Online Learning During Covid-19 in a Making Centered Engineering Community

Throughout the decade, but especially over the past and a half, there has been an increase in the integration and use of online learning tools in education. Spring 2020, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, students and professors had to quickly adapt to online learning and teaching. This study investigates the impacts that this rapid transition to online learning on the students in an undergraduate making-centered and design-focused engineering program. Focus group interviews were conducted during the pandemic with four different undergraduate cohorts in the academic program. Results demonstrate how the disruption to in-person learning impacted community, collaboration, and learning. Qualitative data analyses highlight similarities and differences in experiences across cohorts. Based on the responses, an understanding of how students adapted to this shift to online learning is revealed. This study provides themes and patterns for student adaptations and learning experiences in an undergraduate engineering program. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Features of Continuity and Change through COVID-19 in an Undergraduate Engineering Program

How does online learning at a residential college impact community building? During the Covid-19 pandemic, qualitative focus group interview data were collected at a large mid-Atlantic university with each undergraduate engineering student cohort. Students adapted relationships with peers and professors to respond to the ongoing dynamic conditions of collegiate and regional Covid-19 requirements and experiences. This qualitative research study investigates the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the community and relational aspects of an undergraduate making and engineering design centered engineering program in the United States. The qualitative data illustrate trends in inner-cohort relationships, qualities of the engineering department, and how students developed and maintained relationships throughout the pandemic. This paper offers implications and strategies for building and maintaining community in learning environments that are experiencing rapid and dynamic shifts. The themes and patterns can provide unique insight into the aspects of community important to students' lived experiences during the portion of the pandemic when online and hybrid learning were most prevalent. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022

Global Uptake of a Virtual Neurology Clinical Reasoning Conference: Live versus Asynchronous Learning

Objective: Compare the global uptake of a neurology clinical reasoning conference between live sessions and asynchronous learning through different online platforms. Background: Online learning has emerged as an important component of medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for both live and asynchronous learning. Podcasts have become a popular education resource, increasing the reach of educators. Design/Methods: In collaboration with The Clinical Problem Solvers (CPS) online medical education group, we developed a neurology virtual morning report (NVMR) in which cases are presented and discussed by trainees with a neurologist facilitator. These sessions are held live weekly on Zoom, then posted for asynchronous learning on the CPS website and YouTube. Some sessions are released as podcast episodes. We gathered data from August 25, 2020 to October 2, 2021 on: live conference attendance, views on the CPS website and Youtube, and podcast downloads to evaluate global uptake across platforms. Results: The first 50 NVMR had an average live attendance of 47 participants per session. All 50 episodes were posted on the CPS website (10,059 views;average 201.2 views/episode), 20 episodes were posted on YouTube (4,198 views;average 285.1 views/episode), and 8 episodes were released as podcasts (6954 downloads on Spotify;average 887.5 downloads/episode). Asynchronous viewing through all platforms (podcasts, website, and Youtube) increased the reach of NVMR 9.16 fold over live attendance. Podcasts represented the greatest increase in reach in comparison to live NVMR. Conclusions: Asynchronous learning, especially through podcasts, expands the global reach of live virtual conferences for neurology clinical reasoning education. As online education increases in neurology, options for asynchronous learning could improve global accessibility of educational content.

Neurology Virtual Morning Report: An online Campaign to #EndNeurophobia

Objective: Report the development of a global, open-access clinical reasoning conference created to increase access to neurology education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant reduction in clinical exposure and bedside teaching for medical students, which risks furthering neurophobia amongst the current cohort of students. Innovations in virtual teaching/learning can increase active participation in neurology clinical reasoning worldwide. Design/Methods: Neurology Virtual Morning Report (NVMR) is a case-based clinical reasoning conference held weekly on Zoom, open to participants around the world. In NVMR, a volunteer learner presents an unknown neurology case to two volunteer learners and an attending neurologist. The attending facilitates the learners' discussion focusing on integrating underlying biomedical sciences with clinical semiology, formulating and refining a problem representation, developing and prioritizing a differential diagnosis, and performing and interpreting a hypothesis-driven neurologic examination. Results: The first 50 Neurology VMRs had a mean of 47 participants per session (IQ range: 13). Learners who have presented or discussed cases represented 15 countries with the majority being from the United States (49.4%), Peru (16.4%), and Brazil (7.5%). Women represented 43.4% of discussants, men 55.3% and one of the discussants identified as non binary. The majority of participants were medical students (72.4%), with the remaining participants being neurology residents (9.2%), internal medicine residents (9.2%), and non-neurologist attending physicians (9.2%). Conclusions: Virtual neurology clinical reasoning conferences allow for active participation from medical students and non-neurologists worldwide, and have the potential to increase global access to neurology education.

