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Author: Brian S McGowan, PhD

MANUSCRIPT: Learning styles and preferences for live and distance education: an example of a specialisation course in epidemiology

Background
Distance learning through the internet is increasingly popular in higher education. However, it is unknown how participants in epidemiology courses value live vs. distance education.

Methods
All participants of a 5-day specialisation course in epidemiology were asked to keep a diary on the number of hours they spent on course activities (both live and distance education). Attendance was not compulsory during the course and participants were therefore also asked for the reasons to attend live education (lectures and practicals). In addition, the relation between participants? learning styles (Index of Learning Styles) and their participation in live and distance education was studied.

Results
All 54 (100%) participants in the course completed the questionnaire on attendance and 46 (85%) completed the questionnaire on learning styles. The number of hours attending live education was negatively correlated with the number of hours going studying distance learning materials (Pearson correlation ?0.5; p?<?0.001). The most important reasons to attend live education was to stay focused during lectures (50%), and to ask questions during practicals (50%). A lack of time was the most important reason not to attend lectures (52%) or practicals (61%). Learning styles were not association with the number of hours spent on live or distance education.

Conclusion
Distance learning may play an important role in epidemiology courses, since it allows participants to study whenever and wherever they prefer, which provides the opportunity to combine courses with clinical duties. An important requirement for distance learning education appears to be the possibility to ask questions and to interact with instructors.

via BMC Medical Education | Abstract | Learning styles and preferences for live and distance education: an example of a specialisation course in epidemiology.

ABSTRACT: Harnessing social media for health promotion and behavior change

Rapid and innovative advances in participative Internet communications, referred to as “social media,” offer opportunities for modifying health behavior. Social media let users choose to be either anonymous or identified. People of all demographics are adopting these technologies whether on their computers or through mobile devices, and they are increasingly using these social media for health-related issues. Although social media have considerable potential as tools for health promotion and education, these media, like traditional health promotion media, require careful application and may not always achieve their desired outcomes. This article summarizes current evidence and understanding of using social media for health promotion. More important, it discusses the need for evaluating the effectiveness of various forms of social media and incorporating outcomes research and theory in the design of health promotion programs for social media.

via Harnessing social media for health promo… [Health Promot Pract. 2013] – PubMed – NCBI.

ABSTRACT: Using social media to create a professional network between physician-trainees and the american society of nephrology

Twitter is the fastest growing social media network. It offers participants the ability to network with other individuals. Medical societies are interested in helping individuals network to boost recruitment, encourage collaboration, and assist in job placement. We hypothesized that the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) successfully used Twitter to create a network between participants and itself to stay connected with its members. Tweets from 3 Twitter networking sessions during Kidney Week 2011 were analyzed for content. These messages were used to create a network between all participants of the networking sessions. The network was analyzed for strength and influence by calculating clustering coefficients (CC) and eigenvector centrality (EC) scores, respectively. Eight moderators and 9 trainees authored 376 Twitter messages. Most tweets by trainees (64%) and moderators (61%) discussed 1 of 3 themes: networking, education, or navigating Kidney Week 2011. A total of 25 online network connections were established during the 3 sessions; 20% were bidirectional. The CC for the network was 0.300. All moderators formed at least 1 connection, but 7 of the 9 trainees failed to make any connections. ASN made 5 unidirectional and 0 bidirectional connections with a low EC of 0.108. ASN was unable to form powerful connections with trainees through Twitter, but medical societies should not be discouraged by the results reported in this investigation. As societies become more familiar with Twitter and understand the mechanisms to develop connections, these societies will have a greater influence within increasingly stronger networks.

via Using social media to create a profes… [Adv Chronic Kidney Dis. 2013] – PubMed – NCBI.

ABSTRACT: ‘Uncrunching’ time: medical schools’ use of social media for faculty development.

Purpose: The difficulty of attracting attendance for in-person events is a problem common to all faculty development efforts. Social media holds the potential to disseminate information asynchronously while building a community through quick, easy-to-use formats. The authors sought to document creative uses of social media for faculty development in academic medical centers. Method: In December 2011, the first author (P.S.C.) examined the websites of all 154 accredited medical schools in the United States and Canada for pages relevant to faculty development. The most popular social media sites and searched for accounts maintained by faculty developers in academic medicine were also visited. Several months later, in February 2012, a second investigator (C.W.S.) validated these data via an independent review. Results: Twenty-two (22) medical schools (14.3%) employed at least one social media technology in support of faculty development. In total, 40 instances of social media tools were identified – the most popular platforms being Facebook (nine institutions), Twitter (eight institutions), and blogs (eight institutions). Four medical schools, in particular, have developed integrated strategies to engage faculty in online communities. Conclusions: Although relatively few medical schools have embraced social media to promote faculty development, the present range of such uses demonstrates the flexibility and affordability of the tools. The most popular tools incorporate well into faculty members’ existing use of technology and require minimal additional effort. Additional research into the benefits of engaging faculty through social media may help overcome hesitation to invest in new technologies.

via ‘Uncrunching’ time: medical schools’ use of … [Med Educ Online. 2013] – PubMed – NCBI.

