The Role of Educational Podcast Use Among Otolaryngology Residents

Objective: Medical podcasts are becoming increasingly available; however, it is unclear how these new resources are being used by trainees or whether they influence clinical practice. This study explores the preferences and experiences of otolaryngology residents with otolaryngology-specific podcasts, and the impact of these podcasts on resident education and clinical practice. Methods: An 18-question survey was distributed anonymously to a representative junior (up to post-graduate year 3) and senior (post-graduate year 4 or greater) otolaryngology residents at most programs across the US. Along with demographic information, the survey was designed to explore the preferences of educational materials, podcast listening habits and motivations, and influence of podcasts on medical practice. Descriptive statistics and student t-tests were used to analyze the results. Results: The survey was distributed to 198 current otolaryngology residents representing 94% of eligible residency programs and was completed by 73 residents (37% response rate). Nearly 3-quarters of respondents reported previous use of otolaryngology podcasts, among which 83% listen at least monthly. Over half of residents changed their overall clinical (53%) and consult (51%) practice based on podcast use. Residents rank-ordered listening to podcasts last among traditional options for asynchronous learning, including reading textbooks and watching online videos. Conclusions: While other asynchronous learning tools remain popular, most residents responding to this survey use podcasts and report that podcasts influence their clinical practice. This study reveals how podcasts are currently used as a supplement to formal otolaryngology education. Results from the survey may inform how medical podcasts could be implemented into resident education in the future.

Audiobooks: Improving Access to and Use of Learning and Teaching Materials for the Print-Disabled

Equal access to books and other educational materials presents equal opportunities for all to acquire education, develop skills, and realise their full potential. Drawing on data gathered through focus group discussions and interviews, our study discusses access and use of books in braille by the print-disabled in special schools/education in Ghana. The study found the supply and access to books in braille by students and teachers inadequate to support teaching and learning, mainly due to the challenges with production. Given the poor access teachers and students have to publications in braille, we argue that audiobooks be adopted as a supplementary reading format for the print-disabled in Ghana so they can have access to equal educational opportunities as their non-disabled colleagues.

Quality-Based Evaluation of Patient-Facing Online Education Materials Regarding Facial Filler Procedures

Injectable facial fillers have become tremendously more popular in recent years, and the Internet offers a proportional amount of consumer-facing educational material. This study sought to explore the quality of these online materials. The top 20 Web sites offering educational materials about facial filler were identified via Google search and sorted by source: Medical Professional Boards, Hospitals and Providers, Medical News and Reference, and Fashion. The materials were assessed for overall quality with the validated DISCERN instrument. The authors also assessed understandability and actionability (Patient Education Material Assessment Tool - PEMAT), accuracy, comprehensiveness, and readability (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease). The mean DISCERN score was 46.9 ± 7.6, which is considered “fair” quality educational material; above “poor,” but below “good” and “excellent.” Understandability and actionability scores were low, particularly with respect to visual aids. The materials were generally accurate (76–99%), but scored poorly in comprehensiveness, as 15% failed to mention any risks/adverse effects and only 35% mentioned cost. On average, readability was at an 11th grade level, far more complex than ideal (< 6th grade level). Information disseminated from seemingly reputable sources such as professional boards and hospitals/providers were not of higher quality or superior in any of the above studied domains. In conclusion, online educational materials related to injectable facial fillers are of subpar quality, including those from academic and professional organizations. Visual aids were particularly weak. The facial rejuvenation community should make a concerted effort to set a higher standard for disseminating such information.

Unifying the Ability-as-Compensator and Ability-as-Enhancer Hypotheses

Spatial abilities have been found to interact with the design of visualizations in educational materials in different forms: (1) spatial abilities enhanced learning with optimized visual design (ability-as-enhancer) or (2) spatial abilities compensated for suboptimal visual design (ability-as-compensator). A brief review of pertinent studies suggests that these two forms are viewed as mutually exclusive. We propose a novel unifying conceptualization. This conceptualization suggests that the ability-as enhancer interaction will be found in the low-medium range of a broad ability continuum whereas the ability-as-compensator interaction will be found in the medium-high range. The largest difference in learning outcomes between visual design variations is expected for medium ability. A corresponding analytical approach is suggested that includes nonlinear quadratic interactions. The unifying conceptualization was confirmed in an experiment with a consistent visual-spatial task. In addition, the conceptualization was investigated with a reanalysis of pooled data from four multimedia learning experiments. Consistent with the conceptualization, quadratic interactions were found, meaning that interactions depended on ability range. The largest difference between visual design variations was obtained for medium ability, as expected. It is concluded that the unifying conceptualization is a useful theoretical and methodological approach to analyze and interpret aptitude-treatment interactions that go beyond linear interactions.

