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In traditional instruction, teachers generally deliver the content of textbooks to students via lectures, making teaching activities lack vibrancy. Moreover, in such a one-to-many teaching mode, the teacher is usually unable to check on individual students' learning status or to provide immediate feedback to resolve their learning problems. Chatbots provide an opportunity to address this problem. However, conventional chatbots generally serve as information providers (i.e., providing relevant information by matching keywords in a conversation) rather than as decision-making advisors (i.e., using a knowledge-base with a decision-making mechanism to help users solve problems). Thus, this study proposes an expert decision-making-based chatbot to facilitate individual students' construction of knowledge during the learning process. A quasi-experiment was conducted to compare the differences in the performances and perceptions of students using the expert decision-making-based chatbot (EDM-chatbot) and the conventional chatbot (C-chatbot) in the activities of a geography course. One class of 35 students was the experimental group, using the EDM-chatbot. The other class of 35 students was the control group, using the C-chatbot. The results of the study showed that the EDM-chatbot combined with expert decision-making knowledge significantly improved students' learning achievement and learning enjoyment as well as reducing their learning anxiety, showing the value of the proposed approach.

Scholars and researchers generally believe that scientific inquiry is an important activity for cultivating students' applied knowledge and high-level thinking ability. The process of scientific inquiry can promote students' learning motivation and trigger their higher-order thinking ability. However, students may not have enough prior knowledge or they may lack inquiry experience, which may influence the effectiveness of their inquiry learning. Besides, in a scientific inquiry environment assisted by technology, students must face abundant and diverse learning resources, and may not effectively organize and carry out advanced cogitation to solve problems. Therefore, this research proposed an integrated concept mapping and image recognition (IR) approach to help students effectively acquire and organize knowledge in the process of scientific inquiry. This study applied a quasi-experimental design to verify the effect of this proposed approach. The experimental group conducted the concept mapping-based IR (CM-IR) learning approach, whilst the control group conducted the conventional IR-based learning approach to evaluate the students' performance in terms of their learning motivation and learning achievements. The participants were two classes of 10th-grade students in northern Taiwan. One was the experimental group with 22 students, whilst the other was the control group with 22 students. The experimental results show that the students learning with the CM-IR learning approach had better learning achievement, attitudes and intrinsic motivation, as well as higher mental load than those learning with the conventional IR-based learning approach. Accordingly, several suggestions are provided for future research in this field.

In language education, the development of writing capability is an important and challenging teaching objective. Writing performance is related not only with students' comprehension and expression of texts, but also their experience and perceptions of the contexts. Descriptive article writing is a basic writing activity; the content includes concrete understanding and perceptions of space, time, and contexts. However, in the traditional language teaching activities, there is usually no chance for students to have in-depth feelings about the contexts of a topic. This usually results in low learning motivation and limited expression during the writing process. Therefore, the present study attempted to adopt spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR) to enable students to have in-depth experience and perceptions and to facilitate their learning effectiveness. Based on this approach, a Chinese writing SVVR learning system was developed and a quasi-experiment was conducted to compare the effects of the proposed approach and the conventional technology-supported learning approach in a senior high school writing class. The findings show that the proposed SVVR writing approach could improve students' writing performance in terms of content and appearance as well as their creativity tendency and writing self-efficacy, while also reducing their cognitive load.

Objectives: As professional medical caregivers, nurses have extensive medical knowledge and information than general population. However, they may use their professional knowledge and networks to seek prompt health services. In this study, we aimed to determine susceptibility of nurses with diabetes to developing end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis compared to diabetes patients in the general population. Methods: This retrospective longitudinal study extracted data of nurses with newly diagnosed diabetes and general patients with diabetes from the National Health Insurance Database between 1998 and 2006 and follow-up to December 2009, satisfied the participant inclusion criteria was 518,058. Nurses and general population were matched with propensity score method in a 1:10 ratio. Basic characteristics and health status were similar between groups. Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare relative risks and dialysis factors between groups. Results: Nurses were younger than general population with diabetes (42.01 years vs. 59.29 years) and had lower risk of dialysis (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.36, 95% confidence interval 0.16-0.81). Nurses with Diabetes Complications Severity Index (DCSI)≧3 had dialysis risk up to 83.53 times higher than that of the reference group (DCSI < 3). DCSI was the only variable determined to be a related factor affecting dialysis risk in nurses with diabetes. Conclusions: Nurses with diabetes have lower risk of dialysis. This suggests that nurses may have more knowledge regarding chronic disease control and change their lifestyles than general diabetes patients. Results of this study may serve as a reference for developing health education.

