It's in the Syllabus: What Syllabi Tell us about Introductory Biology Courses.

Biology education researchers seek to improve biology education, particularly at the introductory level, yet there is little documentation about what is actually happening in introductory biology. To characterize the landscape of learning expectations for introductory biology, we analyzed course-level learning objectives (n = 1108) and course schedules from 188 nonmajor, mixed major, and major introductory biology syllabi. We analyzed syllabi collected from a diverse range of U.S. institution types to uncover insights about instructional design decisions for introductory biology. Our analysis revealed two distinct nonmajor course types: content and issues-based courses. We found syllabi tend to focus on low-cognitive skills and factual content that is essentially a march in step with a typical textbook table of contents, rarely including core competencies or socioscientific issues (SSIs) other than in nonscience major issues-based courses. Our work contributes more evidence that faculty struggle to write course-level learning objectives. Our findings suggest that there is much work to do if Vision and Change are to become more than simply a vision-to be actualized as change-including developing CLOs for introductory biology as a first step toward creating actionable instructional change.

Examining and Supporting Mechanistic Explanations Across Chemistry and Biology Courses.

Causal mechanistic reasoning is a thinking strategy that can help students explain complex phenomena using core ideas commonly emphasized in separate undergraduate courses, as it requires students to identify underlying entities, unpack their relevant properties and interactions, and link them to construct mechanistic explanations. As a crossdisciplinary group of biologists, chemists, and teacher educators, we designed a scaffolded set of tasks that require content knowledge from biology and chemistry to construct nested hierarchical mechanistic explanations that span three scales (molecular, macromolecular, and cellular). We examined student explanations across seven introductory and upper-level biology and chemistry courses to determine how the construction of mechanistic explanations varied across courses and the relationship between the construction of mechanistic explanations at different scales. We found non-, partial, and complete mechanistic explanations in all courses and at each scale. Complete mechanistic explanation construction was lowest in introductory chemistry, about the same across biology and organic chemistry, and highest in biochemistry. Across tasks, the construction of a mechanistic explanation at a smaller scale was associated with constructing a mechanistic explanation for larger scales; however, the use of molecular scale disciplinary resources was only associated with complete mechanistic explanations at the macromolecular, not cellular scale.

Mind the Gap: Investigating Disaggregated Student Performance in an Upper-Division Biochemistry Course Following Team-Based Learning.

Team-based learning (TBL) is a highly intense active learning pedagogy that uses a cycle of preclass preparation, formative assessment for readiness, mini-lectures, and complex team exercises. Consistent with the literature on active learning, prior research on TBL consistently shows its benefits for student outcomes as compared with previous lecture. However, little work has examined student outcomes disaggregated by demographic variable. We analyzed assessment and student demographic data (i.e., binary gender, racial/ethnic group, generational status) in three semesters of TBL in an upper-division biochemistry course to understand the degree to which performance could be predicted by student demographics. We use theoretical and empirical research from social psychology to hypothesize that the intense interpersonal interactions of TBL could activate psychological threats, the effects of which would be measurable as differences in student performance that correlate with demographic variables. Our regression analysis did not support this hypothesis. This null result invites a deeper discussion on how we measure the potential effects of active learning on student outcomes, particularly given how important it is to account for intersectional and invisible identities.

A systematic mapping of public health master's and structured doctoral programs in Germany.

BACKGROUND: Well-trained public health professionals are key to addressing both global and local public health challenges of the twenty-first century. Though availability of programs has increased, the population health science (PHS) and public health (PH) higher education landscape in Germany remains scattered. To date, no comprehensive overview of programs exists. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to map PHS and PH master's and structured doctoral programs in Germany, including selected program characteristics, curricula and target competencies. METHODS: We conducted a systematic mapping of PHS and PH programs in Germany following a prospectively registered protocol ( https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/KTCBA ). Relevant master's and doctoral programs were identified by two study authors independently searching a comprehensive higher education database, which was, for doctoral programs, supplemented with a google search. For PHS programs, general characteristics were mapped and for the subset of PH programs, in-depth characteristics were extracted. RESULTS: Overall, 75 master's and 18 structured doctoral PHS programs were included. Of these, 23 master's and 8 doctoral programs focused specifically on PH. The majority of PHS master's programs awarded a Master of Science degree (55 out of 75 programs). The PH master's program curricula offered various courses, allowing for different specializations. Courses on topics like public health, epidemiology, health systems (research) and research methods were common for the majority of the master's programs, while courses on physical activity, behavioral science, nutrition, and mental health were offered less frequently. Structured PH doctoral programs were mainly offered by medical faculties (6 out of 8 programs) and awarded a doctorate of philosophy (Ph.D.) (6 out of 8 programs). PH doctoral programs were very heterogeneous regarding curricula, entry, and publication requirements. There was a broad geographical distribution of programs across Germany, with educational clusters in Munich, Berlin, Bielefeld and Düsseldorf. CONCLUSION: Germany offers a diverse landscape of PHS and PH master's programs, but only few structured doctoral programs. The variety of mandatory courses and competencies in these programs reflect Germany's higher education system's answer to the evolving demands of the PH sector. This review may aid in advancing PH education both in Germany and globally.

