Measurement and Evaluation Challenges in Distance Education: Systematic Review and Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

The challenges experienced in measurement and evaluation during the distance education process among student and instructor groups are discussed in the study. A qualitative meta-synthesis method is used in this research. Twenty studies were included in the meta-synthesis. The challenges experienced by the instructors are program utilization, technological inadequacies, a lack of in-service seminars, online exam diversity, inconsistency between what is measured and what is intended to be measured, interference of other features with the measurement, unsuitability of the measurement tools, academic dishonesty, lack of control over online exam diversity, preparation and grading challenges, infrastructural issues, and a lack or latency of feedback. Challenges experienced by learners include alienation to the electronic environment, language, technological inadequacies, lack of materials, validity-reliability issues, application difficulty, lack of guidance in exams, infrastructural issues, network problems, lack of interest and motivation, anxiety about online exams, and avoidance and resistance to self-disclosure in virtual environments.

TH-153. Clinical and Electrophysiological Characteristics of Guillain-Barre Syndrome Before and During the Pandemic: The Multicenter Istanbul Study

Introduction: This study was aimed to assess the clinical features and electrophysiological subtypes of patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in Istanbul, as well as to analyze the probably different characteristics of COVID-associated GBS. Method(s): From the patients who were admitted to the major hospitals in Istanbul between April 2019 and November 2021, those aged over 18 years and diagnosed as having GBS within the 21 days after the initial symptoms were selected for the study. Electrophysiologic examinations were performed twice within the first 6 weeks along with close clinical observation throughout the acute illness. The patients were divided into groups as those admitted in the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. The characteristics of the patients who developed GBS after COVID infection (C-GBS) were also evaluated separately. Axonal and demyelinating subtypes were determined according to the previously described electrophysiologic criteria. Result(s): From 12 centers, 134 patients were included in the study. The number of patients diagnosed in the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods were 61 and 73, respectively. Eighteen patients developed C-GBS in the pandemic era. According to Uncini's criteria, 33.6% of the patients were classified as axonal GBS (29/45 patients had reversible conduction failure) and electrophysiological distinction could not be made in 8.2% of the patients. In the second electrophysiological examination performed in 116 patients, the subtype diagnosis was changed in 29 who had been classified according to the Hadden's criteria in the first examination and in 17 who had been categorized by using Rajabally's criteria. Sensory symptoms were found in all C-GBS patients and in only 67.9% of all patients diagnosed during the pandemic (p = 0.006). The frequency of demyelinating subtype was 83.3% in the C-GBS group, and this rate was 47.8% in the patients without recent COVID infection (p = 0.026). While MRC sum score, Hughes score, and modified Erasmus outcome score were not found to be different in the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic groups, C-GBS had lower Hughes score (<3) than the other patients diagnosed during the pandemic (p = 0.040). Conclusion(s): The frequency of axonal GBS in Istanbul, a large metropole inhabiting people from every region of Turkey, seems to be placed in between the values reported from high and low incidence countries. The second electrophysiologic examination is important for precise determination of the subtypes. C-GBS seems to cause more frequent sensory symptoms, demyelinating electrophysiologic characteristics, and moderate clinical features. Copyright © 2022

Introduction

The first two decades of the 2000s witnessed events that have had worldwide effects, such as the global financial crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the housing affordability crisis. These developments have deepened the existing social and spatial inequalities, resulting in the transformation of housing policies and the functions and meaning of housing. Although housing policy is path-dependent, countries still have a lot to learn from each other. With this motivation, this study presents the major features of the path that Turkish housing policy has followed since 2000. Housing has become one of the major political, economic, and social issues in Turkey since the early 2000s. This resulted in an extraordinary surge in housing output across the country. The housing boom knows no limits, transforming the country into a construction site and creating a significant amount of surplus stock. The social, spatial, and economic outcomes of these limitless construction processes require investigation. This book aims to fill this research gap. The chapter concludes with an overview of the book's structure. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Ö. Burcu Özdemir Sarı, Esma Aksoy Khurami and Nil Uzun.