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Just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) are time-varying adaptive interventions that use frequent opportunities for the intervention to be adapted-weekly, daily, or even many times a day. The microrandomized trial (MRT) has emerged for use in informing the construction of JITAIs. MRTs can be used to address research questions about whether and under what circumstances JITAI components are effective, with the ultimate objective of developing effective and efficient JITAI. The purpose of this article is to clarify why, when, and how to use MRTs; to highlight elements that must be considered when designing and implementing an MRT; and to review primary and secondary analyses methods for MRTs. We briefly review key elements of JITAIs and discuss a variety of considerations that go into planning and designing an MRT. We provide a definition of causal excursion effects suitable for use in primary and secondary analyses of MRT data to inform JITAI development. We review the weighted and centered least-squares (WCLS) estimator which provides consistent causal excursion effect estimators from MRT data. We describe how the WCLS estimator along with associated test statistics can be obtained using standard statistical software such as R (R Core Team, 2019). Throughout we illustrate the MRT design and analyses using the HeartSteps MRT, for developing a JITAI to increase physical activity among sedentary individuals. We supplement the HeartSteps MRT with two other MRTs, SARA and BariFit, each of which highlights different research questions that can be addressed using the MRT and experimental design considerations that might arise. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Teaching interdisciplinary research methods to honors students across disciplines is complex. A pre-capstone seminar, The Art of Inquiry, centers ethical considerations within and beyond individual research interests, helping junior and senior students of all majors prepare for ethical, scholarly projects.

Objective: To describe an iterative approach to developing an online intervention targeting the intersection of alcohol use and sexual behaviors among first year college students. Methods and Participants: Using the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), we conducted two iterative optimization trials to--(1) identify candidate intervention components (i.e., descriptive norms, injunctive norms, outcome expectancies, perceived benefits of protective behavioral strategies, and self-efficacy to use strategies); (2) revise components; and (3) identify the optimized intervention. Participants were first year college students at six geographically diverse universities (optimization trial 1 N = 5,880; optimization trial 2 N = 3,551) Results: For both optimization trials, the results indicated that only descriptive and injunctive norms produced a significant effect (p<0.05). Conclusions: The iterative process of MOST allowed us to develop an optimized intervention which is an essential tool to maximize intervention effectiveness and efficiency to improve uptake, sustainability, and public health impact.

Significant funds have been allocated in the United States at the federal, state, and local levels to provide teacher professional development aimed at bringing about instructional change and resulting in improved student achievement. One important indicator for quality and effectiveness in professional development is change in teaching practice. This study was designed to observe instructional change among 45 classroom teachers across three data points: at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a two-year statewide professional development initiative focused on incorporating formative instructional practices into daily classroom work. Repeated measure analysis results indicated significant changes in providing effective feedback and encouraging student ownership of learning. Change patterns in the classrooms included in this study informed future professional development focus, design, and delivery. Researchers found that implementing a comprehensive teacher professional development initiative to improve instructional quality is promising yet challenging because of differing local implementation plans, organizational structures, priorities, and resources.

BackgroundMore than half of persons living with HIV (PLWH) in the United States are insufficiently engaged in HIV primary care and not taking antiretroviral therapy (ART), mainly African Americans/Blacks and Hispanics. In the proposed project, a potent and innovative research methodology, the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), will be employed to develop a highly efficacious, efficient, scalable, and cost-effective intervention to increase engagement along the HIV care continuum. Whereas randomized controlled trials are valuable for evaluating the efficacy of multi-component interventions as a package, they are not designed to evaluate which specific components contribute to efficacy. MOST, a pioneering, engineering-inspired framework, addresses this problem through highly efficient randomized experimentation to assess the performance of individual intervention components and their interactions. We propose to use MOST to engineer an intervention to increase engagement along the HIV care continuum for African American/Black and Hispanic PLWH not well engaged in care and not taking ART. Further, the intervention will be optimized for cost-effectiveness. A similar set of multi-level factors impede both HIV care and ART initiation for African American/Black and Hispanic PLWH, primary among them individual- (e.g., substance use, distrust, fear), social- (e.g., stigma), and structural-level barriers (e.g., difficulties accessing ancillary services). Guided by a multi-level social cognitive theory, and using the motivational interviewing approach, the study will evaluate five distinct culturally based intervention components (i.e., counseling sessions, pre-adherence preparation, support groups, peer mentorship, and patient navigation), each designed to address a specific barrier to HIV care and ART initiation. These components are well-grounded in the empirical literature and were found acceptable, feasible, and promising with respect to efficacy in a preliminary study.Methods/designStudy aims are: 1) using a highly efficient fractional factorial experimental design, identify which of five intervention components contribute meaningfully to improvement in HIV viral suppression, and secondary outcomes of ART adherence and engagement in HIV primary care; 2) identify mediators and moderators of intervention component efficacy; and 3) using a mathematical modeling approach, build the most cost-effective and efficient intervention package from the efficacious components. A heterogeneous sample of African American/Black and Hispanic PLWH (with respect to age, substance use, and sexual minority status) will be recruited with a proven hybrid sampling method using targeted sampling in community settings and peer recruitment (N = 512).DiscussionThis is the first study to apply the MOST framework in the field of HIV prevention and treatment. This innovative study will produce a culturally based HIV care continuum intervention for the nation's most vulnerable PLWH, optimized for cost-effectiveness, and with exceptional levels of efficacy, efficiency, and scalability.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02801747 , Registered June 8, 2016.

