MENTAL ABILITY ON HIGHER MATHEMATICS: LEARNING IN THE DIGITAL CLASSROOM

Although online teaching is not anymore new in the field of education, but it has become the trend in teaching during the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries also differ on online teaching implementation due to the strength and level of sophistication of their internet connectivity. That is why is, it very interesting to determine how students learn through online teaching in a third world countries such as Philippines. This quantitative study employed a descriptive design utilizing the tertiary students’ Mathematics grade during the full conduct of the online teaching. The data revealed that respondents’ mental ability in higher Mathematics was described as “satisfactory” in which they met the minimum competence with average score. In addition, gender did not also indicate a significant difference as a variable. No significant difference between their gender was also found out in the results. This finding points out that online teaching was still the best alternative mode of delivery in the height of the pandemic. Although it has been known that many Filipino students has no personal computers and laptops, most of these students utilized their cellular phone not only for personal use but for academic as well. Thus, this study recommends that teachers may continue employing online teaching or blended teaching to let the students learn on their own with the aid of technology.

Students' satisfaction and experience of hybrid undergraduate obstetrics & gynaecology teaching during pandemic

Introduction: Hybrid teaching method has been executed in majority of medical schools during Covid19 pandemic. With this integrated method being employed, a check and balance mechanism is required. We aim to determine the student's satisfaction and experience of hybrid undergraduate teaching in obstetrics and gynaecology posting. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students undergoing hybrid teaching during obstetrics and gynaecology posting in the year of 2020 and 2021. A total of 112 fourth and fifth year medical students whom were affected by the pandemic participated in this study. Online questionnaires consist of socio-demographic, experience and satisfaction domains were distributed through Google Forms to all eligible students. Results: The response rate was 75%. Up to 92% of participants own a personal computer or laptop with 61.6% own a smartphone and use them to access the online class. Majority (90.2%) of the respondents were satisfied with the hybrid teaching. Only ethnicity showed a significant association with the satisfaction of the students. Conclusion: Our study found that the majority of students were satisfied with hybrid teaching. Hence its practice can be continued as it can be utilized at any time as compared to traditional teaching.

A Study on Hurdles Faced by Medical Students during e-Learning Amid COVID-19 Pandemic: An online questionnaire-based survey

Introduction: In order to halt the progression of COVID-19, governments of many countries including India implemented national lockdown. In view of the sudden closure of educational institutions, remote teaching was implemented with the help of online learning or E-learning. Thus, the aim of the study was assessing the attitudes and perceptions of MBBS students regarding the effectiveness of e-learning and the impact of COVID-19 on the student’s mental wellbeing and learning. Methods: The survey instrument was a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 17 close ended questions and 3 open ended question. It has 3 sociodemographic questions, 13 questions assessing their attitudes and perceptions regarding the effectiveness of e-learning and 4 questions investigating the impact of COVID-19 on the student’s mental wellbeing and learning. The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS (version 20). Results: A total of 404 undergraduate students studying in FMHS, SGT University, Gurugram participated in the survey. A major part of the students (57.1%) was using their Mobile phones for e-learning followed by 24.6% using their Personal computer or Laptop, 12% were using combination of these devices and 6.3% using tablets. Due to inconsistent internet connection, most of the students (71.5%) were facing challenges. 64.9% of the respondents faced distraction during the class such as lack of audio clarity, internet connection problems, lack of environment, concentration issues, notifications and social media, student teacher interactions, practical aspect not covered and lack of physical interaction with the teacher. The continuous screen time posed a major problem for students who suffered from strain in the eyes (58.3%), headache (18.7%), neck pain (8.8%), back pain (6.3%) or all of the above problems (7.7%). Thus, 84.1% of the undergraduate students preferred conventional Classroom learning to e-learning. Conclusions: Implementation of strict social distancing and lockdown in COVID-19 era, has mandated the pedagogy of remote learning which remains the only viable option for teaching and learning in these difficult times. The students should be advised to follow good ergonomic practices to maintain their ocular health and should be motivated to enhance their mental well-being and learning amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Use of Novel Telemedicine Software to Automate Cranial Nerve and Neuro-Ophthalmic Remote Testing

