Benefits of participation in a community of practice focused on evaluation and programmatic improvement for environmental educators.

One of the biggest challenges environmental education (EE) practitioners face is having timely and systematically-collected evaluation data to inform the design and improvement of existing programs. One potential way to provide systematic evaluations of programs and build evaluation capacity for practitioners is through a facilitated community of practice (CoP). We developed a CoP involving 37 organizations who were pivoting to online EE programs within the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goals were to build organizational capacity in evaluation and adaptive management to improve these organizations' online EE programs. We describe our CoP design, challenges associated with its implementation, and the benefits reported by participants in the CoP. Participants reported that they improved their evaluation skills and attitudes towards evaluation and developed social capital with a new network of colleagues. They also reported positive changes in practice, both individually and organizationally; considered new outcomes for their programs; and learned about using evaluation data to systematically improve programs. Educators shared their learning both within and outside of their organizations. Those who were more regularly involved in this community reported more positive benefits than others who were less involved. We share our reflections on the process and make suggestions for other evaluators to consider in similar CoP designs.

Immune Literacy: a Call to Action for a System-Level Change.

Immune literacy-the ability to hear, learn, read, write, explain, and discuss immunological content with varied audiences-has become critically important in recent years. Yet, with its complex terminology and discipline-specific concepts, educating individuals about the immune system and its role in health and disease may seem daunting. Here, we reflect on how to demystify the discipline and increase its accessibility for a broader audience. To address this, a working group of immunology educators from diverse institutions associated with the research coordination network, ImmunoReach, convened virtually. As a result of these discussions, we request a call to action for a system-level change and present a set of practical recommendations that novice and experienced educators from diverse institutions, professional societies, and policymakers may adopt to foster immune literacy in their classrooms and communities.

A European arena for joint innovation in healthcare: The Platform for Innovation of Procurement and Procurement of Innovation (PiPPi).

By 2000 the European Union (EU) had recognized that its innovation capacity was underperforming in comparison to similar competitors and trading partners. Although the EU has made an effort to stimulate public research and development (R&D) through policy tools like Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) and Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI), starting with the 2000 Lisbon strategy and continuing through the 2021 updated Guidance on Innovation Procurement, there has remained a gap in knowledge of and use of these tools, in particular within healthcare. The past decades have seen an explosion in the number and use of digital technologies across the entire spectrum of healthcare. Demand-driven R&D has lagged here, while new digital health R&D has largely been driven by the supply side in a linear fashion, which can have disappointing results. PCP and PPI could have big impacts on the development and uptake of innovative health technology. The Platform for Innovation of Procurement and Procurement of Innovation (PiPPi) project was a Horizon 2020-funded project that ran from December 2018 to May 2022 with a consortium including seven of Europe's premier research hospitals and the Catalan Agency for Health Information. To promote PCP and PPI, PiPPi established a virtual Community of Practice (CoP) that brings together all stakeholder groups to share and innovate around unmet healthcare needs. This perspective presents a brief history of PCP and PPI in Europe with a focus on digital innovation in healthcare before introducing the PiPPi project and its value proposition.

The Use of Tablet PCs in Previously Disadvantaged Secondary Schools in South Africa During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The South African Department of Basic Education (DBE) has considered the introduction of Tablet PCs an important aspect in improving the quality of education in South Africa. The Covid-19 pandemic has hastened the introduction of Tablet PCs due to the increased need for distance and online learning. Educators are often unwilling to accept and use Tablet PCs for teaching and learning because they do not have the necessary skills to integrate Tablet PCs into their pedagogical practices. This paper discusses the practical implications of the introduction of Tablet PCs into previously disadvantaged schools in South Africa specifically during the Covid-19 pandemic. To provide guidance to the DBE, principals, and educators to promote effective use and acceptance of Tablet PCs by educators for classroom and distance learning. © 2023, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved.

