ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Amid COVID-19, soon after the closure of academic institutions, academia was compelled to implement teaching and assessments virtually. The situation was not the same for all countries. This transition was much more challenging in low-resource settings like Pakistan, where the students were geographically distant with minimal connectivity. A private university in Pakistan instituted a systematic approach for ensuring quality assurance and reliability before launching online assessments amid the COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to reflect on the phased transition to online/remote assessments to facilitate continuous student learning through distance modalities during the pandemic. METHOD: To assist faculty in re-designing their assessments, a workshop was conducted which was based on the modified Walker's nine principles. The principles coded as "ACTFAiREST2" were introduced to ensure that the faculty understands and adapts these principles in designing online assessments. The faculty modified and re-designed their course assessments, from face to face to online modality and submitted their proposals to the Curriculum Committee (CC). To guide the process of approving modified and re-designed assessments, a checklist was adapted. All the pre and -post workshop assessment proposals were analyzed using a content analysis approach to ensure the alignment of course learning outcomes with the assessments. RESULTS: A total of 45 undergraduate courses' assessment proposals were approved by the CC after deliberations ensuring their applicability in a virtual environment. From the analysis of the course outlines and assessment proposals submitted to the CC, faculty made four key changes to their assessment tasks in the light of ACT FAiREST2 principles (a) alternative to performance exams; (b) alternative to knowledge exams; (c) change in the mode of assessment administration; and (d) minimizing the overall assessment load. CONCLUSION: This transition provided an impetus for the faculty from a low resource setting to build momentum towards improved and innovative ways of online teaching and assessments for future nursing education to adapt to the new normal situation. This development will serve as a resource in similar contexts with planned and evidence-based approaches for enhancing faculty readiness and preparedness for online/remote assessments.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) brought to the world, an unprecedented emergency, which dramatically affected the face-to-face teaching in higher education academia. University faculty and students had to shift overnight to an online and remote course instruction. They were neither trained nor prepared and had limited resources and infrastructure. Palliative Care and Oncology Stream Faculty at Aga Khan University, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Pakistan, piloted an innovative academic project using telesimulation (TS). Trainee nurse interns were taught communication skills and the art of breaking bad news to palliative clients using the SPIKES model through TS. To incorporate best practices for simulation-based experiences, we used the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning to standardize and implement TS with 141 interns. This review article documents how the faculty planned and implemented the TS strategy during COVID-19. It outlines the challenges and the lessons learnt from implementation and feedback from faculty and students. This information could be useful in the future execution of TS, in any communication and counseling course, since COVID-19 has impacted the future educational course design and pedagogy worldwide.
ABSTRACT
With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the global community, routine activities of universities, offices, and industries have been hindered. People are being forced to rethink the ways of working virtually from home for providing education, business, and health services in this social distancing during the COVID era. This sudden shift also posed challenges of online teaching in a private university, in urban Karachi, Pakistan. The Aga Khan University, School of Nursing and Midwifery recently conducted an online palliative care module using a virtual learning environment and Microsoft Teams for Trainee Nurse Interns. Although the first experience of online teaching and learning was a successful venture for faculty and students, in a lockdown situation, numerous challenges were also encountered being a lower middle-income country. The issues of electricity shutdown, Internet connectivity, and quality assurance were anticipated on transition to online pedagogy, but backup plans were formed to make execution promising.