INTRODUCTION: Despite the rapid surge in telemedicine use due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still a paucity of telemedicine tools for the remote assessment of patients with neurological diagnoses. Current telemedicine platforms lack the capabilities to perform thorough cranial nerve and neuro-ophthalmic testing. To address this need, we developed a novel software that patients can use to undergo cranial nerve and neuro-ophthalmic testing remotely via their own personal computer. METHODS: We conducted a pilot study of patients above 18 years old diagnosed with a brain tumor who receive their care at our institution. Ten patients were enrolled to undergo a comprehensive cranial nerve and neuro-ophthalmic testing using our proprietary telemedicine software. We assessed visual acuity, visual fields, extraocular movements, facial sensitivity, facial symmetry, hearing, uvula/palatal movement, shoulder elevation, tongue deviation, and speech. Their performance on the telemedicine software to physical examination by their treating physician. All patients were given a patient satisfaction survey upon completion of the telemedicine visit. RESULTS: Ten patients have been enrolled so far with a mean age of 47±14.3 years old (4 males, 6 females). Diagnoses included brain metastases, pituitary adenoma, craniopharyngioma and meningiomas. Visual acuity, facial sensitivity, facial symmetry, shoulder elevation, tongue deviation were consistent with physical examination findings in all six patients. Extraocular movements were consistent in 80% of patients. Assessment of the uvula was the most challenging, comparable to physical examination in only 20% of patients. Visual fields were equivalent in 80% of patients and superior than confrontation testing in 10% of patients. CONCLUSION: While this is a very early experience with a new telemedicine software, we demonstrate the feasibility of performing comprehensive cranial nerve and neuro-ophthalmic testing. We provide a detailed account of the challenges encountered, the patient experience and satisfaction results.

Challenges of virtual classroom during COVID-19 pandemic: An empirical analysis of Indian higher education

Higher education institutions (HEIs) usually work open throughout the academic session. In the COVID-19 pandemic time, all the HEIs were also closed temporarily. The study examined the major challenges faced by the teachers and students from the virtual classroom during the nationwide lockdown. Due to the nationwide lockdown and lack of funding, convenience sampling and snowball sampling techniques were used for data collection. A total of 893 responses were analyzed for this study. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire on a Likert scale from 305 teachers and 588 students of higher education institutes from the entire India. Network connectivity was the major challenge faced by the faculty members (mean value of 3.68) followed by 3.17 mean value for lack of professional environment at home, 3.03 for lack of teaching material at home, 2.92 for lack of personal computer/laptop. Lack of professional environment at home (mean value of 3.59) was the major challenge faced by the students followed by 3.57 for lack of teaching material at home, 3.35 for network connectivity, 3.31 for lack of personal computer/laptop. Virtual classrooms have challenges such as poor internet connectivity, non-availability of appropriate electronic devices, lack of a teaching environment at home, less information and communication technology (ICT) knowledge among students and teachers. It implied less engagement of students and teachers in the teaching and learning process. © 2022, Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.

Energy Consumption, Pandemic Period and Online Academic Education: Case Studies in Romanian Universities

Objectively, electricity is the most important current power source and, especially, of the future. Electricity consumption in universities worldwide is achieved by installations and equipment both in laboratories, classrooms, applications, and sports, in the rooms of administrative staff, and campus. Depending on the specializations, each university has a specific footprint of electricity consumption. During the pandemic of 2020, the world introduced several measures to limit the spread of the Covid virus, including online education in academia. Thus, in terms of electricity consumption, universities recorded a decrease during the pandemic, but there was an increase in household consumption for teachers and students. The subject of this paper is a quantitative analysis of the data provided by four universities in Romania on electricity consumption recorded before and during the pandemic. These data are correlated with household electricity consumption for the same two time periods, which were collected from some teachers and students in a university. A percentage of the decrease respectively increase of these electricity consumptions is due to the use of computers in the university respectively at home. That is why the measurements performed on a personal computer connected to the Teams platform used in the online education system are presented and analyzed. All these data and comparative analyses are especially useful for any university in the country or worldwide. © 2021 IEEE.