Emerging Virtual Communities of Practice during Crises: A Sustainable Model Validating the Levels of Peer Motivation and Support

The purpose of this study is to validate the role of social media among peers in a virtual community of practice, VCoP, by applying the Delphi technique of data collection and analysis. The study adopts the Grounded Theory methodology to identify the theoretical frame that is developed from the data analysis. The research design identified the areas of social and professional support from Maslow's hierarchy of human needs from the faculty members' responses that were chosen by "purposive sampling” rather than random sampling The qualitative data collection took three months, wherein 26 faculty members interacting on WhatsApp during COVID-19 were identified as experts: one of the corner elements of the Delphi technique. The thematic analysis of the results indicated that fulfilling Maslow's needs was an integral component of social media VCoP. However, unlike Maslow's model, expressions of the need for safety, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization took turns as the most important need depending on changing context, gender, and individual preferences. The answer to the research questions, thus, becomes embedded in the research methodology that involves instructors' perceptions as a validating element of the findings. The main recommendation is to replicate the study in various contexts to monitor faculty well-being to reach a sustainable educational environment. © 2023 by the authors.

An investigation into the use of a Facebook group by secondary English teachers during a pandemic

This study focuses on a Facebook group utilized by secondary English teachers during the initial crisis period of COVID 19, defined as March 2020-June 2020. During this period, teacher participants used this Facebook group as a community of practice to re-envision pedagogy, using social media as a third space in which to have discussions with other teachers, either to seek help or to share resources. After a qualitative content analysis of 630 initial posts, 14,500 comments, and 13,539 reactions, three themes were determined. Teachers used the Facebook group to re-envision pedagogy by discussing texts and related activities, teachers sought strategies for lessons to implement during a pandemic;by offering a forum for discussion about ethical considerations of social justice and school responsibility, the teachers sought a space to talk openly about how to respond to current events;and by serving as a space for solidarity and support among fellow English teachers, the teachers supported each other through change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Analyzing a Data Science Online Practitioner Community: Trends and Implications for Data Science Project Management

The overarching goal of this research was to gain an understanding of what the data science Reddit online community discussed before, during, and after COVID-19. We used a publicly available Reddit API to harvest the r/datascience subreddit first level post data. We then performed manual annotation to explore the taxonomy of trends and themes discussed by the practitioners who belonged to reddit data science community. Then, we augmented the manually annotated data using a BERT model with topic modeling. In short, the key discussion themes, in order of frequency, were: Education, Jobs, Methods (of data science), Hardware and data collection, Data visualization, and Quality. The Quality theme includes discussions on bias, transparency, and fairness. Hence, a key finding was that there were very few discussions on data science project quality, especially trying to minimize the risk of machine learning bias. As discussions on bias are not yet common, data science teams should proactively identify and address potential questions and concerns that might arise in data science projects, especially the need to increase the team's focus on potential bias and fairness. © 2022 IEEE.

From Learning Psychiatry to Becoming Psychiatrists: A Qualitative Study of Co-constructive Patient Simulation.

Objectives: Co-constructive patient simulation (CCPS) is a novel medical education approach that provides a participatory and emotionally supportive alternative to traditional supervision and training. CCPS can adapt iteratively and in real time to emergent vicissitudes and challenges faced by clinicians. We describe the first implementation of CCPS in psychiatry. Methods: We co-developed clinical scripts together with child and adolescent psychiatry senior fellows and professional actors with experience performing as simulated patients (SPs). We conducted the simulation sessions with interviewers blind to the content of case scenarios enacted by the SPs. Each hour-long simulation was followed by an hour-long debriefing session with all participants. We recorded and transcribed case preparation, simulation interactions, and debriefing sessions, and analyzed anonymized transcripts through qualitative analysis within a constructivist framework, aided by NVivo software. Results: Each of six CCPS sessions was attended by a median of 13 participants (range, 11-14). The first three sessions were conducted in person; the last three, which took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, via synchronized videoconferencing. Each of the sessions centered on clinically challenging and affectively charged situations informed by trainees' prior experiences. Through iterative thematic analysis we derived an alliterating "9R" model centered on three types of Reflection: (a) in action/"while doing" (Regulate, Relate, and Reason); (b) on action/"having done" (Realities, Restraints, and Relationships); and (c) for action/"will be doing" (with opportunities for Repair and Reaffirmation). Conclusions: CCPS is an experiential approach that fosters autonomous, meaningful, and individually tailored learning opportunities. CCPS and the 9R model for reflective practice can be effectively applied to psychiatry and have the potential to contribute uniquely to the educational needs of its trainees and practitioners.

