A novel remote hands-on training for neuroendovascular-based treatment in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has demanded a change in learning modalities, which led us to develop a remote personal training system for clinicians performing neuroendovascular procedures. A portable vascular model designed for practicing catheter navigation guidance, thrombus retrieval, and intracranial aneurysm coil embolisation was established. We created an environment that enabled interactive dialogue and communication across long distances using the Internet. The instructor conducted approximately 2 h of hands-on training with two to four trainees at a time. Despite the restrictions enforced by the Government of Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 17 online hands-on training were successfully conducted throughout Japan over 1 year for a total of 48 trainees. The developed remote training programme, to avoid the aggregation of a large number of trainees at a developed time, proved to be at par with the conventional learning system. The training was well-received since the operation time was longer and the question and answer sessions were more fulfilling compared to the conventional format in which a group of trainees had got a brief opportunity to receive actual hands-on experience.

Delivering Higher Education in public Health Emergencies

With the general closure of universities and schools in Sierra Leone due to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital learning has become a credible alternative to maintain students in educational, training, and research links. The study responds to three primary questions: 1) What digital learning modalities have shown to be most effective for providing continuity in learning amid temporary or permanent school closures? 2) What digital learning modalities are promising for their use but evidence for their use evidence about them is still lacking? 3) What are the challenges and considerations when planning for and implementing digital learning? The study utilised qualitative research methods: interviews; focus group discussions; qualitative survey; and document reviewing. A stratified sample of 260 participants (161 male and 99 female) was randomly drawn from teachers, education officials and information technology experts. This paper provides snapshots of the different distance learning initiatives and program that have been implemented, including both the promises they offer.

The efficacy of matching learning modality in the teaching-learning process

As a foundational approach in inferential statistics, hypothesis testing (HT) is considered as one of the most challenging topics for teaching and learning. A promising approach is through the consideration of students’ learning modalities, as demonstrated in vast applications; however, contentions that surround the use of learning modality in education exist in recent debates. The cause of this unrest is the lack of robust empirical evidence on the efficacy of learning modalities in education. Thus, this work attempts to contribute to this debate and investigates whether sensory modality does influence learning. It develops an approach for teaching HT to college students via learning modality. Results show that learning modalities have a positive impact on students’ performance on competencies in learning HT. Furthermore, it was found out that some learning modalities work together on learning specific competencies. Lastly, the task-dependency of learning modalities was observed in the results of the experiment.

Clinical Skills Development in the Virtual Learning Environment

The rapid transition to distance learning in response to the unexpected SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic led to disruption of clinical skills development, which are typically conducted face-to-face. Consequently, faculty adapted their courses, using a multitude of active learning modalities, to meet student learning objectives in the didactic and experiential settings. Strategies and considerations to implement innovative delivery methods and address potential challenges are elucidated. Furthermore, integration of a layered learning approach may allow for more broad perspectives and allow additional interactions and feedback, which is especially necessary in the virtual environment.

A Critical Review of Secondary Educational Shifts to Online Learning Modalities in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic affected K12 schools globally. This unprecedented disruption to education transformed teaching and learning experiences for children, teachers, administrators, and parents in many ways. The challenge of shifting traditional classroom teaching to online and distance modalities were met with various responses by school leaders and communities across the globe. This critical review highlights recent responses to continuing education for K12 students through collaborative efforts as the delivery of instruction as redefined and redesigned to meet the needs of children. Despite the lack of preparedness for this sudden shift to online learning, K12 district leaders and other stakeholders demonstrated their commitment to navigate through this crisis head-on. While disparities and unequal access became more evident during this unforeseen time, the future of online learning can be strengthened by this experience. This awareness can lead to further improvements in K12 education to serve all children with equity despite the circumstances.

Predicting or preventing lifelong learning? The role of employment, time, cost, and prior achievement

Although there has been a rich amount of research about lifelong learning providing benefits such as economic advancement and personal fulfillment, less is known about factors that increase or decrease a person’s likelihood of pursuing it. Nonetheless, knowing these predictors and barriers can have practical consequences on encouraging people to have continued education. Using a national US dataset ( n = 1651), our analyses showed people’s pursuit of different lifelong learning modalities and revealed significant predictors and barriers of lifelong learning. Counterintuitively, employment and time constraints did not prevent individuals from pursuing educational opportunities; they actually helped predict it. Additionally, limited information—rather than cost—was a stronger driver in preventing people from pursuing lifelong learning. Taken together, the research has implications for encouraging people to pursue lifelong learning.

The Concept and Context of Distance Learning in the New Normal Learning Scheme

Distance Learning has been around since its advent in 1960 and evolved in the creation of World Wide Web (WWW) in 1991 with the introduction of first education programs through internet of University of Phoenix and other universities and colleges. Vast ideas of concepts, theories and context have aroused in the popularization and implementation of distance learning in educational system and its first and most adversary are those in favor of lecture style of teaching. In the onset of the COVID-19, all fields of society have been affected and one of it is the educational system. This pandemic propagated the rise of distance learning in the Philippines and it becomes the most reliable modality of continuing the academic years. Distance learning becomes more adaptive and effective with the help of flexible teaching and learning modalities. Several studies exposed the concepts and theories for the distance learning to be more acceptable. These concepts and theories are supported by the literature with claims of context of distance learning in order to create an open and good system. Frameworks and being literate with the aid of continuous studies in this rising field is one of the key concepts in creating more possibilities to attain the quality of sufficient distance learning modality.

Challenges and Opportunities of the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Lesson Learnt

COVID‐19 has immensely disrupted tertiary education ecosystem. The crisis has compelled numerous unprecedented and accelerated changes. The traditional and conventional way of teaching and learning has completely shifted to fully online. Nonetheless, the trend of integrating technology in the classrooms is not new. This has led to numerous questions and arguments of the existing concepts and theories of traditional education. This phenomenon also provides new opportunities for educational institutions to explore and leverage on the prospects of online modalities, fashioning unique inquiries. Thus, the key purpose of this research paper is to identify the challenges and opportunities encountered by lecturers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of the interviews showed that there are some challenges that the lecturers faced; for example, unpreparedness to tackle the new norm of online teaching and learning process, internet connection, and online engagement. The findings from the interview showed that there are opportunities which have emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic such as experimenting with numerous digital tools and platforms, employing different online teaching and learning modalities, and commissioning online assessments to support the students’ needs and engagement. It is postulated that the findings of the research although may be preliminary, are able to facilitate vital discussions on fashioning best practice guidelines for asynchronous or synchronous modalities post the COVID-19 pandemic.