Towards Automated Assessment of Learning Management Systems in Higher Education Institutions in Zambia

Zambia like any other country in most African regions is still grappling with the dynamics of harnessing technology for the betterment of Higher Education. The onset of the Covid 19 pandemic brought a test for the preparedness of the Zambian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in harnessing technology for pedagogical activities. As countries worldwide switched to electronic learning during the pandemic, the same could not be said for Zambian HEIs. Zambian HEIs struggled to conduct pedagogical activities on learning management platforms. This study investigated the factors affecting the implementation and assessment of learning Management systems in Zambia’s HEIs. With its focus on assessing: 1) system features, 2) compliance with regulatory standards, 3) quality of service and 4) technology acceptance as the four key assessment areas of an LMS, this article proposed a model for assessing learning management systems in Zambian HEIs. To test the proposed model, a software tool was also developed.

A Practical Study on Value-Added Assessment in Primary English Education

As a programmatic document to guide the reform of educational assessment,the“General Plan for Deepening the Reform of Educational Assessment in the New Era”clearly points out the requirement for exploring value-added assessment[1].In the process of exploring,Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System(TVAAS),which was implemented in Tennessee,United States in 1992,has a certain referential significance to the practice of assessment reform in primary English education[2].This study aims to build a value-added assessment model in line with China’s learning conditions by using big data and carry out pilot experiments in order to promote the development of educational assessment in primary schools.

Research on the Reform of the Process-Tracking Ideological and Political Assessment System in Applied Universities:Taking the Personal Finance Course as an Example

Using the Xi’an Mingde Institute of Technology students as the teaching object and the Personal Finance course as an example,we explore the reform of the ideological and political assessment system of process-tracking courses in applied universities.The article analyzes the feasibility of applying the curriculum ideological and political assessment system in college courses and compares the traditional assessment system.It also proposes that applying curriculum ideological and political assessment to the college curriculum assessment system will help improve students’understanding of the“value guidance”in curriculum ideological and political education and enhance the teaching effect.

Performance in the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery: Does it reflect global rating scales in the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills in porcine laparoscopic surgery?

Objective:To correlate the utility of the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery(FLS)manual skills program with the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills(OSATS)global rating scale in evaluating operative performance.Methods:The Asian Urological Surgery Training and Educational Group(AUSTEG)Laparoscopic Upper Tract Surgery Course implemented and validated the FLS program for its usage in laparoscopic surgical training.Delegates’basic laparoscopic skills were assessed using three different training models(peg transfer,precision cutting,and intra-corporeal suturing).They also performed live porcine laparoscopic surgery at the same workshop.Live surgery skills were assessed by blinded faculty using the OSATS rating scale.Results:From March 2016 to March 2019,a total of 81 certified urologists participated in the course,with a median of 5 years of post-residency experience.Although differences in task time did not reach statistical significance,those with more surgical experience were visibly faster at completing the peg transfer and intra-corporeal suturing FLS tasks.However,they took longer to complete the precision cutting task than participants with less experience.Overall OSATS scores correlated weakly with all three FLS tasks(peg transfer time:r=0.331,r^(2)=0.110;precision cutting time:r=0.240,r^(2)=0.058;suturing with intracorporeal knot time:r=0.451,r^(2)=0.203).Conclusion:FLS task parameters did not correlate strongly with OSATS globing rating scale performance.Although FLS task models demonstrated strong validity,it is important to assimilate the inconsistencies when benchmarking technical proficiency against real-life operative competence,as evaluated by FLS and OSATS,respectively.

A Study on the Educational Significance Guidance Plan Value of the Jumong Myth Using STEAM

Jumong is a legendary figure in Korean mythology.He is depicted as a genius archer,a brilliant mind with horses,a god who rules the rivers and the sky.Jumong is a mythical character who is believed to be of divine descent and to possess superhuman abilities that humans cannot match.The myth of Jumong is a very competitive content that can compete on a global scale.However,in order for it to be successful,it is necessary to be able to reinterpret our mythology to suit the times and reproduce it culturally.To this end,the realistic globalization of Korean classical literature should commence with the genre of Korean mythology.This paper presents the educational significance of the Jumong myth as a teaching-learning model,via STEAM(science,technology,engineering,arts,and mathematics),on the theme of Korean mythology.As we enter the era of artificial intelligence(AI)through the 4th Industrial Revolution,the most appropriate teaching and learning method,the convergence class,will provide an opportunity for students living in modern times to discover the cultural archetypes that allow them to recognise themselves as individuals and us as a collective,and to find the roots of the myth to positively renew their identity.Furthermore,it is my hope that they will rediscover and appreciate the representative work of Korean mythology,Gojomong,the eponymous story of Goguryeo.