Choosing Non-Malignant Hematologic Care Wisely: An Educational Pilot Study for Internal Medicine Residents

Introduction: Choosing Wisely ® (CW ®)is an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation created to guide the selection of care that is 1) supported by evidence, 2) not duplicative, 3) free from harm, and 4) truly necessary. Between 2013-14, the American Society of Hematology (ASH) published 10 recommendations in accordance with CW ® principles relevant to hematologic care. Previous studies have demonstrated that clinical exposure to non-malignant hematology (NMH) improves trainee understanding of evidence-based, cost effective care as outlined by ASH CW ®. However, dedicated clinical rotations in NMH for internal medicine (IM) residents are not consistently available. Therefore, we created a condensed educational curricular experience using a small group, case-based structure designed to teach the fundamentals of ASH CW ® in NMH to first year IM residents. With a pilot of 6 sessions, we investigated resident baseline knowledge, evaluated the curricular session, and assessed knowledge retention. Methods: The educational intervention focused on 3 content areas in ASH CW ®: venous thromboembolism (VTE), heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT), and sickle cell disease (SCD) (Table 1). Participants included 21 first year IM residents at a large academic medical center. A 1-hour small group teaching session was scheduled monthly as an assigned didactic for the 2020-21 academic year. A total of 6 sessions were provided, and each session had 2-4 residents assigned. The first 4 sessions were in-person and the final 2 were virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first author was the instructor at all sessions. To assess baseline knowledge of the 3 content areas, participants completed an online assessment with 5 case-based multiple-choice questions at the beginning of the session. The instructor then guided participants to again complete the questionnaire together, now using internet access via a personal computer and a recommended list of online resources, including ASH Clinical Practice Guidelines and Pocket Guides. The instructor then led discussion on how each correct answer or guideline recommendation achieves the 4 CW ® principles. At the conclusion of the session, participants completed an online survey to evaluate the educational intervention using a modified Likert scale. To assess knowledge retention, participants received the original online multiple-choice assessment by email 3 months later. Results: All participants (21/21, 100%) completed the baseline knowledge assessment. The average number of questions correct out of 5 total was 3.3 (67%), with a range of correct answers from 1 to 5. Table 2 includes the content area of each question and the number of correct responses. The question with the lowest total correct (9/21, 43%) addressed the use of transfusion in an uncomplicated pain crisis in SCD. Seventeen participants (81%) completed the curricular evaluation. All respondents (17/17, 100%) either agreed or strongly agreed 1) that the session filled a gap in their NMH training and 2) that they learned something that would change their clinical practice. Only 1 participant (5%) reported completing a rotation in NMH prior to the session. Six participants (29%) completed the repeat knowledge assessment at 3 months. All respondents (100%) achieved a perfect score on the multiple choice questions. When asked if the knowledge gained had influenced their clinical practice, 3 (50%) strongly agreed, 2 (33%) agreed, 1 (17%) was neutral, and none disagreed or strongly disagreed. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate a successful educational pilot to improve the knowledge of ASH CW ® initiatives in NMH for first year IM residents using small group interactive case-based learning. Participants were overwhelmingly receptive to this intervention, expressed high satisfaction and confirmed that the session positively influenced their clinical practice. Although participation in the repeat assessment of knowledge was limited, those that did participate demonstrated high knowledge retention. We intend to expand this pilot initiative by providing the educational session for all incoming IM residents at our institution. We then plan to assess its impact on clinical practice (i.e. use of transfusion in SCD, use of thrombophilia testing, documentation of 4Ts score calculation) to apply the principles of ASH CW ® for improved patient care. [Formula presented] Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.