Commentary and Opinions: The Utilization of Social Media by Medical Residency Programs During COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

As a result of COVID-19 pandemic, medical training has been greatly impacted globally. In Canada, out-of-province visiting clinical electives were cancelled. In addition, the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) interviews were transitioned to being virtual since 2020. As residency programs are exploring new ways to overcome the challenges of elective cancellation, there has been a surge of residency program social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Social media serves as a platform for residency programs to promote themselves in addition to posting interactive educational materials. Moreover, social media residency accounts provide a platform for medical students to learn about the programs and network virtually with fellow applicants, residents, program directors, and faculty members. Overall, social media is becoming a popular and valuable tool for residency programs to connect with the applicants during COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Among the different social media platforms, Instagram seems to be more appealing to both residency programs and the graduating medical students. We report our observations regarding selected Canadian residency program Instagram accounts. To maximize the success of using social media, it is important for the residency programs to consider the attitudes of applicants towards the residency social media accounts. Future studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of the Canadian residency program social media accounts for the final year students applying for these programs.

Perceptions Of Covid 19 Survivors: Prevention and Transmission Education Virus in Era New Normal

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a new type of coronavirus that causes disorders of the respiratory system, acute pneumonia, and can lead to death. This community service is intended to provide understanding and knowledge about the prevention and transmission of COVID-19 to the wider community. This health education webinar community service activity is carried out online via Zoom. The material presented was about preventing and transmitting the virus during a pandemic according to the perception of COVID-19 survivors. Prior to the implementation of the educational webinar, participants were asked to register as well as fill out a questionnaire to measure the level of knowledge about preventing the transmission of COVID-19 (pre-test). Then at the end of the meeting, participants were asked to fill out the attendance list, and then fill out the questionnaire again (post-test). The results of the educational activity questionnaire showed that there was a good change in the level of knowledge between before and after being given educational materials with an average pre-test score of 63.84 and a post-test of 91.53 from 13 participants. So it can be concluded that this education can confirm audiovisually which can change the level of knowledge for the better.

Instrumental and executive system of training and testing

One of the ways to increase the efficiency of computer support of the educational process is to provide the subject teacher with a simple and easy-to-use interactive instrumental and executive system with a set of educational materials and test tasks for testing knowledge. The presence of two subsystems - the subsystem of learning and the subsystem of testing and performance accounting allows the teacher to solve the problem of simultaneous questioning in the classroom. The student, in turn, gets the opportunity to re-test independently to correct his unsatisfactory grades on certain topics already covered. Pedagogical experience shows that there were many such systems; most of them were focused on learning programming. Today, almost all training systems created in the 1960s, except PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations), have no practical significance. In their didactic capabilities, they differed little from the systems that used the simplest technical learning tools and provided a rigid, virtually excluding dialogue determination of student activity. However, it was the first developments that stimulated interest in computer learning, and the development of hardware and software for personal computers led to greater opportunities for their use in learning.

Designing an Education Curriculum Through Collaboration With Institutions of Higher Learning, Libraries, Archives, and Museums

The chapter assesses the role of institutions of higher learning in designing education curriculum in collaboration with the library, museum, and archives (LAMs) of the Stevenson Hamilton Knowledge Resource (SHKR) center based at the National Park. This research is based on a qualitative research method. The finding of the NP case study underpins concepts and outcomes described in academic discourse on the relationship between institutions of higher learning and LAMs. LAMs may serve as lifelong learning in South Africa. The results of empirical research allow the researcher to conclude that designing educational materials requires the collaboration of the Ministry of Basic and Higher Education, Training, Science, and Technology and LAMs.