Instructional design with ADDIE and rapid prototyping for blended learning: validation and its acceptance in the context of TVET Bangladesh.

Following COVID-19, the global educational landscape shifted dramatically. Almost every educational institute in Bangladesh undertook a strategic move to begin offering online or blended learning courses to mitigate the challenges created by the pandemic. The TVET sector, particularly the polytechnic institute of Bangladesh, endeavored to explore the blended learning approach as an immediate and long-term solution to address the educational dislocation caused by the pandemic. This study attempts to conceptualize a pedagogical design based on the ADDIE and rapid prototyping model to make a reliable and robust instructional design to be used in the blended learning context. A content validity index (CVI) was used to validate the proposed model; a technology acceptance model (TAM) was employed to examine its acceptability to students; and finally, students' academic performances were analysed to evaluate the overall performance of the proposed instructional design. The findings reveal that the proposed instructional design can be a reliable and valid pedagogical approach to be implemented in the blended learning context for polytechnic students. The proposed instructional design may help TVET educators and course designers to create a robust blended learning environment in the TVET sector and in other similar disciplines, such as science and engineering education.

Changing social contact patterns among US workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: April 2020 to December 2021

Non-pharmaceutical interventions minimize social contacts, hence the spread of SARS-CoV-2. We quantified two-day contact patterns among US employees from 2020-2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contacts were defined as face-to-face conversations, involving physical touch or proximity to another individual and were collected using electronic diaries. Mean (standard deviation) contacts reported by 1,456 participants were 2.5 (2.5), 8.2 (7.1), 9.2 (7.1) and 10.1 (9.5) across round 1 (April-June 2020), 2 (November 2020-January 2021), 3 (June-August 2021), and 4 (November-December 2021), respectively. Between round 1 and 2, we report a 3-fold increase in the mean number of contacts reported per participant with no major increases from round 2-4. We modeled SARS-CoV-2 transmission at home, work, and community. The model revealed reduced relative transmission in all settings in round 1. Subsequently, transmission increased at home and in the community but remained very low in work settings. Contact data are important to parameterize models of infection transmission and control.

COVID-19 Prevention at Institutions of Higher Education, United States, 2020 -- 2021: Implementation of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions

BackgroundIn early 2020, following the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, institutions of higher education (IHEs) across the United States rapidly pivoted to distance learning to reduce risk of on-campus virus transmission. ObjectiveTo explore IHE use of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the subsequent pandemic-affected academic year 2020-2021. DesignCross-sectional study of data collected January - June 2021. Setting: US four-year, undergraduate IHEs. Patients (or Participants)All public (n=547) and a stratified random sample of private (n=300) IHEs. MeasurementsFrom IHE websites, we documented NPIs, including changes to the calendar, learning environment, housing, common areas, and dining; COVID-19 testing; and facemask protocols, and performed weighted analysis to assess congruence with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance for IHEs. We used weighted multivariable linear regression to explore the association between IHE characteristics and the summated number of implemented NPIs. ResultsOverall, 20% of IHEs implemented all surveyed CDC-recommended NPIs. The most frequently utilized were learning environment changes (91%), practiced as one or more of the following: distance or hybrid learning opportunities (98%), 6-feet spacing (60%), and reduced class sizes (51%). Additionally, 88% of IHEs specified facemask protocols, 78% physically modified common areas, and 67% offered COVID-19 testing. Among the 33% of IHEs offering [≥]50% of courses in person, having <1,000 students was associated with having implemented fewer NPIs than IHEs with [≥]1,000 students. LimitationsData collected from publicly available sources may introduce observation biases but allow for large sample size. ConclusionOnly 1 in 5 IHEs implemented all surveyed CDC recommendations, while a majority implemented a subset. IHE size and location were associated with degree of NPI implementation. Additional research is needed to assess adherence to NPI implementation in IHE settings. Funding SourceUnited States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Causes, characteristics, and patterns of prolonged unplanned school closures prior to the COVID-19 pandemic - United States, 2011 - 2019

