Activities for Ocean Literacy

Beyond Learning Objectives: A Taxonomy to Maximize Outcomes

The age of menarche is usually considered to be affected by nutritional, health-related, social, and economic factors and has significantly decreased since the mid-19th century. The present study was performed to investigate whether the timing of menarche paralleled the general acceleration of physical development, or whether this pattern differed. In all, 30 German studies on menarcheal age (n = >200) since 1848 were collected. Frequency distributions were analyzed. During the second half of the 19th and the early 20th century, mean menarcheal age decreased from 18 to 12-13 years in Europe. Yet, the data fail to support the conventional hypothesis that menarcheal age mainly depends on nutritional, health, and economic factors. We suggest that later than usual menarche may not necessarily be regarded as a physical illness, but in view of the apparently physiological delay of menarche in the 19th century, may be viewed as "collective social amenorrhea." Obstetricians & Gynecologists and Family Physicians. After participating in this CME activity, physicians should be better able to evaluate menarche as an indicator of developmental tempo in both historical and modern settings, compare menarche in healthy mid-19th century girls with menarche in average modern girls, and assess the marked sensitivity of full pubertal development to environmental circumstances.

Biliary Leak With Tardus Parvus Arterial Waveform After Liver Transplantation

The research investigates Turkish translations of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) from the perspective of Reiss’s text typology. CEFR is a comprehensive document defining language teaching, learning objectives and providing testing tools designed in 2001 with the impact of multiculturalism and multilingualism notions. The document has been translated into 40 different languages and applied globally since then. Turkish is one of the languages in which CEFR was translated. These translations, on the other hand, are crucial for informing target audience regarding development and innovation in language learning, assessment and curriculum. This study aims to shed light on cross-cultural impact of CEFR by analysing its Turkish translations through Reiss’s text typology. The study adopts the method of document analysis to examine Turkish translations of CEFR by focusing on key terms and concepts related to language education. Based on findings of study, CEFR is an informative text in terms of text typology approach and transferred to Turkish aligned with source text in terms of its function and content. These results suggest that translators adopted a translation approach fulfilling the intended purpose of the text and demands of the target audience considering informative text type. Additionally, the findings of the study are also notable in that it offers a thorough understanding of the CEFR's cross-cultural impact in Turkish setting and a systematic approach for translators regarding text types. The research is expected to contribute to translation studies and enhance education practices and policies related to foreign language in Turkey with the insights it offers.

A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) can lead to changes to a person's sense of self. The aim of this study was to investigate the subjective experience of identity change and subsequent adjustment to MS. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 people who reported having MS. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. In the early stages of disease progression, participants wanted to compartmentalize the disease. Over time, through reflected self-appraisals, brought about by increasing symptoms and changed relationships with others, the disease became a part of participants' self-identity. For people with MS, incorporating and accepting the disease as part of their self-identity can have positive implications for seeking and receiving support.

Design and Production of Educational Video Games for the Inclusion of Deaf Children

This paper intends to share two unique Lehigh experiences in designing and offering online courses to two completely different sets of audience. One of the two courses is offered to students around the world via Lehigh's International Program. The development team consists of a faculty member, an Instructional Technology Consultant (IT Consultant), three graduate assistants and other media support staff. We have about a month to develop an online course from scratch.Lehigh University's Clipper Project is designed to develop five Web-based freshman courses and offer them to high school seniors early admitted to Lehigh. Each course is assigned an IT Consultant to help the faculty develop the course. My other project is to work with an English professor to redesign his English course for the Clipper Project. This professor is considered a catalyst on campus for his continuous interest in exploring new and more effective educational technology. This team consists of three members, the professor, an IT Consultant, and a graphic and Web designer. Course redesign takes about one year.Serving as the IT consultant for both of these two teams, I had the opportunities to work with two very different design approaches. One differentiates itself from the other by variables such as the target audience, the discipline, the learning objectives, the instructor's level of comfort with technology, students' technology literacy and accessibility to various technologies, timeline, and many others. Table A presents a quick comparison of these two projects.In most ideal arrangements, the helpdesk is responsible for supporting students' technological needs and IT Consultants for the training and supporting of the faculty. In reality, it is fairly difficult to draw a line between the two in an online environment. Owing to their deep and long-term involvement with all aspects of online courses, IT Consultants are often considered more effective as well as efficient in providing first line support to online students. My experiences echo loud and sound with this perception.

