Metaverse-powered basic sciences medical education: bridging the gaps for lower middle-income countries.

BACKGROUND: Traditional medical education often lacks contextual experience, hindering students' ability to effectively apply theoretical knowledge in real-world scenarios. The integration of the metaverse into medical education holds great enormous promise for addressing educational disparities, particularly in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) accompanied by rapid technological advancements. This commentary paper aimed to address the potential of the metaverse in enhancing basic sciences education within the constraints faced by universities in LMICs. We also addressed learning design challenges by proposing fundamental design elements and a suggested conceptual framework for developing metaverse-based teaching methods.The goal is to assist educators and medical practitioners in comprehensivley understanding key factors in immersive teaching and learning. DISCUSSION: By immersing medical students in virtual scenarios mimicking real medical settings and patient interactions, the metaverse enables practice in clinical decision-making, interpersonal skills, and exposure to complex medical situations in a controlled environment. These simulations can be customized to reflect local healthcare challenges, preparing medical students to tackle specific community needs. Various disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, pharmacy, dentistry, and pathology, have begun leveraging the metaverse to offer immersive learning experiences, foster interdisciplinary collaborations, and facilitate authentic assessments. However, financial constraints pose a significant barrier to widespread adoption, particularly in resource-limited settings like LMICs. Addressing these challenges is crucial to realizing the full potential of metaverse technology in medical education. CONCLUSION: The metaverse offers a promising solution for enhancing medical education by providing immersive, context-rich learning experiences. This paper proposes a conceptual framework and fundamental design elements to aid faculty educators and medical practitioners in effectively incorporating metaverse technology into their teaching methods, thus improving educational outcomes in LMICs.

The metaverse offers a transformative pathway for basic sciences medical education in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) through leveraging 3D human replicas, virtual dissection, laboratories, and simulations.A metaverse-based learning design may easily combine a variety of learning theories, instructional design models, and/or conceptual frameworks, including constructivism, the ADDIE model, universal design, and minimalism.Unlocking the full potential of VR and AR in basic sciences medical education for LMIC universities requires collaborative synergy among educators, policymakers, and technology developers, with a crucial emphasis on equitable access and resource allocation.Despite the immense promise held by metaverse-powered education, it is crucial to address issues surrounding technology accessibility, learning design challenges, and implementation barriers in LMICs as we provide guidance to educators and practitioners worldwide.

Developing authentic assessment instrument for fundamental forehand and backhand groundstroke techniques using an actions-based method.

This research aims to produce an authentic assessment for fundamental forehand and backhand groundstroke techniques, using the actions method of learning outcomes in tennis courses, for students at Yogyakarta State University's (FIK UNY) Faculty of Sports and Health Sciences. This study employed development research with a 4D model (Define, Design, Development, and Disseminate). This research was implemented through the preliminary research stage, designing assessment instruments, and validating the instrument model developed. In this study, 30 students were chosen to sample using a purposive sampling strategy, with 5 experts serving as validators. Data was collected through questionnaires and expert validation with the Delphi technique. The collected data is analyzed and concluded. Based on the analysis of the collected data, it can be concluded that authentic assessment instruments of fundamental forehand and backhand groundstrokes techniques using the Actions Method are needed to evaluate the learning objectives of tennis courses for students at FIK UNY. This assessment model can be used to evaluate the learning outcomes of tennis courses for FIK UNY students. It makes it easy for lecturers to evaluate students' learning outcomes authentically, has excellent validity, and has a high rater reliability coefficient.

Cross-Course Harmonized Assignments in Neuroscience.

