Lecturers’ perceptions: the value of assessment rubrics for informing teaching practice and curriculum review and development

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2015.1110907The assessment rubric is increasingly gaining recognition as a valuable tool in teaching and learning in higher education. While many studies have examined the value of rubrics for students, research into the lecturers’ usage of rubrics is limited. This article explores the lecturers’ perceptions of rubrics, in particular, its use and design, the role it can play in informing one's teaching practice and in curriculum review and development. The data shows that many lecturers use the rubric in a very mechanical and unconscious manner and view it mostly as a grading tool with limited instructional value. While acknowledging the rubric as a reflective tool for students, lecturers do not perceive it as having the same benefits for them. The findings, therefore suggest more conversations around the role that rubrics can play in informing one's teaching practice and course design. It also suggests further research into this area.Web of Scienc

Corrigendum to “An automated blastomere identification method for the evaluation of day 2 embryos during IVF/ICSI treatments'' [Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 156 (2018) pp. 53–59](S016926071730843X)(10.1016/j.cmpb.2017.12.022)

“The authors wish to acknowledge financial support provided by the Research Committee of Technological Education Institute (TEI) of Central Mecedonia, Greece, under grant SAT/IC/030517-56/01”. © 201

An automated blastomere identification method for the evaluation of day 2 embryos during IVF/ICSI treatments

Purpose Evaluation of human embryos is one of the most important challenges in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs. The morphology and the morphokinetic parameters of the early cleaving embryo are of critical clinical importance. This stage spans the first 48 h post-fertilization, in which the embryo is dividing in smaller blastomeres at specific time-points. The morphology, in combination with the symmetry of the blastomeres seems to be powerful features with strong prognostic value for embryo evaluation. To date, the identification of these features is based on human inspection in timed intervals, at best using camera systems that simply work as surveillance systems without any precise alerting and decision support mechanisms. The purpose of the study presented in this paper was to develop a computer vision technique to automatically detect and identify the most suitable cleaving embryos (preferably at day 2 post-fertilization) for embryo transfer (ET) during IVF/ICSI treatments. Methods and results To this end, texture and geometrical features were used to localize and analyze the whole cleaving embryo in 2D grayscale images captured during in vitro embryo formation. Because of the ellipsoidal nature of blastomeres, the contour of each blastomere was modeled with an optimal fitting ellipse while the mean eccentricity of all ellipses is computed. The mean eccentricity in combination with the number of blastomeres forms the feature space on which the final criterion for the embryo evaluation was based. Conclusions Experimental results with low quality 2D grayscale images demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed technique and provided evidence of a novel automated approach for predicting embryo quality. © 201