Transition to online teaching during COVID-19 pandemic: Perspective of higher education teachers from India

Objectives: This cross-sectional, anonymous and questionnaire-based study was undertaken to analyse online teaching experiences during COVID-19 lockdown in higher education from teachers’ perspectives. This was thought to help in improving long-distance education. Materials and Methods: An online survey was conducted to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from higher education teachers. Results: Benefits identified by online teachers indicate that distance education can cater to a large group and helps the students to access educational resources. Major challenges faced were internet connectivity (78.80%), increased workloads (68.80%) and lack of personal communication with students (84%). They believed that the online mode of teaching is the only alternative for students in such an extraordinary situation. It can be valuable for additional discussions but cannot replace traditional offline teaching. Conclusion: Suggestions pointed toward providing internet facilities and electronic databases to students and the necessity of faculty development programmes.

Implementation of the online learning management system ‘Moodle’ as a blended approach to online teaching

Objectives: Web-based learning is becoming a newly accepted standard in education, more so with COVID-19 pandemic. To use technology to redesign learning experiences, a blend of synchronous and asynchronous approaches was used wherein the routine lectures through MS Teams (synchronous) were integrated with an online learning management system (LMS), ‘Moodle’ (modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment) based, four-quadrant approach (asynchronous). We aimed to determine the student’s engagement, performance and perception of the new online LMS. Materials and Methods: All 170 students of the 1st year MBBS of batch 2020 were enrolled in the course. A module was developed for teaching ‘Physiology of Vision’ with this blended approach. Along with routine online lectures through Microsoft Teams, supplementary materials in the form of multimedia presentations and additional links to useful websites were provided through online LMS. The online activity of students was recorded and assessments were done. A feedback form was filled out by students at the end of the course. Results: A significant positive correlation of examination scores with individual student’s activity logs and significantly better scores in top Moodle users along with significantly higher marks in Moodle-based modules than in other modules confirmed the value of Moodle in improving student performance. Overall feedback from students was clearly in favour of implementing Moodle as a complementary tool to traditional teaching. Conclusion: Moodle improved the quality of learning. It developed interest and motivation among students and has a positive impact on academic outcomes.

Auditory evoked potential responses in menopausal women: a normative study.

Three types of auditory evoked potential responses i.e. auditory brainstem response (ABR), middle latency response (MLR) and slow vertex response (SVR) were studied in 22 post-menopausal Indian women to have a normative value for each response. Recordings were done on computerised evoked potential recorder using 10/20 system of electrode placement and standard click stimuli. The results were comparable with similar studies done in the western world indicating that there is no ethnic variation in evoked potential responses. The latencies of ABR waves showed an increase in menopausal females when compared with young adults indicating a delay in neural transmission which might be due to changed hormonal milieu of sex hormones after menopause. The normative values of MLR and SVR which represent the thalamo-cortical and cortical auditory projections are being reported in Indian menopausal women for the first time.

Study of serum lipid and lipoprotein in pre-eclampsia with special reference to parity.

A cross sectional study was done to determine serum lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol in pre-eclamptic women in their third trimester, taking normal pregnant women in third trimester as controls. The values were compared in patients of different parity. It was observed that serum triglycerides (TG), cholesterol (Chol), LDL-c, VLDL-c, phospholipids (PL) and total lipids (TL) were significantly raised, while HDL-c, was significantly lower in pre-eclampsia compared to normal pregnancy. TG and VLDL-c were found to be increased significantly with parity.

Thyroid functions in pre-eclampsia and its correlation with maternal age, parity, severity of blood pressure and serum albumin.

Maternal thyroid function was investigated in 32 pre-eclamptic women and 10 normal pregnant women in their third trimester. Serum total tri-iodothyronine (TT3) and total thyroxine (TT4) were decreased significantly (P < 0.001) and TSH was increased significantly (P < .001) in pre-eclampsia as compared to normal pregnancy. There was no influence of parity and maternal age on thyroid functions. TT3 and TT4 decreased significantly (P < .001) with increase of serum albumin, while there was no correlation of TT4 with serum albumin.