The Influence of an Online Community of Practice on Professional Development for Online Teaching: Case Study on Kindergartens

The unexpected closure of schools, including kindergartens, due to the coronavirus pandemic in the past two years transformed face-to-face teaching into online teaching, which was not a common practice for kindergarten teachers. As research reveal, kindergarten teachers are generally inexperienced in teaching online, so they need ongoing support and interactive professional training like building a community of practice (CoP) for switching to online teaching. Yet, limited research has investigated the impacts of building an online CoP as a teacher professional development approach in early childhood education. Thus, this study examined the effects and sustainable factors of the CoP groups provided by a university for online teaching in early childhood education through intensive training and quadripartite collaboration among kindergarten teachers, teacher trainers, preservice teachers, and eLearning specialists. To have an in-depth investigation, this study employed a case study of three kindergartens, semi-structured interviews with eight kindergarten teachers and three university teacher trainers were conducted via Zoom. Then, multi-sourced data, including artifacts and interview data, were analyzed by thematic analysis based on the CoP Theory to elucidate participants' experiences of an online CoP as an approach for teacher professional development. Based on the findings, this study revealed that the CoP empowered kindergarten teachers to teach online by (1) developing their technical and leadership skills through (2) building up a supportive network for idea exchanges;and (3) accumulating resources, skills, and tools they needed for online teaching from the domain, community, and practice dimension accordingly. In addition, the findings indicated that content relevance to the school curriculum, availability of time for collaboration, continuous technical support, and self-learning resources are important factors for sustaining the online teaching practices learned from the CoP groups. This study recommended an establishment of an ongoing online CoP for facilitating more sustainable teacher professional development in early childhood settings. © 30th International Conference on Computers in Education Conference, ICCE 2022 - Proceedings.

Reflections of Six Student Teachers Enrolled in an Online Practicum-Case Study

The current qualitative research explores six student teachers' reflections on the online practicum after shifting from in-school to online delivery due to the COVID-19 quarantine. This research was undertaken with the application of quasi-structured interviews with six student teachers. The thematic analysis uncovered the student teachers' perceptions regarding the online practicum and highlighted opportunities afforded by an online practicum, including time and effort efficiency;accurate performance and rapid completion, significant development of planning skills, ability to understand students and deal with different teaching situations, stimulation of innovation and creativity in teaching;and promotion of self-learning. The findings also underlined potential difficulties, including weak or interrupted internet signal, distractions in the online learning environment;the lack of a quiet place designated for meetings;the lack of trainees' technical skills, and the absence of in-school experience. Several implications and suggestions have emerged in light of these findings. © 2023 NSP Natural Sciences Publishing Cor.

Pediatric Project ECHO® for Pain: implementation and mixed methods evaluation of a virtual medical education program to support interprofessional pain management in children and youth.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric pain is a complex health challenge requiring a multi-modal management approach. It is critical that healthcare providers (HCPs) have access to ongoing, flexible education and mentorship specific to pediatric pain. However, there are significant gaps in available pain education and a need for more opportunities to support interprofessional training. Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO®) is a model for delivering online HCP education and cultivating a virtual community of practice. Within the pediatric pain setting, ECHO® has potential to improve local access to specialized pain knowledge, particularly among the physicians, nurses, and allied health providers who primarily manage these cases in community and hospital settings across rural and urban environments. The purpose of this study was three-fold. First, to evaluate the feasibility (participation levels, acceptability) of implementing Project ECHO® in the context of pediatric pain. Second, to measure preliminary program impacts on HCP knowledge, self-efficacy, and clinical practice. Third, to characterize HCP program engagement levels before and after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A needs assessment was conducted to identify interprofessional education gaps and inform the program curriculum. The no-cost Pediatric ECHO® for Pain program offered TeleECHO sessions (didactic and case-based learning) as well as foundational education. Surveys were distributed at baseline and 6 months to assess outcomes using 7-point Likert scales. Participant engagement was assessed for periods prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Eighty-five TeleECHO sessions were hosted, with a mean attendance of 34.1 ± 23.4 HCPs. Acceptability scores at 6 months (n = 33) ranged from 5.0 ± 1.4 to 6.5 ± 0.5. Participants reported statistically significant (p < 0.05) improvements in knowledge (7 out of 7 topics) and self-efficacy (8 out of 9 skills). Most participants reported positive practice impacts, including improved satisfaction with managing children with pain. Exploratory analyses showed a trend of greater engagement from ECHO® learners after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Project ECHO® is a feasible and impactful model for virtual education of interprofessional HCPs in managing pediatric pain.

