Wikis as a Tool for Co-constructed Learning in Higher Education – An Exploratory Study in an Albanian Higher Education

This study explores the effectiveness of wikis in a teaching course in teacher formation and its pedagogical implications with the aim of determining whether wikis will influence the learning experiences and the learning out-comes of the students in a middle-income, post-communist country as Albania. For this, we implemented student-generated wikis into a master’s course on teaching and examined student reflections on their learning outcomes and other pedagogical effects. A mixed method methodology was employed. The findings of the study were informed by triangulating data from the analysis of the student-generated wikis, students’ reflections on the experience, as well as a comparison of the learning outcomes based on the exit exams of this group of students and the group of the prior academic year. Our data suggest that wikis help support collaborative learning, but at the same time they also encourage independent thinking. Teachers’ authority is minimized, empowering students’ ownership and authorship, leading to a continuous process of modification and improvement through interactions among group members via wikis. The data present compelling evidence in favor of wikis, as an organic tool to facilitate co-constructed learning which students seem to enjoy.

Are interpersonal communication skills adequately taught at postgraduate specialist level in South Africa? The neurology experience

Background: Interpersonal communication skills by clinicians with patients, carers, fellow health professionals and legal professionals carry many unique challenges in practice. Whilst undergraduate training in communication helps with generic information receiving and information giving, uncomfortable and demanding speciality-specific issues in the various medical specialities are not covered during under- and postgraduate training.Methods: The aim of this study was to determine the self-perceived competence of neurology registrars and neurologists in interpersonal communication and the need for such assessment in college exit exams. We undertook a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional survey by using self-administered printed questionnaires and the EvaSYS online system. Neurology registrars in training from the seven training centres in South Africa and neurologists based at the training centres and in the private sector were recruited.Results: We received a 62.9% response rate. One hundred and twenty-nine participants were recruited comprising 42 neurology registrars and 87 neurologists. Registrars were more commonly female, more likely to be multilingual and less likely to use translators. Undergraduate training in communication was considered insufficient, 42.9% and 39.1% for registrars and specialists respectively, and was also considered not relevant to address speciality-specific issues encountered in practice. Most training received has been by observation of others and on-the-job training. Both groups felt strongly that postgraduate training in interpersonal communication was important (registrars 95.2%, specialists 91.9%), especially when dealing with issues of death and dying, disclosing medical errors and dealing with the legal profession.Conclusion: Postgraduate training of interpersonal communication as required of neurology registrars and neurologists was considered insufficient. Most training has been by observation of others or experiential by trial and error. Assessment of interpersonal communication at board exit exams will drive postgraduate training and importantly will embrace the AfriMEDS framework developed to produce the holistic doctor in South Africa.

Distance assessment of counselling skills using virtual patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Reports on using virtual patients to assess counselling skills is scarce. Aim: This paper describes the feasibility and acceptability of assessing patient counselling skills of pharmacy students using a virtual patient simulator. Description: In this innovative method, a high quality simulator ‘Virtual Patient Learning’ (VPL) was developed at Gulf Medical University (GMU) and was used to assess the counselling skills of 15 pharmacy graduate students. Counselling skills were measured using a four-domain scoring rubric of 1 to 5 marks followed by instant feedback for improvements. Student and faculty satisfaction scores were collected based on the feasibility and acceptability of the assessment method. Evaluation: The average counselling skills score for all students was 68.4 (85.5%) out of 80 (range 54-76), with a standard deviation of 5.8. The overall student agreement on the feasibility and acceptability of the assessment method was 92.8%; it was 100% agreement for faculty. Conclusion: The use of a high quality VPL simulator in assessing counselling skills was deemed feasible and acceptable for students and faculty. The assessment was repeated among 30 Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) graduates with similar outcomes. The virtual counselling method will be used in the programme exit exams, as well as in students entering their experiential year. Further studies are required to assess its validity and reliability with more students.

Student Learning in Online College Programs

We draw on administrative data from the country of Colombia to assess differences in student learning in online and traditional on-campus college programs. The Colombian context is uniquely suited to study this topic, as students take a compulsory exit examination at the end of their studies. We can therefore directly compare the performance on the exit exam for students in online and on-campus programs both across and within institutions, degrees, and majors. Using inverse probability weighting methods based on a rich set of background characteristics coupled with institution–degree–major fixed effects, our results suggest that bachelor’s degree students in online programs perform worse on nearly all test score measures (including math, reading, writing, and English) relative to their counterparts in on-campus programs. Results for shorter technical certificates are more mixed. While online students perform significantly worse than on-campus students on exit exams in private institutions, they perform better in SENA—the main public vocational institution in the country.

Análisis de la trayectoria académica del programa educativo de Ingeniería en Electrónica de la Facultad de Ciencias Químicas e Ingeniería

Higher Education Institutions implement study programs with the aim of training competitive professionals that adjust to the needs of the labor market, but seeking as far as possible to guarantee a successful graduation. It is necessary to identify the characteristics of graduation of a program education that allows institutional managers to propose strategies that improve graduation levels in them and thereby improve the quality conditions offered to students enrolled in these study programs. In order to carry out this process, the failure rate, the conditions of the school environment, the results of the bachelor's exit exams and the accreditations of the educational program are analyzed from the beginning. This is done in order to identify key factors in the dropout process and where to work for the improvement of the Electronic Engineering educational program of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences and Engineering of the Autonomous University of Baja California.

E-Learning perception and satisfaction among health sciences students amid the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: E-learning is increasingly used during the COVID-19 pandemic, however the impact of this change on students is not known. This study aimed to evaluate perception and satisfaction of health sciences students towards E-learning during the COVID-19 lockdown. METHODS: A structured questionnaire was distributed to 2000 health care students either through email or social media platforms. The questionnaire was divided into two sections: the first section addressed demographic information such as age, education level, course of study, number of lectures attended and country. The second section gathered information on perception and satisfaction of students using 13 close-ended questions. Frequencies and percentages were assessed for demographic data, perception and satisfaction level of students. The paired sample t-test, independent t test and Spearman correlation were applied to evaluate statistical significance between different variables of the study. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Data from 1255 participants were included at a response rate of 66.4%. More than one third (37%) of the students took 25 or more online E-learning sessions and 47% preferred Zoom as an online platform. Participants belonged to 11 countries from developed and developing nations. 41% reported interference of E-learning due to network problems. 60% considered that clinical and practical skills are best learned in clinics and laboratories. More than one third of the students preferred classroom teaching and 34% of the students did not feel confident enough to take exit exams after E-learning sessions. CONCLUSION: E-learning satisfaction levels were better among developed countries (7.34) compared to developing countries (5.82). The majority of participants agreed that E-learning was satisfactory in acquiring knowledge, however not effective in acquiring clinical and technical skills. As the COVID-19 lockdown eases, there is a need for improvement in the methods employed in E-learning and more blended learning among healthcare students is recommended.