Developing a scale to explore self-regulatory approaches to assessment and feedback with academics in higher education.

Introduction: Students need to acquire high level self-regulatory skills if they are to be successful within higher education, and academics need support in facilitating this. In this article we explore how the current research gap between knowledge of self-regulatory assessment and feedback (SRAF) practices, and academics' professional training in it can be bridged. Methods: SRAF tools were used with academics to explore their understandings of and training needs in SRAF; central to this work was the development of a SRAF scale. We consider the value of such tools in supporting academics' professional development needs in SRAF. The reliability and validity of the SRAF scale was tested using exploratory factor analyses (EFA). Results: Iterative EFA resulted in a 17 item support required SRAF scale (SR). Two underpinning factors: Creating the Conditions for SRAF, and Supporting Students' SRAF Skills Development were identified. The reliability of the instrument supported its primary use as a tool to facilitate academics' professional development in fostering students' self-regulatory skills. Discussion: Our findings highlight the importance of supporting academics in developing strategies to maximize students' metacognitive skills and motivation in assessment and feedback, contingent on effective assessment design. Such professional development needs to be mindful of individual and contextual factors impacting academics' access to, and confidence and competence in, using SRAF in practice. This research is important in highlighting potential disconnects between where academics' focus their attention in assessment, and what is known to have most impact on student learning success. The SRAF tools have considerable potential in supporting translation of theory into practice as part of sustained professional development for academics in higher education.

Exploring the Educational Value of Popular Culture in Web-Based Medical Education: Pre-Post Study on Teaching Jaundice Using "The Simpsons".

BACKGROUND: The potential of popular culture as a tool for knowledge delivery and enhancing engagement in education is promising but not extensively studied. Furthermore, concerns exist regarding learning fatigue due to increased reliance on videoconferencing platforms following the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure effective web-based teaching sessions that maintain attention spans and enhance understanding, innovative solutions are necessary. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the use of specific popular culture case studies to enhance student engagement in a web-based near-peer teaching session. METHODS: We delivered a web-based teaching session to undergraduate medical students in the United Kingdom. The session included clinical vignettes and single-best-answer questions using characters from "The Simpsons" television show as patient analogies for various causes of jaundice. A pre-post survey, employing a 7-point Likert scale, was distributed to gather data from participants. RESULTS: A total of 53 survey responses were collected. Participants reported significantly improved understanding of jaundice after the session compared to before the session (median 6, IQR 5-6 vs median 4, IQR 3-4.5; P<.001). The majority of participants agreed that the inclusion of "The Simpsons" characters enhanced their knowledge and made the teaching session more memorable and engaging (memorability: median 6, IQR 5-7; engagement: median 6, IQR 5-7). CONCLUSIONS: When appropriately integrated, popular culture can effectively engage students and improve self-perceived knowledge retention. "The Simpsons" characters can be used pedagogically and professionally as patient analogies to deliver teaching on the topic of jaundice.

Assessing the Publicity and Reach of Peer-Led Online Medical Teaching: A Single-Event Evaluation.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption to higher education, including medical studies. Online learner support became urgently necessary, and peer-support of learning was needed to supplement formal teaching. This study evaluates the impact and delivery media of OSCEazy, a student-led initiative supporting formal teaching across institutional and national boundaries. Methods: A survey was created on Google Forms and disseminated via the Zoom chat function to all the participants at the end of our event titled, "The Cardiology Station". Results: A large proportion (99.5%) of the students have a Facebook account and (98.7%) use it to keep track of medical events (p=0.45 for comparison). However, a very small proportion of use their other social media to keep up with medical events (p<0.0001 for comparison). Conclusion: It is evident from our results, that most of our participants used Facebook to keep track of medical events. The use of their other social media platforms (Instagram, etc) to keep track of medical events was limited. Thus, it is important for any organisation, such as ours, who conduct online events to evaluate which platform is most suitable for them to use to publicise their events.

E pluribus unum: the potential of collaborative learning to enhance Microbiology teaching in higher education.

Collaborative learning, where students work together towards a shared understanding of a concept, is a well-established pedagogy, and one which has great potential for higher education (HE). Through discussion and challenging each other's ideas, learners gain a richer appreciation for a subject than with solitary study or didactic teaching methods. However, collaborative learning does require some scaffolding by the teacher in order to be successful. Collaborative learning can be augmented by the use of Web 2.0 collaborative technologies, such as wikis, blogs and social media. This article reviews some of the uses of collaborative learning strategies in Microbiology teaching in HE. Despite the great potential of collaborative learning, evidence of its use in Microbiology teaching is, to date, limited. But the potential for collaborative learning approaches to develop self-regulated, deep learners is considerable, and so collaborative learning should be considered strongly as a viable pedagogy for HE.

Building an open academic environment - a new approach to empowering students in their learning of anatomy through 'Shadow Modules'.

