ABSTRACT
Student engagement with content, each other, lecturers and artefacts is a fundamental aspect of an active learning ethic. Covid era remote teaching revealed particular challenges in enabling, sustaining and cultivating forms of engagement. This paper presents a conceptual framework for considering the dimensions of online engagement based on a case study from a research-intensive institution in South Africa. The focus is on a second-year large-class Material Science course with a broad range of content requiring 600 + pages of reading, projects and practicals. The course has seen several innovations over the years. This paper examines forms of student engagement in established, structured online forums pre- and during the Covid era of teaching, and presents an analysis of engagement patterns drawing on a synthesis of learning typologies from a range of educational theories intended to inform possible affordances of online engagement. The data produced by the classification of forum posts under the proposed scheme can highlight their overall structure, monitor changes in posting behaviour over time, and potentially contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the role of online forums in student learning, © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Student engagement with content, each other, lecturers and artefacts is a fundamental aspect of an active learning ethic. Covid era remote teaching revealed particular challenges in enabling, sustaining and cultivating forms of engagement. This paper presents a conceptual framework for considering the dimensions of online engagement based on a case study from a research-intensive institution in South Africa. The focus is on a second-year large-class Material Science course with a broad range of content requiring 600 + pages of reading, projects and practicals. The course has seen several innovations over the years. This paper examines forms of student engagement in established, structured online forums pre- and during the Covid era of teaching, and presents an analysis of engagement patterns drawing on a synthesis of learning typologies from a range of educational theories intended to inform possible affordances of online engagement. The data produced by the classification of forum posts under the proposed scheme can highlight their overall structure, monitor changes in posting behaviour over time, and potentially contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the role of online forums in student learning, © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: There are reports of changes in the numbers of stroke admissions and time intervals to receiving emergency treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stroke thrombolysis rate and delay to thrombolysis treatment in a regional stroke centre in London, UK. Methods: COVID-19 testing began at our hospital on 3 March 2020. Clinical data for all acute stroke admissions were routinely collected as part of a national Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) and all thrombolysis data were entered into our local thrombolysis database. We retrospectively extracted the relevant patient data for the period of March to May 2020 (COVID group) and compared to the same period in 2019 (pre-COVID group). Results: Compared with pre-COVID, there was a 17.5% fall in total stroke admissions (from 315 to 260) during COVID;but there were no significant differences in the demographics, stroke severity, proportions with known time of onset, or median onset-to-arrival time. The thrombolysis rates amongst ischemic strokes were not significantly different between the two groups (59/260=23% pre- COVID vs. 41/228=18% COVID, p=.19). For thrombolysis patients, their stroke severity and demographics were similar between the two both groups. Median onset-to-needle time was significantly longer by 22 minutes during COVID [127 (IQR 94-160) vs. 149 (IQR 110-124) minutes, p=.045];this delay to treatment was almost entirely due to a longer median onset-to-arrival time by 16 minutes during COVID (p=.029). Favorable early neurological outcomes post-thrombolysis (defined as an improvement in NIHSS by ≥4 points at 24 hours) were similar (45% vs. 46%, p=.86). Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on prehospital delays which in turn significantly increased onset-to-needle time, but without affecting the chance of a favorable early neurological outcome. Our data highlight the need to maintain public awareness of taking immediate action when stroke symptoms occur during the COVID-19 pandemic.