The direction of university courses is often guided by the results of traditional Likert scale student evaluations. Most of these focus on instructors' characteristics and frequently do not provide useful insights into students' learning preferences or feedback regarding specific activities and projects in the courses. This study, carried out in a Midwestern U.S. university, reports the use of Q methodology to capture students' views of 35 activities in a graduate TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Methods course as to which were most helpful and least helpful to learning course content. During the last class of the semester 19 students carried out Q sorts about different aspects of the methods course. Factor analysis showed how participants grouped onto 3 factors, expressing 3 unique views on how helpful the 35 different course activities were to their learning. The majority of the students were "group-centered learners" who learned best through various face-to-face interactions with classmates. Two were "self-centered learners" who learned best by working independently, then receiving feedback. One learned best through the course's online activities. Analysis of students' different views helped researchers determine whether to redesign various aspects of the course to meet different learning preferences.

Funded by Race to the Top, a federal education initiative, the Department of Education of a Midwestern state in the U.S. launched statewide implementation of online teacher professional development (OTPD) to apply formative instructional practices (FIP) to enhance classroom instruction. Central to the design and implementation of OTPD was the need to carefully consider the quality of the professional development program. This study aimed to look into this by asking, "Which features of high quality online professional development were noted by participating educators in a statewide online teacher professional development program?" A survey was used to collect educators' voices in this FIP professional development (PD) program. Eight hundred ninety-five educators participating in the FIP OTPD program responded to a survey. Descriptive analysis was conducted with frequencies and percentages of 21 Likert scale items. Inductive analysis and thematic coding were applied for open-ended comments from the survey. Results suggested many inconsistencies between: (a) the high quality online professional development that theories suggest, and (b) what was designed, delivered, and implemented. The study identified specific aspects of this FIP OTPD program that will inform future online professional development in order to improve quality in other large scale or statewide school improvement initiatives.

Online professional development (oPD) for teachers should focus on designing web-based learning opportunities that help practicing educators solve the tough problems of practice when working in their schools. Technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge can be integrated in the design of online professional development modules to enhance task relevance for maximum learning and transformation. The purpose of this study was to learn which tasks in an online professional development module were ranked by in-service educators as relevant to their work with English language learners (ELLs). Using Q methodology, the researcher asked participants to rank the relevancy of 36 online tasks from an online professional development module designed and developed at an American university. Participants used a -5 to 5 forced distribution to rank online activities from "Least relevant to my work with ELLs" to "Most relevant to my work with ELLs" followed by a semi-structured interview to explain their decisions. After data analysis, two factors emerged, indicating that participants' perceptions on task relevance differed by professional roles and educational settings. The participants also favored didactic online tasks over interactive tasks. The findings from the oPD participants' responses have the potential to serve as the basis for future online professional development design and for planning other relevant activities to be applied to the e-learning environment.

Formative instructional practices (FIP) are the formal and informal ways that teachers and students gather and respond to evidence of student learning. Although they might have been practicing formative instruction on a daily basis, many teachers rarely thought about how formative instructional practice features were already a part of their work. Teachers often displayed content standards, informed students of learning targets, and maintained learning records, but they may not have consistently analyzed records of student learning to make instructional decisions. Both novice educators and educators who already have strong classroom management and instructional skills are likely to benefit from professional learning around practices that encourage more student ownership of learning. In order to design a content relevant FIP PD program, it was critical to have an understanding of what teachers knew about formative instructional practices, and where their strength and weakness were. This study aimed to initiate these processes by asking, "What is educators' baseline knowledge about FIP as measured by the FIP Knowledge Inventory?" The results of 2,528 educators on a FIP Knowledge Inventory showed an average of 61.84% correct responses or 15.46 points out of a possible 25 points. Item analysis indicated that teachers were weaker in two areas than they were in other principles of FIP: 1) providing effective feedback to students, and 2) promoting student ownership of their learning. This has implications for future teacher PD design and purposeful practices to transform knowledge to classroom instruction.