E-learning in postgraduate urology training: a Covid-19 pandemic experience

Since the declaration of a COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 teaching institutions started the process of adjusting to the new challenge. Medical education could not be imparted the way it used to be and some new methods had to be taken to adapt to the pandemic. At our institute, each week two lectures were recorded and later uploaded on the Youtube Channel and shared with students. This was followed by an MCQs based test using Google forms. Ten lectures were delivered in 5 weeks to 55 participants. Majority of residents agreed that this activity increased their knowledge of the subject and opted to continue it in future. With help of short online lectures (< 30 mins) and short online tests (5 MCQs), the learning experience of residents can be enhanced. In future, more online resources can be used to incorporate this method of teaching.

Brain–computer interfaces for human gait restoration

In this review article, we present more than a decade of our work on the development of brain–computer interface (BCI) systems for the restoration of walking following neurological injuries such as spinal cord injury (SCI) or stroke. Most of this work has been in the domain of non-invasive electroencephalogram-based BCIs, including interfacing our system with a virtual reality environment and physical prostheses. Real-time online tests are presented to demonstrate the ability of able-bodied subjects as well as those with SCI to purposefully operate our BCI system. Extensions of this work are also presented and include the development of a portable low-cost BCI suitable for at-home use, our ongoing efforts to develop a fully implantable BCI for the restoration of walking and leg sensation after SCI, and our novel BCI-based therapy for stroke rehabilitation.

Item Selection on The Moodle-Based Computerized Adaptive Test

In this industrial era, all areas of life have been entered. There are five central issues that support performance, namely numerical physical devices, production tools, programs, interfaces, and networks. The Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (Moodle) in order to support Industrial technology has been equipped with adaptive test facilities. Adaptive Moodle can be used to organize a communicative and interactive test process because of the communication features (chat, messaging, or forum). In addition, Adaptive Moodle can be used to administer online tests. Adaptive tests are tests whose quiz presentations will adjust to the user’s abilities. The results of the research that has been carried out regarding the selection of items on the Moodle-based computerized adaptive test (CAT) were obtained: (1) The Moodle adaptive test worked successfully in accordance with the research objectives, (2) Based on user responses, the selection of items on the Moodle adaptive test items had worked well for the exam, (3) The Moodle adaptive test can run according to its function, namely adaptive to the user’s ability.

Convergent Validity of a Quick Online Self-Administered Measure of Verbal IQ for Psychology Researchers

Verbal intelligence—which relates to memory performance, abstract reasoning, and g—is often important to account for within psychological research. However, the time demands and financial costs associated with researcher-administered testing using valid measures of intelligence limit researchers’ ability to include such measures within their research. To address this issue, we examined the convergent validity of two tests of verbal intelligence that could be self-administered online with the well-validated Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence–Second Edition (WASI-II). An undergraduate sample of participants (N = 104) completed the Self-Administered Verbal IQ Test (SA-VIQT), with a subsection (n = 64) completing the Self-Administered Full Scale IQ Test (SA-FSIQT), both made available online by Open-Source Psychometrics Project. Additionally, all participants were administered the Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) of WASI-II by a trained researcher, with a subsection administered the full WASI-II including the Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) (n = 72). Both online tests demonstrated convergent validity with the WASI-II. While the online tests may only deliver a crude indicator of verbal intelligence, they provide researchers the opportunity for statistical control or screening of participants across large samples in an efficient manner not possible when using researcher-administered testing methods.

Online Statistical Learning in Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose: The vulnerability of statistical learning (SL) in developmental language disorder (DLD) has mainly been demonstrated with metacognitive offline measures which give little insight into the more specific nature and timing of learning. Our aims in this study were to test SL in children with and without DLD with both online and offline measures and to compare the efficiency of SL in the visual and acoustic modalities in DLD.Method: We explored SL in school-age children with and without DLD matched on age and sex (n = 36). SL was investigated with the use of acoustic verbal and visual nonverbal segmentation tasks relying on online (reaction times and accuracy) and offline (two-alternative forced choice, 2AFC and production) measures.Results: In online measures, learning was evident in both groups in both the visual and acoustic modalities, while offline measures showed difficulties in DLD. The visual production task showed a significant learning effect in both groups, while the visual two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) and the two acoustic offline tasks only showed evidence of learning in the control group. The comparison of learning indices revealed an SL impairment in DLD, which is present in both modalities.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that children with DLD are comparable to typically developing (TD) children in their ability to extract acoustic verbal and visual nonverbal patterns that are cued only by transitional probabilities in online tasks, but they show impairments on metacognitive measures of learning. The pattern of online and offline measures implies that online tests can be more sensitive and valid indices of SL than offline tasks, and the combined use of different measures provides a better picture of learning efficiency, especially in groups where metacognitive tasks are challenging.

Exploring Students’ Perceived Attitude on Utilizing a Biofeedback System for Anxiety Awareness during Academic Examination Activities

The presented paper examines the students’ adoption of the use of a cost-effective biofeedback system for anxiety awareness in parallel to examination activities. Human anxiety is classified by evaluating bio-signals related to skin conductance, skin temperature and heart rate. The participants of the research were 44 students who were taking examinations in the form of synchronous online tests in the classroom for one of their courses. At first, the usability of the biofeedback system was examined using the system usability scale (SUS). The statistical analysis indicated that the examined system usability is quite satisfactory. Then, the study attempted to investigate the relationships between the students’ technology readiness personality dimensions, perceptions of usability, and the usefulness of the presented system by exploiting the technology readiness and acceptance model (TRAM). The results showed that the students’ optimism and attitude towards using the system are significant factors that affect the model’s relationships. The examined relationships are presented via a path model.

Online Assessment of English for Specific Purposes

The study is about the questions of online assessment of English for Specific Purposes. The focus is on online assessment as a possible future form of language testing which truly has a huge importance hence today’s situation around the globe. It can unquestionably be used as a perspective in a vast array of contents The study is innovative and its main aim is to uncover the intriguing questions and issues of online testing and to enlighten the candidates and professional assessors about the advantages and disadvantages of online testing. A thorough experimental process is currently being implemented involving a process that includes an online questionnaire completed by English and Hungarian students at the Medical School of the University of Pécs. Material and methods include already completed surveys, which will be followed by needs analysis and trial versions of online tests. These surveys do not only question future candidates but also assessors in order to find both perspectives of needs and wants. These include the aspects of tasks, content, skills, technology and others.

The Empirical Research on “School’s Out, but Class’s On” in Secondary Vocational Schools under the Pandemic

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 was all of sudden, in order to prevent the spread of the pandemic, most cities and countries in China were locked down, also, solutions such as the lockdown of city and village, traffic control were taken, and the collective attentive study was stopped. Under the circumstances, schools came up with many methods to achieve “School’s out, but Class’s on”: Five schools in a city forged alliances to draw on each other's strengths; top Math teachers in different schools exploited or adapted teaching resources to design homework and test; more than sixty teachers answered students' questions online in real-time; teachers chose proper resources for different students to improve their grades; students had online tests and got feedback in time to find their disadvantages. At last, this paper briefly introduces those methods' achievements