance motivation in master's students and presents an integrative system of assessment and evaluation of the learners' knowledge and skills. The key features of the instructional design of the Business English course suggested include exposure to professional scenarios, learners' reflection, multiple instruments encouraging learners' cognitive activity and performance and an opportunity to apply their knowledge to actual performance rather than summative assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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To adapt to the needs of teaching modes such as network distance education and mobile online learning, and overcome the space‐time limitation of traditional offline education, the construction of online courses has become an important task of informatization in education. The research analyzes several key technologies for the construction of online courses and proposes solutions for making dynamic maps and demonstration animations, sharing relevant teaching resources, cloud classroom design, special experiment design, and online testing and question & answer (Q & A). On this basis, with the index system of "Modern Distance Education Standards" as a reference, the national standard and evaluation plan of online courses as guides, and computer technology and multimedia technology as means, the research develops an online course case of Marine Geographic Information System (MGIS). Based on the.NET platform, construct a teaching resource website supporting MGIS. The online course and its supporting teaching resources website have realized the characteristic function of personalized self‐learning, dynamic demonstration of knowledge, online testing according to different learning stages, interesting experiments to stimulate learning enthusiasm, intelligent feedback learning effect, and so on. Through application and practice in teaching, the website of online courses and resources has achieved a good teaching effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flexibility of the teaching and learning process brings an online delivery system to life. This method exposes academics to new ideas and practices, making the educational process learner-centered and result-focused. This study explores the impact of joining a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on developing teachers' competencies. The purposes were to explore how online courses impact English teachers' competencies in teaching classes, describe the advantages and disadvantages of joining the MOOC program, and examine the problems faced by English teachers. By doing qualitative research, the researchers focused on English teachers in South Kalimantan and collected data using questionnaires and interviews. The finding has revealed that, to some extent, online courses impact English teachers' competencies since, in these courses, they learn how to use technology in the classroom and many current applications that can be applied in the classroom. There are also some advantages and disadvantages to joining a MOOC program, such as the availability of materials for professional development and current teaching strategies. The problems the teachers faced were mostly unfamiliarity with working or learning autonomously and time limitation despite many assignments to accomplish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of the recent pandemic, it became more and more important for the educational system to account for the necessity of designing courses that could be delivered both in an onsite environment and in an online framework. The aim of our study is to investigate perceptions of students about the face-to-face, online and hybrid learning. We conduct a survey to explore the way students perceive the educational frameworks. Our survey is conducted on a sample of students enrolled in the third and fourth year of study at the Faculty of Engineering from Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacau. From 126 respondents, 53% would choose hybrid framework. Moreover, 45% of them would choose to have the possibility of online courses and face-to-face seminars. Furthermore, 77% of the students work and they perceive blended/hybrid learning as a higher chance to participate to courses, without the necessity to physically attend the them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major disruption in the health care sector with increased workload and the need for new staff to assist with screening and vaccination tasks. Within this context, teaching medical students to perform intramuscular injections and nasal swabs could help address workforce needs. Although several recent studies discuss medical students' role and integration in clinical activities during the pandemic, knowledge gaps exist concerning their role and potential benefit in designing and leading teaching activities during this period. Objective: The aim of our study was to prospectively assess the impact in terms of confidence, cognitive knowledge, and perceived satisfaction of a student-teacher-designed educational activity consisting of nasopharyngeal swabs and intramuscular injections for the training of second-year medical students in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland. Methods: This was a mixed methods pre-post surveys and satisfaction survey study. Activities were designed using evidence-based teaching methodologies based on the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) criteria. All second-year medical students who did not participate in the activity's old format were recruited unless they explicitly stated that they wanted to opt out. Pre-post activity surveys were designed to assess perception of confidence and cognitive knowledge. An additional survey was designed to assess satisfaction in the mentioned activities. Instructional design was blended