What is the Tin Can API & What Does it Mean for e-Learning? |

The Tin Can Basics
Also known as the next generation of SCORM, Tin Can tracks and records learning experiences anywhere and from multiple devices. The Tin Can API is a whole new way to track learner experiences that “records activities and delivers data that is quantifiable, sharable and trackable,” according to Tin Can.

The Tin Can API can easily recognize and track a wide range of learning activities including:

Mobile learning
Simulations
Virtual worlds
Serious games
Real-world performance
Social-learning
Experiential learning
Offline learning
Collaborative learning
With Tin Can, a wide range of e-Learning systems can now capture learning activities with a simple vocabulary and communication method. In addition to its simplicity, Tin Can is more flexible, robust and has fewer limitations than previous specifications for tracking learners.

via What is the Tin Can API & What Does it Mean for e-Learning? |.

RESOURCE: 5 Best Ways to Use Learner Control in Your e-Learning Course

  1. Give experienced learners more control. Giving experienced learners more control is most successful when they have prior knowledge of the topic being presented. Ciocca suggests presenting a lesson that is advanced in nature, but low in complexity.
  2. Keep the learner in the learning space. To keep the learner actively engaged in the course, Ciocca suggests not using the next button for navigation, but rather giving the learner choices to select his or her own path.
  3. Consider using adaptive control. Adaptive control is the process in which learners are “branched” to different instructional materials within a course based on the evaluation of their responses to lesson exercises. For example, if learners answers all questions correctly, they would be branched to a more difficult lesson topic. If they answered only some questions correctly, they would be provided more practice exercises until they were ready to advance.
  4. Give pace control. Allow learners to navigate through the course or learning scenario at a pace that works for them. This could help stop learners from simply clicking through the course to receive a checkmark for it.
  5. Implement best practices. Some of these best practices include using titles, headings and introductory statements to organize content in a way that makes sense to the learner, minimal use of links within a course, avoiding the use of course or site maps and utilizing a progress indicator to let learners see how much they have accomplished.

via 5 Best Ways to Use Learner Control in Your e-Learning Course |.

RESOURCE: Your TOP 5 Favourite EdTech Tools for Online Education

I was asked recently to do a presentation about educational technology tools for online education. Before I rolled right into my Top 5 Favourite Tools, I made sure I spent some time encouraging my audience to consider the criteria for selecting the tools first. These are the criteria I use:

Criteria 1. Choose a tool that allows your distance students to study anytime, anywhere. Tools that meet this criterion allow the student to be flexible and to adapt the schoolwork around their other commitments such as family and work, etc.

Criteria 2. Choose a tool that encourages social connectedness in the online classroom. I mean student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction in this case. The perceived feeling of social connectedness promotes student retention. Colleges and Universities are always concerned about student retention.

via e-Learning Acupuncture: Your TOP 5 Favourite EdTech Tools for Online Education.

ABSTRACT: Maintenance of certification and keys to passing the recertification examination

The American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery requires that each board-certified orthopaedic surgeon recertify every 10 years. This formal procedure of demonstrating competence as a surgeon, which used to be known as recertification, has been replaced by a more comprehensive process termed maintenance of certification (MOC). Even an experienced orthopaedic surgeon may find achieving MOC a daunting prospect. Simply preparing for and taking the recertification examination is an enormous challenge, but it is important to remember that the examination is merely one aspect of maintaining certification. Prior to sitting for the examination, each physician is required to complete the other MOC requirements, including amassing continuing medical education credits, compiling a case list, and soliciting peer recommendations. Familiarity with the MOC process, understanding the details of the examination, and proper preparation techniques will help orthopaedic surgeons gain insights into how to approach MOC.

via Maintenance of certification and keys to p… [Instr Course Lect. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI.

ABSTRACT: Medical education research in the context of translational science.

Health care struggles to transfer recent discoveries into high-quality medical care. Therefore, translational science seeks to improve the health of patients and communities by studying and promoting the translation of findings from bench research into clinical care. Similarly, medical education practice may be slow to adopt proven evidence of better learning and assessment. The Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) consensus conference was designed to promote the dissemination of evidence-based education research and practice. We will pull from the work developed by the consensus conference as a means to create a roadmap for future medical education research using the framework of translational science

via Medical education research in the context of … [Acad Emerg Med. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI.

ABSTRACT: Keynote address: the focus on competencies and individual learner assessment as emerging themes in medical education research.

This article describes opportunities for scholarship in medical education, based on a brief overview of recent changes in medical education. The implications arising from these changes are discussed, with recommendations for focus, and suggestions and examples for making progress in this field. The author discusses 1) the historical context of the current shift toward competency-based medical education, 2) the potential contribution of social and behavioral sciences to medical education scholarship, 3) methods and approaches for supporting scholarship in medical education, and very briefly 4) trends in simulation. The author concludes with a call for quality in medical education scholarship and argues that the most promising and fruitful area of medical education scholarship for the future lies in the field of assessment of individual competence.

via Keynote address: the focus on competencies an… [Acad Emerg Med. 2012] – PubMed – NCBI.