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Background: Surgical trainees often resort to operative videos on the internet during preparation for surgery; YouTube is the most commonly explored video source by them. However, the quality of th...

Mathematical education is currently undergoing significant changes that are driven by technology and digital-based learning. Students with visual impairments (VI) may face different challenges in mathematical education due to a lack of accessible materials designed to support the development of conceptual understanding in mathematics. The aim of the study was to summarize current evidence-based knowledge about e-learning in mathematics among students with severe VI. A systematic review was conducted of articles published from January 2000 to November 2017. A total of 13 publications met the inclusion criteria, of which 12 reported studies with an intervention or an experimental design and one had a cross-sectional design. The number of students with VI varied from three to 16 (Mage = 19 years). Four publications reported either ophthalmic diagnoses or World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of vision loss. The mathematical training was reported as lasting from one session to 18 weeks of training. Eight papers reported the use of audio-based applications as learning aids. The authors conclude that interactive e-learning with audio and tactile learning programmes may be a useful resource for students with VI to enhance their mathematical skills. However, there is lack of evidence for how digital technologies improve inclusion potentials and learning in mathematics for students with VI, and hence, there is a need for additional research and more reflection on the subject. © 2019. This is the authors' accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0264619619876975

The Internet is a source of professional self-education for medical students and residents. Unfortunately, much of the content discovered through search engines is of insufficient quality for professional education. The Anesthesia Toolbox (AT) was developed to provide online peer-reviewed educational resources for anesthesiology trainees and faculty. Since 2014, AT has developed 24 curricula, 822 content items, and 3238 quiz questions. As of March 2020, 64 anesthesiology residency programs in the United States subscribed to the AT (41% of total). Since the onset of the pandemic in March, AT has added 25 programs (28% increase) and gained 1156 users (26% increase).

With the advent of the Internet, there is now a vast amount of useful learning resources available. These public resources or Open Educational Resources (OERs) can complement traditional teaching/lectures and student learning. In this paper, we make two contributions to the development of OERs for the global education community. First, we analyze the popular computing/IT-related OERs at MERLOT, one of the major OER repositories in the world. Through the analysis of peer reviews and other data, we present interesting findings and valuable insights for the development of OERs, particularly for the computer science discipline. Second, we present an innovative 3E (Enrich, Extend, Elevate) strategy/pedagogy for the use of OERs with the aim of enhancing student learning from different perspectives. In particular, students can play an important role, to find and even create OERs to enhance their learning to a new dimension.

Personalization of the e-learning systems according to the learner’s needs and knowledge level presents the key element in a learning process. E-learning systems with personalized recommendations should adapt the learning experience according to the goals of the individual learner. Aiming to facilitate personalization of a learning content, various kinds of techniques can be applied. Collaborative and social tagging techniques could be useful for enhancing recommendation of learning resources. In this paper, we analyze the suitability of different techniques for applying tag-based recommendations in e-learning environments. The most appropriate model ranking, based on tensor factorization technique, has been modified to gain the most efficient recommendation results. We propose reducing tag space with clustering technique based on learning style model, in order to improve execution time and decrease memory requirements, while preserving the quality of the recommendations. Such reduced model for providing tag-based recommendations has been used and evaluated in a programming tutoring system. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

© Jon Talbot, 2017. The definitive, peer reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 19(3), 113-136. 2017, https://doi.org/10.5456/WPLL.19.3.113

