Educational Anomaly Analytics: Features, Methods, and Challenges

Anomalies in education affect the personal careers of students and universities' retention rates. Understanding the laws behind educational anomalies promotes the development of individual students and improves the overall quality of education. However, the inaccessibility of educational data hinders the development of the field. Previous research in this field used questionnaires, which are time- and cost-consuming and hardly applicable to large-scale student cohorts. With the popularity of educational management systems and the rise of online education during the prevalence of COVID-19, a large amount of educational data is available online and offline, providing an unprecedented opportunity to explore educational anomalies from a data-driven perspective. As an emerging field, educational anomaly analytics rapidly attracts scholars from a variety of fields, including education, psychology, sociology, and computer science. This paper intends to provide a comprehensive review of data-driven analytics of educational anomalies from a methodological standpoint. We focus on the following five types of research that received the most attention: course failure prediction, dropout prediction, mental health problems detection, prediction of difficulty in graduation, and prediction of difficulty in employment. Then, we discuss the challenges of current related research. This study aims to provide references for educational policymaking while promoting the development of educational anomaly analytics as a growing field.

Rules of Program Behavior

We propose a framework for identifying, organizing, and communicating learning objectives that involve program semantics. In this framework, detailed learning objectives are written down as rules of program behavior (RPBs). RPBs are teacher-facing statements that describe what needs to be learned about the behavior of a specific sort of programs. Different programming languages, student cohorts, and contexts call for different RPBs. Instructional designers may define progressions of RPB rulesets for different stages of a programming course or curriculum; we identify evaluation criteria for RPBs and discuss tradeoffs in RPB design. As a proof-of-concept example, we present a progression of rulesets designed for teaching beginners how expressions, variables, and functions work in Python. We submit that the RPB framework is valuable to practitioners and researchers as a tool for design and communication. Within computing education research, the framework can inform, among other things, the ongoing exploration of “notional machines” and the design of assessments and visualizations. The theoretical work that we report here lays a foundation for future empirical research that compares the effectiveness of RPB rulesets as well as different methods for teaching a particular ruleset.

Wheelchair Skills Test Outcomes across Multiple Wheelchair Skills Training Bootcamp Cohorts

User training is a critical component of wheelchair service delivery to ensure individuals with a mobility impairment can negotiate environmental barriers and promote their social participation. A wheelchair “bootcamp”, delivered during professional preparation education, is one strategy to better prepare occupational therapists for clinical rehabilitation practice by developing their own wheelchair skills. The purpose of this study was a retrospective review of a large dataset of student cohorts from a single site and delineate bootcamp effects on the Wheelchair Skills Test-Questionnaire (WST-Q) scores. Participant data from eight cohorts was consolidated (n = 307). Comparison of two WST-Q scoring formats revealed significantly lower scores for cohorts using the 4-point version, which was subsequently standardized to the other 3-point version. WST-Q change scores were similar between cohorts, and differences were more reflective of variability in skill level prior to bootcamp than post-bootcamp scores. Students were able to master most basic and intermediate level skills, while advanced skill acquisition was much more variable. This study provides more precise point estimates of wheelchair skill acquisition among occupational therapy students than previous studies. While confirming the benefits of bootcamp education, recommendations for further investigation were identified.

How effective are governmental and university campaigns for increasing meningitis vaccine uptake?

ObjectivesUniversity student cohorts have a potential for significant impacts on public health policies. Health impacts arise from wide geographic catchment areas and behavioural patterns that enhance infectious disease spread and occasional cases of meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia, measles and mumps. Universities and the Department of Health and Social Care have tackled these serious problems through advertising campaigns and by offering free MenACWY and MMR vaccines to university students. Our study aimed to assess the engagement of universities with these vaccine campaigns and student awareness of this information. Study DesignInformation was accrued by a combination of e-mail and telephone interactions with welfare officers at universities. Student perceptions of meningitis vaccine campaigns were studied through use of questionnaires with University of Leicester students. ResultsInformation provided by 17 universities indicated that all universities run meningitis awareness campaigns whereas on campus meningitis campaigns were infrequent and of variable penetration into student cohorts. Assessment of 272 students from a 2019-2020 cohort found that 17.5% and 58% of students did not know or had not had the MMR and MenACWY vaccines. Only 37% of students were aware that these vaccines were free and available from a university-linked GP practice with lack of this knowledge being significantly associated with uncertainty or perceived absence of immunisation. This latter group were significantly associated with a preference for on campus immunisation. DiscussionThis information is important for understanding how to target a critical cohort with effective campaigns for uptake of meningitis, MMR and COVID-19 vaccines.