Behavior analysis and formative assessments in online oral medicine education during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND During the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic,traditional teaching methods were disrupted and online teaching became a new topic in education reform and informatization.In this context,it is important to investigate the necessity and effectiveness of online teaching methods for medical students.This study explored stomatology education in China to evaluate the development and challenges facing the field using massive open online courses(MOOCs)for oral medicine education during the pandemic.AIM To investigate the current situation and challenges facing stomatology education in China,and to assess the necessity and effectiveness of online teaching methods among medical students.METHODS Online courses were developed and offered on personal computers and mobile terminals.Behavioral analysis and formative assessments were conducted to evaluate the learning status of students.RESULTS The results showed that most learners had already completed MOOCs and achieved better results.Course behavior analysis and student surveys indicated that students enjoyed the learning experience.However,the development of oral MOOCs during the COVID-19 pandemic faced significant challenges.CONCLUSION This study provides insights into the potential of using MOOCs to support online professional learning and future teaching innovation,but emphasizes the need for careful design and positive feedback to ensure their success.

A study evaluating the effect of Educational Needs Assessment Tool (ENAT) focused patient education, on health outcomes in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Protocol of an ongoing study

Aims and objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of a patient education tool (the ENAT) on self efficacy, patient knowledge, health outcomes and its usability in practice. Background: The effectiveness and value of patient education in rheumatoid arthritis have been questioned. The ENAT was developed to help the nurses to provide more focused, individualized and relevant education. The psychometric properties of the ENAT have been assessed. Design: This study is a single blind randomized controlled trial using both quantitative and qualitative methodology. The primary outcome is patient self efficacy. Secondary outcomes are physical function, psychological status, pain levels, social interaction and patient knowledge of disease. Methods: 130 RA patients will be randomized into an experimental (EG) or control group (CG). The EG patients will complete the ENAT prior to seeing a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) at weeks 0, 16 and 32. The CNS will use the ENAT as a template to meet patients perceived educational needs in addition to the usual care. The CG will receive their usual care from the CNS without the aid of the ENAT. To determine the ENAT’s usability, semi-structured quailtative interviews will take place with the practitioners and a sample of patients once they have completed the quantitative arm of the study. Results: The study commenced in April 2011 and the results are expected to be available after April 2013. Conclusions: It is hypothesized that nurses’ use of the ENAT will lead to increased patient self efficacy, and improved patient knowledge and health outcomes among the patients who used it. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the ENAT will be easy for staff and patients to use. Relevance to clinical practice: The ENAT was developed to assess the perceived educational needs of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and thus help the nurses to provide more focused, individualised and relevant education.

Assessment Methods Used during Clinical Years of Undergraduate Medical Education at Moi University School of Medicine, Kenya

Background: Assessment is the systematic collection, review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken to improve teaching and learning. It ensures quality in training programmes, motivates, and directs students’ learning. Assessment is also used for verification of achievement of objectives of training, feedback to students, licencing, certification, and screening of students for advanced training. It is guided by several principles, including the aims of the assessment (why assess), who to assess, timing (when to assess), what to assess, methods (how to assess), and the criteria for determining the usefulness of the assessment. Objective: To describe the assessment methods used during clinical years of the undergraduate programme at Moi University School of Medicine (MUSOM) and determine the student’s perspectives concerning the comprehensiveness, relevance, objectivity of various assessment methods and challenges faced. Methodology: The study was carried out at MUSOM and a cross-sectional study design was employed. Ten study participants were studied using convenience sampling. Data were collected using an interview guide and was analyzed using content analysis. An informed consent was obtained from the study participants. Results: The methods used during clinical years at MUSOM for assessing knowledge and its applications include multiple-choice questions (MCQ), short answer questions (SAQ), modified essay questions (MEQ), long essay questions (LEQ), and oral exam. Whereas the methods for assessing clinical competence include long case, short cases, objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE), and logbook. Students felt that MCQs were comprehensive, objective, and relevant to the curriculum content. They reported that feedback was not provided after assessments. Conclusion: The assessment methods used at MUSOM during clinical years include MCQ, SAQ, MEQ, LEQ, Short cases, long cases, and OSCE. Students reported varied perceptions of the different assessment methods but favored MCQ and OSCE over other formats for assessing knowledge and clinical skills respectively.

