Enhancing collaborative learning in health management education: an investigation of Padlet-mediated interventions and the influence of flexible thinking.

This study had three primary goals. First, it aimed to craft an intervention program centered around collaborative learning enabled by Padlet. Second, it aimed to gauge the perceptions of health management students regarding this intervention and how it affected their collaborative learning experiences. Additionally, the third objective of the study aimed to investigate how students' flexible thinking within the learning process might shape their perceptions of the advantages derived from this instructional activity within the domain of online collaborative learning. Data for the analysis were gathered from 100 Israeli undergraduate students by two measurements: Flexible thinking in learning and Student perceptions of collaborative learning via Padlet. The intervention program included several stages. First, the students discussed the pedagogic objective of using Padlet. In the second stage, the students were presented with ill-structured problems related to the course content. Each group had to choose one problem and analyze it from three perspectives discussed in the course-healthcare provider, patient, and organization. Next, the students presented and explained their solutions employing the shared knowledge base. The final work was presented in different formats using various technologies. The PLS-SEM analysis has corroborated our hypothesis that students' flexible thinking might positively contribute to their perception of Padlet utilization. According to the empirical model, in general, students who perceived themselves as more flexible were found more receptive to utilizing the proposed technological tool (Padlet) and hence tended to appreciate its function as a collaborative learning platform enabler. This study mainly underscores the important role flexible thinking plays in motivating managers and medical professionals to embrace innovative technologies or methods for teamwork, that could enable them to weigh arguments, seek alternative solutions to authentic problems, and adjust their approaches effectively and collaboratively as new challenges emerge.

Online collaborative Padlet-mediated learning in health management studies.

Introduction: The Padlet interactive platform constitutes a virtual online board on which users can post various types of multimedia content, such as documents, questions, comments, images, video clips, and audio clips. This platform has gained popularity in higher education yet remains ancillary in the fields of medical education and medical management. Methods: This case study sought to initially design an intervention program that employs online collaborative learning enabled by Padlet and to assess how Health Management students perceived the activity and its ramifications for their learning. 85 students' reflective journals were content analyzed. Results: five main categories stood out: (1) user experience of the platform; (2) visuality and visibility of the platform; (3) collaborative learning and OCL; (4) active online learning and student engagement; and (5) cognitive flexibility. Discussion: This study emphasizes the importance of incorporating digital tools in education, particularly the use of the Padlet platform to facilitate collaborative learning and improve the quality of teaching and learning. It demonstrates that Padlet-mediated online collaborative learning can be an effective digital learning tool because of its ease of use and ability to accommodate both pedagogical and technological challenges.

Using Digital Concept Maps in Conflict Resolution Studies: Implications for Students' Argumentative Skills, Domain-Specific Knowledge, and Academic Efficacy.

While argumentation emerges as one of the major learning skills in the twenty-first century, a somewhat opaque landscape is revealed in terms of identifying its potential in enhancing higher-education students' domain-specific knowledge. In this study, argumentation-for-learning activity with digital concept mapping (CM) was designed and compared with a traditional teacher-centered activity to determine the former's effectiveness in promoting students' domain-specific factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge. This study also examines how the proposed activity may contribute to students' academic efficacy and thus promote meaningful learning. A quasi-experimental design was employed by using convenience samples. Two identical courses were selected for this research: the first course with a total of 59 students (the research group), and the second course including a total of 63 students (the control group). Both groups' domain-specific knowledge was assessed before and after the activity. The designed activity was found to be less effective in fostering factual knowledge and more effective in developing the conceptual and procedural knowledge domains. Another finding demonstrated the benefits of argumentation for learning with CM in facilitating students' academic efficacy. It can be concluded that engaging students in a deep argumentation learning process may in turn deepen predominantly conceptual and procedural domain-specific knowledge. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Professional and psychological precursors of instructional approaches used in distance learning during COVID-19.