In this article we present two numerical methods for the prediction and correction of students' bad performance and wrong learning strategies. To test these methods, we have applied our results to two subjects that are representative of two different learning and teaching strategies. The first one includes a high percentage of subjective contents. The second one is easily evaluated by objective numerical scales. To evaluate the first subject, we propose the analysis of students' peer reviews. The second one is analyzing by Artificial Intelligence algorithms. In both cases, teachers have proposed and execute preventive measures to the students that were in higher risk of failing.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss benefits of and barriers to online learning and describe utilization of the Quality Matters (QM) peer review process as a method to assure the quality of online courses. It outlines the QM higher education rubric, explains how the collaborative QM peer review process facilitates online course design and certification, reports on the development of a statewide consortium in Ohio, and explores future directions in online courses. Design/methodology/approach – This paper offers a brief historical review of the incorporation of technology into teaching and learning. It describes attitudes toward online learning and the creation of the non-profit QM program as a vehicle for improving online course design. It summarizes the eight standards of the QM rubric, describes the QM peer review process, and discusses the implementation of the Ohio QM Consortium (OQMC) as a shared services model. Findings – Given existing barriers to online learning, the QM program can improve learning outcomes by offering best practices in online course design, validating the quality of online courses, encouraging faculty buy-in through a focus on design rather than content, and facilitating degree completion through recognition of quality courses. Practical implications – Institutions that seek to validate online course quality in a cost-effective manner can explore a shared services model such as that developed by the OQMC. Originality/value – This paper introduces to an international audience a program and process, widely implemented in the USA, which encourages inter-institutional cooperation and promotes a supportive culture among online educators.

Background: Peer to peer learning is a well-established learning modality which has been shown to improve learning outcomes, with positive implications for clinical practice. Surgical students from across Ireland were invited to upload learning points daily while paired with their peers in a peer-reviewing process. This study was designed to assess content accuracy and evaluate the benefit of the review process. Method: A reflective content sample was selected from the database representing all gastrointestinal (GI) surgical entries. All questions and answers were double corrected by four examiners, blinded to the “review” status of the entries. Statistical analysis was performed to compare accuracy between “reviewed” and “non-reviewed” entries. Results: There were 15,569 individual entries from 2009–2013, 2977 were GI surgery entries, 678 (23%) were peer reviewed. Marked out of 5, accuracy in the reviewed group was 4.24 and 4.14 in the non-reviewed group. This was not statistically different (p = 0.11). Accuracy did not differ between universities or grade of tutors. Conclusion: The system of student uploaded data is accurate and was not improved further through peer review. This represents an easy, valuable and safe method of capturing surgical oral ward based teaching.

Peer facilitation offers an innovative and effective means of promoting interprofessional learning (IPL) between health and social care students. This paper highlights the benefits that peer facilitators themselves experience from involvement in assisting junior colleagues to engage with IPL in an online context. The setting for the inquiry is an online interprofessional learning pathway shared by two higher education institutions in the UK. Insights have been developed over a 3-year period through collaborative inquiry with 41 peer facilitators, academic tutors and the students who benefitted from their input. This paper which focuses on peer facilitators' application data, interview data and written reflections explores the instrumental, cognitive and personal gains experienced. However, more fundamentally, theorizing findings in relation to identity theory we substantiate the claim that the role provides opportunity for testing and refining important aspects of both professional and interprofessional identities.

Knowledge and skill acquisition related to vascular access are traditionally individual institutional educational initiatives. Australia currently has no national evidence based education programme for renal nurses. A survey of Australian and New Zealand Nephrology Educators' conducted in 2009, identified the need for more effective and consistent delivery of clinical education for nurses using innovative, web-based approaches supporting the tenets of e-learning methodologies. This paper discusses the development, implementation and proposed evaluation of a peer reviewed Australasian e-learning programme on buttonhole cannulation. It will further highlight the benefits of inter-organisational partnerships and how these partnerships can facilitate positive change in teaching and learning practices. This project has unique characteristics that collectively provide value, distinction and innovation to nurses, patients and renal departments. As the e-learning programme was founded on a platform of evidence-based practice it is therefore easily transferable to an international context.

OBJECTIVE. Our objective was to create an electronic learning tool that incorporates the pedagogic advantages of peer assessment and self-assessment into report-generating skills.CONCLUSION. The tool was created using Web programming software. It was tested with 12 veterinary students and provided peer–peer and tutor–student interactions that supported learning. The tool is suited for training any professional concerned with the interpretation of images, particularly resident radiologists.

