The study investigated the impact that children experienced after the inclusion of educational devices and non-contact virtual learning during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. An investigation was needed see how the primary use of educational devices and how the effects of non-contact virtual learning impacted the social-emotional development of children during this time. Five educators and five parents participated in this study including their observations and perspectives. Open-ended interviews and a survey had been conducted to gather the qualitative data. I examined the data in a thematic analysis using evaluation and emotion coding to quantify the results. 37% of the parents felt their child had been negatively impacted by the use of educational devices and non-contact virtual learning by the virtual modifications created for children who were originally in brick-and-mortar schools during the pandemic. The majority of the educators (64%) believed the use of educational devices and non-contact learning methods negatively impacted their students' social-emotional development. Educators disclosed the difficulty to incorporate group activities on the educational devices, as the time only allotted for individual module work. When non-contact virtual learning was incorporated, the educators discussed the regulation control skills students lacked. There were concerns by the participants of the limited exposure to social experiences children need for development. It was important to see if this study showed any areas of concern if educational devices and virtual learning practices had impacted children during COVID-19. Results could be used to inform educational practices toward social-emotional development for future distance education needs.

The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered instructional changes within higher education. Accommodations for continued instruction included a transition to remote learning. However, little research exists regarding the experiences of medical residents during this transition in their education while combating the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study, phenomenological in nature, aimed to explore the lived experiences of internal medicine medical residents at one medical college in Central Florida regarding the transition from face-to-face instruction to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eleven participating medical residents underwent semi-structured interviews via Zoom. Garrison's Community of Inquiry conceptual model and Hall and Hord's Concerns-Based Adoption Model theoretical framework were used. The researcher utilized Colaizzi's phenomenological analysis method to analyze the interview transcripts and Saldaña's coding method to code the data. Dedoose software was used in the analysis process. Participants were found to have shared and non-shared experiences and encountered both benefits and challenges from remote learning. Shared experiences included travel difficulties due to border closures and family challenges. Benefits included the presence of national guest speakers in lectures, attending lectures from the convenience and comfort of home, and the addition of interactive learning methods such as Kahoot and Jeopardy. Challenges experienced during the transition included curricular disorganization, distractions such as watching movies, a lack of interest in attending lectures, and a lack of interaction, with colleagues and by the instructor. Further research recommendations are discussed regarding emergency preparedness in higher education and graduate medical education, in addition to instructor perspectives.

This phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of online Algebra I teachers as they relate to the instruction of minority students. There is an academic achievement gap that exists between minority students and their non-minority peers in United States public education (Sousa & Armor, 2016). Although national educational policy has sought to narrow the academic achievement gap, it is persistent and must be addressed because public education affects the future of our nation (Fullan & Quinn, 2016). Virtual education is a growing platform for learning, with nearly 300,000 students enrolled across the United States. Achievement data demonstrates the existence of an academic achievement gap in this learning environment as well (Miron, Shank, & Davidson, 2018). Yet, there is not a great deal of high-quality research surrounding aspects of virtual education (Molnar et al., 2017). A phenomenological research method was used to examine the lived experiences of Algebra I teachers in a virtual learning environment. Interviews were conducted with five participants (N = 5). Data analysis resulted in eight overarching themes and twenty-seven tertiary themes. The major themes include: (a) teachers believe that student characteristics are a primary determinant of their success in virtual education; (b) teachers believe they have a strong impact upon student success in a virtual learning environment; (c) teachers believe Algebra I is a challenging content area for student achievement; (d) teachers believe family involvement impacts student learning in virtual education; (e) teachers believe frequent and consistent communication is vital in virtual education; (f) teachers believe there are challenges communicating with English language learners; (g) teachers believe strategies can be implemented to support student success in an online learning environment; and (h) teachers believe virtual education is a unique learning environment. This study concludes with an examination of each finding and provides implications for virtual education teachers and policy, and recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this study was to improve critical thinking skills in clinical laboratory technologists through the development, implementation, and assessment of a multimodal model targeting critical thinking skills. Clinical laboratory technologists influence patient care through the testing of laboratory samples. Employers of these entry level professionals identified a need for improved critical thinking skills. This quasi-experimental study aimed to design a multimodal critical thinking model, implement the model into the clinical laboratory educational curriculum, and assesses this skill set for students in a pre-test / post-test format. The model was delivered and assessed for 47 clinical laboratory students at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s School of Health Professions. Based on numerical results for the Health Science Reasoning Test (HSRT), no significant difference in critical thinking skills was observed for clinical laboratory students before and after the integration of the multimodal model targeting this skill set into the curriculum. For the purpose of this study, critical thinking was defined as the ability to effectively evaluate and interpret data, apply existing knowledge to solve problems in new situations, demonstrate creativity and resourcefulness in learning, and problem solving, and effectively and persuasively communicate findings. Further analysis of the results indicated that junior and community college students were more likely to improve their HSRT scores after completion of the multimodal model than 4-year university and bachelor level students. Findings also suggest a positive relationship between GPA and improved HSRT scores. The amount of time as student spent on each assessment was directly related to success, and an inverse relationship was observed for usage of the model reference material. Further studies are needed to ensure model validity and generalizability of findings. Additionally, HSRT categorical results indicate the need for model modifications to better target the areas of deduction and inference. The online, asynchronous format may benefit from the addition of mandated discussion boards, and requiring assessment and evaluation completion may reduce the effects of lack of effort due to cognitive fatigue observed for this study.