Pre-Operative Assessment and Education

Introduction: Surgery is a major event in an individual’s life. The complete surgical episode is known as perioperative period. Perioperative nursing in general includes three phases;pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative. The first and initial phase (pre-operative) involves the rendering of nursing care to the patients who are planned to undergo surgery (Spry, 2005) [1]. It was evident through literature that during this phase, assessment and education of the patient is the prime responsibility of health care providers to minimize the risk during the surgery and to have better outcomes of the patients. Hence, a seven weeks project was initiated at surgical care units of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. In this project, based on the need assessment, education sessions were conducted for the health care workers which were followed by the distribution of flash cards for their references. In addition, file review and pre operative patient’s interview was conducted for the outcome evaluation. Purpose: To create awareness among healthcare workers to minimize the risk of morbidity and mortality of patients undergoing surgery and to reinforce nurses of surgical areas for the accurate assessment and education of patients, undergoing surgery. Methodology: All three surgical care units of the University teaching hospital were selected as project site and to conduct the project, permission and verbal consent was obtained from manager of these units. A total of 30 patients undergoing surgery were included in the project and were followed for their complete pre-operative assessment and education by nurses and other health care workers. For the data collection, a tool for pre operative assessment and education was developed. Based on the assessment, altogether three educational sessions were conducted for all health care workers working in the surgical care areas. Data was tabulated in Excel and percentages were calculated to analyze the data of before and after the education sessions. Results: Results revealed that education sessions increased the health care worker’s knowledge for assessing all the necessary components of a patient before surgery. Additionally, these sessions enhanced nurses’ awareness regarding the risks the patients might undergo before and after the surgery and how to prevent those risks through a thorough assessment and education of preoperative patients. Conclusion: Nurses and other health care providers should perform a complete and thorough assessment and provide necessary education to patients’ undergoing surgery in order to reduce the bounce back rate from operating room and to avoid any kind of risk for their patients undergoing for any surgical procedure.

Assessing an Educational Program to Improve Documentation and Reduce Pain in Hospitalized Patients

Few experimental studies have evaluated the efficacy of continuing educational programs aimed at the improvement of nurses’ pain-management skills. This study assessed whether a standardized educational program aimed at nurses could increase the use of the Numeric Rating Scale-11 in both documenting and reducing postoperative pain-intensity levels in hospitalized surgical patients. The study had a quasi-experimental pre- and post-intervention design. Data were collected from records of surgical patients prior to and after the standardized educational program was completed. There were no significant differences between pre- and post-intervention groups in terms of either pain-documentation frequency or pain-intensity level. The study showed no increase in the frequency of postoperative pain documentation and no reduction of surgical patients’ postoperative pain-intensity level. This finding indicates that the standardized educational program on postoperative pain management was insufficient to bring about changes in clinical practice.

Research on the Reform and Practice of “Basic Nursing Skills Practice” Course Assessment