Neuroscience is inherently interdisciplinary. This interdisciplinarity can be lost due to the self-contained nature of each course in most undergraduate neuroscience programs, leaving students to draw these cross-course relationships on their own. We sought to address this by using short, creative research assignments on a topic of the student's choice ("Deep Dive" assignments) that provided students with the opportunity to explore common applications across two concurrently run core neuroscience courses housed in different departments. We tested whether unifying the available Deep Dive topics across the two courses improved student outcomes. Specifically, students were asked to select a topic of interest from a shortlist shared in the two courses. Our results show that harmonized, concurrent creative assignments across dissimilar neuroscience courses improved outcomes related to student interest in material, confidence in creative problem solving, content recall for the other course, and applicability to real life. To our surprise, there was no added benefit to be in the same topic for both courses. Instead, the addition of harmonized Deep Dive assignments themselves, even if assigned on different topics across the two courses, drove the outcome improvement.

Forensic intelligence teaching and learning in higher education: An international approach.

Over the years, forensic science has primarily positioned itself as a service provider for the criminal justice system, following the dominant and traditional reactive law enforcement model. Unfortunately, this focus has limited its capacity to provide knowledge about crime systems and to support other forms of policing styles through forensic intelligence. Although forensic intelligence research has steadily developed over the last few years, it is rarely covered in the core of academic teaching and research programs. Developing forensic intelligence programs would empower graduates with an awareness of forensic intelligence meaning and models, creating great opportunities to shape their future professional activities and progressively shift the dominant paradigm through a bottom-up approach. In this article, the teaching and learning strategies in forensic intelligence developed at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and adapted at the University of Technology Sydney (Australia) and the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Canada) are presented. The objective behind the strategy is to reflect on and work on real case scenarios using a progressive teaching and learning approach that builds upon the theory and practical exercise putting students in real-life situations. Through this innovative learning process, students move away from the Court as the sole end purpose of forensic science. They learn to adopt different roles, adopt a proactive attitude as well as work individually and collaboratively. This teaching and learning strategy breaks the current silos observed in the forensic science discipline by focusing on processes and critical thinking. It can be foreseen, through the evolution of crime and policing models, that the learning and teaching strategy described in this article offers and will offer the students with many new job opportunities. The article concludes with the advantages that such teaching and learning programs in forensic intelligence bring to the forensic science community.

Rethinking authentic assessment: work, well-being, and society.

This article seeks a deeper understanding of the concept of authentic assessment which ensures it does not become another educational buzzword, slowly diminishing in real meaning. I consider the origins of the term in the US schooling sector, and how it has developed over time, and in different countries, to today focus in higher education largely on real world tasks. There is, however, I argue, a common conflation of real world with the world of work. Little of this literature actually engages with the rich philosophical debates on authenticity, and in this article, I suggest that this deeper understanding of authenticity can enable us to build on existing work on authentic assessment to develop a more holistic and richer concept that will be more beneficial to individual students and to the larger society of which they are part. I argue that we should move from thinking in terms of either the so-called real world, or the world of work, to focus our justification for authentic assessment on its social value (which encompasses but is not limited to its economic value). To achieve this aim, I suggest we move from simply focusing on the authentic task to considering why that task matters? This then enables a shift from the student in isolation to the student as a member of society. Senses of achievement can become richer, thus enhancing the students' sense of self, self-worth, and well-being.

OERs as innovative teaching and assessment activities during the pandemic

@#This article discusses the Online Educational Resources (OERs) Movement and why OERs are so highly recommended by international collaborative organizations for the attainment of an inclusive, learner-centered and development-centered open education. The second part recounts how the creation of an OER served as a viable alternative teaching learning and assessment strategy for achieving course outcomes during (but not limited to) pandemic times. It showcases the outputs of students of the Doctor of Health Professions (DrHPEd) program taking a course on Quantitative Data Analysis (HPEd 391) during the first semester of AY 2021-2022. The process of making an OER was challenging. At times, the students felt that they were doing things beyond the scope of a course in quantitative data analysis. But everyone agreed that because of the degree of student engagement involved, the sense of fulfillment at the end was intense. The creation of an OER was a realistic, context-based and relevant final output which most of the students intend to use for their real-life advocacies. It was truly an exercise which demanded integration of all dimensions of technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) and yielded a personal and unique output which exhibited the highest order of learning outcomes - at the level of synthesis. And what may have appeared 'extra-curricular' at first was actually simply a more authentic assessment.

