Preliminary Evaluation of the teaching of Homeopathy in undergraduate Pharmacy Courses in Brazilian states Paraná and Santa Catarina

Introduction: Homeopathy and other integrative and complementary health practices were included in the Brazilian public health system (SUS) under a formal policy established by the Health Ministry in 2006 [1]. This led to an increase in the demand of homeopathic assistance, not accompanied by a corresponding increase in human and material resources [2,3,4]. On the other hand, an evaluation of market demands carried out by the Education Ministry (MEC) in 2000 led to a reform of the syllable of undergraduate pharmacy courses, which thus included formal teaching of homeopathy [2]. Aims: To make a preliminary quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the teaching of homeopathy in undergraduate pharmacy courses in Brazilian States Paraná and Santa Catarina as to the establishment of a formal discipline, academic credits and the qualification of professors. Methods: The MEC Internet database was surveyed looking for universities with undergraduate courses in pharmacy and their study programs were screened online as to the inclusion of formal teaching of homeopathy. Deans and professors were sent a semi-structured questionnaire adapted from the model developed by the Brazilian Association of Homeopathic Physicians (ABFH) [5]. Questions sought to assess the formal institutionalization of the teaching of homeopathy (categories, credits) and the qualification of professors. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Uniandrade (Process No. 316/2009). Results: 25 schools in Paraná (PR) and 12 in Santa Catarina (SC) have undergraduate courses of pharmacy. Four schools in PR were excluded from this study because they do not exhibit data online and no questionnaires were returned. From the remaining 21, 20 (95.2%) include homeopathy in their study program and 6 (28.6%) returned questionnaires. In SC, 1 school exhibits no data and 1 school does not include homeopathy in its study program, the remainder 10 (83.3%) do and 4 returned questionnaires. As a whole, from the initial sample, 30 schools include homeopathy and one does not; 10 questionnaires were returned. The overall credits of pharmacy courses measured in hours are 3,760-5,157 (~4,458) in PR and 3,096-4,968 (~4,217) in SC. The discipline specifically devoted to homeopathy is named in different ways, the most frequent term used is “homeopathic pharmacotechnics” (PR= 8, SC= 6). Its corresponding credits are 36-136 (~72.4) in PR and 32-72 (~57.6) in SC. In PR in 1 school (5%) and in SC in 2 schools (20%) homeopathy is optional, in all other cases is mandatory. All professors (n= 10) teaching homeopathy are pharmacists, 5 hold a MA and 3 a PhD degree, 3 are board certified; 7 have specific raining in homeopathy, whereas 3 do not. Conclusions: Homeopathy has been included in almost all pharmacy undergraduate courses in PR and SC. In most schools, credits measured as hours is adequate (minimum required= 60h). However, a wider availability of courses and teachers with better qualifications are still needed.

Industry requirements, thesis-writing and the emergence of flexible educational programmes: Reflections on the university learner experience

The transformation of new paradigms for online learning delivery has evolved rapidly over the past few years. For postgraduate programmes, the thesis module is regularly the capstone and significant in terms of academic credits. In reality, this module can be just an ‘add on’ set of resources with no dedicated online learning space. Industry students undertaking postgraduate programmes online traditionally feel overwhelmed while embarking on a thesis. Notably, too, they face the challenge of not being on campus and having the same learning opportunities as their on-campus counterparts. This paper highlights the importance of supporting and assisting online industry learners in participating fully with their thesis. The authors identify the challenges that face these learners at postgraduate level, recognising that a new way to help and prepare them to carry out and write a good thesis is essential. By focusing on a dedicated online module for ‘all things thesis’, the paper presents the positive experiences learners can have when participating in this module. The findings emphasise the need for educational providers to offer as part of their programmes a high-quality thesis module designed to support the postgraduate online industry learner.

Challenges of Converting an In-person Dance Course to a MOOC Course

This article presents the design experience of the “Folk dance as cultural heritage” course, which is offered to undergraduate students from University of Cauca the “massive online course” modality. It shows the main challenges faced in the exercise of the integration of two in-person courses, one practical and one theoretical, and its process of transformation into a MOOC. The course was designed for two academic credits with six hours of dedication per week and is offered as an elective (non-mandatory) class of the Integral Social and Human Formation (FISH) component, through a space in the MOOC Open edX platform. The integration process of the two in-person courses and their transformation into a MOOC, brought with it several challenges related to the adjustment of contents, academic activities and evaluation. This article presents how these challenges were faced in this experience. It is worth mentioning that one of the results obtained in this research is associated with the contribution of the research to the first folk dance course in MOOC modality in Latin America, what makes it an innovative educational proposal that allows the rescue of culture through the adaptation of traditional educational contents.

Development of a relevance index for the subjects in a study plan - Case study: Systems and Computer Engineering, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira

This document presents the development of an index that aims to quantify, according to some criteria known in graph theory, how relevant a subject is, taking into account its location in the curriculum, its number of credits, its prerequisites and the subjects dependents. The first thing was to model the academic plan using a graph, which considers only two things: the assigned credits and the prerequisites that must be met before taking the subjects. After having this model, graph theory algorithms were applied that allow to measure the importance of a subject with respect to the location in its curricular mesh (Centrality) and allow to give a measure of the importance of the subjects based on academic credits, its prerequisites and subjects depending on it (Neighborhood). It is important to note that the analysis presented is not intended to indicate that one subject is more important than another for the student's professional development, but rather to analyze, in an estimative way, which subjects contribute more to the connectivity of the program and academic flow by this network only taking into account the information found in the curriculum.The result obtained is a composite index, which allows visualizing the relevance degree of the subjects in the study plan.