with a presession e-learning activity and a 2-hour practice session with simulators. Results: Between December 13, 2021, and January 25, 2022, a total of 108 second-year medical students were recruited; 82 (75.9%) students participated in the preactivity survey and 73 (67.6%) in the postactivity survey. Students' confidence in performing intramuscular injections and nasal swabs significantly increased on a 5-point Likert scale for both procedures--from 3.31 (SD 1.23) and 3.59 (SD 1.13) before the activity to 4.45 (SD 0.62) and 4.32 (SD 0.76) after the activity (P<.001), respectively. Perceptions of cognitive knowledge acquisition also significantly increased for both activities. For the nasopharyngeal swab, knowledge acquisition concerning indications increased from 2.7 (SD 1.24) to 4.15 (SD 0.83), and for the intramuscular injection, knowledge acquisition concerning indications increased from 2.64 (SD 1.1) to 4.34 (SD 0.65) (P<.001). Knowledge of contraindications for both activities increased from 2.43 (SD 1.1) to 3.71 (SD 1.12) and from 2.49 (SD 1.13) to 4.19 (SD 0.63), respectively (P<.001). High satisfaction rates were reported for both activities. Conclusions: Student-teacher-based blended activities for training novice medical students in commonly performed procedural skills seem effective for increasing their confidence and cognitive knowledge and should be further integrated within a medical school curriculum. Blended learning instructional design increases students' satisfaction about clinical competency activities. Future research should elucidate the impact of student-teacher-designed and student-teacher-led educational activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed unprecedented hurdles on health care systems and medical faculties alike. Lecturers of practical courses at medical schools have been confronted with the challenge of transferring knowledge remotely. Objective: We sought to evaluate the effects of a web-based medical microbiology course on learning outcomes and student perceptions. Methods: During the summer term of 2020, medical students at Saarland University, Germany, participated in a web-based medical microbiology course. Teaching content comprised clinical scenarios, theoretical knowledge, and instructive videos on microbiological techniques. Test performance, failure rate, and student evaluations, which included open-response items, for the web-based course were compared to those of the on-site course from the summer term of 2019. Results: Student performance was comparable between both the online-only group and the on-site comparator for both the written exam (n=100 and n=131, respectively; average grade: mean 7.6, SD 1.7 vs mean 7.3, SD 1.8; P=.20) and the oral exam (n=86 and n=139, respectively; average grade: mean 33.6, SD 4.9 vs mean 33.4, SD 4.8; P=.78). Failure rate did not significantly differ between the online-only group and the comparator group (2/84, 2.4% vs 4/120, 3.3%). While lecturer expertise was rated similarly as high by students in both groups (mean 1.47, SD 0.62 vs mean 1.27, SD 0.55; P=.08), students who took the web-based course provided lower scores for interdisciplinarity (mean 1.7, SD 0.73 vs mean 2.53, SD 1.19; P<.001), opportunities for interaction (mean 1.46, SD 0.67 vs mean 2.91, SD 1.03; P<.001), and the extent to which the educational objectives were defined (mean 1.61, SD 0.76 vs mean 3.41, SD 0.95; P<.001). Main critiques formulated within the open-response items concerned organizational deficits. Conclusions: Web-based courses in medical microbiology are a feasible teaching option, especially in the setting of a pandemic, leading to similar test performances in comparison to on-site courses. The lack of interaction and the sustainability of acquired manual skills warrant further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Previous studies on the association of online courses and mental health were mainly conducted in universities, and no study investigated the relationship between characteristics of online courses and children’s mental health in primary and secondary school. This study aimed to explore the association of online courses and children’s mental health in primary and secondary school. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted through an online survey among 540 primary and secondary school students and their parents in the eastern, central and western region of China from April to May in 2020. Children’s mental health was assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Borderline mental health problems (SDQ total difficulties score ≥ 16) and mental health problems (SDQ total difficulties score ≥ 20) were defined according to Goodman’s standard. Multivariable linear and logistic regression models were used to examine the association between online courses and children’s mental health. Results Compared with those who did not have problems of online courses, children having the difficulty in understanding the content of online courses had a higher SDQ total difficulties score [β = 1.80, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89, 2.71] and a higher risk of borderline mental health problems [odds ratio (OR) = 1.93, 95%CI: 1.07, 3.49], while device or internet connection problems were not significantly associated with children’s mental health. Compared with children who had live courses, those having video-recorded courses had a higher SDQ total difficulties score (β = 0.90, 95%CI: 0.01, 1.80). Children who spent more than 4 h on online courses had a higher SDQ total difficulties score than those of less than or equal to 4 h (β = 0.95, 95%CI: 0.09, 1.81). Conclusion We found that online courses with inappropriate characteristics were associated with children’s mental health. The findings called for the efforts to optimize the online courses and improve children’s mental health.