Person-centred care in the context of higher education - a discourse analysis based on interviews with programme directors.

BACKGROUND: As person centred care (PCC) is being implemented globally, higher educational institutions (HEI) have begun to play a crucial part in enabling this transition. In Sweden, however, the delivery of PCC is inconsistently implemented in medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy study programmes. This inconsistency is partly the result of a lack of a national strategy across HEI. Program directors are responsible for the PCC content of their programs, so their views influence how PCC is taught. Using interviews with programme directors in higher education, we aim to deepen the understanding of the preconditions needed to implement PCC by exploring discourses and identifying subject positions of how PCC is taught and learned. METHODS: We performed a discourse analysis based on interviews with program directors in the above-mentioned national study programmes. A discourse can be seen as a struggle over identity. The subject position - i.e., discourses designate positions for persons to occupy as subjects - guided our analysis and identification of the subject positions of the teacher and the student in teaching and learning PCC. RESULTS: This study unfolded in two main antagonistic aspects with respect to teaching and learning PCC, resulting in four subject positions for the teacher and four corresponding subject positions for the students. First, the teacher and student were given a subject position as change agents towards a more egalitarian healthcare and were assigned a subject position to cope with a practical reality they could not change. Second, the teacher and student were assigned a subject position that embodied profession-specific identities, navigating and valuing these boundaries. Simultaneously, both teachers and students assumed a subject position that required interprofessional interaction and co-creation for teaching and learning PCC. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the discursive tension surrounding the implementation of PCC in HEI, and the findings can serve as a basis for creating future relevant and high-quality learning activities. The process of negotiating diverse and co-existing perspectives as well as building interprofessional trust when incorporating PCC into higher education is essential and requires further exploration.

Technological Literacy as a Framework for Health Professions Education in the Digital Era.

With increasing use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in health, and rapid technological changes, there is a pressing need to prepare current and future health professionals to use ICTs as an integral part of their practice. We propose the Technological Literacy Framework, which includes 3 interlinked elements-knowledge, capabilities, and critical thinking and decision making-as an overarching structure for organizing and designing competencies, learning objectives, and educational interventions for health professions education in the digital era. We provide examples of EHR and telehealth educational interventions and how they map to the framework.

Teaching Artificial Intelligence to Medical Students.

Among the measures taken by UVVG to modernize the educational process is the pioneering undertaking regarding the introduction of a course on Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM). Such an action has to face several challenges, at three levels, starting from its inclusion in the curricular vision of the university, its positioning in the didactic program as well as the content of the syllabus suitable for medical students. The first part presents the necessity and opportunity of introducing the course in the current context of the rapid growth of AIM applications. The second part refers to the concrete implementation of the introduction of the course in the curriculum, while the last and most developed part is dedicated to the preparation of the syllabus starting from the premises that the field is growing very fast and we should provide the basic knowledge to assure an easy understanding and a smooth assimilation of further developments.

Teaching and Evaluating the Virtual Physical Exam in Telemedicine.

With the rapid adoption of telemedicine since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become imperative to teach and evaluate health professional trainees on skills important to conducting effective virtual visits. We developed a simulation-based workshop with (1) readings, (2) a lecture covering online communication and the virtual head and neck exam, (3) a telemedicine simulation with a standardized patient observed by faculty, (4) personalized feedback from faculty, and (5) a group debrief session. We created an evaluation rubric based on three of 20 Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) telemedicine competencies to assess learner performance during the simulations. Students (medical and physician assistant students; n = 50), and internal medicine residents (n = 20) completed this workshop in 2023. At least 90% of trainees across the two groups were rated as approaching entrustment or entrustable in each competency. This workshop is an example of a scalable telemedicine curriculum that can be used to teach and evaluate learners in the virtual physical exam across the training continuum.

Undergraduate Degree in Medical Data Science: A Conceptual Framework.

The undergraduate degree program in medical data science aims to train future data scientists with a medical lens to tackle healthcare challenges using a data-driven approach. The program is a collaborative effort within the Berlin University Alliance, addressing the lack of healthcare-focused data science education in Berlin and Germany. The curriculum covers mathematics, informatics, medical informatics, and medicine, featuring diverse didactic formats. Graduates will be equipped to lead data science and digital transformation projects in healthcare.