PENGARUH KECERDASAN INTELEKTUAL, EMOSIONAL, DAN SPIRITUAL TERHADAP PEMAHAMAN AKUNTANSI

This study aims to examining the effects of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual intelligence on students' understanding of accounting both partially and simultaneously. The objects of this study are 58 final-year students who have taken 136 of academic credits (SKS) and passed the compulsory courses in Accounting Program at the Faculty of Economics, Universitas Muhammadiyah Maluku Utara. This study used quantitative methodology with multiple linear regression as an analysis tool. The data used consists of primary and secondary data. The primary data on this sudy were tabulation results of respondent’s answers obtained through questionnaires, while secondary data were obtained from student’s scores in the Accounting Program’s archives at the Faculty of Economics, Universitas Muhammadiyah Maluku Utara. The results of this study are as follows. (1) The intellectual intelligence and spiritual intelligence do not have any influence in students' understanding of accounting partially while emotional intelligence does. (2) Those three intelligences do not effect the students' understanding of accounting by simultaneously.

Psychometrics of MOOCs: How to Measure Proficiency?

The popularity of online courses with open access and unlimited learner participation (MOOCs) has been growing intensively. Certificates of MOOC completion are becoming a significant element in learners' portfolios as well as an additional source of academic credits. That is why learners, professors, universities, and employers have an interest in accurate measures of learners' proficiency in MOOCs. Existing psychometric approaches do not serve perfectly as measurement tools for MOOCs. However, item response theory (IRT) is a flexible and well-elaborated framework, in which models could be tuned up to be applied for MOOCs. Thus, the general purpose of the doctoral dissertation is to propose model extensions that make IRT able to accurately measure learners' proficiency and to describe constructs closely linked with learners' proficiency in MOOCs. The doctoral thesis consists of five chapters following the introductory chapter - four empirical and one conceptual. In the four empirical chapters, we have proposed Rasch model extensions aimed at solving the following problems. In Chapter 2, we have improved the proficiency measures by modeling the effect of attempts and by involving non-assessment data such as learners' interaction with video lectures and practical tasks. In Chapter 3, we have modeled individual growth in proficiency through the MOOC as an effect of the cumulative sum of video lectures a learner has watched before responding on a summative assessment item. In Chapter 4, we have established a more nuanced insight on the role of proficiency on the learners' performance by involving one extra latent effect, the effect of learners' interest. In Chapter 5, we have proposed a way to measure learners' activity (e.g., watching videos, reading texts) as influenced by a latent learner characteristic and a latent content characteristic. The four studies have been conducted using the single psychometric framework of cross-classification multilevel logistic models and real datasets from the Coursera platform. In the final, reflective and conceptual chapter (Chapter 6), we have summarized a connection between psychometrics, as a scientific discipline, and MOOCs, as an industry, and have sketched ideas for the future development of psychometrics of MOOCs.

The Oasis Skateboard Factory: Return to the One-Room Schoolhouse

How can you get young people interested in science and mathematics? What efforts are there to integrate the experiences of high school students into the things they need to do and learn in school? How can action sports, like skateboarding be used to teach science, mathematics, language arts, history and help at-rick and marginalized students to grow in their engagement and motivation in high school, as well as to graduate? This is in part answered at the Oasis Skateboard Factory (OSF) an alternative high school in Toronto, Canada. The factory, under the direction of founding teacher Craig Morrison, has enjoyed success since it opened in 2008. The OSF enrolls 25 students per semester and they earn academic credits as they develop their artwork, design and manufacturing skills through a skateboard-centric academic construction process. Additionally, students who are part of this academic program have a 95 percent graduation rate.

The Development of “Asian Academic Credits” as an Aligned Credit Transfer System in Asian Higher Education

During the last two decades, Asian countries have attempted to establish several aligned academic credit systems as part of the harmonization process of their higher education systems. However, these systems have not been widely used among universities in the Asian region. This article analyzes the current trends in credit-related governmental regulations and university systems in 24 Asian countries and territories. Moreover, it asserts the concept of “Asian Academic Credits,” (hereafter, AACs) as a new widely effective aligned system of academic credit transfer within Asia and also with other regionally aligned credit systems in the world. AACs can serve as one of the vital components for a new era of Asian higher education that provides a regionally aligned, flexible, and innovative learning environment for students throughout the entire Asian region.

Barriers to participation in clinical trials: a physician survey

Background Clinical trials are vital for evidence-based cancer care. Oncologist engagement in clinical trials has an effect on patient recruitment, which in turn can affect trial success. Identifying barriers to clinical trial participation might enable interventions that could help to increase physician participation.Methods To assess factors affecting physician engagement in oncology trials, a national survey was conducted using the online SurveyMonkey tool (SurveyMonkey, San Mateo, CA, U.S.A.; http://www.surveymonkey.com). Physicians associated with the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network and the Canadian Cancer Trials Group were asked about their specialty, years of experience, barriers to participation, and motivating interventions, which included an open-ended question inviting survey takers to suggest interventions.Results The survey collected 207 anonymous responses. Respondents were predominantly medical oncologists (46.4%), followed by radiation oncologists (24.6%). Almost 70% of the respondents had more than 10 years of experience. Significant time constraints included extra paperwork (77%), patient education (54%), and extended follow-up or clinic visits (53%). Timing of events within trials was also a barrier to participation (55%). Most respondents favoured clinical work credits (72%), academic credits (67%), a clinical trial alert system (75%), a regular meeting to review trial protocols (65%), and a screening log to aid in patient accrual (67%) as motivational strategies. Suggested interventions included increased support staff, streamlined regulatory burden, and provision of greater funding for trials and easier access to ancillary services.Conclusions The present study confirms that Canadian oncologists are willing to participate in clinical research, but face multiple barriers to trial participation. Those barriers could be mitigated by the implementation of several interventions identified in the study.