Family Diabetes Camp Amidst COVID-19: A Community of Practice Model

Studies have found that youth are experiencing higher anxiety levels than prior to COVID-19, and youth with type 1 diabetes are at higher risk. Medical specialty camps are a type of camp that provide opportunities for youth with chronic illnesses to share common goals, increase socialization, improve camper well-being, and increase knowledge of diabetes management. The program evaluation sought to determine the impact of a campers' outcomes of independence and perceived competence and familial impact during COVID-19. Over half the participants were at their first diabetes camp and 71% of the campers felt their perceived competence "increased a little bit" because of camp. Over 95% of parents felt that their participation in camp had increased their diabetes knowledge. Qualitative data from parents revealed 2 themes, camp as a meeting place and learning from others. The findings from this study demonstrate that medical specialty camps influence campers' perceptions of independence and competence and that families play an important role in creating a community of practice.

Challenges in Utilizing Learning History Data from the Perspective of a Community of Practice: Through Comparison with Online Practice of Noh and Tea Ceremony

In Japan, the digital transformation of education is expected to be realized by providing one device per student in elementary and secondary education. In particular, based on the experience of online classes as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the active use of ICT and the utilization of learning history data are being discussed to realize a more fulfilling education. This paper critically examines the pitfalls of utilizing educational history data from the perspective of (community of practice), which is "another view of learning"proposed as a criticism of school education, based on the findings of online practice in Noh and tea ceremony. © 2022 ACM.

Share Sessions: A Solution to Cross-Disciplinary Academic Professional Learning and Development in Higher Education

Continuing professional learning and development (CPLD) in higher education is critical for improving the quality of teaching. Major change or crisis events often bring to light the need to upskill teaching staff to manage successful transition through those periods. When the COVID-19 pandemic caused our institution to pivot to emergency online teaching and learning, we identified a need to provide additional support to academic staff as they moved to online teaching. We introduced an approach called Share Sessions, where staff presented their innovative online teaching practice in a Zoom session. In this chapter, we introduce the Share Sessions as an informal cross-disciplinary approach to CPLD. We report the results of in-depth interviews with ten academics who presented in the Share Sessions. By employing hermeneutic phenomenology as an overarching research methodology, we thematically analysed the interviews and categorised the data into three broad categories: academics as connected learners, community of practice, and sense-making of informal sharing. Suggestions are provided for implementing this approach with a three-step process of planning for before, during, and following the Share Sessions. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Preparing the Leaders of Tomorrow: Learnings from a Two-Year Community of Practice in Fragility Fractures.