Desire paths for workplace assessment in postgraduate anaesthesia training: analysing informal processes to inform assessment redesign.

BACKGROUND: In postgraduate specialist training, workplace assessments are expected to provide the information required for decisions on trainee progression. Research suggests that meeting this expectation can be difficult in practice, which has led to the development of informal processes, or 'shadow systems' of assessment. Rather than rejecting these informal approaches to workplace assessment, we propose borrowing from sociology the concept of 'desire paths' to legitimise and strengthen these well-trodden approaches. We asked what information about trainees is currently used or desired by those charged with making decisions on trainee progression, and how is it obtained? METHODS: We undertook a qualitative study with thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews of supervisors of training across Australia and New Zealand. RESULTS: From 21 interviews, we identified four interrelated themes, the first being the local context of training sites. The other three themes represent dilemmas in the desire for authentic and representative information about the trainee: 1) how the process of gathering and documenting information can filter, transform, or limit the original message; 2) deciding when possible trainee deviation from performance norms warrants a closer look; and 3) how transparent vs covert information gathering affects the information supervisors will provide, and how control over assessment is distributed between trainee and supervisor. CONCLUSION: From these themes, we propose a set of design principles for future workplace assessment. Understanding the reasons desire paths exist can inform future assessment redesign, and may address the current disjunct between the formal workplace assessment system and what happens in practice.

Nailed it! Doctor of pharmacy learners' self-awareness of performance on authentic assessments.

INTRODUCTION: The primary objective of this pilot study was to determine the reliability and validity of an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) self-awareness survey. A secondary objective was to assess learner self-awareness in OSCE performance. METHODS: A retrospective review of OSCE data from a single cohort in a three-year accelerated doctor of pharmacy program occurred. The cohort completed four OSCEs with a total of 23 discrete cases. At the end of each case, before receiving feedback, learners completed an evaluation of their skills, communication, overall performance, and identified if they believed the patient/provider would return ("nailed or failed"). These self-evaluations were then compared with respective learner performance scores for each case. Content validity was assessed for the self-awareness survey via the Lawshe method. Reliability of the OSCE cases and self-awareness survey were conducted utilizing Cronbach's alpha and the Spearman-Brown formula, respectively. RESULTS: The OSCE self-awareness survey was found to be face valid and reliable for the overall survey. The subsections of return to pharmacist and overall learner performance were also found to be valid and reliable. A statistical relationship was found between learner self-assessment of pass/fail and their actual grade for overall performance and return to pharmacist. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this study may guide remediation plans related to OSCE performance and development of other self-awareness activities in practice settings. Further studies are needed to evaluate the broader application and use of self-awareness tools.

Considerations and strategies for effective online assessment with a focus on the biomedical sciences.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused many universities to rapidly transition into online learning and assessment. For many this created a marked shift in design of assessments in an attempt to counteract the lack of invigilation of examinations conducted online. While disruptive for both staff and students, this sudden change provided a much needed reconsideration of the purpose of assessment. This review considers the implications of transitioning to online assessment providing practical strategies for achieving authentic assessment of students online, while ensuring standards and accountability against professional accrediting body requirements. The case study presented demonstrates that an online multiple choice assessment provides similar rigor in assessment to invigilated examination of the same concepts in human physiology. Online assessment has the added benefit of enabling rapid and specific feedback to large cohorts of students on their personal performance, allowing students to target their weaker areas for remediation. This has implications for improving both pedagogy and efficiency in assessment of large cohorts where the default is often to assess basic recall knowledge in a multiple choice assessment. This review examines the key elements for implementation of online assessments including consideration of the role of assessment in teaching and learning, the rationale for online delivery, accessibility of the assessment from both a technical and equity perspective, academic integrity as well as the authenticity and structure of the assessment.

Rasch Analysis of Authentic Evaluation of Young Children's Functioning in Classroom Routines.

