ABSTRACT
Italy is the second most affected by coronavirus epidemy country in the world. In this article, members of the Italian Society of Surgical Endoscopy analyze the work of endoscopic units during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authors explain how to stratify patients according to risk groups, how to put on and off personal protective equipment, list decontamination standards for endoscopic equipment and endoscopic room.Copyright © 2020, Media Sphera Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
This research Work in Progress explores establishing a baseline for a measure of 'happiness' as a noncognitive construct, and how it might change over the school year for engineering students, and begins to explore how it may relate to other noncognitive attributes.Affective characteristics of engineering students have been studied in different contexts. Studies have attempted to assess the effect of affective and cognitive characteristics on retention, success, motivation, etc. Little if any research has been done on happiness of engineering students as an affective construct, or a trajectory of happiness within engineering cohorts.This work-in-progress builds upon prior research at a large, mid-Atlantic university. As the COVID pandemic began, multidisciplinary engineering students were given an open-ended prompt to submit an artifact that illustrated how the pandemic was affecting them. There were no restrictions, other than the assignment had to be capable of being submitted in the existing learning management system. Students submitted a wide variety of creative artifacts, from poems to movies to paintings. These submissions were analyzed based on the type of submission and emotion mentioned or conveyed in the assignments. Submissions were coded to glean characteristics such as happiness, sadness, and other emotions from the students' submissions.This was created in a snapshot in time, within the first few weeks of COVID and before the effects of COVID on students or society was evident. The COVID-19 pandemic had undoubtedly impacted any measure of happiness among engineering undergraduates (which was the impetus of the project). From this initial study, two research questions emerged: a) what is the happiness level of engineering students as they begin the academic year, and b) what is the trajectory over the course of the year? For further consideration, does a quantitative measure of happiness correlate to fixed vs. growth mindset? The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) was administered at the beginning of the academic year, at the end of the first semester, and at the end of the year at a small, private, Midwest university. This study hopes to establish a baseline to understand how interventions might be designed to positively affect happiness within students. This paper will discuss the initial results of administering the SHS to undergraduate engineering students, with a comparison to results from a similar instrument measuring fixed vs. growth mindset. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Online education is expanding rapidly. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced many universities to move from conventional, face-to-face instruction to hybrid or entirely online instruction. To overcome this unprecedented situation, instructors have modified course content and laboratories to be available virtually while trying to make them as interactive as possible. Virtual laboratories are either mostly pre-recorded experiments or involve controlling physical/virtual equipment through an online interface. None of these methods provide an adequate hands-on learning experience, which is essential for understanding fundamental engineering concepts. For online and distance learning programs, hands-on activities in a laboratory classroom setting are not always feasible, generating a strong push to develop low-cost, compact, and portable experimental toolboxes and kits that individual students can obtain. A group of faculty, students, and staff at the University of Indianapolis has developed an experimental toolbox that allows students to visualize engineering statics fundamentals. The experimental kit and a list of experiments complete with instructions will be made available to the students at the beginning of the course to perform the laboratory-style experiments at home. Students will be able to collect an experimental kit from campus with an appropriate deposit (each kit costs approximately $180 to $200 US). The university can also ship kits to students' addresses upon request with an additional delivery cost. Students can return the experimental kit at the end of the course and have their deposits returned. Performing laboratory style experiments at home using these kits will provide a valuable hands-on learning experience. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021