Efficacy of Faculty Development Training Workshops (FDTWs) on Writing High-Quality Multiple-Choice Questions at Northern Border University (NBU) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

BACKGROUND: A multiple-choice question (MCQ) is a frequently used assessment tool in medical education for both certification and competitive examinations. Well-constructed MCQs impact the utility of the assessment and, thus, the fate of the examinee. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To analyze the basic science faculty perceptions of writing high-quality MCQs, to create awareness of item-writing flaws in constructing high-quality MCQs, and to determine the impact of faculty development training workshops (FDTWs) on MCQ writing skills. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An online workshop was held over two weeks for basic science faculty to learn high-quality MCQ construction. Faculty-made MCQs were analyzed for flaws, and a questionnaire assessed the impact of the workshop on MCQ construction. Pre- and post-workshop responses were compared to evaluate the necessity of such workshops for improving faculty skills in MCQ assessments. RESULTS: A total of 47 (83.2%) of participating faculty believed the workshop could reduce MCQ construction errors. The participants agreed that a series of workshops were needed for lasting improvements in MCQ construction. CONCLUSIONS: One-day short-duration workshops, such as the current one alone, cannot achieve the objectives of training participants to write high-quality MCQs. To improve student assessment through high-quality MCQs, the faculty needs to be exposed to continuous and frequent sessions that will help them.

Navigating post COVID-19 education: an investigative study on students' attitude and perception of their new normal learning environment.

Background: The incidence and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a drastic change in health professional education around the world. Traditional classrooms made way for online classrooms in order to ensure that learning continued in a safe and secure environment. However, how well health professional students perceived and accepted these changes have not been fully gauged yet. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the perception of health professional students about their new educational climate. Methods: A modified and validated Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was used to collect data regarding student perception of their educational environment. Results: The mean DREEM scores for three time periods were in the accepted positive range of 101 to 150 indicating that most of the students perceived the changes positively. The results indicated that most students preferred blended learning over online learning or face-to-face learning alone. Areas where students were unsatisfied with their learning environment that need improvement were identified by poor item-wise scores. Conclusion: Strategic remedial measures for these concerns need to be developed to improve the quality of education received by the students. However, the results of our study indicated that most of the students were able to adapt positively to the new education environment due to the change in the circumstances during COVID.

Histological and immunohistochemical study of the effect of gold nanoparticles on the brain of adult male albino rat.

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have numerous medical applications as in biological imaging, cancer treatment and in implants (pacemakers and stents). Many conflicting results about GNPs safety and its accumulation in liver, kidney and brain were recorded. This work was carried out to study the histological effect of long period exposure to gold nanoparticle on the brain of adult male albino rat. Twenty adult male albino rats were divided into two equal groups: The first one served as a control group and the second one received 400 µg/kg/day GNPs by gastric tube once daily for eight weeks. Brain specimens were collected at the end of the experiment for histological and immunohistochemical studies using caspase-3 and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). GNPs treated group revealed wide spread histological alterations and deposition of gold nanoparticle aggregates in the neurons of cerebral cortex and hippocampus and also in the epithelium of choroid plexus with hyalinization of the wall of some blood vessels and disruption of the capillaries. All these changes were associated with localized positive caspase 3 reaction. Various degrees of astrogliosis were evidenced by astrocytic proliferation and increase size of their cell body with increase number and length of their processes. It could be concluded that repeated exposure of adult male albino rats to gold nanoparticles induced its deposition in the brain in association with histological alterations and various degrees of astrogliosis.