Mixed Reality in Medical Education - Introduction of a Practical Course Module.

With increasing digitalization in healthcare, there is growing potential for the use of Mixed Reality (MR) in medicine. In response to this, we developed a course to provide students with hands-on experience in MR and familiarize them with the technology. Utilizing the HoloLens 2, we designed an application enabling multiple users to interact with virtual objects overlaid on the real world and shared across devices. We used 3D heart anatomy models to let students discuss cardiovascular diseases together. We conducted a preliminary evaluation of our prototype, involving ten participants. The first test indicated a positive reception of the course, with students expressing keen interest in MR. With this work we share our experience to contribute to the field of MR applications.

Self-Reported Learning Strategies and Preferences in Health Informatics.

Despite the proliferation of educational programmes in Health Informatics (HI) worldwide, there is limited knowledge regarding students' preferences and learning strategies in HI courses. To address this gap, we conducted a study to gather and analyse data from three HI courses. Employing the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and theories of deep and surface learning, we designed a questionnaire to collect data. The analysis of students' responses indicates that machine learning emerges as one of the most interesting topics, while certain topics such as data wrangling of genomics data were more challenging for students. Students expressed a preference for sequential learning. They exhibited multimodal tendencies regarding the type of learning resources, with tendency to prefer learning resources that have more visual contents. In all three courses, learners reported using deep learning strategy rather than surface learning, yet they appear to struggle with employing organisation, elaboration, and peer learning tactics. This study provides valuable insights into HI education, offering recommendations for educators, learners, and researchers to enhance HI education.

Open Digital Health Workshops - A Model for Mutual Contact and Knowledge Exchange with the Local Community.

The increasing percentage of elderly in our society is challenging the health care system. To meet the challenge, we have implemented an experience-based master's programme in digital health care. The 3-yrs 90 ECTS programme consists of physical sessions of three days duration and weekly 2-3-hour digital lectures and bi-weekly supervisions. A main goal of the program has been to involve the students in relevant local and regional health problems as well as inviting health care personnel to participate in the planning of the study program, present relevant health problems and challenges and follow our open digital health workshops. In this way we have managed to create a stimulating learning environment for both students on further education and local and regional health care personnel.

Assessing Health Data Science Internships: A Comprehensive Study at the University of Lille.

Data Science emerged as a new cross-disciplinary discipline at the intersection of statistics, computer science, and expertise in a specific domain, such as health and biology. The data science field, alongside other data-related professions, is continuously evolving. We conducted a study examining tasks assigned to first-year internship students pursuing a Master's degree in Health Data Science, exploring the missions, technologies employed and skills required, and internship alignment with students' training through semi-structured interviews with 32 participants. Three quarters of the students were placed in teams within the public sector. Among these entities, there were 11 hospitals and 12 universities. Although the majority of students did their internship as part of a methodological team, they often had a healthcare professional on their team. Nearly half of the missions involved descriptive analysis, followed by 9 missions focused on etiology or prediction and 8 missions on implementing a data warehouse. The majority of students had to perform data management and produce graphs, while only half conducted statistical analysis. The findings highlighted that data management remains a major challenge, and it should be taken into consideration when designing training programs. In future, it remains to determine whether this trend will continue with second-year students or if, with experience, they are more often assigned statistical analyses.

Futureproofing Medical Education Through Scenario Analysis: Instrumental Case Study.

Developments in technology and climate change, as well as other "megatrends" are having lasting impacts in society and healthcare. A scenario analysis was conducted to explore the impact of megatrends on medical education. Three scenarios were developed for the year 2035, showing varying levels of technological integration and environmental focus. Implications for an updated curricula focus on health inequalities, digital health, and globalization effects.

Continuing Educational Program in Nursing Informatics for Greek Nurses.

Nurses are required to adapt to a complex and rapidly evolving environment that incorporates new IT technologies. Continuing, lifelong learning, especially in the fast-growing fields of Nursing Informatics, eHealth and related Information and Communication Technologies, is vital to the professionalism of nurses. The study presents the curriculum development and implementation of the educational project entitled "Training of Nurses in Nursing Informatics and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)" which has been designed and offered to Greek nurses as a continuing - lifelong online educational program by the Health Informatics Laboratory of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The training material was created in three modules and 29 sub-modules, considering the new advancements and recommended competencies, necessary for the nurse, in the fields of Nursing Informatics and ICT. So far, eight training cycle courses have been offered to 1388 nurses, free of charge. Each course integrates synchronous and asynchronous distance learning methods and requires a workload of 70 hours over 10 weeks. The initial evaluation of the course by the participants, concerning its effectiveness, usefulness, and innovation are very encouraging.