Intrauterine fracture is an extremely rare finding, but can occur as the result of maternal trauma, osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), or theoretically other metabolic/structural abnormalities. Increased clinical awareness of the diagnosis and optimal management of these cases can lead to more positive outcomes for the patient and her child. Blunt abdominal trauma late in gestation increases the risk of fetal skull fracture, while a known diagnosis of OI or other abnormalities leading to decreased fetal bone density creates concern for long bone fracture. Biochemical and genetic tests can aid in the prenatal diagnosis of OI, while ultrasound is the best overall imaging modality for identifying fetal fracture of any etiology. When fetal fracture is diagnosed radiologically, specific management is recommended to promote optimal outcomes for mother and fetus, with special consideration given to the mother with OI. With the exception of fetal fractures due to lethal conditions, cesarean delivery is recommended in most cases, especially when fetal or maternal well-being cannot be assured. When a patient presents with risk factors for intrauterine fracture, careful evaluation via thorough history-taking, ultrasonography of the entire fetal skeleton, and laboratory tests should be performed. Heightened awareness of intrauterine fracture allows better postpartum management, whether for simple fracture care or for long-term care of patients with OI or genetic/metabolic abnormalities. Obstetricians & Gynecologist, Family Physicians. After completion of this educational activity, the reader will be able to compare x-ray, ultrasound modalities and MRI and their utility in diagnosing fetal fracture. Formulate a differential diagnosis for fetal fracture. Propose a delivery plan for a patient whose fetus has a prenatally diagnosed fetal fracture.

Fire in Labor and Delivery: Simulation Case Scenario

There is a constant need for educators to develop and maintain effective up-to-date assessments. While there is a growing body of research in computing education on utilizing large language models (LLMs) in generation and engagement with coding exercises, the use of LLMs for generating programming MCQs has not been extensively explored. We analyzed the capability of GPT-4 to produce multiple-choice questions (MCQs) aligned with specific learning objectives (LOs) from Python programming classes in higher education. Specifically, we developed an LLM-powered (GPT-4) system for generation of MCQs from high-level course context and module-level LOs. We evaluated 651 LLM-generated and 449 human-crafted MCQs aligned to 246 LOs from 6 Python courses. We found that GPT-4 was capable of producing MCQs with clear language, a single correct choice, and high-quality distractors. We also observed that the generated MCQs appeared to be well-aligned with the LOs. Our findings can be leveraged by educators wishing to take advantage of the state-of-the-art generative models to support MCQ authoring efforts.

This work presents the results of a transdisciplinary project between the areas of Art, Design, Electronics and Informatics, whose objective is to develop techniques for the construction of animatronics to apply them as learning objects in robotics teaching. The project was designed to integrate, in its team, teachers, researchers, social educators and students. The conceptual axis was proposed by researchers in the areas of Art, Design and Electronics, based on the concern of teachers and students regarding the high retention and dropout rates in the technical course in Electronics, in a technical and technological education institution in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It started from the hypothesis that concrete materials and playful tools can stimulate cognitive functions to promoting more dynamic and meaningful teaching and learning. The highlight is that the animatronics were built by the institution's own students, with low-cost materials, with a view to being used as Learning Objects also in other basic education schools and non-school spaces. The methodological procedures were characterized by an exploratory approach since the project was in the experimental phase of application. The actions were outlined by: (i) selection of students, bibliographic survey, document analysis, scheduling of meetings, application of preliminary questionnaires and observations, data collection through questionnaires; (ii) development of the electronic and mechanical structure of the prototype, records, and observations of implemented actions; (iii) reflection based on the analysis of the results obtained and dissemination. The materials chosen to compose the physical structure consisted of expanded polystyrene (EPS), paper, PVA glue, PVA putty, acrylic paint, and metallic paint, since they can be easily found in stationery stores or material stores for artistic or design projects. In the mechanical part, a servomotor was chosen, which consists of an electromechanical machine that presents movement proportional to a command, like closed-loop devices. The monitoring of the participants and the construction of the animatronic took place in weekly meetings with adjustments, revision and adaptation of work plans aiming at the co-production of knowledge and successive cycles of critical reflection. The first public presentations of the project took place at two academic events, with the target audience composed mainly of elementary and high school students. The results indicated that the dialogue between art, design, and electronics in the construction of Learning Objects stimulated the interest of children and adolescents around complex knowledge in a spontaneous and ludically way. The activities experienced around the project gave rise to the possibility of building knowledge under a new perspective. For the proposing team, the experience provided evidence that the popularization of scientific knowledge can be articulated with unofficial knowledge and practices and even in non-school contexts, in a playful way. The next step is to create educational kits, produce booklets, video classes, offer courses and train teachers and monitors, including theoretical discussions and practical application perspectives inherent to the area.

