Browsing by keyword "Online and Distance Education"
Now showing items 1-8 of 8
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Adapting Helping Babies Breathe into a Virtual Curriculum: Methods, Results, and Lessons LearnedIntroduction. The Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) curriculum is an established, effective method to combat neonatal mortality. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted in-person HBB training sessions worldwide, portending deficits in the dissemination of this important intervention. Methods. A pilot study to compare in-person versus virtual HBB training among US-based pediatric and family medicine residents. Two HBB master trainers condensed the curriculum into an abbreviated course that was offered to 14 learners in-person (n = 6) and virtually via Zoom (n = 8). A standardized 10-item survey was administered before and after the session to measure reported self-efficacy of critical elements of HBB. Difference of difference analysis was performed to detect differences in post vs pre-training results among the 2 groups using STATA MP 15. Results. All learners showed improvement in preparedness, assessment, and skills subcomponents of self-efficacy with no notable differences based on the type of learning medium. At baseline, in-person learners had a 7-point higher self-efficacy score (69.7) in comparison to virtual learners (62.8; P = .26). After training, the confidence score improved significantly; by 14.3 units for in-person learners (P = .01) and 12.9 for virtual learners (P = .04). There was no statistically significant difference in improvement between the 2 groups (P = .67). Furthermore, all learners passed the post-training knowledge assessment. Discussion. Virtual learning of HBB may be an alternative option in the setting of resource and travel limitations. Future work needs to assess possible differences in attainment of assessment skills and retention of the HBB curriculum among virtual learners.
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Biomedical Research Data Management Open Online Education: Challenges & Lessons LearnedThe Best Practices for Biomedical Big Data project is a two year collaboration between Harvard Medical School and University of Massachusetts Medical School, funded by the NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Initiative for Resource Development. The Best Practices for Biomedical Research Data Management Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provides training to librarians, biomedical researchers, undergraduate and graduate biomedical students, and other interested individuals on recommended practices facilitating the discoverability, access, integrity, reuse value, privacy, security, and long term preservation of biomedical research data. This poster highlights lessons learned from the first year of this project. Built upon the New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum, the development team sought to use existing curricular materials to create a fully online course. The course is designed with an open course platform, WordPress Learning Management System (WPLMS), in order to facilitate broad access. Each of the MOOC’s nine modules is dedicated to a specific component of data management best practices and includes video lectures, presentation slides, research teaching cases, readings, activities, and interactive quizzes. The project team overcame multiple challenges related to creating an open online course: curriculum, audience and software. Working towards overcoming these, the Best Practices for Biomedical Research Data Management MOOC development team has moved slowly and deliberately, created additional content, and added content experts to provide guidance. These lessons learned will assist course development beyond this project, adding to best practices for creating massive open online courseware. Lessons learned include: teaching method influences the curriculum and content should not be developed in isolation from the teaching method; content is dependent on audience and supplementary content can be used to bridge audience gaps; and implementing new or unfamiliar technologies is challenging so allow more time in the timeline for project team to work with open source platform.
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Emergency Medicine Clerkship Director Experience Adapting Emergency Remote Learning During the Onset of COVID-19 PandemicObjectives: The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 altered the traditional paradigm of clinical medical education. While individual clerkships have shared their curricular adaptations via social and academic networking media, there is currently no organizational standard in establishing a non-clinical, Emergency Medicine (EM) virtual rotation (VR). The primary objective of this study was to describe EM clerkship directors' (CDs) perspectives on their experience adapting an EM VR curriculum during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A 21-item survey with quantitative and qualitative questions was disseminated between June and August 2020 to EM CDs via the Clerkship Director of Emergency Medicine (CDEM) Listserv to describe their experience and perspectives in adapting a VR during the spring of 2020. Results: We analyzed 59 out of 77 EM clerkship survey responses. Among respondents, 52% adapted a VR while 47.5% did not. Of those who adapted a VR, 71% of CDs had 2 weeks or less to develop the new curriculum, with 84% reporting usual or increased clinical load during that time. Clerkships significantly diversified their asynchronous educational content and utilized several instructional models to substitute the loss of clinical experience. Reflecting on the experience, 71% of CDs did not feel comfortable writing a standardized letter of evaluation for students based on the VR, with the majority citing inability to evaluate students' competencies in a clinical context. Conclusion: A crisis, such as COVID-19 necessitates change in all facets of medical education. While EM educators demonstrated the ability to create emergency remote learning with limited time, this was not equivalent to the formal development of pre-planned VR experiences. Future faculty development and curriculum innovation are required to fully transition an in-person immersive experience to a non-inferior virtual experience.