Objective: “Basic Nursing Skills Practice” is a key course connecting classroom and clinical teaching in nursing specialty teaching. Nursing practice ability is one of the core abilities of nurse practitioners. Therefore, the teaching quality of this course is directly related to the quality of nursing work. To improve the teaching quality of practical course, the assessment reform of the “Basic Nursing Skills Practice” course was carried out among the nursing undergraduates to explore a reasonable and fair assessment mechanism. Method: In the assessment of “Basic Nursing Skills Practice” course, the assessment included individual skill operation assessment, virtual simulation assessment and team comprehensive skill assessment. The assessment proportion was adjusted from 100% for the final examination to 50% for the middle and final examinations respectively. The assessment method was changed from individual skills assessment at the end of the term to a combination of individual skills assessment at the midterm and virtual simulation assessment and team skills assessment at the end of the term. The method has changed from summative evaluation to a combination of formative evaluation and summative evaluation, and self-made questionnaire was used to investigate the effect. Results: After implementing the assessment reform, 86.84% of the students were satisfied with the assessment reform, and the percentage of students with scores above 80 reached 100%. The highest score is 93.0, while the lowest score is 83.0, and the average score was 88.0. Conclusions: High satisfaction of students with basic nursing skills examination reform promoted the learning effectiveness and professional emotions, cultivated comprehensive quality and ability, promoted the realization of talent training objectives.

Discussion on the Graduation Practical Ability Assessment Model for Master of Nursing Specialist Students

Objective: To explore graduation practical ability assessment mode of graduate students in nursing (Master of Nursing Specialist, MNS). Methods: All 28 MNS 2020th graduate students in a university were selected as subjects by convenient sampling method, using the improved 4-station objective structured examination (Objective Structured Clinical Examination, OSCE) model. The assessment content included nursing assessment, nursing diagnosis, basic nursing operation, specialist nursing operation, theoretical written test and oral test and overall evaluation. And self-made questionnaire was used to evaluate the effect of the assessment model and the improvement of clinical practice ability of graduate students. Results: The overall satisfaction rate of graduation assessment was 89.51%, the overall satisfaction rate of graduation assessment mode and practical ability improvement evaluation was 84.66%, the pass rate of assessment results was 100%, and the excellent rate was 71.42%. Conclusion: The MNS graduation practical ability assessment model has a high degree of satisfaction, objectively evaluates the knowledge, skills, attitudes and emotions of graduate students, promotes the comprehensive quality and ability of graduate students, which is worthy of promotion.

Education Programs for Invasive Procedures Involving Nurses: A Scoping Review

Background: Implementing invasive procedures is an important part of patient management by clinical nurses;however, there are gaps between nurses’ actual knowledge and skills and expected professional care capacity. Purpose: This scoping review aimed to map the existing literature related to recent institution-provided educational programs for invasive procedures involving clinical nurses. This study seeks to understand the contents of educational programs and the methods for assessing educational effects. Methods: This scoping review was completed using the following four databases: PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase, Cochrane Library, and Emcare for the period 2000-2022. We included studies that used all forms of educational approaches (e.g., didactic lectures, hands-on training, or on-the-job training). This scoping review considered peer-reviewed publications published in English using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed approaches. A total of 83 studies underwent in the final analysis. Results and Conclusion: A combination of didactic lectures and hands-on training was provided as an educational program in most studies. Contrary to our prediction, educational interventions with advanced technologies such as VR are extremely rare, suggesting that the effectiveness of advanced technologies in learning invasive procedures should be examined to facilitate and retain educational effects more efficiently in future studies. Regarding the assessment of educational effects, nurses’ cognitive (i.e., theoretical knowledge about procedures), psychomotor (i.e., implementing procedures), and psychological aspects (e.g., confidence and self-efficacy in procedures) were evaluated using questionnaires and observational methods. While most studies used a one-group pretest-posttest design, the ratio of randomized controlled trials (RCT) was relatively low. Thus, an RCT design should be introduced in future studies to test the validity of the developed educational program more accurately.

Teaching Physical Assessment and Disease Screening to Students in the Health Professions: A Focus in Pharmacy Education

Background: As pharmacists continue to transition into the provision of public health care, physical assessment and disease screening will become part of their everyday practice, in a similar manner that it has been for doctors and nurses. Objective: The aim was to describe the health assessment of undergraduate curricula across three disciplines involved in public health care and to explore the students’ perceived training in a variety of health assessments. Method: Instructors of courses related to health assessment in medicine, nursing, and pharmacy colleges in Qatar were invited to participate in the curriculum review process. Students’ perceived training in a variety of health assessments was assessed using a self-administered survey. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the survey responses. Results: A narrative description for the similarities and differences in the health assessment curricula across the three colleges was provided. Blood pressure, heart rate, and heart sounds were the health assessments that almost all students received training on, although there were differences in where the training was delivered. The health assessments that the students perceived having received least training on were measuring bone mineral density, blood cholesterol and international normalized ratio reported by only 37%, 41% and 44% of students, respectively. Conclusion: The study identified a close alignment between each of the health discipline’s scope of practice and the health assessment content taught in each individual program. It also identified possible curricular gaps towards learning the skills of patient assessment that may need to be addressed.