The wide use of e-technologies represents a great opportunity for underserved segments of the population, especially with the aim of reintegrating excluded individuals back into society through education. This is particularly true for people with different types of disabilities who may have difficulties while attending traditional on-site learning programs that are typically based on printed learning resources. The creation and provision of accessible e-learning contents may therefore become a key factor in enabling people with different access needs to enjoy quality learning experiences and services. Another e-learning challenge is represented by m-learning (which stands for mobile learning), which is emerging as a consequence of mobile terminals diffusion and provides the opportunity to browse didactical materials everywhere, outside places that are traditionally devoted to education. Both such situations share the need to access materials in limited conditions and collide with the growing use of rich media in didactical contents, which are designed to be enjoyed without any restriction. Nowadays, Web-based teaching makes great use of multimedia technologies, ranging from Flash animations to prerecorded video-lectures. Rich media in e-learning can offer significant potential in enhancing the learning environment, through helping to increase access to education, enhance the learning experience and support multiple learning styles. Moreover, they can often be used to improve the structure of Web-based courses. These highly variegated and structured contents may significantly improve the quality and the effectiveness of educational activities for learners. For example, rich media contents allow us to describe complex concepts and process flows. Audio and video elements may be utilized to add a “human touch” to distance-learning courses. Finally, real lectures may be recorded and distributed to integrate or enrich on line materials. A confirmation of the advantages of these approaches can be seen in the exponential growth of video-lecture availability on the net, due to the ease of recording and delivering activities which take place in a traditional classroom. Furthermore, the wide use of assistive technologies for learners with disabilities injects new life into e-learning systems. E-learning allows distance and flexible educational activities, thus helping disabled learners to access resources which would otherwise present significant barriers for them. For instance, students with visual impairments have difficulties in reading traditional visual materials, deaf learners have trouble in following traditional (spoken) lectures, people with motion disabilities have problems in attending on-site programs. As already mentioned, the use of wireless technologies and pervasive computing may really enhance the educational learner experience by offering mobile e-learning services that can be accessed by handheld devices. This new paradigm of educational content distribution maximizes the benefits for learners since it enables users to overcome constraints imposed by the surrounding environment. While certainly helpful for users without disabilities, we believe that the use of newmobile technologies may also become a fundamental tool for impaired learners, since it frees them from sitting in front of a PC. In this way, educational activities can be enjoyed by all the users, without hindrance, thus increasing the social inclusion of non-typical learners. While the provision of fully accessible and portable video-lectures may be extremely useful for students, it is widely recognized that structuring and managing rich media contents for mobile learning services are complex and expensive tasks. Indeed, major difficulties originate from the basic need to provide a textual equivalent for each media resource composing a rich media Learning Object (LO). Moreover, tests need to be carried out to establish whether a given LO is fully accessible to all kinds of learners. Unfortunately, both these tasks are truly time-consuming processes, depending on the type of contents the teacher is writing and on the authoring tool he/she is using. Due to these difficulties, online LOs are often distributed as partially accessible or totally inaccessible content. Bearing this in mind, this thesis aims to discuss the key issues of a system we have developed to deliver accessible, customized or nomadic learning experiences to learners with different access needs and skills. To reduce the risk of excluding users with particular access capabilities, our system exploits Learning Objects (LOs) which are dynamically adapted and transcoded based on the specific needs of non-typical users and on the barriers that they can encounter in the environment. The basic idea is to dynamically adapt contents, by selecting them from a set of media resources packaged in SCORM-compliant LOs and stored in a self-adapting format. The system schedules and orchestrates a set of transcoding processes based on specific learner needs, so as to produce a customized LO that can be fully enjoyed by any (impaired or mobile) student.