Teaching and learning in anatomy is undertaken by a variety of methodologies, yet all of these pedagogies benefit from students discussing and reflecting upon their learning activities. An approach of particular potency is peer-mediated learning, through either peer-teaching or collaborative peer-learning. Collaborative, peer-mediated, learning activities help promote deep learning approaches and foster communities of practice in learning. Students generally flourish in collaborative learning settings but there are limitations to the benefits of collaborative learning undertaken solely within the confines of modular curricula. We describe the development of peer-mediated learning through student-focused and student-led study groups we have termed 'Shadow Modules'. The 'Shadow Module' takes place parallel to the formal academically taught module and facilitates collaboration between students to support their learning for that module. In 'Shadow Module' activities, students collaborate towards curating existing online open resources as well as developing learning resources of their own to support their study. Through the use of communication technologies and Web 2.0 tools these resources are able to be shared with their peers, thus enhancing the learning experience of all students following the module. The Shadow Module activities have the potential to lead to participants feeling a greater sense of engagement with the subject material, as well as improving their study and group-working skills and developing digital literacy. The outputs from Shadow Module collaborative work are open-source and may be utilised by subsequent student cohorts, thus building up a repository of learning resources designed by and for students. Shadow Module activities would benefit all pedagogies in the study of anatomy, and support students moving from being passive consumers to active participants in learning.

Creatine supplementation: can it improve quality of life in the elderly without associated resistance training?

INTRODUCTION: Ageing is associated with decreased muscle mass, strength, power and function, and reduction in bone density and mineral content, leading to reduced independence and increased risk of falls. Creatine supplementation is reported to improve muscular strength and performance with training in younger athletes, and therefore could benefit older individuals. AIMS: This review critically appraises the current literature on whether creatine supplementation enhances muscular performance and function, body composition, bone mineral density and content in older adults without the addition of resistance training, and thus determines whether creatine supplementation can lead to an improved lifestyle for the sedentary elderly population. RESULTS: There is conflicting evidence regarding the usefulness of creatine supplementation in older subjects. Generally, however, creatine supplementation, without associated resistance training, seems to enhance muscular strength, power and endurance, increase lean body mass (LBM) and improve the functional capacity of the elderly. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that increased muscle mass due to creatine supplementation can result in increased local bone density. It appears that the effect of creatine supplementation is more beneficial in larger muscles and less effective in smaller muscles, however there are exceptions. The mechanism by which creatine supplementation works requires further research, however it is likely that the effects of creatine are related to creatine kinase activity, providing enhanced energy production for greater muscular contraction. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that creatine supplementation without associated training in the elderly could potentially delay atrophy of muscle mass, improve endurance and strength, and increase bone strength, and thus may be a safe therapeutic strategy to help decrease loss in functional performance of everyday tasks.

Improved transcriptional activators and their use in mis-expression traps in Arabidopsis.

The synthetic transcription factor LhG4 has been used in numerous mis-expression studies in plants. We show that the sequence encoding the LhG4 activation domain, derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae GAL4, contains several cryptic polyadenylation signals in Arabidopsis. The GAL4-derived sequence was modified according to preferred Arabidopsis codon usage, generating LhG4AtO which was faithfully transcribed in Arabidopsis plants. In protoplasts, LhG4AtO achieved maximum transactivation of the pOp promoter with 10-fold less input DNA than LhG4. The same methods were used to compare 10 other LhG4 derivatives that carried alternative natural or synthetic activation domains. Lh214 and Lh314, which contain synthetic activation domains comprising trimers of a core acidic activation domain, directed threefold more GUS expression from the pOp promoter with 20-fold less input DNA than LhG4. In contrast, when expressed from the CaMV 35S promoter in transgenic plants carrying a pOp-GUS reporter, Lh214 and Lh314 yielded transformants with substantially lower GUS activities than other constructs including LhG4AtO and LhG4 which performed similarly. When incorporated into an enhancer-trapping vector, however, LhG4AtO and Lh314 yielded enhancer traps with approximately twice the frequency of LhG4, suggesting that the modified activation domains offer improved performance when expressed from weaker transcription signals. To increase the number of LhG4 patterns available for mis-expression studies, we describe a population of enhancer-trap lines obtained with LhG4AtO in a pOp-GUS background. We show that enhancer-trap lines can transactivate an unlinked pOp-green fluorescent protein (pOp-GFP) reporter in the pattern predicted by staining for GUS activity.

The Arabidopsis Rab GTPase family: another enigma variation.

The Arabidopsis genome sequence reveals that gene families such as the Rab GTPase family, which encodes key determinants of vesicle-targeting specificity, are considerably more diverse in plants and mammals than in yeast. In mammals, this diversity appears to reflect the complexity of membrane trafficking. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that, despite its large size, the Arabidopsis Rab family lacks most of the Rab subclasses found in mammals. The Arabidopsis Rab family has, however, undergone a distinct 'adaptive radiation' that has given rise to proteins that may perform plant-specific functions.