Interdisciplinary and transferable concepts in bioinformatics education: observations and approaches from a UK MSc course

Bioinformatics is a highly interdisciplinary subject, with substantial and growing influence in health, environmental science and society, and is utilised by scientists from many diverse academic backgrounds. Education in bioinformatics therefore necessitates effective development of skills in interdisciplinary collaboration, communication, ethics, and critical analysis of research, in addition to practical and technical skills. Insights from bioinformatics training can additionally inform developing education in the tightly aligned and emerging disciplines of data science and artificial intelligence. Here we describe the design, implementation, and review of a module in a UK MSc-level bioinformatics programme attempting to address these goals for diverse student cohorts. Reflecting the philosophyof the field and programme, the module content was designed either as ‘diversity-addressing’ – working towards a common foundation of knowledge – or ‘diversity-exploiting’ – where different student viewpoints and skills were harnessed to facilitate student research projects ‘greater than the sum of their parts’. For a universal introduction to technical concepts, we combined a mixed lecture / immediate computational practical approach, facilitated by virtual machines, creating an efficient technical learning environment praised in student feedback for building confidence among cohorts with diverse backgrounds. Interdisciplinary group research projects where diverse students worked on real research questions were supervised in tandem with interactive contact time covering transferable skills in collaboration and communication in diverse teams, research presentation, and ethics. Multifaceted feedback and assessment provided a constructive alignment with real peer-reviewed bioinformatics research. We believe that the inclusion of these transferable, interdisciplinary, and critical concepts in a bioinformatics course can help produce rounded, experienced graduates, ready for the real world and with many future options in science and society. In addition, we hope to provide some ideas and resources to facilitate such inclusion.

The implementation and embedding of digital skills and digital literacy into the curriculum considering the Covid-19 pandemic and the new SQE

This paper focuses on the introduction of a new model of digital teaching and resource provision for the University of Law (ULaw) Library Service, during the Covid-19 pandemic. It details the processes and steps we took to achieve the three core aims of: a new mode of online skills delivery, the creation of self-directed, independent learners in the various student cohorts at the university and the creation of a flexible self-assessment platform to provide an incremental learning journey for both students and staff. This paper also highlights some of the challenges and difficulties we faced, arising from a project of this size and nature.

Hurdles for adopting mobile learning devices at the outset of clinical courses

Background Mobile devices provide medical students with easy access to medical information and educational resources. Since 2013, we have followed the study use of iPads among medical students. In 2016, we observed a notable drop in the mobile device usage in the first cohort of medical students entering their clinical courses. Methods The aim of the study was to identify the hurdles for adopting mobile devices at the beginning of the clinical courses. We examined how students evaluated their own and the clinical teachers’ ability to use the iPad, how the study assignments fit into digital learning, and how students used the mobile device with patients. The data were collected with online surveys among three consecutive student cohorts and the distributions of closed-ended questions analyzed. Results Response rates ranged from 67.5 to 90.8%. Students evaluated their own ability to use the iPad as good or excellent and teachers’ skills as relatively poor and wanted more digitally tailored assignments. They reported negative attitudes towards mobile device use in the clinical setting and were hesitant to use them in patient contact. Teachers seldom communicated suitable quality medical applications to students. Conclusions Clinical teachers need support and training to implement a learning environment and assignments appropriate for mobile devices. Both students and teachers were concerned about using these devices with patients. To achieve the full potential of digitalisation in clinical courses, their use should be developed collectively with students.

Equity in the Classroom and the Clinic: Understanding the Role of Sociology in Health Professional Education

Sociology teachers often encounter students studying to be future health professionals; sociology content can assist students to increase their understanding of patients, the social context of health and illness, and the social determinants of health. Engaging these students in sociological thinking can be challenging because of their diverse social locations and their identification with their future profession, which may emphasize clinical competence over broader reflective skills. In this conversation piece, we encourage critical reflection on the assumptions that underpin the teaching of sociology to aspiring health professionals. Through case studies of nursing, medicine, and speech-language pathology, we consider differences in the social locations of students and how sociological ideas are received by these professions. We argue that sociology teachers can assist health professions students to gain more from sociology by understanding these student cohorts and by reflexively considering power relations between teachers and students and between disciplines and professions.

Teaching Human Anatomy: A Comparison of In-Person and Online Learning Programs

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic created challenges in providing anatomy instruction to allied health professions. Human anatomy laboratory classes often rely on human cadavers as instructional material. At some institutions, the anatomical instructional method shifted to online resources. It was essential to compare online methods to those used in the traditional cadaver-based curriculum to determine efficacy. A technique was devised to compare these two approaches. The working hypothesis was that virtual human anatomy models are equally effective to traditional methods in providing anatomy instruction to allied health students. Methods: Students enrolled in this study participated in a human anatomy course delivered either in-person or virtually via Aclan’s Anatomy, NetAnatomy, and Anatomy TV. The instructional design was the same except that the in-person learning group participated in a real-time cadaver anatomy lab, while the virtual learning group utilized online models and simulations. Students were assessed using the same three written tests and three laboratory examinations. Results: Student demographics and evaluation outcomes were presented, and no significant differences concerning sex or educational program between the two student cohorts were identified. Post hoc testing revealed no statistically significant differences between student cohort and test-type. The three-way interaction between test type, test number, and cohort was not significant. Conclusions: The findings confirmed the hypothesis. There were no statistically significant differences between the test performance of human anatomy students who received online training versus those who participated in in-person classroom instruction. These results suggest that human anatomy can be taught effectively using an online format.