Study on the Influence of AI Composition Software on Students'Creative Ability in Music Education

Generative AI technology for human-assisted tools has made great strides in recent years,and studying the impact of this technology on students'compositional abilities plays an important role in promoting changes in music education.Previous studies have focused on the performance of music composition software itself in terms of composition,with less consideration given to the impact of creators'compositional ability after using assistive composition tools.Thus,this paper designs a controlled experiment to investigate the changes in students'compositional ability before and after using AI composition tools.This paper finds that students'compositional abilities in all areas of composition improved to varying degrees after using AI composition tools.This paper compares the differences in compositional abilities of students with and without the education of AI composition tools,which has practical implications for vigorously promoting the adoption of AI composition tools in university music education teaching.

Research on the Performance Assessment Mechanism of Accurate Poverty Alleviation in Vocational Education

Vocational education is an effective way to achieve accurate poverty alleviation and get rid of intergenerational poverty.Vocational education is mainly to train skilled talents,not only to provide academic education for the children of poor families,but also to use a skill to achieve employment.It is of great necessity to implement accurate poverty alleviation in vocational education,and performance assessment is a very important part of the accurate poverty alleviation work of vocational education.This paper mainly analyzes the predicament of accurate poverty alleviation in vocational education and the problems in the construction of performance assessment system for accurate poverty alleviation in vocational education,and puts forward measures to improve the accurate poverty alleviation assessment system for vocational education and strengthen the accurate of vocational education.

＂Reading and Writing Assessment＂： An Effective Model of the Student-based Education

Student-based education is a teaching method targeted in students＇ willingness to learn. Teachers must not only know how to change their teaching philosophy, more importantly, to explore the specific implementation methods in practice. ＂Reading and Writing Assessment＂ can effectively reflect this teaching philosophy. Students, in the whole learning process, through independent reading, writing, communication and evaluation, can achieve active learning and creative learning, It is proved that this is a good way of teaching.

Socio-Economic and Health Indicators’ Relation to Self-Assessed Health: A Case Study of Phai Tha Pho, Phichit Province, Thailand

Background: Self-assessed health (SAH) is used as a common method of sociology research to understand the implications of self-reported health and the link to social factors like education, income, and occupation. The paper explores the impact of socio-economic and health indicators on self-assessed health in the middle-aged to the senior population in a rural community in Thailand. Methods: Primary data were collected after conducting a randomized sampling for 100 people using direct interviews in two locations within the sub-district of Phai Tha Pho, Thailand. The target demographic was the middle-age to elderly population. A logit model was applied to the collected samples. Results: The study highlights that higher education, income, and sleep are high predictors for positive SAH while high blood sugar level has significant adverse effects on SAH. Detection of metabolic syndrome further indicates degraded overall health perception over time. Conclusion: The study demonstrated the relationship between socio-economic indicators and illnesses alongside individual SAH in rural Thailand. Accordingly, policies have been proposed that include targeted subsidies for healthy food alternatives, promoting work-rest balance at all levels, and an expansion of sub-district education up to secondary school. SAH can be performed regularly and expanded across communities including areas of low-income living due to its low implementation costs. It could also be used as a tool to support the government’s public health initiatives complementing the existing five-year direct health check-up programme. A comparative study of SAH across regions is recommended for future research.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Assessment in Higher Vocational Education

Assessment is always considered to be an important component in the field of higher vocational education.It serves the purpose of evaluating students’achievement and supporting learning and teaching.Assessment plays a key role by relating the in structional activities to increase students’capabilities.The purpose aims to consider the notion of assessment as a prerequisite and will attempt to explore certain strengths and weaknesses of assessment associated with higher vocational education.Some different types and techniques of assessment in higher vocational education alongside their advantages and disadvantages will also be ex plored.