Extracorporeal membrane oxigenation in COVID-19 patients: Results of the ECMO-COVID Registry of the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular and Endovascular Surgery

Background and aim: COVID-19 patients with severe heart or respiratory failure are potential candidates for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Indications and management of these patients are unclear. Our aim is to describe the results of a prospective registry of COVID-19 patients treated with ECMO. Methods: An anonymous prospective registry of COVID-19 patients treated with veno-arterial (V-A) or veno-venous (V-V) ECMO was created on march 2020. Clinical, analytical and respiratory preimplantation variables, implantation data and post-implantation course data were recorded. The primary endpoint was all cause in-hospital mortality. Secondary events were functional recovery and the combined endpoint of mortality and functional recovery in patients followed at least 3 months after discharge. Results: Three hundred and sixty-six patients from 25 hospitals were analyzed, 347 V-V ECMO and 18 V-A ECMO patients (mean age 52.7 and 49.5 years respectively). Patients with V-V ECMO were more obese, had less frequently organ damage other than respiratory failure and needed less inotropic support;Thirty three percent of V-A ECMO and 34.9% of V-A ECMO were discharged (P = NS). Hospital mortality was non-significantly different, 56.2% versus 50.9% respectively, mainly during ECMO therapy and mostly due to multiorgan failure. Other 51 patients (14%) remained admitted. Mean follow-up was 196 ± 101.7 days (95%CI: 170.8-221.6). After logistic regression, body weight (OR 0.967, 95%CI: 0.95-0.99, P = 0.004) and ECMO implantation in the own centre (OR 0.48, 95%CI: 0.27-0.88, P = 0.018) were protective for hospital mortality. Age (OR 1.063, 95%CI: 1.005-1.12, P = 0.032), arterial hypertension (3.593, 95%CI: 1.06-12.19, P = 0.04) and global (2.44, 95%CI: 0.27-0.88, P = 0.019), digestive (OR 4,23, 95%CI: 1.27-14.07, P = 0.019) and neurological (OR 4.66, 95%CI: 1.39-15.62, P = 0.013) complications during ECMO therapy were independent predictors of primary endpoint occurrence. Only the post-discharge day at follow-up was independent predictor of both secondary endpoints occurrence. Conclusions: Hospital survival of severely ill COVID-19 patients treated with ECMO is near 50%. Age, arterial hypertension and ECMO complications are predictors of hospital mortality, and body weight and implantation in the own centre are protective. Functional recovery is only predicted by the follow-up time after discharge. A more homogeneous management of these patients is warranted for clinical results and future research optimization. © 2022 Sociedad Española de Cirugía Cardiovascular y Endovascular

Work in Progress: Exploration of Student Learning in Online Maker Communities

Over the past decade, practices related to online learning have become increasingly varied and legitimated. Whether it be formal e-learning in K-12 or at colleges and universities or casual perusing of the internet, many people have found communities online to support their own endeavors. Recently, due to the Covid-19 pandemic most colleges and universities have been forced to shift partly or entirely to remote learning due to campus closures. Further, even in cases in which a campus is open, many universities have limited access to their makerspace due to social distancing and capacity requirements. In response, this Work in Progress study investigates how online making communities and resources are supporting student learning through making. Through in-depth phenomenologically-based interviews conducted both before and during the pandemic, this study offers rich insights into how students are learning from and engaging in online maker communities/resources as a central part of their development as a maker. Through qualitative data analysis, we develop a model for how students are learning online. These findings show the role digital spaces play in developing competent, inspired makers. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Assessment of developing Physiology II as a virtual subject in the specialty of Clinical Neurophysiology

Introduction: Teaching through virtual modality was adopted as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 spread. For Cuban medical education, it has implied a challenge regarding the reorganization of study programs. For this purpose, the subject Physiology II was redesigned and implemented in virtual modality, in order to guarantee continuity in the training of Clinical Neurophysiology residents. Objective: To assess the development of the subject Physiology II in its virtual modality from the perspective of the students of the Clinical Neurophysiology specialty. Methods: Exploratory, nonexperimental and cross-sectional study. Through a questionnaire made up of closed questions and one open question (positive and negative aspects), the development of the subject in virtual modality was assessed in relation to the variables subject syllabus, professors’ performance, platform scenario, and technological support. Results: The subject Physiology II in virtual modality had a high acceptance by the students. The aspects identified as positive were those related to individual time management, as well as the subject’s applicability and structure;while the negative ones were oriented towards internet connectivity problems and the study environment. Conclusions: The successful experiences obtained in the development of Physiology II as a virtual subject lay the foundations for using this type of design in the specialty of Clinical Neurophysiology and the possibility of extending it to other subjects of the study plan. © 2021, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.

Topology Optimization and Control Design of an Artificial Respirator

Since the beginning of 2020, the entire world has been affected by Covid-19, which has caused millions of infections and deaths, with older adults being the most affected population. Like many other countries in the world, Ecuador has shown a deficit of supplies to face this threat. Within this context, this article shows a pressure-cycled artificial ventilator alternative constructed with 3D printing material. The procedure includes a structural analysis simulation, the topology optimization of the mechanical structure and the implementation of air pressure control in the artificial lung bag. The results of this research shows that the proposed structural design for the artificial ventilator allows reducing the amount of construction material and therefore the manufacturing time, without affecting the effectiveness of its performance. In addition, analysis of the control system responses evidences that a classical PID controller allows the correct performance of the ventilator pressure control. © 2021 IEEE.