Evaluation of Real-Time Feedback via Telehealth: Training Staff to Conduct a Preference Assessment

Effective, efficient, and accessible staff training procedures are needed to meet the service delivery demand for treating individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The present study evaluated the effectiveness of delivering real-time feedback via telehealth to train staff to conduct multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessments. A nonconcurrent multiple-baseline- across-participants showed that remote real-time feedback was associated with short training times and minimal sessions to achieve mastery. Generalization and maintenance probes indicated these skills were transferable to other preference assessments (i.e., edible preference assessments) and learners (i.e., children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder)

Methods and Tools for Objective Assessment of Psychomotor Skills in Laparoscopic Surgery

Training and assessment paradigms for laparoscopic surgical skills are evolving from traditional mentor–trainee tutorship towards structured, more objective and safer programs. Accreditation of surgeons requires reaching a consensus on metrics and tasks used to assess surgeons’ psychomotor skills. Ongoing development of tracking systems and software solutions has allowed for the expansion of novel training and assessment means in laparoscopy. The current challenge is to adapt and include these systems within training programs, and to exploit their possibilities for evaluation purposes. This paper describes the state of the art in research on measuring and assessing psychomotor laparoscopic skills. It gives an overview on tracking systems as well as on metrics and advanced statistical and machine learning techniques employed for evaluation purposes. The later ones have a potential to be used as an aid in deciding on the surgical competence level, which is an important aspect when accreditation of the surgeons in particular, and patient safety in general, are considered. The prospective of these methods and tools make them complementary means for surgical assessment of motor skills, especially in the early stages of training. Successful examples such as the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery should help drive a paradigm change to structured curricula based on objective parameters. These may improve the accreditation of new surgeons, as well as optimize their already overloaded training schedules

In response to 'Celebrate citation: flipping the pedagogy of plagiarism in Qatar'

In her article (http://uobrep.openrepository.com/uobrep/handle/10547/335947) Molly McHarg makes several points that I agree with, particularly that for the majority of students the plagiarism is not deliberate but is due to a lack of understanding of how to reference correctly

Professional legal education in Scotland

Scotland is a small jurisdiction. With a legal profession of approximately 9000 solicitors and over 450 practicing advocates serving a population of around 5 million, our legal bar is smaller in size than the legal bar of many states in the United States.1 Our solutions to problems of professional education are appropriate to our jurisdictional size, our character, and our history. However, one theme of this Article is that common educational issues exist among jurisdictions despite differences in size or in legal structure. Another theme deals with a matter of particular concern in Scotland, namely the problem of educating for practice, and in particular creating the most effective forms of program and curriculum design for training and education at the professional stage. Part I of this Article summarizes the current Scottish professional legal education program, set in the context of the legal education and the legal profession generally. Part II illustrates some aspects of the professional education program with reference to a case study, the Diploma in Legal Practice at the Glasgow Graduate School of Law. Finally, this Article outlines some of the issues or themes from the Scottish experience that might be applicable to alternatives to the United States' Bar Exam

Evaluating virtual training methods to train caregivers of individuals with CHARGE syndrome to conduct brief functional analyses conditions

Literature assessing behavior among individuals with disabilities largely focuses on individuals with high incidence disabilities leaving a gap for those with rare, or low incidence, genetic syndromes. Specifically, individuals with CHARGE syndrome who exhibit a unique behavioral phenotype, as a result of numerous medical complexities, are absent in literature functionally assessing behavior. Because of this unique behavioral phenotype, caregivers of individuals with CHARGE Syndrome are likely to be most familiar and knowledgeable about their child’s behavior and should therefore be trained to be included in the functional assessment of behavior. Because CHARGE Syndrome is rare, families may have limited access to resources to adequately assess their child’s problem behavior, as well due to medical complexities, individuals with CHARGE may not be able to attend in-person assessment and ultimately treatment as a result of potential exposure to the novel COVID-19 virus. As a result, virtual training methods will allow more families to learn how to identify the cause of their child’s behavior and how to be involved in virtual behavioral assessments. This study evaluates virtual training methods focusing on training caregivers of individuals with CHARGE Syndrome to conduct brief functional analysis conditions

Seeing is believing: We are all converging

In a country (the UK) where huge personal investment is required to undertake legal education and training, it is right that an ever-increasing emphasis is placed on student satisfaction. Keeping students engaged is a key priority for universities and technology has a large role to play in this, whether in the context of face-to-face, wholly online or blended learning. The debate around where the line is drawn between engagement and entertainment rumbles on. Challenges exist in relation to information/digital and multimodal literacies, but there is much scope for innovation in teaching and learning thanks to emerging technologies. The article looks at ways in which those teaching in law could be inspired by other disciplines and methodologies, embedding literacies commonly dealt with outside the faculty, by librarians, technologists and designers within their curriculum

Finding Reinforcers: Using behavior skills training over telehealth to instruct educators to perform preference assessments with students.