To facilitate the development of leadership competencies in a multidisciplinary group of 18 emerging bone experts from 6 European Countries and Brazil, to face future scenarios in the evolving field of fragility fractures, and to support secondary fracture prevention and improve patient outcomes. Changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic have further highlighted this need. A 2.5-year community of practice (CoP) programme was established with two senior bone experts acting as mentors. The content was adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The education impact of the programme was assessed using an ethics-approved mixed-method design consisting of multiple sources of qualitative and quantitative data collected longitudinally. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively. Qualitative data underwent a thematic analysis. After participating in the programme, participants reported increased interprofessional collaboration and communication skills, better understanding of health economics and negotiation, application of adult learning principles to their work setting, development of competencies to critically appraise guidelines, enhanced abilities to facilitate behaviour change in others, and improved confidence leading their team through crisis situations. Although time was required for some physicians to get accustomed to the CoP concept and develop trust with other members, it was described as a beneficial real-world learning experience. An educational real-world CoP programme was effective in enhancing leadership competencies among future leaders in the bone field to improve care of fragility fracture patients. The results presented could guide the development of other CoPs in fragility fracture care as leadership competencies are increasingly required in that field.

Modernizing continuing professional development using social media

Continuing professional development has changed drastically in the era after the COVID-19 pandemic. In-person conferences are now a distant memory, but staying current and relevant (especially in interdisciplinary fields such as psychonephrology) continue to be very important. This chapter seeks to provide readers with an overview of how a community such as psychonephrology clinicians can harness the power of social media to expand learning opportunities. Exploring issues pertinent to both psychiatrists and nephrologists, this chapter highlights the potential for social media platforms to help grow a conjoint digital community of practice that explores the intersection of psychiatry/psychology in patients with kidney disease. The chapter begins with an overview of why social media has become a key modality in modern continuing professional development, highlighting both education theory and also practical examples that have emerged from related disciplines within medicine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Teachers’ Communities of Practice in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Will Innovation in Teaching Practices Persist and Prosper?

This study explores how teachers' communities of practice facilitated the transition to emergency remote teaching after school closures in South Korea during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We also investigate whether and how teachers’ online education experiences in times of crisis continue to influence face-to-face teaching practices. We first conducted a literature review on teachers building communities of practice to cope with the pandemic and their execution of emergency remote teaching with collective professionalism. Five experienced teachers from elementary and middle schools participated in a semi-structured interview to share their experiences since the outbreak of COVID-19 until Spring 2022. We found that in response to significant pandemic-related challenges, teachers rapidly adapted to the digital educational environment, with assistance from their peers, through online and offline learning communities. Moreover, teachers’ online education experiences have contributed to innovative teaching practices with technological integration. We present the implications for teacher education research and practice in the post-COVID-19 era. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.

Assessing the relationship between academic communities of practice and collegial learning: Case: Université des Mascareignes

The world of education has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic which has imposed a change in teaching and learning across all sectors. With regard to higher education, academics were forced to resort to online education which took various forms. Academics from the Universite des Mascareignes (UdM), a public university in Mauritius, have embraced e-learning using dedicated and improvised platforms. At the same time, some of them have followed training linked to e-learning. The pandemic situation has allowed academic staff to work as communities of practice where they have engaged in groups to master online education practices. At the same time, they developed a collegial apprenticeship where they had to share their learning experiences. A longitudinal survey was carried out among about 30 academics 1year apart. The research aimed to identify the relationship between community of practice and college learning. The results revealed that both concepts were applied during this period and that there was an adequate relationship between them. An effective community of practice has positively contributed to a high level of college learning. This condition remained strong during the pandemic although the long-term viability of such a relationship had yet to be confirmed. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HERDSA TATAL tales: Reflecting on academic growth as a Community for Practice

This chapter tells the story of 13 higher education (HE) practitioners (academics and academic developers) from 10 universities across Australia and New Zealand leveraging the COVID-19 disruption as a ‘disorienting dilemma’ that precipitated transformation from a Community of Practice (CoP) to a Community for Practice (CfP). The aim is to show how the group commenced as a CoP to ‘Talk About Teaching and Learning’ (TATAL) and support one another towards HE fellowships, and grew into a CfP that supports holistic growth that benefits each member based on their specific contexts, needs, and goals. With reflections woven throughout as evidence of transformation, the purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how an interdisciplinary, multiuniversity group has created and nurtured a sustainable CfP. Experiential learning and reflective practice models, which are underpinned by considerations of action research and collaborative autoethnography, support and account for insights into the transformative changes. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.