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Harnessing robotic automation and web-based technologies to modernize scientific outreachTechnological breakthroughs in the past two decades have ushered in a new era of biomedical research, turning it into an information-rich and technology-driven science. This scientific revolution, though evident to the research community, remains opaque to nonacademic audiences. Such knowledge gaps are likely to persist without revised strategies for science education and public outreach. To address this challenge, we developed a unique outreach program to actively engage over 100 high-school students in the investigation of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Our program uses robotic automation and interactive web-based tools to bridge geographical distances, scale up the number of participants, and reduce overall cost. Students and teachers demonstrated high engagement and interest throughout the project and valued its unique approach. This educational model can be leveraged to advance the massive open online courses movement that is already transforming science education.
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Increasing Flexibility for Adult Learners: Merging a Hybrid Course with a Fully Online CourseThe objectives of this presentation are to: 1. Examine the processes and outcomes of a project aimed at increasing enrollment into two nurse educator courses at the Graduate School of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts Worcester. 2. Discuss the pros and cons of the strategy selected for the project. This peer-reviewed slide presentation was presented at the 15th Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning, on October 30, 2009, in Orlando, Florida.
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Optimizing Learner Accessibility: Adding American Sign Language (ASL) and Text-to-Speech to Online TrainingsThe Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Training Program is located at the Eunice K. Shriver Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA. The CANS Training Program provides training and certification services for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), MassHealth, Children's Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI). Massachusetts behavioral health providers are required to be CANS certified in order to see Medicaid insured children and youth under the age of 21. The CANS Training Program has trained and certified over 26,000 behavioral health providers throughout Massachusetts in the use of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool. The Mass CANS on-line training and certification program is designed for clinicians who provide behavioral health services to Massachusetts children and youth under the age of 21. The abilities, learning styles, and primary language spoken among providers is quite diverse. The CANS Training program, committed to providing content accessible to people of all abilities, and has added American Sign Language (ASL) and Text-to-Speech capabilities throughout the online training. These additions to the CANS accessibility toolbox help clinicians of all abilities get the most out of their online training and certification experience. Users may use American Sign Language (ASL) insets or closed captions while using the training videos. We will discuss the recent addition of ASL interpretation and Text-To-Speech functionality to the web-based training; discuss important considerations when improving accessibility; demonstrate the features and discuss our results.
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RDM 102: The Instructor ExperienceThis presentation provides an instructor's perspective on teaching an online data science course for librarians called "RDM 102: Beyond Research Data Management for Biomedical & Health Sciences Librarians". This course is sponsored by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Training Office (NTO). Presented at the National Network of Libraries of Medicine New England Region e-Science Forum, Marlborough, MA, USA, on March 29, 2019.
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Redesigning Web-Based Courses for Nurse Educators. Fully Online? Hybrid?Background: Schools of nursing are experiencing faculty shortages which limit student admissions. The additional time and effort needed to gain competency as an academic nurse educator is one reason for this shortage. Nurse educator web-based courses offer increased flexibility in time management as well as reduced commuting time, however not all nurses embrace the online learning environment. Aim: Expand access to two web-based nurse educator courses at the University of Massachusetts Worcester by offering nurses the choice, within a single course, of completing either a hybrid or fully online course. N620: Teaching and Curriculum Development N623: Identifying and Measuring Outcomes Research Design: Exploratory prospective design. Qualitative data gathered from student focus groups and interviews. Quantitative data gathered through initial, formative and end of course surveys, student assignments, grades. Findings: 1. 50% of the students completed the hybrid course because face to face interaction was highly valued. 2. Students with prior satisfactory online learning experiences and who knew each other from other courses completed the fully online course. 3. Students with no previous experience taking online courses did not anticipate the time commitment. 4. Even a hybrid course format can increase access to graduate courses for busy students with jobs and families. The online format reduced the burden of commuting and allowed for flexibility. Enrollment in N 620 more than doubled from the previous year (four versus nine students). Recommendations: 1. Potential students should complete a self-assessment to determine if they are motivated to be self-directed learners and learn basic computer skills, Powerpoint© and Blackboard Vista© technology prior to beginning a hybrid or fully online course. 2. To facilitate communication in a hybrid or fully online course, course syllabi should contain detailed descriptions of all assignments, grading criteria and due dates. (U Wisconsin Milwaukee Learning Technology Center).