Future and current educators working with students in an early childhood education setting should use positive reinforcement for their students to increase behaviors. If proper assessment of student preferences is ignored reinforcers used in a classroom will prove to be insufficient. The present research sought to determine the feasibility of using behavioral skill training (BST) over a telehealth platform to teach paired stimulus preference assessments to educators. The feasibility of this platform is evident by the rapid skill acquisition and mastery of two preschool educators who accurately completed the component skill necessary to develop a preferential hierarchy. This paper will address the successes and limitations associated with a telehealth training platform. Discussed are also future replications needed to establish this format as one that is effective across populations

Varying Feedback Strategy and Scheduling in Simulator Training: Effects on Learner Perceptions, Initial Learning, and Transfer

This experimental study investigated the effects of visual feedback on initial learning, perceived self-efficacy, workload, near transfer, far transfer, and perceived realism during a simulator-based training task. Prior studies indicate that providing feedback is critical for schema development (Salmoni, Schmidt, & Walter 1984; Sterman, 1994). However, its influence has been shown to dissipate and is not directly proportionate to the frequency at which it is given (Wulf, Shea, & Matschiner, 1998). A total of 54 participants completed the study forming six treatment groups. The independent treatment, visual feedback, was manipulated as scheduling (absolute—every practice trial or relative—every third trial) and strategies (gradual decrease of visual cues within the interface, gradual increase of visual cues within the interface, or a single consistent cue for each trial). Participants completed twelve practice trials of welding under one of six feedback manipulations; then, participants completed twelve practice trials of welding without it. Lastly, participants performed the weld task on actual equipment in a shop area. No treatment showed significant difference among groups with regard to initial learning, retention, near transfer, and far transfer measures. However, a statistical significance was found during initial learning and retention within each treatment group. Findings support empirical evidence that a variability of practice paradigm promotes learning (Lee & Carnahan, 1990; Shea & Morgan, 1979). Learner perceptions of realism suggest that novice learners perceive simulator fidelity as high, however, these perceptions may dissipate as the learner practices. Those groups that involved the greatest number of cues at the onset of practice or having cues available at every other trial reported the greatest amount of workload. All groups reported increases in perceptions of self-efficacy during practice on the simulator, but those perceptions decreased when participants performed the weld task on actual equipment. Findings suggest that contextual-interference of increasing, decreasing, or changing feedback counteracts the guidance effect of feedback as found in previous studies

Objective Assessment of Surgical Skills in a 2-Day Visceral Anastomoses Techniques Course held in the Annual Congress of the German Surgical Society (DGCH)

Introduction Simulation skill laboratories are being increasingly marketed from different institutions and are widely accepted in Europe and the United States of America (USA). Furthermore, residency training programs in the USA incorporate such laboratories into their residency curricula after having been mandated by the American College of Surgery (ACS) since 2008 and use them in the last few years to evaluate the competency of their surgical residents (Varban et al. 2013). Unlike to North America, the literature to date has shown a little or none about simulation skill laboratories and curricula in Europe, despite their existence in private institutes or few residency training programs. European training programs still rely mainly on traditional training methods and surgical simulators are still predominantly aimed at attracting attention at surgical equipment exhibitions. One of the well-known simulation skill laboratories in Germany is held yearly in the annual meetings of the German Society for Surgery (DGCH) since 2005. This skill laboratory is subdivided into different courses over four days with different modules in station-setting which include common trunk surgical skills, visceral laparoscopic techniques, and conventional visceral anastomoses techniques as well as courses in vascular and orthopedic surgery. A valid and reliable objective assessment tool was developed in Canada and is currently used widely by residency training programs in the USA and Canada to evaluate the efficacy of technical skill development outside the operating room in a bench setting. This tool is called, the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) (Martin et al. 1997; Ault et al. 2001). The aim of our study is to demonstrate the improvement of surgical skills through the participation in a selected training module using this validated international assessment tool (OSATS). Materials und Methods The visceral anastomoses course which includes five training modules on animal models and takes place over two days was selected for evaluation. Performance of the participants in one module (end-to-end bowel anastomoses) was measured by qualified surgeons using a task specific checklist at the beginning and at the end of the course with instructor to participant ratio 1 to 10. The improvement in OSATS scores pre-post the course was assessed using paired T-Test. Participants were asked to perform a baseline bowel anastomoses independent of the course and their scores were analyzed as a possible correlation factor with final OSATS scores. Demographic data of the participants as well as subjective evaluation forms were collected. Results A total of 38 surgical residents completed the 2-day visceral anastomoses course. The mean age was 34 ± 6 years. 58 % were males. Most of the participants were in their 4th and 5th year of residency training. 66% reported having performed ≤ 10 bowel anastomoses since the beginning of their surgical training. 21% were able to perform an end-to-end bowel anastomoses independent of the course in terms of self-reporting and scored a mean of 15 ± 3 in OSATS. OSATS scores improved significantly after completing the course (p= 0.000018) with a mean of 15.7 ± 3.5 vs. 18.8 ± 2.4 at the beginning and end of the course, respectively. In the regression analysis, factors like the ability to perform the procedure before the course, number of in-training so far performed bowel anastomoses or current level of surgical training did not predict the improvement of OSATS scores of the participants pre-post the curriculum (p= 0.6, 0.5 and 0.07, respectively). Furthermore, 95 % of the participants reported subjective improvement in their skills and all participants gave a positive answer when asked whether to include simulation laboratories into their residency curricula. Conclusions Our results show a significant improvement of the surgical skills of residents regardless of their training level after participating in the simulation course as measured by OSATS. We highly recommend the integration of simulation laboratories in the curricula of our national residency training programs as a complementary part of traditional surgical training in the OR