Scholars and researchers generally believe that scientific inquiry is an important activity for cultivating students' applied knowledge and high‐level thinking ability. The process of scientific inquiry can promote students' learning motivation and trigger their higher‐order thinking ability. However, students may not have enough prior knowledge or they may lack inquiry experience, which may influence the effectiveness of their inquiry learning. Besides, in a scientific inquiry environment assisted by technology, students must face abundant and diverse learning resources, and may not effectively organize and carry out advanced cogitation to solve problems. Therefore, this research proposed an integrated concept mapping and image recognition (IR) approach to help students effectively acquire and organize knowledge in the process of scientific inquiry. This study applied a quasi‐experimental design to verify the effect of this proposed approach. The experimental group conducted the concept mapping‐based IR (CM‐IR) learning approach, whilst the control group conducted the conventional IR‐based learning approach to evaluate the students' performance in terms of their learning motivation and learning achievements. The participants were two classes of 10th‐grade students in northern Taiwan. One was the experimental group with 22 students, whilst the other was the control group with 22 students. The experimental results show that the students learning with the CM‐IR learning approach had better learning achievement, attitudes and intrinsic motivation, as well as higher mental load than those learning with the conventional IR‐based learning approach. Accordingly, several suggestions are provided for future research in this field. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicWith the development of information technology, AI has attracted the attention of researchers.Image recognition (IR) is one of the AI applications, and has been used to support learning in various educational fields.Researchers have indicated that concept mapping is an effective instructional strategy and promotes students' knowledge construction.What this paper addsA concept mapping‐based IR (CM‐IR) learning approach is proposed to improve students' scientific inquiry performance.A quasi‐experimental design was conducted with 10th‐grade students on the 'Plant identification' unit of the scientific inquiry course.The experimental results show that the proposed approach can significantly improve students' learning achievement, learning motivation and learning attitude.Implications for practice and/or policyThe CM‐IR learning approach could be an effective method to facilitate students' learning performances and motivation in scientific inquiry.It is worth promoting the CM‐IR learning approach in school settings since it is low‐cost and enables learning anywhere using mobile devices.Scholars and educators are encouraged to work on how AI technologies applications can be applied to support learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In language education, the development of writing capability is an important and challenging teaching objective. Writing performance is related not only with students' comprehension and expression of texts, but also their experience and perceptions of the contexts. Descriptive article writing is a basic writing activity; the content includes concrete understanding and perceptions of space, time, and contexts. However, in the traditional language teaching activities, there is usually no chance for students to have in‐depth feelings about the contexts of a topic. This usually results in low learning motivation and limited expression during the writing process. Therefore, the present study attempted to adopt spherical video‐based virtual reality (SVVR) to enable students to have in‐depth experience and perceptions and to facilitate their learning effectiveness. Based on this approach, a Chinese writing SVVR learning system was developed and a quasi‐experiment was conducted to compare the effects of the proposed approach and the conventional technology‐supported learning approach in a senior high school writing class. The findings show that the proposed SVVR writing approach could improve students' writing performance in terms of content and appearance as well as their creativity tendency and writing self‐efficacy, while also reducing their cognitive load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated that hospice palliative care interventions for cancer patients can reduce health care utilzation. In Taiwan, 20-25% of patients who require mechanical ventilation are using prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV); however, only a limited number of studies have addressed the effectiveness of hospice palliative care for these patients. This study investigated the impact of hospice palliative care utilization on medical utilization among subjects using PMV., Methods: By using the health insurance database of a nationwide population-based study, we identified subjects who had been on mechanical ventilation for > 21 d, were age ≥18 y between 2009 and 2017, and had received hospice palliative care. The control group was formed through 1:1 matching by using propensity scoring after excluding patients who had participated in palliative care for <15 d or for >181 d. Furthermore, we used a conditional logistic regression analysis to investigate the incidence of ICU admission, emergency department presentation, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation within 14 d before death., Results: A total of 186,533 new subjects receiving PMV age ≥ 18 y were admitted between 2009 and 2017. In addition, the number of subjects receiving palliative care increased annually, rising from 0.6% in 2009 to 41.33% in 2017. The emergency department visits (odds ratio [OR] 0.68, 95% CI 0.63-0.74), ICU admission (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.53-0.66), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.35-0.46), and total hospitalization cost ($1,319.91 ± $1,821.66 versus $1,544.37 ± $2,309.27 [$USD], P < .001 ) were significant lower in the palliative care group., Conclusions: Subjects undergoing PMV while receiving hospice palliative care experienced significant reductions in total hospitalization costs, ICU admissions, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and medical expenses within 14 d before death., (Copyright © 2024 by Daedalus Enterprises.)