Summary This article provides a practical exploration of the conduct and outcomes a case study in which the process of peer observation in online learning and teaching is articulated and shown to be relevant to the enhancement of online learning and teaching in health and other educational contexts. Copious literature on the subject of peer observation and a small body about online peer observation suggests a variety of different approaches which lend themselves to the complexities of health education settings. The practical example described here was conducted in the UK. The authors, lecturers from two different departments in the same university, shared the new experience of online peer observation. Following face-to-face discussion of areas we wished each other to explore we undertook a documented review of a specific aspect of each others' chosen learning activities. This led to further peer-support and discussion. The paper is illustrated with examples of our review and the discussion which followed which we hope will illuminate the process for other practitioners as well as stimulate research and further debate and discussion.

University faculties are under increasing pressure to do more with less. They are expected to continuously improve educational experiences to more students at less expense. Without assistance, the pressures of increasing demands and decreasing resources may prove too great to maintain a high quality learning environment. Merlot is an online repository of e-Learning objects designed to enable a broad base of faculty to provide high quality, online material to enhance college level learning. The materials in Merlot may be peer reviewed by both experts in the discipline and users of the materials. As teaching takes a more important role in promotion and tenure decisions at universities, Merlot provides a mechanism for evaluating online learning and teaching materials in a fashion similar to other scholarly research. Quality of content, potential effectiveness as a teaching tool, and ease of use are the key criteria in the Merlot review process. This paper provides a description of Merlot, the peer review process, examples of Merlot objects, and the role Merlot plays in the promotion, evaluation, and dissemination of e-Learning objects.

This chapter addresses some issues relating to the use of e-learning tools and environments for implementing peer assessment. It aims to weigh up the opportunities and the challenges that are offered by considering peer assessment for learning and peer assessment of learning. In doing this, reference is made to some of the general issues that arise in implementing peer assessment in higher education, as well as to the functionalities of e-learning tools and environments, and the characteristics of those who use them in this context (teachers and students). Discussion of opportunities focuses on strategies for peer assessment available from tools and environments that are categorized as pre-Web 2.0 (and continuing) technologies, Web 2.0 technologies, and ‘other tools’. Consideration of challenges focuses on the characteristics and requirements of teachers and students as users. It is concluded that opportunities outweigh challenges, particularly in relation to peer assessment for learning, but that peer assessment of learning is more challenging and likely to be more limited in uptake because of the expectations that are placed on users. It is also noted that the capacities offered by Web 2.0 technologies for peer-based relationships and interaction with content present both an opportunity and a challenge which may have future implications for the role of the teacher and for supporting a reconceptualization of how evidence used for peer assessment of learning is presented and judged.

This paper describes the activities of the Consortium of E-Learning in Geriatrics Instruction (CELGI), a group dedicated to creating, using, and evaluating e-learning to enhance geriatrics education. E-learning provides a relatively new approach to addressing geriatrics educators' concerns, such as the shortage of professionals trained to care for older people, overcrowded medical curricula, the move to transfer teaching venues to community settings, and the switch to competency-based education models. However, this innovative education technology is facing a number of challenges as its use and influence grow, including proof of effectiveness and efficiency. CELGI was created in response to these challenges, with the goal of facilitating the development and portability of e-learning materials for geriatrics educators. Members represent medical and nursing schools, the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system, long-term care facilities, and other institutions that rely on continuing streams of quality health education. CELGI concentrates on providing a coordinated approach to formulating and adapting specifications, standards, and guidelines; developing education and training in e-learning competencies; developing e-learning products; evaluating the effect of e-learning materials; and disseminating these materials. The vision of consortium members is that e-learning for geriatric education will become the benchmark for valid and successful e-learning throughout medical education.

How can assessment practices be used to assist and improve the learning process? "Self, Peer and Group Assessment in E-Learning" attempts to answer this question by bringing together 13 contributions from prominent researchers and practitioners actively involved in all aspects of self, peer and group assessment in an online or e-learning environment. It describes the principal characteristics of self, peer and group assessment, and presents guidelines for effective implementation, highlighting both benefits and problems. It also provides examples in a variety of subject areas from secondary school students in different countries, large undergraduate classes, and Master's level courses. The primary aim of "Self, Peer and Group Assessment in E-Learning" is to encourage the development of higher-quality learning and assessment practices, ones in which the learners themselves assume a greater responsibility for, and play a more active role in, their own learning.