This study evaluated the functioning of children in early childhood education classroom routines, using the 3M Functioning in Preschool Routines Scale. A total of 366 children aged 36 to 70 months and 22 teachers from six early childhood education centers in Spain participated in the study. The authors used the Rasch model to determine the item fit and the difficulty of the items in relation to children's ability levels in this age range. The Rasch Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis by child age groups showed that the item difficulty differed according to the children's age and according to their levels of competence. The results of this study supported the reliability and validity of the 3M scale for assessing children's functioning in preschool classroom routines. A few items, however, were identified as needing to be reworded and more difficult items needed to be added to increase the scale difficulty level to match the performance of children with higher ability levels. The authors introduced the new and reworded items based on the results of this study and the corresponding ICF codes per item. Moreover, the authors indicate how to use the ICF Performance Qualifiers in relation to the 3M scale response categories for developing a functioning profile for the child.

Identification of authentic assessment in nursing curricula: An integrative review.

This article aims to identify the application of authentic learning principles to the assessment of nursing students. An integrative review was undertaken using the Whittlemore and Knafl (2005) framework: identifying the problem/purpose, searching and evaluating the literature, data analysis and presentation or results. Primary searches were conducted using MeSH terms identified as key words across four search data bases (PubMed, Cinahl, Scopus and ProQuest). Literature was identified using inclusion/exclusion criteria and critiqued. Three major themes emerged from the literature review: Clinical Practice, Self-Assessment and Simulation. Models of authentic learning exist that could guide the development of authentic learning assessment for students, however no identifiable tool for locating and mapping authentic assessment in nursing was found. This review challenges the contemporary belief that authentic assessment is to be found in nursing curricula and evidenced by clinical practice.

Teaching students to explain the pathophysiology of diseases to lay audiences with a scaffold that supports student choice.

Expert educators in science argue that science graduates are often lacking skills in effectively communicating scientific information to lay audiences. To address this, we designed a project, Communicating Disease, for final-year undergraduate human pathophysiology students. Students chose a disease, a relevant nonscientific target audience, and a mode of communication and produced a communiqué designed to educate the audience on the pathophysiology of the disease. Separately, students justified their choice of disease and target audience. Upon completion of the project, students completed an anonymous questionnaire, and their submitted work was analyzed. Our study demonstrated that students thought it was important to learn how to effectively communicate science to a lay audience and felt that the project had supported them in developing knowledge and skills that enabled them to do so. Students were adequately challenged, and most students gave their best effort to the project, indicating a high level of engagement. Evaluation of student performance was consistent with the students' own perceptions and showed that most students communicated the pathophysiology effectively to the target audience and appropriately justified their choice of disease and target audience. Nevertheless, opportunities for improvement with some aspects of communication, production quality, and creativity were evident. This model is suitable for a range of scientific disciplines to engage students in developing their ability to communicate scientific information to lay audiences-a skill that it can be argued is vital for improving the scientific literacy of our community at large.

Enhancing learning in an online doctoral course through a virtual community platform.

Great teaching engages learners. Creating an online course that is engaging to learners requires substantial planning and creativity. In developing a new online course for doctoral students in nursing (DNP and PhD) and in other health science disciplines, we were interested in creating an application that would 1) support narrative pedagogy, 2) support highly engaging, student-centered learning, and 3) require learners to apply content within real-world experiences. In order to support such learning and achieve these goals, we created a virtual community platform. This paper reports on the development and implementation of a new type of virtual community platform to support teaching and learning in an online, doctoral-level course, specifically designed for nurses and other healthcare clinicians transitioning to a faculty role.

