Students’ acceptance of e-learning approaches in Laboratory Animal Science Training

Different online courses and training programs in Laboratory Animal Science (LAS) have emerged across Europe in recent years. E-learning appears to be a promising solution to achieve flexibility in training while meeting the quality criteria of demanding programs in short training periods. However, little is known about how students perceive e-learning in this context, and there is also a lack of specific and valid instruments to measure this perception. Within an exploratory study framework, the e-learning perception of 229 participants in 15 courses in Portugal using two different online training formats, flipped classroom and full online theoretical training, was assessed. For this purpose, the Questionnaire of E-learning Acceptance (QELA), a 32-item accordance Likert-type scale comprising five subscales was developed to explore the following: how participant perceive e-learning, satisfaction with organization and contents, perception of e-learning relevance for the time management, and its influence for practical training. In general, e-learning was well accepted and perceived to work well and be useful by the majority of courses participants, independently of the course level and e-learning format approach. These results indeed suggest that integration of e-learning is useful in LAS training. We also propose the QELA as a starting point for development and implementation of specific instruments to assess e-learning acceptance in LAS across a wider range of geographical and training contexts.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup- port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is a result of the project funded by Norte- 01-0145-FEDER000008 – Porto Neurosciences and Neurologic Disease Research Initiative at I3S, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)

Scientists’ perception of ethical issues in nanomedicine - a case study

Research and development in nanomedicine has been accompanied by the consideration of ethical issues; however, little is known about how researchers working in this area perceive such issues. Extracting data from 22 semi-structured interviews with nanomedicine practitioners, this case study explores scientists’ attitude towards and knowledge of ethical issues. We found that scientists reflect with ambiguity on the reputed novelty of nanomedicine and what are ethical issues and risks in their work. Respondents see no necessity for a paradigm shift in ethical considerations, but view ethical issues in nanomedicine as overlapping with those of other areas of biomedical research. Most respondents discuss ethical issues they faced in scientific work with their colleagues but expect benefit from additional information and training on ethics. Our findings can contribute to the design of new strategies - including training programs - to engage scientists in ethical discussion and stimulate their responsibility as nanomedicine practitioners

The assessment of researchers' competence in experimental procedures with laboratory animals: A three-step methodology to develop a global rating scale

To conduct animal experiments, researchers must be competent to handle and perform interventions on living animals in compliance with regulations. Laboratory animal science training programs and licensing bodies therefore need to be able to reliably ensure and certify the professional competence of researchers and technicians. This requires access to assessment strategies which can verify knowledge as well as capturing performative and behavioral dimensions of assessment. In this paper, we describe the process of developing different global rating scales measuring candidates’ competence in a performative assessment. We set out the following sequence, with three crucial phases, in the process of scale development: (A) Item Development, (B) Scale Development, and (C) Piloting of the Scale. We note each phase’s different sub-steps. Despite the emergent need to ensure the competence of researchers using animals in scientific procedures, to our best knowledge there are very few species and procedure/skill specific assessment tools for this purpose, and the assessment methodology literature in the field is very limited. This paper provides guidance for those who need to develop and assess proficiency in laboratory animal procedures by setting out a method that can be used to create the required tools and illustrating how competence assessment strategies can be implemented.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: this work is a result of the project funded by Norte01- 0145-FEDER-000008 – Porto Neurosciences and Neurologic Disease Research Initiative at i3S, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)