Teaching Graduate Technology Management Students With Innovative Learning Approaches Around Cybersecurity

Every year in the U.S., 40,000 jobs for information security analysts go unfilled, and employers are struggling to fill 200,000 other cybersecurity related roles. Colleges and universities have created certificates, undergraduate, and graduate programs to train professionals in these job roles. This issue becomes more complicated when you explore the that competent workers in this field need more than just book knowledge to be effective. Engaged and experiential learning approaches encourages experimentation and expanding teaching cybersecurity beyond the use of just classroom lectures, textbooks, and PowerPoint slides. The use of experiential and scenario-based learning approaches helps students to develop real-world problem solving and critical thinking skills that demonstrate expertise beyond course grades and degrees. Developing the ability to strategic and adaptive is vital to be effective. This case study research intends not to reconstitute theory but to influence the practice of cybersecurity education through the use of innovative applied and engaged learning approaches.

Preparing students for pharmacy practice using critical thinking and reflection

Background: Social, behavioural, and administrative sciences are among the Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education (ACPE) mandated foundational knowledge requirements for pharmacy school curricula. However, they are often taught in isolation, whereby students lose sight of their meaning and significance in the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process (PPCP). Objective: The objective was to assess performance and critical thinking skills and explore student perceptions of a Longitudinal Patient Case assignment that integrates knowledge from multiple domains into a learning experience exploring how patients and pharmacists navigate the complexities of the US healthcare system. Methods: Student pharmacists developed their case throughout the term by incorporating course concepts, then submitted a narrated PowerPoint presentation. Quantitative data sources included overall scores, scores for each domain, midterm and final examination scores, and final course grades, analysed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation. Student reflections encouraged self-discovery and professional identity development and served as the qualitative data source. Thematic analysis occurred through a multi-phase approach. Results: All first-year student pharmacists (n = 153) participated. Scores on the narrated PowerPoint were significantly correlated with midterm and final exams and were moderately correlated with overall course grades. Themes that evolved from students’ self-reflections focused on project execution and learning/knowledge. Conclusions: Synthesising and applying content across a course in this manner enables students to make connections, think critically, and be creative.

Comparing the Outcomes of the Different Teaching Modes: All-in-Person, Hybrid, and Online, for Different Student Demographic Groups in a Business School

The concept of hybrid education is spreading. Far less research has been done comparing hybrid teaching to online and F2F teaching. Nearly all this research assumes that there is no difference in the students entering F2F, Hybrid, or online sections of a course. This study used data from four years of courses that were taught in Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. This data set with individual student and course outcomes, included full student demographics including previous university GPA. The results showed for all demographics, hybrid course sections gave better final course grades than online sections, which in gave better final grades than F2F sections. However, for instructors who taught Hybrid courses also gave higher course GPAs for F2F sections than those who did not teach hybrid.

Dashboard proposal implemented according to an analysis developed in the KNIME platform

The objective of the research is to develop a methodology to analyze a set of data extracted from a Learning Management System (LMS), in order to implement a Dashboard, which can be used by teachers to make timely and relevant decisions to improve the teaching-learning processes. The methodology used consisted of the analysis of 9,257 records extracted through simple random sampling from a population of 100,000 records. The indicators analyzed were: number of accesses, course grades, time spent, number of courses enrolled and number of activities developed. The results show the data analysis in the KNIME data mining analysis platform, the model was implemented in five phases: Requirements definition, model design, development, implementation and evaluation of results. The results are taken as a recommendation to design and implement a customized Dashboard for teachers to identify observable behavioral patterns that allow them to make decisions to improve the teaching-learning processes of students. Keywords: Analytics, dashboard, KNIME Learning, personalized, teaching.

Dashboard proposal implemented according to an analysis developed on the KNIME platform

The objective of the research is to develop a methodology to analyse a set of data extracted from a learning management system, in order to implement a dashboard, which can be used by teachers to make timely and relevant decisions to improve the teaching–learning processes. The methodology used consisted of analysing 9,257 records extracted through simple random sampling from a population of 100,000 records. The indicators analysed were number of accesses, course grades, time spent, number of courses enrolled and number of activities developed. The results show that the data analysis was carried out on the (o Konstanz Information Miner (KNIME) data mining analysis platform, and the model was implemented in five phases: requirements definition, model design, development, implementation and evaluation of results. The results are taken as a recommendation to design and implement a customised dashboard for teachers to identify observable behavioural patterns that allow them to make decisions to improve the teaching–learning processes of students. Keywords: Analytics, dashboard, KNIME Learning, personalised, teaching

Undergraduate Biology Students Received Higher Grades During COVID-19 but Perceived Negative Effects on Learning