The Case for Authentic Student Assessment in Distance Digital Pharmacy Education.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Distance online assessment is facing serious challenges. This opinion piece discusses these challenges and focuses on potential authentic assessment methods that can be used effectively in distance digital pharmacy education. The authentic assessment methods discussed are case studies, role-play, discussion panels and debates, student e-portfolios, computer-based simulation, diagrams and graphical presentations. These methods allow assessment to drive learning by performing tasks that are related to real professional situations and challenges followed by quantitative and qualitative feedback. Authentic assessment will require the development of clear rubrics to maintain transparency, consistency and fair evaluation of student achievement. The implementation of online assessment involves some challenges such as the level of institutional, faculty and student's technological capacity. Financial burden on low-to-medium income families and some institutions, meaningful training on the software and hardware, and students' compliance with the code of ethics and academic honesty are major issues. That said, well-planned authentic assessment tools can overcome many of these challenges. As these methods amass momentum, more creativity and innovation in assessment will be introduced, enriching and facilitating digital pharmacy education. The author calls for utilizing more formative feedback and reflection methods, focusing on demonstrating learning and professional competencies rather than on superficial letter grades.

OERs as innovative teaching and assessment activities during the pandemic

@#This article discusses the Online Educational Resources (OERs) Movement and why OERs are so highly recommended by international collaborative organizations for the attainment of an inclusive, learner-centered and development-centered open education. The second part recounts how the creation of an OER served as a viable alternative teaching learning and assessment strategy for achieving course outcomes during (but not limited to) pandemic times. It showcases the outputs of students of the Doctor of Health Professions (DrHPEd) program taking a course on Quantitative Data Analysis (HPEd 391) during the first semester of AY 2021-2022. The process of making an OER was challenging. At times, the students felt that they were doing things beyond the scope of a course in quantitative data analysis. But everyone agreed that because of the degree of student engagement involved, the sense of fulfillment at the end was intense. The creation of an OER was a realistic, context-based and relevant final output which most of the students intend to use for their real-life advocacies. It was truly an exercise which demanded integration of all dimensions of technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) and yielded a personal and unique output which exhibited the highest order of learning outcomes - at the level of synthesis. And what may have appeared 'extra-curricular' at first was actually simply a more authentic assessment.

Learning to prescribe and instruct exercise in physiotherapy education through authentic continuous assessment and rubrics.

BACKGROUND: Authentic assessment and effective feedback are among various strategies that promote learning in the assessment process. These strategies are commonly used during clinical placements. However, they are rarely implemented in the didactic portion of physiotherapy education despite the benefits this type of assessment may bring to achieving students' learning and outcome. METHODS: This mixed method study investigated how an authentic continuous assessment coupled with rubrics facilitated physiotherapy students' learning process in a real-life complex skill of exercise prescription and instruction. The study also explored the relationship between different activities in the Learning Management System (LMS) and learning outcomes. Qualitative data was collected using a focus group and an analysis of discussion forum posts. Quantitative data included various information from a questionnaire, the LMS and assessment score. RESULTS: Thematic analyses from the focus group and discussion forum posts suggest that students used a cyclical self-regulated learning process as a result of authentic task design and rubrics for feedback facilitation. Interestingly, the discussion forum access was found to be moderately and significantly correlated with assessment score by Spearman's rank correlation (ρ = 0.59, p < 0.01), while the students did not find the discussion forum useful. CONCLUSIONS: Overall results suggest the promotion of self-regulated learning in this authentic continuous assessment. The roles and goals of each authentic task within the assessment should be made explicit in order to raise cognitive awareness of benefits.

Radiation Therapy Students as Partners in the Development of Alternative Approaches to Assessing Treatment Planning Skills.

