Synchronous online lecturing or blended flipped classroom with jigsaw: an educational intervention during the Covid-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the education system throughout the world. This study aimed to compare synchronous online lecturing with blended flipped classroom plus jigsaw in terms of their effects on the students' learning, communication skills and critical thinking disposition. METHODS: This is an educational intervention conducted at the Nursing and Midwifery School of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Two incoming students of nursing and midwifery were selected by complete enumeration. Then synchronous online lecturing was given to one group (n = 40) and blended flipped classroom and jigsaw to the other (n = 44). After that, given the prevailing conditions, both methods were performed fully online. Then Participants completed an online questionnaire. A researcher-made learning questionnaire, the Interpersonal Communication Skills Questionnaire developed by Fetro, and Ricketts' Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory were used to assess the study variables. RESULTS: The mean learning scores in the blended group were slightly higher but this difference was not significant (P = 0.767). In the blended group, the mean scores of communication skills were significantly higher after the intervention in all the dimensions, except for empathy & intimacy and listening skills. In the online lecture group, there was no significant difference between before and after the intervention. Communication skills (P < 0.001) scored significantly higher in the blended group after the intervention than that in the synchronous online lecturing group in all the dimensions except for empathy & intimacy. In the online lecture group, there was no significant difference in critical thinking disposition between before and after the intervention. In the blended group, the overall score of critical thinking disposition and its dimensions was significantly higher after the intervention (P < 0.001), except for the perfection dimension. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of the mean total score of critical thinking disposition and its dimensions before and after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Given the global circumstances, the blended method was more effective in promoting learning outcomes and communication skills than synchronous online lectures. Furthermore, it seems that this new approach could improve critical thinking.

Medical education and COVID-19 pandemic: a crisis management model towards an evolutionary pathway.

The COVID-19 crisis has had a profound effect on higher education, especially medical education due to its sensitive nature, dealing with people's life and wellbeing. This study presented a crisis management model of how to direct medical education during crises. A qualitative design was used via a focus group among 83 medical education administrators at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Four major challenges emerged regarding medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic including "The health and wellbeing of faculty members and students"; "Spatial constraints"; "Time constraints", and "Access to resources". A total of 13 strategies were suggested to tackle the challenges, including virtualization, technological support, empowerment, participation, sharing, helping, integration, compression, omission, flexibility and diversity, severance, protection; and monitoring. For a sustainable educational pathway in medical education, personalized approach to education via the incorporation of technology is essential. This provides opportunities to tackle the issues caused by the crisis, by provision of any time and anywhere approach to education via flexible technologies/platforms adjusted based on the audiences. The scope of crisis management expands not only on individual and academic levels but also on social and global relations.

The effect of learning style and general self-efficacy on satisfaction of e-Learning in dental students.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on education. e-Learning has been becoming most popular. Satisfaction of the student is one of important goal of e-Learning, therefore factors affecting this satisfaction should be considered extensively. This study aims to evaluate the effect of learning style and General Self-Efficacy (GSE) on satisfaction of e-Learning in dental student. METHOD: Electronic questionnaires were sent to 85 fifth and sixth-year students who had passed the face-to-face orthodontics course in the previous semester and were studying online orthodontics at the time of this study. Three questionnaires were used including Soloman and Felder learning styles index, General self-efficacy questionnaire and Satisfaction questionnaire for online education. RESULTS: The results of the reliability test showed that Cronbach's alpha index for the self-efficacy and satisfaction questionnaire was 0.836 and 0.96, respectively. The correlation between satisfaction and the dimensions of learning style showed that the active dimension of processing information had a significant relationship with the level of satisfaction. In the understanding dimension, a relatively strong correlation was observed in the Global dimension. Moderate significant relationship between the total score of self-efficacy and the level of satisfaction has been found. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study highlight the necessity of more studies regarding defining effective on student satisfaction during e-Learning. GSES and active learning style in the processing dimension and global learning style in the understanding dimension affect students' satisfaction.