A process-content approach in faculty development: Transitions to remote synchronous delivery in higher education

We faced the challenge of a rapid transition of our university on campus programs, professors, and students to remote synchronous delivery (RSD) via virtual classrooms as the COVID-19 pandemic closed our campuses. Like Alice in Wonderland and her creature colleagues as they struggled their way across the pool of tears, many post-secondary educators anguished at the sea of challenges before us as we faced this abrupt shift to remote synchronous delivery (RSD). Required to work online from our home offices, professors began to explore teaching via video conferencing platforms like Zoom. We paused to briefly take stock and plan a course of action. It seemed as if we could possibly reach the brink of mayhem in attempting this transition en masse within two to three short weeks. How would this transition proceed and what professional development workshops and webinars would assist - especially for instructors who had not taught extensively before via RSD and video conferencing platforms? In my role as Associate Dean for Faculty Development at a medium-sized university in Canada, I seized upon the tried and true "process-content approach" as our solution - that is, having our professors experience and do RSD learning themselves as they discussed how to teach remotely. This chapter explains this approach and describes how to do such transitional workshops in an educative and efficient way. We found that "...the best way to explain it is to do it" (Carroll, 2000). © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

Virtual labs for the study of enzymatic stirred tank bioreactors

Virtual laboratories have successfully proven to be very versatile and intuitive when simulating experiments in science, biotechnology, and engineering. These tools must complement the experiments carried out in real labs or pilot plants. This study describes the creation of a virtual laboratory through the Easy JavaScript Simulation platform. A web‐based simulation of an enzymatic stirred‐tank bioreactor has been built using a dynamic model. This simulation reproduces the behavior of a continuous bioreactor, including the deviations of ideal mixing conditions as by the use of an in tanks‐in‐series model for nonideal flow. This article describes the continuous dynamic model in a stirred tank bioreactor, as well as the operation of a tool capable of carrying out virtual practice with students. Practice scripts have been developed that should be used by students during the practical classes. This interactive tool is powerful and useful to develop many experiments by varying the different input parameters, saving time and resources. In addition, the tool allows following teaching sessions in specific situations such as the health situation derived from the pandemic caused by COVID‐19.

Reverse Metadesign: Pedagogy and Learning Tools for Teaching The Fashion Collection Design Process Online

The present article discusses the experience of redesigning the pedagogy and learning tools of a pillar course at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano, the Metadesign studio course. Metadesign is a design methodology that leads to the concept definition of a new product or service through a research process that synthesizes design goals, technological and productive constraints, market context, and consumption trends for a consumers' group of reference. It represents a unique methodological approach characterizing a design education as it provides a consolidated research practice able to support the design process. The course structure foresees the reconstruction in phases and the development of all the contextual elements-product, space, service, communication artifact, etc.-that come into relation with the to-be-designed object and influence its characteristics. This process enables creating the "abacus" of components to use in a design activity. Considering the ever-increasing need to reshape the whole education system because of the paradigmatic change pushed by digital transformation and the urgency for on-distance courses posed by the COVID-19 emergency, the article presents a renewed "reversed" course structure. It highlights strengths and opportunities for further improvements representing a solid base for innovating a fashion design education.

Pandemic evolution in basic control courses for undergraduate engineering students

Presenting automatic control concepts to biomedical engineers is a challenging task due to the lack of background and/or motivation of many students. In this paper, a learning-by-doing experience is shown, where the COVID-19 pandemic evolution is used as a teaching project along the course. By applying this methodology, students report a better understanding of the background concepts and their possible use in applications that they feel close to their interests © 2022 IEEE.

The repeated setbacks of HIV vaccine development laid the groundwork for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

The decades-long effort to produce a workable HIV vaccine has hardly been a waste of public and private resources. To the contrary, the scientific know-how acquired along the way has served as the critical foundation for the development of vaccines against the novel, pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus. We retell the real-world story of HIV vaccine research - with all its false leads and missteps - in a way that sheds light on the current state of the art of antiviral vaccines. We find that HIV-related R&D had more than a general spillover effect. In fact, the repeated failures of phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of HIV vaccine candidates have served as a critical stimulus to the development of successful vaccine technologies today. We rebut the counterargument that HIV vaccine development has been no more than a blind alley, and that recently developed vaccines against COVID-19 are really descendants of successful vaccines against Ebola, MERS, and SARS. These successful vaccines likewise owe much to the vicissitudes of HIV vaccine development. We then discuss how the failures of HIV vaccine development have taught us how adapt SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to immune escape from emerging variants. Finally, we inquire whether recent advances in the development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 might in turn further the development of an HIV vaccine - what we describe as a reverse spillover effect.