Amongst the pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical phase of laboratory testing, pre-analytical phase is the most error-prone. Knowledge gaps in understanding of pre-analytical factors are identified in the clinical years amongst undergraduate students due to lack of formal teaching modules on the pre-analytical phase. This study was conducted to seek experts' consensus in Clinical Chemistry on learning objectives and contents using the Delphi technique with an aim to develop an asynchronous virtual classroom for teaching pre-analytical factors of laboratory testing. A mixed method study was conducted at the Aga Khan University. A questionnaire comprising of 16 learning objectives and their associated triggers was developed on Google Docs for developing the case vignettes. A four-point Likert Scale, which included strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree, was utilized for the learning objectives. An open-ended question was included for experts to suggest new items for inclusion. A cut off of at least 75% agreement was set to establish consensus on each item. A total of 17 Chemical Pathology faculty from 13 institutions across Pakistan were invited to participate in the first round of Delphi. Similar method of response was used in round two to establish consensus on the newly identified items suggested by the faculty in round 1. Later, the agreed-upon objectives and triggers were used to develop interactive scenarios over Moodle to concurrently test and teach medical students in a nonchalant manner. A total of 17 responses were received in Round 1 of the Delphi process (response rate = 100%), while 12 responses were received in Round 2 (response rate = 71%). In round 1, all 16 learning objectives reached the required consensus (≥ 75%) with no additional learning objectives suggested by the experts. Out of 75 triggers in round 1, 61 (81.3%) reached the consensus to be included while 39 were additionally suggested. In 2nd round, 17 out of 39 newly suggested triggers met the desired consensus. 14 triggers did not reach the consensus after two rounds, and were therefore eliminated. The virtual classroom developed using the agreed-upon learning objectives and triggers consisted of 20 items with a total score of 31 marks. The questions included multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks, drag and drop sequences and read-and-answer comprehensions. Specific learning points were included after each item and graphs and pictures were included for a vibrant experience. We developed an effective and interactive virtual session with expert consensus on the pre-analytical phase of laboratory testing for undergraduate medical students which can be used for medical technologist, graduate students and fellows in Chemical Pathology.

Learning outcome is an important measure for overall teaching quality and should be addressed by comprehensive evaluation tools. The authors evaluated the validity of a novel evaluation tool based on student self-assessments, which may help identify specific strengths and weaknesses of a particular course. In 2011, the authors asked 145 fourth-year students at Göttingen Medical School to self-assess their knowledge on 33 specific learning objectives in a pretest and posttest as part of a cardiorespiratory module. The authors compared performance gain calculated from self-assessments with performance gain derived from formative examinations that were closely matched to these 33 learning objectives. Eighty-three students (57.2%) completed the assessment. There was good agreement between performance gain derived from subjective data and performance gain derived from objective examinations (Pearson r=0.78; P<.0001) on the group level. The association between the two measures was much weaker when data were analyzed on the individual level. Further analysis determined a quality cutoff for performance gain derived from aggregated student self-assessments. When using this cutoff, the evaluation tool was highly sensitive in identifying specific learning objectives with favorable or suboptimal objective performance gains. The tool is easy to implement, takes initial performance levels into account, and does not require extensive pre-post testing. By providing valid estimates of actual performance gain obtained during a teaching module, it may assist medical teachers in identifying strengths and weaknesses of a particular course on the level of specific learning objectives.

One of the first principles in planning any curriculum for learners is addressing their specific learning needs. For a Grand Rounds audience, this raises the basic question, “who are your learners?” In adult education language this might be rephrased, “Who is the target audience?” This may seem like an obvious question, but the answer may not be so obvious. A colleague in my department, Dr. John Teshima, recently completed a survey that asked this question to our multidisciplinary Grand Rounds audience. Opinions of the psychiatrists and residents as a group differed from the rest of the health care team. Most physicians felt that Grand Rounds should primarily meet their learning needs, while the other disciplines felt Grand Rounds should try to meet the learning needs of the whole department. This difference is not surprising, given the medical origins of Grand Rounds; however, it raises several questions for Grand Rounds planners. Who decides the target audience of Grand Rounds? If you decide that physicians are the target audience, do you invite others to participate? In this era, with the increasing importance of team functioning, how can you avoid addressing the learning needs of the allied health professional groups?