The current study addresses two antecedents that may serve to explain teachers' online instructional practices during the COVID-19 pandemic: first, the professional aspect that deals with suitable training of teachers and school support for distance learning, and second, informed by the professional aspect, the personal (psychological) aspect that discusses the self-efficacy and attitudes of teachers toward distance learning. A mixed-methods design was employed by collecting data from 327 Israeli schoolteachers. A phenomenological paradigm was used to enrich the information from the point of view of teachers who experienced the transition to distance learning. The empirical model included three aspects connected to distance learning: the professional, personal (psychological), and pedagogical-practical. The professional level included training and school support for distance learning. The personal level referred to teachers' perception of their efficacy to use technology for distance learning and their attitudes toward incorporating technology in teaching. The practical aspect comprised actual teaching methods that teachers used during distance learning. The results of the quantitative data analysis revealed that teachers' perceived efficacy to deploy competency-based learning strategies exceeded their actual use of such activities during the crisis. In practice, they maintained classroom discipline rather than enhancing collaborative practices, according to their report. The current study indicates that teachers' perceived ability to deploy distance learning activities might play a central role in explaining actual online instructional activities used during the crisis. This psychological aspect can be nurtured by appropriate professional training and technical and emotional support. Based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses, appropriate preparations are suggested to provide teachers with technical, pedagogical, and emotional support during times of crisis.

Students' Emotional Well-Being, and Perceived Faculty Incivility and Just Behavior Before and During COVID-19.

This research set out to measure the impact of the lockdown condition and social distancing imposed on higher education by the Israeli government during the COVID-19 period and the shift to online learning, on students' emotional well-being, the way they perceived their teachers' just behavior, and faculty incivility, compared to pre-pandemic conditions. An additional aim was to explore the set of connections among these factors. The total sample included 396 undergraduate students from three academic colleges. Data were gathered via three questionnaires: Positive/negative affect, Faculty Incivility, and Teacher Justice. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The main finding showed that students' negative emotions were informed by the lockdown condition. This perceived negative affect had an impact on how the participants experienced social interactions with their faculty. Those who exhibited higher levels of negative affect perceived themselves as targets of faculty incivility. The same trajectory was detected with the way students experienced their teachers' just behavior. Students who held negative emotions, partly because of the COVID-19 restrictions, also viewed their teachers' behavior toward them as unjust. This study stresses the role of one's emotional condition in instigating negative interpretations of social interactions. Directions for subsequent research and practical implications for promoting students' well-being and civil and just communications in the learning environment are discussed.

Precursors of Openness to Provide Online Counseling: The Role of Future Thinking, Creativity, and Innovative Behavior of Future Online Therapists.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for online counseling to preserve therapeutic processes that have begun face to face and to provide service to others in need during lockdowns. Previous studies underscored the importance of providing updated training as counselors frequently hesitate to use technological advances in therapeutic sessions. This study aims at reducing such barriers by revealing personal characteristics of future professionals that might inhibit or encourage their openness toward providing online counseling. To this end, this study is focused on several precursors of openness to provide online counseling: preference to communicate emotions online, identification of emotional expressiveness advantages in providing online counseling, innovative behavior, creativity, and future problem-solving thinking skills. The question at focus is which constructs would be found contributive to students' openness to provide online counseling. The sample included 277 undergraduate students (future counselors) who filled out questionnaires. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. Our findings pointed to the centrality of students' preference to communicate their emotions online in explaining their openness to conducting online counseling. This study might help pinpointing the adjustments curriculum designers should address to better reflect the intensive changes within the counseling field that necessitate transferring face-to-face skills to online settings.

Future Problem-Solving Practiced During COVID-19: Implications for Health Management Students' E-Health Literacy Identity.

The current study describes the implementation of an online Future Problem Solving (FPS) program in the field of Health education and set out to explore its contribution to students' eHealth Literacy identity, by using two levels of teacher guidance: minimal vs. frequent. FPS was employed in two groups of Health students. In the research group, frequent weekly guidance was provided to the students centered on the enhancement of eHealth Literacy skills, whereas in the control group minimal guidance was offered by the lecturer. Data for the analysis were gathered from 113 Israeli undergraduate students of a Management of Health Service Organizations program, of whom 62 comprised the research group. Data were gathered twice, pre- and post-program implementation from both groups. Findings showed significant differences between the tests only for the research group, with increased levels of eHealth Literacy skills detected between the tests. The perception of the FPS program as meaningful contributed to students' perceived eHealth Literacy skills only in the research group whereas non-significant results were shown for the control group. This study mainly shows that the enhancement of skills in online educational environments requires frequent and personalized guidance. Faculty must recognize the role of the instructor as a facilitator of learning and design successful scaffolding strategies to nurture students' lifelong learning skills during distance learning.

The role of goal orientations and learning approaches in explaining digital concept mapping utilization in problem-based learning.