Appropriation of the Maker methodology to stimulate Invisible Learning in high school students in times of Covid-19

The current educational context is facing new educational challenges due to the worldwide proliferation of Covid-19. For this reason, it was necessary to generate a digital literacy oriented from a creative and innovative perspective, in this regard it was decided to apply the Maker methodological style, to high school students from the Arequipa region in Peru. Likewise, considering that education is being developed in homes under the E-learning modality, it was necessary to stimulate invisible learning, because its application offers many possibilities to develop skills, abilities, capacities, competencies that are not formally established in the curriculum and that are necessary for life;starting from learning by doing, promoting creativity and taking the context into consideration. The main objective of this study was to analyze the appropriation of the Maker methodology in the educational field to determine the impact it may have. The applied research methodology was mixed, and a survey was applied to 350 students, of both sexes, at the secondary level, whose ages are between 14 and 17 years old. This research study allowed to conclude that the Maker methodology, applied in times of pandemic, is effective to improve the learning and motivational level of students starting from learning by doing, experimenting, playing, creating, researching, and innovating, where the initiative and strengths of the students they are the driving forces for this development. © 2021 IEEE.

Virtual labs for the study of enzymatic stirred tank bioreactors

Virtual laboratories have successfully proven to be very versatile and intuitive when simulating experiments in science, biotechnology, and engineering. These tools must complement the experiments carried out in real labs or pilot plants. This study describes the creation of a virtual laboratory through the Easy JavaScript Simulation platform. A web-based simulation of an enzymatic stirred-tank bioreactor has been built using a dynamic model. This simulation reproduces the behavior of a continuous bioreactor, including the deviations of ideal mixing conditions as by the use of an in tanks-in-series model for nonideal flow. This article describes the continuous dynamic model in a stirred tank bioreactor, as well as the operation of a tool capable of carrying out virtual practice with students. Practice scripts have been developed that should be used by students during the practical classes. This interactive tool is powerful and useful to develop many experiments by varying the different input parameters, saving time and resources. In addition, the tool allows following teaching sessions in specific situations such as the health situation derived from the pandemic caused by COVID-19.

Learning by Doing from Afar: Mobilizing the Internet of Things to Enrich Remote Learning

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have introduced acute challenges to traditional approaches of engi-neering education. Without direct and regular access to physical equipment in laboratories, the opportunities for engineering students to practice 'learning by doing' has been greatly reduced or curtailed. This paper presents our attempt to demonstrate a simple, efficient, and effective method of approximating the hands-on experience of manipulating lab equipment by using an 'Internet of Things' (IoT) approach, which involves networked physical objects and the use of embedded software, sensors, and other technologies to facilitate control and exchange of data over the internet. While a few other researchers have also started experimenting with IoT in test labs, our approach differs sharply in some key ways. Instead of building entirely new IoT-integrated equipment for a given lesson, our approach is to adapt traditional lab equipment for remote use by making a number of small changes, which keep things simple to operate and cost-effective. As a result, students can connect to the laboratory facilities remotely and conduct experiments and gather data on their own. In this initial project, the target lab was a lesson on 'controls' consisting of solenoid valves as controllable actuators, high voltage controllable switch, and a series of sensors and web-cameras as monitoring facilities. Using a desktop remote control app, students make a connection to the university laboratory computers. The preliminary results provide a proof of concept for remotely control laboratories for undergraduate students in engineering that allow them to perform experiments in a fixable yet reliable manner. The implications for methods of enhancing remote learning extend beyond pandemic conditions © 2021 IEEE.

I9MASKS: FROM A MULTIDISCIPLINARY SUMMER PROJECT TO A NON-ACCREDITED SHORT COURSE

This study presents a research experience with engineering students at undergraduate and graduate levels, during the summer of 2020 at the School of Engineering, University of Minho, Portugal. Following the first pandemic event in Portugal, from March to May 2020, the Foundation for promoting Science and Technology (FCT) has opened a call for research projects among students and researchers at different Universities. The main aim of these projects was to motivate students to return physically to the campus during a summer course, and to promote a research environment among them. i9Masks was one of the projects approved by the University of Minho and its main objective was the development of innovative masks in a silicone elastomer for the protection of COVID-19 with the use of state-of-the-art technologies. The development of masks was at the time a very hot topic as well as a fashionable subject for research. Considering the results obtained, from the final works presented by students, a very positive balance of the experience was achieved. The i9Masks project was a useful learning experience for engineering education, particularly in Portugal, where the opportunity to participate in this type of "learning by doing" experience is very small. Copyright © 2021 by ASME

Doctor@Home: Through a Telemedicine Co-production and Co-learning Journey.

Telemedicine and remote visits are becoming more and more popular in several medical disciplines, including oncology. The Covid-19 pandemic has enhanced the need to continue to meet patients' ambulatory care necessities ensuring social distancing and limiting the access to clinical facilities. The National Cancer Institute of Aviano, Italy, has recently launched a program called "Doctor @ Home" (D@H). The pillars of the program are the co-production of the oncological care and the co-learning approach, which sees the clinical staff "hand in hand" with patients to maximize the outcome of the care, trying to take advantage of the new tools offered by modern technologies.