RESOURCE: Educational Data Mining/Learning Analytics Issue Brief Overview
“An overview of the Draft Issue Brief prepared by SRI International for the US Department of Education on Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics”
RESOURCE: The Myths of Online Learning – Forbes
“More than one-third – six million – of all students in higher education took at least one online course in the fall of 2011. Yet despite its growing popularity, online learning continues to be seen in a negative light by politicians, regulators, and some members of the academic community, especially faculty.
There are six commonly heard myths that are often used to denigrate this form of instruction.”
RESOURCE: Top ten predictions for online learning in 2013 | SmartPlanet
“According to Bates, online learning will experience a shift and move into mainstream programs as the growth of hybrid learning — to accommodate new technologies — takes root in the education industry. Due to this, it is possible that academic institutions will give distance-based online learning methods more of a priority within their long-term strategies.”
via Top ten predictions for online learning in 2013 | SmartPlanet.
RESOURCE: Coursera’s fee-based course option | Inside Higher Ed
“Coursera will offer a fee-based pathway with identity verification for students who want to earn a more meaningful certificate of completion, the company said today in an announcement that also sheds light on an emerging business model for the largest massive open online course (MOOC) provider.”
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/09/courseras-fee-based-course-option
RESOURCE: The Spread of Alcohol Consumption Behavior in a Large Social Network
Background:
Alcohol consumption has important health-related
consequences and numerous biological and social determinants.
http://jhfowler.ucsd.edu/spread_of_alcohol_consumption.pdf
RESOURCE: The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years
Background
The prevalence of obesity has increased substantially over the past 30 years. We
performed a quantitative analysis of the nature and extent of the person-to-person
spread of obesity as a possible factor contributing to the obesity epidemic.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMsa066082
RESOURCE: @BrianSMcGowan Tweet Archive: Q4 2012
This is a great way to explore all of the tweets I have shared in the past few months
RESOURCE: Trends in Twitter Use by Physicians at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, 2010 and 2011
Abstract
Purpose: Social media channels such as Twitter are gaining
increasing acceptance as mechanisms for instantaneous scien-
tific dialogue. Professional medical societies such as ASCO are
using social media to expand the reach of scientific communica-
tions at and around their scientific meetings. This article exam-
ines the how Twitter use by oncologists expanded at the ASCO
Annual Meetings from 2010 to 2011.
Methods: In both years, tweets that were specifically gener-
ated by physicians and that incorporated the official meeting
hashtag were harvested from the public domain, and a discourse
analysis was performed by three independent raters. Follow-up
surveys were conducted to assess physician attitudes toward
Twitter and its potential role in clinical practice.
Results: A combined total of 12,644 tweets were analyzed for
2010 and 2011. Although the number of physicians authoring
tweets was small (14 in 2010, 34 in 2011), this group generated
nearly 29% of the total meeting dialogue examined in this analysis in
2010 and 23% in 2011. Physicians used Twitter for reporting clinical
news from scientific sessions, for discussions of treatment issues,
for promotion, and to provide social commentary. The tangible im-
pact of Twitter discussions on clinical practice remains unclear.
Conclusion: Despite the 140-character limit, Twitter was suc-
cessfully used by physicians at the 2010 and 2011 ASCO Annual
Meetings to engage in clinical discussions, whether or not an author
was on site as a live attendee. Twitter usage grew significantly from
2010 to 2011. Professional societies should monitor these phe-
nomena to enhance annual meeting attendee user experience.
RESOURCE: An Interactive Internet-Based Continuing Education Course on Sexually Transmitted Diseases for Physicians and Midwives in Peru
Abstract
Background: Clinicians in developing countries have had limited access to continuing education (CE) outside major cities,
and CE strategies have had limited impact on sustainable change in performance. New educational tools could improve CE
accessibility and effectiveness.
Methodology/Principal Findings: The objective of this study was to evaluate an interactive Internet-based CE course on
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) management for clinicians in Peru. Participants included physicians and midwives in
private practice drawn from a census of 10 Peruvian cities. The CE included a three-hour workshop for improving Internet
skills, followed by a 22-hour online course on STD-syndrome-management, with subsequent educational support. The
course used case-based clinical vignettes tailored to local STD problems. Knowledge and reported practices on STD
management were assessed before, immediately after and at four months after completion of the course. Statistical analysis
included parametric tests-linear regression multivariate analysis, paired t-test and repeated measures ANOVA using SPSS
14.0. Of 1,071 eligible clinicians, 510 agreed to participate, as did an additional 132 public sector clinicians. Of these 642
participants, 619 (96.4%) completed the course, and 596 (96.3%) took the four-month follow-up evaluation. Physician and
midwife scores improved from 64.2% correct answers on the pre-test to 77.9% correct on the four-month follow-up test
(p,0.001). Most participants (95%) found the online course useful for their work needs. Self reported STD management
practices did not change.
Conclusions/Significance: Among physicians and midwives in Peru, an Internet-based CE course was feasible, acceptable
with high participation rates, and led to sustained improvement in knowledge at four months. Further studies are needed to
test it as a model for improving the training of physicians, midwives, and other health care providers.
Set-it-and-forget-it Social Learning Tools via MyPubMed
I took the time a few years ago to set up a series of saved searches using PubMed. The fact that I was able to do this quite effectively despite not being a medical librarian plus having to navigate Pubmed’s less-than-perfect interface, suggests that you could probably do it too!
As a result, several time a week I receive an alert to all of the new publications that may be relevant to my search. Some days I have a chance to peruse them, some times I do not, but on most Mondays I enjoy flipping through a list of ‘What’s new in medical education?” or “What’s new in social media AND learning?” as I am enjoying my breakfast. The beauty is that I have leveraged a set-it-and-forget-it tool
