Capturing the big picture

This project report describes an internal scan of library staff involved in instruction in a large academic library system. 64 semi-structured interviews were conducted and qualitatively analysed in order to produce a summary of instruction across the library system, and both the challenges faced and supports desired by these instructors. The most often mentioned challenges included the wide variety of students and class characteristics encountered, limitations around time, and navigating faculty expectations. The supports described with greatest frequency were professional development opportunities to support instruction practice, a greater sense of community among those doing instruction, and increased awareness of instruction practices both across the library system and in the institution at large. These finding allowed the authors to form recommendations for the library system to help advance instruction in support of teaching and research in the institution.

P and/or E: That Is (Still) the Question (Or Is It?)

While the question of whether to choose the print and/or electronic format of a given title is certainly not new, the circumstances in which we are making such decisions have changed, prompting many of us to reconsider collection development priorities. Three librarians share their observations in answering three interrelated questions: (1) How did limited access to print collections affect student research behavior and faculty expectations in the course of the pandemic? (2) What strategies have libraries adopted to provide access to print-exclusive content? and (3) What criteria do they use in determining whether print or digital format is more suitable for a given title? While electronic resources certainly offer advantages, those who make and/or inform collection development decisions would do well to consider potential pedagogical implications of format as well as the ways in which providing access to electronic format exclusively may affect our ability to serve library patrons beyond the seminary community, including alumni and local clergy.

P.178 Neurosurgical Faculty Expectations of Entrustable Professional Activities Evaluations

Background: Competence by Design (CBD), a new outcomes-based approach to medical education, has been recently introduced into neurosurgical programs across Canada. A cornerstone of this educational paradigm shift requires evaluation of residents’ performances of entrustable professional activities (EPAs). This study aimed to define Faculty expectations and markers of competence for resident EPA performances. Methods: Canada-wide survey of neurosurgical Faculty (NSF) with a 55-item online questionnaire referencing 15/45 available core neurosurgery EPAs. Results: Of the 52 respondents, majority believed that being able to perform safely (98%), effectively (92%) and independently (90%) and being able to adapt to contextual complexities of the case (88%) and unexpected events (88%) represented necessary qualities for demonstrating competence achievement of an EPA. Performing efficiently, without supervision and responding to rare events were all considered less important. On average, NSF believed that at least five separate assessments involving two or more different assessors were necessary for documenting competence achievement of each EPA. Proportion believing EPAs were representative of general neurosurgery competences varied significantly across all EPAs (p<0.00001) with >25% believing 5/15 EPAs required fellowship training. Conclusions: This study defined expectations and indicators of competent surgical performance and revealed a significant debate regarding perceived appropriateness of current EPAs for general neurosurgical training.

A Compromise Programming for Multi-Objective Task Assignment Problem

The problem of scheduling is an area that has attracted a lot of attention from researchers for many years. Its goal is to optimize resources in the system. The lecturer’s assigning task is an example of the timetabling problem, a class of scheduling. This study introduces a mathematical model to assign constrained tasks (the time and required skills) to university lecturers. Our model is capable of generating a calendar that maximizes faculty expectations. The formulated problem is in the form of a multi-objective problem that requires the trade-off between two or more conflicting objectives to indicate the optimal solution. We use the compromise programming approach to the multi-objective problem to solve this. We then proposed the new version of the Genetic Algorithm to solve the introduced model. Finally, we tested the model and algorithm with real scheduling data, including 139 sections of 17 subjects to 27 lecturers in 10 timeslots. Finally, a web application supports the decision-maker to visualize and manipulate the obtained results.

Policies and Procedures That May Hinder Morale, Motivation, and Engagement

For institutions with a strong reliance on campus-based, full-time faculty, there are likely several policies and procedures that may hinder morale, motivation, and engagement for remote faculty that should be considered. The purpose of this chapter is to provide key areas of policy that administrators may want to consider in the areas of technology and equipment, faculty and student expectations, barriers to time and geography, and training and development. Key recommendations provided at the end of the chapter include developing a strategy to provide online faculty with the appropriate learning tools to deliver high-quality education via the online modality; creating a comprehensive set of policies and procedures that outline student and faculty expectations and requirements in the online classroom; integrating tools, resources, and policies that set remote faculty up for success; and supporting faculty through coaching, mentoring, and best practices.

Managing student and faculty expectations and the unexpected during the COVID-19 lockdown: role transformation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect teaching and learning practices, to highlight an educator’s new roles in the transformation when teaching online during the COVID-19 lockdown. Design/methodology/approach The paper takes a transformative reflection approach, based on competencies and activity system analysis to connect theory and practical experience in managing the students, the teaching delivery and the assessments. Findings The transition to online teaching and assessments requires various considerations of the curriculum and instructional approaches and necessitates the transformation of the role of the subject-matter expert to that of designer and co-learner. Empathy and understanding of students’ conditions enable this role transformation. Practical implications The paper highlights the importance of preparedness among faculty members and universities in dealing with uncertainties and the willingness to expand traditional roles and to upgrade the required skills, knowledge and attitudes to engender sustainable teaching and learning practices in response to future disruptions. Originality/value The paper reflects on the experience of a faculty who had adopted blended learning prior to the lockdown and how the teaching practice and roles transformed when fully transitioning to online delivery during the lockdown in New Zealand.

Student Potential for Self-assessment in a Clinical Dentistry Practical Training Course on Communication Skills

This study aimed to investigate student potential for self-assessment in a clinical dentistry practical training course focused on communication skills. Participants were 124 fourth-year students (70 males, 54 females; all Japanese) in 2017 and 2018 at the Nippon Dental University, School of Life Dentistry at Niigata. Participating students belonged to different cohorts in 2017 and 2018. Participants were asked to complete a self-evaluation sheet at the end of each unit of the course. Their self-evaluation scores and the faculty evaluation scores for each student for Units 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 were statistically analyzed. The results showed that females tended to rate themselves significantly higher than males. Furthermore, there were significant differences in evaluation scores between students and faculty for nine of 11 evaluation items for male students and 10 of 11 items for female students in Unit 1-3. Faculty expectations increased from Unit 1-1 to Unit 1-3, although students were satisfied with their performance and had a sense of achievement. However, students’ actual performance was below faculty expectations, suggesting faculty evaluations were stricter than students’ self-evaluation. Self-assessment may enhance students’ ability for self-directed learning and may also inform how faculty can effectively educate dental students. Dental educators should support students to increase their levels of self-efficacy, which will enhance their self-evaluation skills.