Abstract Background The ability to learn collaboratively and work in teams is an essential competency in both educational and healthcare settings, and collaborative student activities are acknowledged as being an important part of the pedagogical approach in higher education and teaching. The course that was the focus of this research, a 15-ECTS-credit online course in philosophy of science, ethics, and research methods, was offered online as part of 11 master’s-level health programmes at a university in Norway. Collaborative learning in combination with digital teaching tools was the preferred pedagogical approach in the online course. The aim of the study was to describe, explore and discuss how the students collaborated in small groups in an online course to learn. Methods We performed six focus groups and 13 individual interviews from February 2018 to May 2019, conducting a qualitative case study with a content analysis of the data collected. The participants were master students in the same faculty at a university in Norway. All the included participants had fulfilled the 15 ECTS credit course. Results Our study revealed that the collaboration in small groups resulted in three different working processes, depending on the students’ ability to be flexible and take responsibility for their own and common learning. The three different working processes that emerged from our data were 1. joint responsibility – flexible organization; 2. individual responsibility – flexible organization; and 3. individual responsibility – unorganized. None of the groups changed their working process during their course, even though some experienced their strategy as inadequate. Conclusions Our study showed that despite similar factors such as context, assignments and student autonomy, the students chose different collaboration strategies to accomplish the online course learning objectives. Each group chose their own working process, but only the strategy 1. joint responsibility – flexible organization seemed to promote collaboration, discussion, and team work to complete the complex assignments in the online course. The result from our study may be helpful in designing and planning future online courses; hence online learning requires a focus on how students collaborate and learn online, to gain knowledge and understanding through group discussion.

The Corona Virus Disease (Covid-19) pandemic at the end of 2019 made people study or work from home to prevent the spreading of the Corona Virus. It made WhatsApp (instant messaging app) gain the most significant number of users during the pandemic. Learning English Easy (LEE), one of the online courses in Indonesia, uses WhatsApp as the primary tool in their teaching-learning process. It gained thousands of student participants with varied cultural backgrounds during its first year. A high enthusiasm of the participants towards LEE online course made the researchers want to describe its implementation of the teaching-learning process and inform the students' perception about the LEE Online Course as an alternative solution during the pandemic. The data were collected from interviews, questionnaires, observation, and documentation. The total participants in this research were 397 students and two stakeholders of LEE. The data analysis technique was done using descriptive interpretive of TPACK framework by Mishra and Koehler (2006). Based on the data analysis, the great combination of three elements: technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge, which were implemented by LEE online course, could manage thousand of participants at one time, and it gave a great outcome based on the students' perception.

Abstract Background Radiology serves in the diagnosis and management of many diseases. Despite its rising importance and use, radiology is not a core component of a lot of medical school curricula. This survey aims to clarify current gaps in the radiological education in Egyptian medical schools. In February–May 2021, 5318 students enrolled in Egyptian medical schools were recruited and given a 20-multiple-choice-question survey assessing their radiology knowledge, radiograph interpretation, and encountered imaging experiences. We measured the objective parameters as a percentage. We conducted descriptive analysis and used Likert scales where values were represented as numerical values. Percentages were graphed afterwards. Results A total of 5318 medical students in Egypt answered our survey. Gender distribution was 45% males and 54% females. The results represented all 7 class years of medical school (six academic years and a final training year). In assessing students’ knowledge of radiology, most students (75%) reported that they received ‘too little’ education, while 20% stated the amount was ‘just right’ and only 4% reported it was ‘too much.’ Sixty-two percent of students stated they were taught radiology through medical imaging lectures. Participants’ future career plans were almost equally distributed. Near half of participants (43%) have not heard about the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria (ACR-AR), while 39% have heard about it but are not familiar with. Conclusions Radiology is a novel underestimated field. Therefore, medical students need more imaging exposure. To accomplish this, attention and efforts should be directed toward undergraduate radiology education to dissolve the gap between radiology and other specialties during clinical practice. A survey answered by medical students can bridge between presence of any current defect in undergraduate radiology teaching and future solutions for this topic.