AIM: The involvement of undergraduate students in assessment design is not a new concept. However, there is a paucity of evidence on radiation therapy students' participation in the design of teaching and learning activities. This article reports the development and initial evaluation of alternative approaches to assessing treatment planning skills and knowledge in undergraduate radiation therapy education. METHODS: A group of undergraduate radiation therapy students participated in a series of semistructured focus group meetings. The students nominated a practical examination and an oral plan critique assessment approach. The lecturers embedded two formative tasks to test the approaches in a second-year treatment planning subject. Two surveys assessed the experiences of the students, authenticity, engagement, and the practicality of the tasks in the treatment planning subject. RESULTS: The responses show that 92% of participants perceived the practical treatment planning examination as an authentic or real-world assessment approach. Moreover, 96% of the participants supported the notion of incorporating the tasks into the treatment planning subject. Most students (96%) perceived an oral critique of a treatment plan as an authentic approach and also supported the notion of incorporating oral critiques as an assessment task. Student engagement was high in both the practical and oral critique tasks, suggesting that lecturers could also include such tasks as formative activities to enhance learning. CONCLUSION: Involving student voices in pedagogic assessment design positively influenced the development of new assessments for the treatment planning subject. The oral critiques and practical-based approaches nominated are likely to enhance authenticity to students' learning experiences and provide opportunities for students to develop desirable professional capabilities.

Improvement of learning domains of nursing students with the use of authentic assessment pedagogy in clinical practice.

With evolving healthcare demands, nursing educators need to constantly review their teaching methodologies in order to enhance learners' knowledge and competency of skills in the clinical settings. Learning is an active process in which meaning is accomplished on the basis of experience and that authentic assessment pedagogy will enable nursing students to play an active part in their learning. The study was conducted with an aim to examine nursing students' learning domains through the introduction of the authentic assessment pedagogy during their clinical practice. A quasi-experimental study (n = 54) was conducted over a period of 10 weeks at a local tertiary hospital. The experimental group was exposed to the authentic assessment pedagogy and were taught to use the assessment rubrics as an instrument to help enhance their learning. Students were assessed and scored according to the assessment rubrics, which were categorized into four domains; cognitive, psychomotor, affective and critical thinking abilities. The findings indicated that an overall score for the four domains between the experimental and control groups were significant, with p value of <0.05. Critical thinking scores were indicative of consistent improvement within the experimental group. The findings confirmed that learning outcomes of the nursing students were enhanced through the early introduction of the authentic assessment pedagogy in the clinical setting.

Nursing students' experiences with the use of authentic assessment rubric and case approach in the clinical laboratories.

BACKGROUND: One current challenge for nurse educators is to examine effective nursing assessment tools which integrate nursing knowledge into practice. Authentic assessment allows nursing students to apply knowledge to real-life experiences. Contextualized cases have engaged students for preparation of diverse clinical situations and develop critical thinking skills. AIM: This study aimed to explore nursing students' experiences and learning outcomes with the use of an authentic assessment rubric and a case approach. METHODS: An exploratory qualitative approach using focus-group discussions and an open-ended survey was adopted. Sixteen nursing students participated in three focus-group discussions and 39 nursing students completed an open-ended survey. RESULTS: Nursing students noted that an authentic assessment rubric with a case approach provided clarity for their learning goals; built confidence; developed knowledge, skill competencies and critical thinking skills; increased awareness of caring attributes and communication skills; and enriched and extended learning through self-, peer- and teacher-assessments. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide rich insights for nurse educators and curriculum developers in the use of an authentic assessment rubric and a case approach in nursing education.

Measuring preadvanced practice experience outcomes as part of a PharmD capstone experience.

OBJECTIVE: To describe a capstone experience to: 1) assess student preparedness for Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE) and 2) provide program-level assessment data. DESIGN: A capstone course was added immediately prior to APPEs. All capstone activities emphasized application and integration and were mapped to ACPE Appendix D, which details performance abilities expected of students prior to APPEs. Eleven learning activities comprising 20 assessments were created. Each assessment was pass/fail; students had to pass 15 of 20 assessments to pass the capstone course. Evaluation rubrics emphasized formative feedback for students. ASSESSMENT: The capstone experience was delivered 4 times over 4 consecutive years. One student did not pass; 55-68% of the students passed all activities. Program-level assessment data provided details on individual student preparedness prior to APPE, important information for accreditation, and basis for curriculum revisions. CONCLUSION: A capstone experience can be a valuable addition to a PharmD curriculum. Capstone activities incorporating authentic assessments provide important program-level assessment data for colleges/schools of pharmacy.