Though composition studies has long sought to leverage new technologies of literacy to help students go public, we remain anxious about our ability to do so, as students commonly enter our classrooms already composing for diverse public audiences in a variety of digital contexts. Yet students, too, are often anxious about these new modes of composition, which circulate in a destabilized rhetorical environment where traditional understandings of authority, argument, and audience no longer hold. This article identifies five topoi of this new rhetorical landscape—presence, persistence, permeability, promiscuity, and power—describing the anxieties and affordances they present for student writers, the dispositions toward writing they foster, and the challenges and opportunities they pose for composition. This framework provides a critical vocabulary for compositionists seeking to help students negotiate emerging networked publics.

Directors of WAC, writing programs, and a writing center share tools created for early WAC/WID research, how they were used, what they learned from creating these research tools, and the next steps for moving forward with their research. Attendees will be invited to discuss the creation of their own tools.

Distributed learning is becoming an increasingly common method of further education in post-secondary institutions and programs across Canada and internationally. Academic libraries are not immune to this trend, and many are reviewing and revising their teaching methodology. All learners require information literacy instruction that is relevant, engaging, and embedded in curriculum; in a distributed learning environment, however, the design and delivery of that instruction may need to be adapted to respond to the challenges of instruction to distributed learners. Through a literature review of distributed learning models in academic libraries and consultation with faculty and librarians at the University of Saskatchewan, this research will assist in determining distributed learning models and instructional design best suited for the provision of information literacy instruction within this environment. Although this research focused on academic libraries, this session will be relevant to anyone who is interested in providing instruction outside of a classroom. / Slides from a presentation at the Saskatchewan Library Association annual conference in Saskatoon, SK, in May 2013. Notes from the presentation are included on the slides which were not part of the original presentation.

This mixed method study examined how integration of synchronous Web-based desktop conferencing affects undergraduate distance learning students' educational experience. Specifically, it compared students in one distance learning section of an introductory technology course delivered through a synchronous-enhanced mode (employing both synchronous and asynchronous tools) with students in a second section of the same distance learning course provided in the asynchronous only mode to examine variations in cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence through the lens of the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000). Additionally, this study measured perceived learning, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-learner interaction to determine whether observable differences between the two groups occurred. Benefits of the synchronous-enhanced distance learning environment predicted in this study included a statistically significantly stronger sense of cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. It was also hypothesized that the synchronous-enhanced distance learning environment would yield statistically significantly higher reported perceived learning and interaction in contrast to the asynchronous condition. This study qualitatively explored how students perceived their experiences in synchronous-enhanced and asynchronous distance learning environments through focus group interviews and deductive analysis. Results of the analysis revealed no statistically significant differences between the synchronous-enhanced and asynchronous groups in measuring cognitive presence, social presence, teaching presence, perceived learning, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-learner interaction. Qualitative results evidenced higher frequencies in the synchronous-enhanced group with regard to clarification, collaboration, direct instruction, and interaction.

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The COVID-19 has significantly impacted the world as we know it, especially in higher education institutions. In response to COVID-19, most colleges and universities were forced to close their doors to students and switch to online learning over Zoom. Although most students are adjusted well to this new mode of education, other students, such as individuals pursuing degrees in the sciences, have difficulty adapting to the online mode of instruction. Case-based learning (CBL) is considered one of the best strategies in teaching a course like Biochemistry in a large classroom setting. Implementing CBL in biochemistry education may increase student engagement in the curriculum. Students will connect the material they learned in class to their daily lives, promoting critical thinking. The purpose of this review was to determine the effects of CBL in biochemistry education. This integrative review will focus on the various CBL study that implored in a biochemistry class setting. The review aimed to determine the implication of CBL in teaching biochemistry and assess students' views regarding the CBL.