Re-imagining Blended Learning. An Experience-Led Approach to Accelerate Student Future Skills Development

This paper argues that the changes to education and the workplace, brought about by the use of blended learning and working during the Pandemic, can accelerate the development of students digital skills. Adopting the EU definition of blended learning, the paper shows that a tripartite understanding of blended learning between schools, industry and policymakers is needed to secure sustainability and transferability of digital skills from school to the workplace. The challenges and opportunities of a European digital literacy programme, the Digital Schools Awards, are offered as a way to consolidate the development of digital literacy across Europe so that the experiences of blended learning and teaching during the Pandemic can be harnessed and advanced. To be sustainable, blended learning must appeal to students and their teachers’ pedagogical and curricular needs. The paper, therefore, promotes a continuum approach to blended learning where a range of developmental and progressive strategies are suggested. Then, a rationale for future work and skills is presented that draws on this continuum to support blended learning and working as a lifelong practice. A multistakeholder, peer to peer approach to the future of learning and skills development will, we argue, positively impact the way 21st-century citizens can educate, learn and work at a cross-cultural, multi-societal and institution level. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Rapid recovery from COVID-19 respiratory failure with comorbidity in 21 patients treated with vasoactive intestinal peptide

Background: Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP) is known to bind to and protect Alveolar Type II cells by blocking replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, inhibiting cytokine synthesis, preventing cytopathy, and upregulating surfactant production. RLF-100™ (aviptadil), a synthetic form of VIP has been granted Fast Track Designation for treating Critical COVID-19 with Respiratory Failure and is currently in phase 2/3 placebo-controlled trials. Methods: Case series of 21 consecutive patients with Acute Respiratory Failure in Critical COVID-19 and multiple co-morbidities, treated with intravenous VIP. Sixteen patients were treated with mechanical ventilation and five with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Results: Twenty of 21 patients demonstrated improvement inblood oxygenation. The improvement in patients on ECOM was similar to that seen in patients treated with conventional mechanical ventilation. Available data from blood gases showed stark increases in PaO2:FiO2 ratio after the 2nd dose (Median increase = 92.5, IQR = 74) and at 24 hours after the 3rd dose (Median increase over baseline 84.5, IQR = 110). No patient showed deterioration of oxygenation below baseline during subsequent measurements. A mean 292% increase in PaO2:FiO2 ratio was seen with full or partial resolution of the “ground glass” parenchymal changes associated with COVID-19 pneumonitis in 19 patients.A laboratory panel of inflammatory markers, including LDH, troponin, C-reactive protein, ferritin, D-Dimer, and interleukin-6 was obtained prior to and post treatment with aviptadil. In all patients, improvement can be seen on each of the inflammatory markers. The largest average percent decrease was seen in C-reactive protein (76% ±3%) and interleukin-6 (75% ±3%). No patient demonstrated an increase in any of the inflammatory markers.Clinically and statistically significant improvement was seen on the WHO Ordinal Scale, where zero represents discharge to home with no need for further therapy and 10 represents death can be seen in both ventilated and ECMOtreated patients. The median improvement was 4 points (mean 2.5 points;p<0.001).Comment: The short-term outcomes in these 21 patients represent a dramatic response in patients who are excluded from all other trials of COVID therapeutics. Improvement in radiographic appearance, oxygenation requirement, and inflammatory markers is consistent with in vitro evidence of direct anti-viral effect. .

Vip in the treatment of critical COVID-19 respiratory failure in patients with severe comorbidities

Importance: There is currently no effective drug for Critical COVID-19 with Respiratory Failure, particularly in highly comorbid patients and mortality is in excess of 30%. Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP) blocks replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, inhibits cytokine synthesis, prevents cytopathy, and upregulates surfactant production in human pulmonary cells. Objective: To determine the safety and efficacy of intravenous aviptadil (synthetic VIP) for improving survival and recovery from respiratory failure in patients with Critical COVID-19 and severe comorbidity who are ineligible for phase 3 trials of aviptadil.Design: Prospective, open-label, administrativelycontrolled trial, measuring objective endpoints only. Patients were treated in June/July 2020 and followed for 60 days or more post ICU admission.Setting: Intensive care unit and step down units of a quaternary care hospital.Participants: 21 consecutively admitted patients with Critical COVID-19, treated with intravenous aviptadil, compared to all patients with comparable comorbidity (n=24),ICU admission sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, Rothman index and WHO ordinal scale from the same ICU, treated by the same clinical team, in the same time-frame who received maximal standard of care (SOC).Intervention: 3 successive 12-hour intravenous infusions of aviptadil at 50/100/150 pmol/kg/hr.Main Outcome Measures: Survival, Recovery from Respiratory Failure, WHO 10 point ordinal scale.Results: Nineteen of 21 patients survived to day 28 in the aviptadil-treated group compared to 4 of 24 control patients (90% vs 17%;P<.0001). Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrates a 9-fold advantage in probability of survival (Hazard Ratio 0.113;95% CL 0.037, 0.343). A similar 9-fold advantage was seen in cumulative probability of Recovery from Respiratory Failure (Hazard ratio: 0.115;95% CL: 0.0254, 0.5219). A mean 6.1 point difference in the 10 point WHO Ordinal Scale for COVID-19 was seen between aviptadil-treated patients, who exhibited a 2.6 point mean improvement from time of ICU admission vs. those treated with SOC who exhibited a mean 3.5 point mean decrement (Wilcoxon rank sum: P<.001). Improved radiographic appearance was seen in both lungs of 17 patients and in one lung of 2 treated patients. Four of 5 aviptadil-treated patients initially on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) have been decannulated, compared to 3 of 13 ECMO-treated controls (80% vs. 23%;P=.045). A 75% (95% CI±3%: P<.001) reduction in IL-6 was seen.Comment: A dramatic multi-dimensional treatment effect was observed, consistent with FDA and ICH-10 guidance for acceptance of externally-controlled, open-label trials in high-lethality conditions. .

Work-in-Progress-The Sudden Requirement to Work from Home Due to COVID-19 Pandemic Restrictions: Attitudes and Changes in Perceived Value of Physical and Immersive Workspaces

What begins as an undifferentiated space becomes a place as we get to know it better and endow it with value, space is freedom [1]. The context for this work in progress paper is the recent Irish government guidelines and requirement for all centralized office based knowledge workers in the Republic of Ireland to work from home as a result of the Global Covid-19 pandemic. Individual knowledge workers who previously had worked 80% or more in a centralized office environment were selected as part of a mixed methods research study. The paper has two intended outcomes. First, to provide immediate short term insights to better understand the impact of rapid change of physical work space, due to Covid-19 on knowledge worker attitudes and task outcomes. Second, to use the findings in this paper for further research relating to the requirement to work from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact on knowledge workers across a number of chosen areas of interest relating to workspace learning, productivity and how technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) can improve this experience. The questions posed in this paper are to enable future research and Open Science collaboration beyond that of the Republic of Ireland which could be used to support public sector and private sector organizations to provide more immersive, productive and learning workspaces beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. The full data a survey questions are available in the extended version of this working paper. A Constructivist supported by an epistemological approach encompassing embodied interactions [2] physical determinism [3] and psycho spatial dynamics [4] provide a balance springboard to launch this comparative investigation into this new area of research.