Abstract Background There is a worldwide deficit in teaching and training in the field of radiology for undergraduate medical students. This educational gap is prominent in many medical schools as most radiology curricula are a part of other specialty trainings, usually provided by non-radiologists. After COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increased trend in online education. However, questions have been raised about the efficacy and acceptance of online education. We developed a course on the principles of radiology and medical imaging basics to target Egyptian medical students. We then assessed the impact of these educational videos through several online surveys. Our "The Principles of Radiology Online Course" was delivered to students at various Egyptian medical schools; it was a prerecorded series composed of nine sessions, and each session followed the sequence of a pre-test, video, and post-test. There was a final survey to assess the overall feedback. Finally, we analyzed the results to give insight onto how teaching radiology through online lectures can help build better physicians. Results Among various medical schools around Egypt, 1396 Egyptian medical students joined this cohort. Cohort population percentage was 56% female and 44% male. Ninety-eight percent of the students agreed that this program increased their understanding of radiology. Eighty-four percent of the students found the platform friendly and easy to use. Seventy-nine percent found these webinars were more convenient compared to in-person education. Statistical significance (p-value

This empirical research aims to propose and examine an online teaching approach that embeds modeling-eliciting activities (MEA). The approach guides teachers to create a well-interactive online learning environment and improve the conceptual learning and professional skills of engineering undergraduates. The professional skills are defined as critical thinking and collaboration. A structured teaching procedure was implemented sequentially by task introduction, problem description, performance analysis, structural optimization, and solution discussion. The six principles of MEA were organically integrated with the teaching procedure, creating a inspiring, open-ended, and teamwork learning environment. The instruments used to collect data included conceptual learning tests, design report evaluations, learning reflection analyses, and interaction statistics. The findings suggested that the MEA-embedded online courses have significant advantages for improving learners’ conceptual learning and professional skills. The proposed approach guides the learners to make appropriate decisions and practical actions, enhancing their critical thinking. The MEA inspires learners’ positive attitudes and high participation, providing an emotional basis for group collaboration. The discussions on the open topics and thought process reflections create a collaborative environment. Besides, the statistics on the online teaching platform show that the MEA has a significant role for interaction promotion in the online course.

The purpose of this study is to examine the faculty members’ tendency to conduct a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and the factors affecting these tendencies. In this study, the sectional survey model, a quantitative research method, was used. The study group is comprised of 122 faculty members working at a major state university in Turkey and selected by using a random stratified sampling method. During the research process, the faculty members were informed about the MOOCs, and data were collected through questionnaires. According to the results of the research, 34.4% of the faculty members were willing to conduct MOOC and the main aim of teaching MOOC was to share their knowledge and experience with the masses. According to the faculty members, it is seen that it is more appropriate to conduct MOOC with expert and experienced faculty members. Factors such as providing benefits to corporate development and promotion, supporting lifelong learning, and creating reliable sources of information on the Internet are considered positive elements for conducting MOOC, while it has been determined that concerns on issues such as adequate time, copyright, and instructional design experience adversely affect conducting MOOC. In addition, it was revealed that faculty members expected institutional incentives including technical infrastructure and information. In line with the results obtained from the study, suggestions were made for the institutions wishing to conduct MOOCs and for researchers wishing to conduct studies about MOOCs.

The technology advancement and pandemic situation moved the world from board teaching to online for various courses and millions of students are opting online mode in reality. Therefore, it is essential to analyse the quality of online education by tracking the learning behaviour of online course learners. In traditional method, the test scores and learners' feedback are used to assess the online learning behaviour. However this is not an efficient approach because the knowledge gained by the process of online learning depends not only on the test scores but also on the learners’ attention during courses. Therefore the test score, attention score and facial expressions of the learner are the three types of data required to effectively measure the performance, attentiveness and emotional state of the learner respectively. In order to obtain more insights about the learning behaviour, the proposed research focuses on collecting the data from Electroencephalography (EEG), facial expressions and test scores and analyzing using machine learning and deep learning models. The model uses techniques like Random Forest Algorithm to find the test score, Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) to predict time series attention scores of the learner for a video lecture and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to classify into different emotions for the facial expression images obtained from the recording of online courses. The predicted results are test scores, attention scores and overall emotional state of the learner during online class. From this research outcome, it is inferred that the test score is proportional to the attention score of the learner in most cases. Analyzing the attention variation during the different videos reveals that there are more fluctuations of attention in lecture video in comparison to the entertainment video reveals that the learners showed happier emotions for entertainment video than the lecture video.