Institutions across the world transitioned abruptly to remote learning in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This rapid transition to remote learning has generally been predicted to negatively affect students, particularly those marginalized due to their race, socioeconomic class, or gender identity. In this study, we examined the impact of this transition in the Spring 2020 semester on the grades of students enrolled in the in-person biology program at a large university in Southwestern United States as compared to the grades earned by students in the fully online biology program at the same institution. We also surveyed in-person instructors to understand changes in assessment practices as a result of the transition to remote learning during the pandemic. Finally, we surveyed students in the in-person program to learn about their perceptions of the impacts of this transition. We found that both online and in-person students received a similar small increase in grades in Spring 2020 compared to Spring 2018 and 2019. We also found no evidence of disproportionately negative impacts on grades received by students marginalized due to their race, socioeconomic class, or gender in either modality. Focusing on in-person courses, we documented that instructors made changes to their courses when they transitioned to remote learning, which may have offset some of the potential negative impacts on course grades. However, despite receiving higher grades, in-person students reported negative impacts on their learning, interactions with peers and instructors, feeling part of the campus community, and career preparation. Women reported a more negative impact on their learning and career preparation compared to men. This work provides insights into students’ perceptions of how they were disadvantaged as a result of the transition to remote instruction and illuminates potential actions that instructors can take to create more inclusive education moving forward.

489 Success of Hyflex Teaching Modality in Animal Reproduction

COVID-19 forced institutions to think and act differently. Southeast Missouri State University launched a HyFlex pilot with 100 sections in fall 2020. AY350 (Animal Reproduction) is one course that converted to HyFlex and offered two sections in the pilot. The objective of this study was to determine if students were more successful in HyFlex courses compared to the traditional course, grades were compared from 2019 and 2020. A survey of Chief Online Officers identified that institutions on average converted more than 1500 sections as an emergency response to the pandemic (Garrett, et al., 2020). HyFlex is one approach institutions used to provide more flexible learning opportunities for students. In a HyFlex course, students can choose to learn in face-to-face, fully online, or synchronously online (Beatty, 2019). Research on student success in Hyflex is scant, however early research shows no significant difference in student success across modalities (Rhoads, 2020). Using a One Way T-test, we analyzed letter grade outcomes for students who enrolled in traditional (n=25) mode to those that enrolled in the HyFlex (n=44) modality. Findings show an increase in “A” and “B” course grades and a decrease in “C” grades, and conflicts with the Rhoads (2020) research which found no significant difference. Additionally, no students failed the HyFlex section(s). Specific variables of Test 3 (p< 0.02) and Final exams (p< 0.002) contributed to significant grade changes. Overall, using a traditional grade point average (GPA) scale where A=4.0, B=3.0, etc. the HyFlex course GPA mean was 3.269 and face-to-face 2.65 (p=0.002). Future research is planned to explore student success in HyFlex across the institution. If similar findings correlate with the initial study of AY350, additional questions should be considered to determine if grade distribution shift was incremental and why increases were seen in the second half of the semester.

Impact of an Online Sleep and Circadian Education Program on University Students’ Sleep Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviours

University students consistently report poor sleep. We conducted a before-and-after study to evaluate the impact of an online 10-week course on undergraduate students’ sleep knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours at 6-month follow-up. Data were collected via baseline course surveys (August–September 2020) and follow-up surveys distributed via email (February–March 2021). n = 212 students completed baseline surveys and n = 75 (35%) completed follow-up. Students retained to follow-up possessed higher baseline sleep knowledge and received higher course grades. At the 6-month follow-up, sleep knowledge had increased (mean score out of 5: 3.0 vs. 4.2, p < 0.001). At baseline, 85% of students aimed to increase their sleep knowledge and 83% aimed to improve their sleep. At follow-up, 91% reported being more knowledgeable and 37% reported improved sleep. A novel Stages of Change item revealed that 53% of students’ attitudes towards their sleep behaviours had changed from baseline. There was a reduction in sleep latency at follow-up (mean 33.3 vs. 25.6 min, p = 0.015), but no change in the total Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score. In summary, completion of an online course led to increased sleep and circadian knowledge and changed sleep attitudes, with no meaningful change in sleep behaviours. Future interventions should consider components of behavioural change that go beyond the knowledge–attitudes–behaviour continuum.

Reflective Writing on an ESL Writing Course

Research shows that student reflective writing is a valuable window into student learning, particularly student metacognition; however, our knowledge of the challenges of accessing metacognition to inform curriculum design and assessment practices in the ESL (English as a Second Language) context is less robust. This paper reports two qualitative studies of student reflective writing on an ESL writing course within a teacher education programme. The studies investigate how student metacognition manifests itself in reflective papers and how mapping student metacognition can inform evidence-based curriculum design and assessment. The data comes from several iterations of an ESL writing course and is analysed using directed and conventional content analyses. Our results expose a complex relation between metacognition, curriculum design and assessment practices: 1) unless scaffolded by the curriculum design to use precise terminology, students resort to expressing their understanding of the course content in terms of everyday, vernacular language and 2) student reflective writing not only provides a more nuanced picture of their learning than the final course grades but is invaluable for developing scaffolding and assessment practices. Based on our results, we recommend integrating structured reflection as part of the regular curricula to gauge ESL student metacognition and monitor more precisely their uptake of course content.