Concept mapping has received increasing attention and application in higher education as an effective instructional strategy. However, little is known about how higher-education students' different motivations for learning might be related to the way they use digital concept mapping for effective learning. This study sought to design and assess an intervention program that employs digital concept mapping in problem-based learning and to evaluate the effectiveness of using this tool among students with different achievement-goal profiles on learning and deep versus surface approaches to learning. Data were collected from 129 undergraduate students from three higher-education institutions located in Israel and Austria and analyzed by using Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling. The findings indicated that digital concept mapping could benefit higher-education students, specifically at the cognitive level, in order to specify and identify the interrelationships among arguments and to learn about the topic. Another finding showed that deep learners and mastery-approach learners perceived concept mapping as an effective tool mainly for self-regulating their learning during the intervention. It is suggested to find ways to scaffold surface learners' involvement in activities that enable them to solve complex problems by underlining the benefits of technology-enabled platforms for their learning and thus have them acknowledge concept mapping as a practice that fosters meaningful learning.

Health management students' self-regulation and digital concept mapping in online learning environments.

BACKGROUND: Self-regulation of learning is considered one of the key capabilities deemed essential for the healthcare system and its workers to cope successfully with the current challenges they are facing. Therefore, healthcare curricula are increasingly called upon to support self-regulation as a central learning outcome. With scant relevant publications describing how students of medicine and other healthcare professions regulate their learning, this study set out to design and assess a problem-based learning using digital concept mapping in an online course and to evaluate the set of connections between this intervention and Health Management students' self-regulation of learning. METHOD: Students of a Management of Health Service Organizations program (100) were presented with an ill-structured problem, relevant to their course content (accreditation process within hospitals) and were asked to argue for or against the implementation of the accreditation process. The participants were asked to detail five arguments to establish their decision by using Mindomo, a popular digital platform for designing concept maps. The students were given predefined criteria that allowed them to self-assess their maps. Data for the analysis were gathered by two measurements: Concept mapping for problem-based learning scale and the Online self-regulated learning scale and were analyzed by using Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling. RESULTS: The analyses showed that at the beginning of the process, students' online self-regulation was found lower than at the end of the intervention, and only two self-regulation sub-factors: Goal setting and Task strategies, were positively linked to students' perceptions of the intervention. After the intervention, the analyses showed that it increased the levels of four Online self-regulation sub-factors: Goal setting, Task strategies, Environment structuring, and Time management. CONCLUSIONS: Teachers need to recognize and account for different types of learners and encourage and scaffold students' effective use of self-regulation strategies. Low self-regulated learners might fail to see the advantages of concept mapping in problem-solving activities. Combining these teaching and learning tools together with the use of advanced technology in an online course that encourages active learning enables the development and acquisition of abilities of self-directed learning among students in the medical and health management professions.

Higher Education Students' Reflective Journal Writing and Lifelong Learning Skills: Insights From an Exploratory Sequential Study.

Reflective journal (RJ) writing has been recognized as an effective pedagogical tool for nurturing students' lifelong learning skills. With the paucity of empirical work on the dimensionality of reflective writing, this research sought to qualitatively analyze students' RJ writing and design a generic reflection scheme for identifying dimensions of reflective thinking. Drawing on the theoretical scheme, another aim was to design and validate a questionnaire to measure students' perceptions of their reflective writing experiences. The last aim was to quantitatively measure the link between perceived reflective writing and students' tendency to use RJs in their future careers and personal lives. This exploratory sequential research included the following steps: First, experts' review and analysis of 1312 RJ entries were attained. This step led to the design of a theoretical scheme of reflective writing and a 31-item questionnaire, used to gather data from 171 students (second-year pre-service teachers and third-year health managers). Partial Least Squares analysis corroborated the structure suggested by the theoretical scheme: two timelines-reflections regarding the current course assignments and those related to the student's future development. Students' tendency to use reflective skills in their future professional lives was highly connected to their long-term reflections, including learning experiences linked to academic, professional, personal, and multicultural development. The current study's suggested validated generic scheme can be adapted and integrated into different curricula, thereby possibly increasing the potential of infusing RJ instructional strategies into higher education curricula, improving the quality of reflection in student journals, and promoting lifelong learning skills.

Links between Adolescents' Deep and Surface Learning Approaches, Problematic Internet Use, and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO).

This study was aimed at exploring links between adolescents' deep and surface approaches to learning, Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), and Problematic Internet Use (PIU) by using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The analysis corroborated the postulated positive links between surface learning, FoMO, and PIU. Moreover, the FoMO construct represented a complimentary mediation between the surface learning approach and PIU constructs. This study may lead to a plausible inference according to which both FoMO and surface learning share a common core characteristic of decreased levels of self-regulation that might lead to PIU. Having students acquire and practice skills of self-regulation might help them control their levels of FoMO, and consequently their PIU at schools or out-of-school learning environments.