The classification and sharing of online course teaching cases based on students' individual learning needs can help teachers save time and cost in preparation of lessons and enrich their teaching content, and what is more, it is in line with the digitalization trend of the modern data-driven education. Currently, there has been few research on the combination of new information technology with teaching case classification, and the research is not adequate on the existing algorithms for classification of online course teaching cases. Therefore, this paper takes the teaching cases of online open courses of finance as the object, and studies the classification method for online course teaching cases based on an improved clustering method. First, the text clustering problem of finance teaching cases was described, and the conversion process of the abstracts of the case text and the evaluation method for the importance of words to teaching cases were given. Then, the key sentences were extracted from the text of the finance teaching cases, and the related algorithm was introduced. After that, the clustering flow chart for long texts of finance teaching cases was shown, and the principle of the combined clustering algorithm for finance teaching cases with uneven distribution of long texts and short texts was described in detail. The experimental results verified the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research investigating how the brain develops and learns profoundly impacts education. Understanding the brain mechanisms responsible for learning and memory and the factors that influence them, such as age, environment, emotions, and motivation, can transform educational strategies by contributing to the development of programs that optimize learning. Including neuroscience education in teachers' training requires teaching them a multidisciplinary approach to science, which presents a challenge. Furthermore, the potential educational advances from the incorporation of neuroscience into teachers' training are hindered by significant obstacles such as translating research into the classroom; this includes the spread of neuromyths and the products, practices, and programs based on them. Our group has 9 years of experience in developing courses for training teachers. However, in 2020 the world faced the COVID-19 pandemic, which imposed on society a new way of carrying out its daily activities, including teaching. This study reports the experiences of our group as we developed the ninth edition of the Neuroscience Applied to Education teachers' training in an online format that included synchronous and asynchronous activities. Sixty teachers participated in the course. The synchronous meetings lasted 1.5 h/wk and addressed different themes: neuroscience and education, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurobiology of learning and memory, factors that interfere with learning, and pedagogical innovation. According to the teachers' perceptions, the course was fundamental for them in terms of acquiring new knowledge about neuroscience. Everyone agreed on the possible applicability of the concepts covered to improve their pedagogical practice and teaching environment. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study reports the experience of developing the ninth edition of the Neuroscience Applied to Education course in an online format that included synchronous and asynchronous activities. Here we show that schoolteachers consider the course important for acquiring new knowledge about neuroscience and the applicability of the concepts covered to improve their pedagogical practice and teaching environment. The online format did not prejudice the experience, and the technologies used were well evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the pandemic, online courses were not very common. With changes in the learning system placing participants at the center of learning, online courses became one of the solutions and people's first choice to learn and develop themselves. The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate various studies on online courses in the field of sports in various countries. The articles are peer-reviewed and identified through 3 databases indexed by Scopus, Eric, and Sage. The included articles were published from 2018 to 2022; they were selected and extracted using PRISMA Flowcharts. A total of 13 original articles met the criteria for entry into the review (i.e., 3 qualitative, 6 quantitative, and 4 qualitative and quantitative studies) from various countries, namely 5 articles from Canada, 4 articles from the United States, 1 article from Germany, 1 article from China, 1 article from the United Kingdom, and 1 article from Japan. Two studies were published in 2018, three in 2019, one in 2020, three in 2021, and four in 2022. The articles were reviewed, and it was determined that online courses considerably influence the ease with which participants obtain information, identification, and solutions to their needs. online course conducted in the sports field is practical and a solution because coaches in various countries obtain the same information. The obtained results showed no significant difference between in-person and online courses. Online courses are a good best practice in self-development, especially in sports. However, the materials for evaluation have limitation in terms of using English language in some Asian countries. Language is an inhibiting factor for equal access to information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current methods for online course learning resource recommendation tend to continuously push similar items to students. To make students more satisfied with the overall recommendation service, it is necessary to explore the recommendation methods for online course learning resources based on difficulty matching. Therefore, this paper devises an online course learning resource recommendation method based on difficulty matching. Firstly, an online course learning resource recommendation approach was developed based on the auto-encoder, in the light of difficulty matching. The flowchart of learning resource recommendation was presented, and the proposed algorithm was described in details. Then, the authors depicted the flow of the online course learning resource recommendation model, which considers difficulty matching, and proposed to capture the hierarchy of resources by assigning difficulty labels to texts, such that the proposed recommendation model outputs interpretable recommendation results. Finally, the authors designed a model that can discover the influence of the difficulty of learned resources on the difficulty of unlearned learning resources, and recommended online course learning resources considering difficulty matching. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified through experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of physical culture and sports, pedagogical community uses modern digital technologies in order to form students' conscious attitude to their health. Purpose: to evaluate the effectiveness of using the developed online course to form students' conscious attitude to their physical and mental health. Materials and methods. 1830 students of three Russian universities were examined with the help of content analysis. The course program is based on the integral method and contains a psychological component aimed at increasing young people's conscious motivation to follow a healthy lifestyle. A practical component aimed at mastering the skills of psychophysical training for the harmonization of the body's morphofunctional systems and a reflexive component - for the analysis of the results of the work done. Results. As a result of the content analysis of the final essays, 7 categories of conscious attitude to health were identified. Almost all the categories of content analysis noted by students have a positive trend (improvement, strengthening, promotion, etc.), negative - only 1 category of «poor health». All the selected linguistic units indicate a high level of reflection in the analysis of students' actions after completing the online course, increasing awareness of their physical and mental health and the importance of motor activity in their lives. Conclusions. We believe that such online technologies of forming a person's conscious attitude to his/her physical and mental health can be used to develop health-saving competencies in other population groups [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]