IntroductionOutside of pandemics, there is little information about occurrence of prolonged unplanned K-12 school closures (PUSC). We describe here the reasons, characteristics, and patterns of PUSC in the United States during 8 consecutive inter-pandemic academic years, 2011-2019. MethodsFrom August 1, 2011 through June 30, 2019, daily systematic online searches were conducted to collect data on publicly announced unplanned school closures lasting [≥]1 school days in the United States. Closures were categorized as prolonged when schools were closed for [≥]5 unplanned days (approximating one full workweek), excluding weekends and scheduled days off per school calendars. ResultsDuring the eight academic years, a total of 22,112 PUSCs were identified, affecting over 800,000 teachers and 13 million students that resulted in 91.5 million student-days lost. A median of 62.9% of students in PUSC-affected schools were eligible for subsidized school meals. Most affected schools were in cities (35%) and suburban areas (33%). Natural disasters (47%), adverse weather conditions (35%), and budget/teacher strikes (15%) were the most frequently cited reasons for PUSC; illness accounted for 1%, and building/facility issues, environmental issues and violence together accounted for the remaining 2%. The highest number of PUSCs occurred in Health and Human Services Regions 2, 3, 4, and 6 encompassing areas that are frequently in the path of hurricanes and tropical storms. The majority of PUSCs in these regions were attributed to a handful of hurricanes during the fall season, including hurricanes Sandy, Irma, Harvey, Florence, and Matthew. ConclusionsPUSCs occur annually in the United States due to a variety of causes and are associated with a substantive loss of student-days for in-school learning. Both these prior experiences with PUSCs and those during the current COVID-19 pandemic illustrate a need for creating sustainable solutions for high-quality distance learning and innovative supplemental feeding programs nationwide, especially in disaster-prone areas.

Social contact patterns among employees in 3 U.S. companies during early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, April to June 2020.

2.ImportanceDevising control strategies against diseases such as COVID-19 require understanding of contextual social mixing and contact patterns. There has been no standardized multi-site social contact study conducted in workplace settings in the United States that can be used to broadly inform pandemic preparedness policy in these settings. ObjectiveThe study aimed to characterize the patterns of social contacts and mixing across workplace environments, including on-site or when teleworking. DesignThis was a cross-sectional non-probability survey that used standardized social contact diaries to collect data. Employees were requested to record their physical and non-physical contacts in a diary over two consecutive days, documented at the end of each day. Employees from each company were enrolled through email and electronic diaries sent as individual links. Data were collected from April to June 2020. SettingTwo multinational consulting companies and one university administrative department, all located in Georgia, USA. ParticipantsEmployees opted into the study by accepting the invitation on a link sent via email. Main OutcomeThe outcome was median number of contacts per person per day. This was stratified by day of data collection, age, sex, race and ethnicity. ResultsOf 3,835 employees approached, 357 (9.3%) completed the first day of contact diary of which 304 completed both days of contact diary. There was a median of 2 contacts (IQR: 1-4, range: 0-21) per respondent on both day one and two. The majority (55%) of contacts involved conversation only, occurred at home (64%), and cumulatively lasted more than 4 hours (38%). Most contacts were repeated, and within same age groups, though participants aged 30-59 years reported substantial inter-generational mixing with children. ConclusionParticipating employees in 3 surveyed workplaces reported few contacts, similar to studies from the UK and China when shelter-in-place orders were in effect during the pandemic. Many contacts were repeated which may limit the spread of infection. Future rounds are planned to assess changes in contact patterns when employees resume work in the office after the lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Translation and Validation of Enhanced Asian Rome III Questionnaires in Bengali Language for Diagnosis of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), diagnosed by symptom-based criteria due to lack of biomarkers, need translated-validated questionnaires in different languages. As Bengali, the mother tongue of Bangladesh and eastern India, is the seventh most spoken language in the world, we translated and validated the Enhanced Asian Rome III questionnaire (EAR3Q) in this language. METHODS: The EAR3Q was translated in Bengali as per guideline from the Rome Foundation. The translated questionnaire was validated prospectively on Bengali-speaking healthy subjects (HS, n = 30), and patients with functional dyspepsia (FD, n = 35), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS, n = 40) and functional constipation (FC, n = 12) diagnosed by clinicians using the Rome III criteria. The subjects were asked to fill-in the questionnaire again after 2 weeks, to check for its reproducibility. RESULTS: During translation, the original and the backward translated English versions of the questionnaire demonstrated high concordance. Sensitivity of the Bengali questionnaire to diagnose patients with FD, IBS, FC, and HS was 100%, 100%, 75%, and 100%, respectively, considering diagnosis by the clinicians as the gold standard. On test-retest reliability analysis, Kappa values for FD, IBS, FC, and HS were 1.0, 1.0, 0.83, and 1.0, respectively. The Bengali questionnaire detected considerable overlap of FD symptoms among patients with IBS, IBS among patients with FD, and FD among patients with FC, which were not detected by the clinicians. CONCLUSIONS: We successfully translated and validated the EAR3Q in Bengali. We believe that this translated questionnaire will be useful for clinical evaluation and research on FGIDs in the Bengali-speaking population.