Benchmarking Quality in Online Teaching and Learning: A Rubric for Course Construction and Evaluation

Online courses have many components and dimensions. Both the form (structure) and the content (expression) are situated in an overall environment. The sum of these elements results in student outcomes and learning. In order to facilitate construction and evaluate the quality of an online course, a four-part rubric was designed to reflect: Structure (Context, Organization, and Environment) Content (Presentation of Information) Processes (Relationships and Interactions) Outcomes (Mastery of Content and Course Evaluation) This rubric was designed to provide quantitative and qualitative standardized evaluation for faculty self-evaluation, peer evaluation, and administrator evaluation. The rubric was piloted at two universities and shown to be highly effective in eliciting effective and usable feedback for course instructors and program directors. It was concluded that a uniform rubric that can be applied to any discipline could facilitate evaluation of all online courses within a program to a set standard that can then be used for course enhancement and improvement with structured comprehensive evaluation from instructors, peers, or program directors. It was found that a well-designed course (structure), with relevant and credible information (content), as well as mechanisms for interaction and collaboration (processes), could result in enhanced student learning (outcomes)

Association of plasma uric acid with ischaemic heart disease and blood pressure: mendelian randomisation analysis of two large cohorts

Objectives: To assess the associations between both uric acid levels and hyperuricaemia, with ischaemic heart disease and blood pressure, and to explore the potentially confounding role of body mass index. Design: Mendelian randomisation analysis, using variation at specific genes (SLC2A9 (rs7442295) as an instrument for uric acid; and FTO (rs9939609), MC4R (rs17782313), and TMEM18 (rs6548238) for body mass index). Setting: Two large, prospective cohort studies in Denmark. Participants: We measured levels of uric acid and related covariables in 58 072 participants from the Copenhagen General Population Study and 10 602 from the Copenhagen City Heart Study, comprising 4890 and 2282 cases of ischaemic heart disease, respectively. Main outcome: Blood pressure and prospectively assessed ischaemic heart disease. Results: Estimates confirmed known observational associations between plasma uric acid and hyperuricaemia with risk of ischaemic heart disease and diastolic and systolic blood pressure. However, when using genotypic instruments for uric acid and hyperuricaemia, we saw no evidence for causal associations between uric acid, ischaemic heart disease, and blood pressure. We used genetic instruments to investigate body mass index as a potentially confounding factor in observational associations, and saw a causal effect on uric acid levels. Every four unit increase of body mass index saw a rise in uric acid of 0.03 mmol/L (95% confidence interval 0.02 to 0.04), and an increase in risk of hyperuricaemia of 7.5% (3.9% to 11.1%). Conclusion: By contrast with observational findings, there is no strong evidence for causal associations between uric acid and ischaemic heart disease or blood pressure. However, evidence supports a causal effect between body mass index and uric acid level and hyperuricaemia. This finding strongly suggests body mass index as a confounder in observational associations, and suggests a role for elevated body mass index or obesity in the development of uric acid related conditions

Understanding the first injury in athletics and its effect on dropout from sport:An online survey on 544 high-level youth and junior athletics (track and field) athletes

Objective To describe the first injury and to investigate whether it plays a role in altering athletics’ sustainable practice.Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study using an exploratory survey on the first injury and its consequences on athletics practice. In 2021, we asked all high-level athletes licensed with the French Federation of Athletics (FFA) under 18 years, under 20 years and under 23 years categories between 2007 and 2021.Results Out of 6560 emails sent by FFA, 544 athletes responded, and 93.6% (n=510) reported experiencing at least one injury during their career. The first injury occurred at a mean age of 17.5±3.3 years after 6.1±4.1 years of athletics practice. The main locations of the first injury were the posterior thigh (28.9%), the ankle (16.5%) and the knee (12.6%), and the principal reported injury types were muscle (37.7%), tendon (17.5%) and ligament (15.5%). More than a third of injured athletes (36.7%) reported experiencing ongoing symptoms or sequelae after their first injury, and about half (48.5%) experienced recurrences. About 20% had stopped athletics at the time of the survey, with injury problems the primary cause of athletes dropping out (46.2%), including the first injury (9.4%).Conclusions Injuries played an important role in altering sustainable athletics practice, with injury accounting for about 50% of all reported dropouts and the first injury accounting for about 10% of all reported causes. Our results provide evidence to target the prevention of the first injury, which could be considered the origin of the ‘vicious circle’ of injuries

A cross-sectional study of retired Great British Olympians (Berlin 1936 - Sochi 2014):Olympic career injuries, joint health in later life, and reasons for retirement from Olympic sport

The relationship between Olympic career sport injury and the long-term musculoskeletal health of the elite athlete remains unclear. This study describes the lifetime prevalence of medical attention injuries that occurred during training and/or competition as part of the athlete’s Olympic career, reasons for retirement from Olympic sport, and the point prevalence of pain and osteoarthritis (OA) among retired Great Britain’s (GB) Olympians