What Does the Data Say about Effective University Online Internships? The Universitat Politècnica de València Experience Using MOOC during COVID-19 Lockdown

Universitat Politècnica de València’s students can take in-company internships during their bachelor’s degrees, and, with the COVID-19 lockdown, 224 students had their internships cancelled. EdX launched a free certificate initiative for its partners, and UPV gave the possibility of using MOOCs to cover for the credit needed to graduate. We have tried to answer the question, “Is it possible to use MOOCs to replace an in-company internship in an emergency?” using Learning Analytics; 179 students chose this possibility. More than 90% of the students got their academic credit, and their satisfaction with the initiative was 4.6/5. They scored MOOCs’ quality with 4/5 and the contribution of MOOCs to their careers with 3.6/5; 95% will take a MOOC, and 69.3% think it is worth paying for the certificate. The answers to the question evaluating if MOOCs had given them the same knowledge as a company internship are positive but much less conclusive, with an average of 2.87/5. We conclude that MOOCs achieved the pursued goal during the emergency. With more time for planning and extra resources for remote support, they can be a good solution in environments where online is the only choice, and they can even be used as a tool to reinforce some of the knowledge needed to be successful in a traditional internship.

Modelling that shaped the early COVID-19 pandemic response in the UK

Infectious disease modelling has played an integral part of the scientific evidence used to guide the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK, modelling evidence used for policy is reported to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) modelling subgroup, SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling-Operational). This Special Issue contains 20 articles detailing evidence that underpinned advice to the UK government during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the UK between January 2020 and July 2020. Here, we introduce the UK scientific advisory system and how it operates in practice, and discuss how infectious disease modelling can be useful in policy making. We examine the drawbacks of current publishing practices and academic credit and highlight the importance of transparency and reproducibility during an epidemic emergency. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Modelling that shaped the early COVID-19 pandemic response in the UK’.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Pre-Veterinary Opportunities and Recommendations for DVM Admissions

During the summer of 2020, a survey-based study was conducted at North Carolina State University, a land-grant university, to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on pre-veterinary students’ ability to gain experience hours for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) admissions. Of the 286 respondents (47% of the respondent pool), 92% reported losing at least one animal, veterinary, research, extracurricular, or work opportunity due to COVID-19, and 59% were not able to find a replacement. Of the lost experiences, 74 (20.8%) were for academic credit, resulting in 131 total academic credit hours lost, while only 12 credit hours were gained via alternative experiences. Of respondents, 30% (29.7%) identified as applicants of the 2020–2021 Veterinary Medical College Application Service (VMCAS) cycle. More than half (52.6%) of the sample identified being concerned about the strength of their VMCAS experiences due to these lost opportunities. Many respondents reported considering delaying application submissions by taking a gap year (17.5%) or have had their intended graduation timeline affected (14.8%). Since the majority of veterinary colleges utilize a holistic review process, this study provides a basis for understanding the effects of COVID-19 on the duration, depth, and diversity of experiences gained by future DVM applicants. This article also provides recommendations for DVM admissions adaptations based on the outcomes of the data.

Machine Learning base Student Future Orientation and Recommendation System

As students are rummaging their academics and pursuing their interested courses, they need to assess their capabilities and identify their interests in understanding during which career area their interests and abilities will put them in. With the rise in the number of career paths and opportunities, making this decision has become quite tricky for scholars. In keeping with the survey conducted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), about 40% of scholars are confused about their career options. This could result in wrong career selection, so working in a field that wasn't meant for them reduces human resource productivity. This project proposes feasible predictions for students' field selection supported by their marks and selection of interest. The system would recommend the scholar a career option that helped their personality trait, interest, and capacity to require up the course. This technique provides students with many career options per their part, self-talent, memorizing power, and most vital per their academic credit score. This technique generates a credit score supported by new government educational policies, helping students settle on correct streams for the longer-term career path.

Online Academic Collaboratives, Part 1: Overview and Possibilities

This paper reviews the transformation of the academy by online technology and the development of what has been termed 'digital scholars.' A particular focus is on how such technologies have facilitated academic communication and collaboration. Several online collaborative academic projects are reviewed. It is suggested one component of online 'academic collaboratives' (collaborative online communities of scholars) could be the development of massively collaborative online textbooks that can also serve as a current overview of a discipline. It is proposed that it could utilize peer review processes similar to peer reviewed academic journals. The issues of how scholars can be given academic credit for their contributions to an academic collaborative is discussed. Part 2 of this paper will review the development and operation of an online academic collaborative in the field of evolutionary psychology.

The Credit System and Harmonisation of Higher Education in Ethiopia:

This article analyses the implementation of a credit system and its contributionto the harmonisation of higher education in Ethiopia. Harmonisationhas been used as a strategy to respond to the challenges of globalisationand internationalisation. A credit system is one of the tools to accomplishthis objective. Harmonised academic policy, modularised curricula, andthe introduction of the new credit system, the European Credit Accumulationand Transfer System are major initiatives that could contribute tothe harmonisation of higher education in the country. The article identifiesthe factors that hinder this effort. The lack of clear policy directives on theuse of the academic credit system negatively impacted implementation ofthe ECTS, calling for directives that clearly set out the details of a nationalacademic credit system which should apply across higher education institutions,both public and private, and programmes at all levels.