Work in progress: Reducing the Impact of Emergency Remote Teaching Through an Understanding of Personal Digital Ecosystems

This work in progress research will interest educational stakeholders in the STEM area dealing with Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and researchers interested in the affordance of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) for education and especially providing personalized learning opportunities. The first question of this research seeks to identify students' general attitudes toward educational ICT. The second question is to identify any common usage patterns. And the third question is to identify affordances of the technology from the perspective of the students. The preliminary findings suggest that recent graduates in the United States have a sophisticated understanding of what educational technology is and how it can benefit their education. This is reassuring when considering the need for a sudden move to off-site teaching necessitated by an ERT. Several concerns were identified, including information quality and distractions from online entertainment. In addition, technical issues are a concern for many respondents. The qualitative questionnaire and coding have provided some insight into the perceived view of educational technology held by recent engineering graduates in the United States. This is an initial phase of this research which is ongoing and will be expanded to include a broader range of analysis techniques. © 2022 IEEE.

Virtual Learning Accessibility Barriers Experienced by Engineering Students with Disabilities in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This Work in Progress, Research paper aims to address the well-documented discrimination against people with disabilities regarding the use of technology in education. Poor accessibility standards, a lack of administrative support, and numerous other barriers have contributed to the ever-present digital equity gap for students with disabilities. The digital equity gap has continued to widen as schools continue to increase the use of virtual or distance learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research aims to better understand students with disabilities' barriers in accessing online undergraduate engineering education by addressing the following research question: What barriers do engineering students with disabilities face in an online learning environment? The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework guides the research questions, data collection, and data analysis. A fixed item survey has been developed and is currently being used to capture the experiences of students with disabilities in engineering who participated in online learning at four-year colleges and universities across the United States. The identification of these students' barriers will be used to inform accessibility improvements and considerations to engineering online learning. © 2022 IEEE.

A phase III, randomized, open-label study (CONTACT-02) of cabozantinib plus atezolizumab versus second novel hormone therapy in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Cabozantinib inhibits multiple receptor tyrosine kinases, including the TAM kinase family, and may enhance response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. One cohort of the ongoing phase Ib COSMIC-021 study (NCT03170960) evaluating cabozantinib plus the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) that has progressed in soft tissue on/after enzalutamide and/or abiraterone treatment for metastatic disease has shown promising efficacy. Here, we describe the rationale and design of a phase III trial of cabozantinib plus atezolizumab versus a second novel hormone therapy (NHT) in patients who have previously received an NHT for mCRPC, metastatic castration-sensitive PC or nonmetastatic CRPC and have measurable visceral disease and/or extrapelvic adenopathy - a population with a significant unmet need for treatment options. Trial Registration Clinical Trial Registration: NCT04446117 (ClinicalTrials.gov) Registered on 24 June 2020.

"CAPA in Progress": A New Real-Life Approach for the Management of Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients.

(1) Background: COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) has worsened the prognosis of patients with pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). The lack of specific diagnosis criteria is an obstacle to the timely initiation of appropriate antifungal therapy. Tracheal aspirate (TA) has been employed under special pandemic conditions. Galactomannan (GM) antigens are released during active fungal growth. (2) Methods: We proposed the term "CAPA in progress" (CAPA-IP) for diagnosis at an earlier stage by GM testing on TA in a specific population admitted to ICU presenting with clinical deterioration. A GM threshold ≥0.5 was set as the mycological inclusion criterion. This was followed by a pre-emptive short-course antifungal. (3) Results: We prospectively enrolled 200 ICU patients with COVID-19. Of these, 164 patients (82%) initially required invasive mechanical ventilation and GM was tested in TA in 93 patients. A subset of 19 patients (11.5%) fulfilled the CAPA-IP criteria at a median of 9 days after ICU admittance. The median GM value was 3.25 ± 2.82. CAPA-IP cases showed significantly higher ICU mortality [52.6% (10/19) vs. 34.5% (50/145), p = 0.036], as well as a much longer median ICU stay than those with a normal GM index [27 (7-64) vs. 11 (9-81) days, p = 0.008]. All cases were treated with a pre-emptive systemic antifungal for a median time of 19 (3-39) days. (4) Conclusions: CAPA-IP highlights a new real-life early approach in the field of fungal stewardship in ICU programs.

Investigation of Technology-based Student Interaction for Social Learning in Online Courses

This work in progress research paper studied the use of technologies, platforms, and methods for interactions during the course and outside the course by the engineering students enrolled in the summer 2020 semester at a large Southwestern public research university. In March of 2020, this university migrated away from face-to-face teaching, like other institutions, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This migration resulted in the development of synchronous (remote) and asynchronous (fully online) courses that were offered to students through the remaining Spring and also the Summer semester of 2020. Previous studies have shown that student and faculty interaction along with student-student interaction have a net positive effect on student retention and learning. This study was designed to identify the tools-technology or platforms-and methods used for interaction in the summer 2020 courses. All students enrolled in engineering courses in summer 2020 were invited to take part in the survey. However, 315 students started the survey and only 93 respondents completed the survey fully. While there are useful data from the entire starter group, this study looked at the data generated by the 93 respondents who completed the survey. The student responses indicate that most faculty, whether teaching synchronously or asynchronously, supplemented their courses with some technology or platform that facilitated live interactions (Zoom, Google Meet, Blackboard Collaborate, Microsoft Teams). Even though the students were moderately satisfied with the technology/platforms and methods that were used, they showed a higher degree of satisfaction for courses that used active learning and other methods for student engagement. For social learning, the students used GroupMe, text messaging, or Zoom calls to interact with each other outside of class. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021