Trustworthiness in Sampling Selection: Remedies Against Introspective Chaos

The ethical dimension pertaining to protecting participants from psychological harm due to the in-depth nature of the inquiry and to the intimacy resulting from prolonged engagement is well-documented. This is laudable, but very few studies focused on guiding the researchers against chaotic emotions arising from introspectively questioning their beliefs and motivations and inspiring their judgments underlying their decisions. In our involvement with masters’ students’ thesis writing and research management training, supervision, and examination, we became aware of recurring cases of novice researchers silently disappearing from the program, eventually reappearing, continuously struggling with their thesis. Investigating this process, we identified the difficulty of becoming trustworthy researcher-instruments as the central issue leading to students disconnecting from their research. Students would disclose their anxiety of being accused of bias when defending their purposeful sampling. Therefore, we decided to equip them pre-emptively, helping them build their researchers’ expertise and confidence. Firstly, we disclosed our vulnerability from the perspective of the researchers’ awareness. Secondly, we exposed an intricate sampling case in terms of methodical considerations. Lastly, we provided a step-by-step demonstration of the initial, purposeful, and theoretical sampling selection process, illustrating the constant comparative analysis method, peer discussions and member reflections as safeguarding procedures towards trustworthiness

Shooting short videos in French with mobile phones

In Malaysia, the use of French language is virtually nonexistent. Furthermore, students who major in French frequently do not choose this program voluntarily; often it is chosen for them by a national clearing agency. In this context, how can we boost learners’ participation and motivation in a course they have not selected? In a blended approach of e-learning, and m-learning, students were asked to use both the internet and their mobile phones to produce multimedia documents. These resources were then shared and evaluated on an e-learning platform. Evaluations were both self-and peer conducted. During and after this project, quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Our findings reveal that participation and motivation were mutually increased. This was achieved by implicating the students in the learning process, from the conception to the distribution and finally evaluation of resources. As a result, communication skills were boosted and an online community was forged. Could these results have been obtained without the use of technology? It is probable that an activity where messages were pinned on a board could also have enhanced the learning process. However, it seems unlikely that learners would have attained such a rich level of communication without employing ICTs. Mobile phones are important in the learners’ culture and including this technology proved more effective than expected

Using a Non-Judgmental Stance to Promote Trustworthiness in Action Research

Interviewing as a primary source of data is subject to the trustworthiness of the respondents. As lecturers interviewing our students, we understand that the nature of our relationship could have an impact on the trustworthiness of our data. We believed that adopting a non-judgemental stance could resolve this issue. We implemented an action research to improve our teaching of French with Facebook on mobile phones. In order to provide all students with equal learning opportunities, we gave everyone a subsidy to cover the cost of mobile Internet access. We regularly interviewed our students to evaluate our action plan. In order to remain open to all interpretation of the events and to promote honest feedback, we openly adopted a non-judgmental stance. As a result, students freely revealed how they used funds, which were given to them, to access mobile Internet. Findings showed that not all students used the money as we had anticipated and that they spoke without restraints on the matter. Based on this behavior, we reflected on how this stance helped validate the trustworthiness of the data for the research and encouraged us to focus on not judging our informants

Improving the language classroom with Facebook on mobile phones

This paper relates an action research conducted in a French language course where Facebook on mobile phones were used instead of the university’s dedicated learning management system (LMS). The problems encountered when using the LMS were manifold: students were not able to initiate forum discussions, post multimedia documents and generally lacked the motivation to use the target language in the online environment. A study of the literature revealed that similar problems were resolved through the incorporation of social networking sites in the classroom. Furthermore, past studies have highlighted the pedagogical advantages of mobile learning with anywhere and anytime learning. Therefore, it was anticipated that combining Facebook with mobile phones could provide a solution through the affordances provided by both technologies. A two-cycle action research was conducted over the course of one semester with one cohort of students. Every student was provided with a smartphone and a permanent access to mobile Internet. All activities which were previously conducted on the LMS were transferred to Facebook. At the end of each cycle, semi-guided individual interviews were conducted with ten students to evaluate the new pedagogical setup. Data was subsequently coded and analysed with the ATLAS.ti software. Findings revealed the positive impact of using Facebook and mobile phones to promote motivation and participation. Although this research advocates using alternatives to the more classic LMS, several issues such as lack of privacy and cyber-quarrels were encountered. This paper offers solutions to facilitate the transition to a novel form of LMS empowering the students

Outcomes for HIV-associated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in the modern combined antiretroviral therapy era

International audienceObjective: Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) remains among the most frequent malignancies in persons living with HIV (PLWHIV). Survival among patients with HIV-associated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most frequent NHL subtype, has improved markedly in recent years. We aimed to analyze characteristics and outcomes of DLBCL in HIV-infected patients in the era of modern combined antiretroviral therapy (cART).Design: PLWHIV with lymphoma were prospectively enrolled in the French ANRS-CO16 Lymphovir cohort between 2008 and 2015. We compared the patients treated with R-CHOP) (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, daunorubicin, vin-cristine, prednisolone) with HIV-negative DLBCL patients enrolled simultaneously in the R-CHOP arms of Lymphoma Study Association trials.Results: Among 110 PLWHIV with NHL, 52 (47%) had systemic DLBCL. These 52 cases had frequent extranodal disease (81%), poor performance status (35%) and advanced age-adjusted international prognostic index (aaIPI) (58%), and were mainly treated with R-CHOP (n = 44, 85%). Their median CD4(+) T-cell count was 233 cells/mu l, and 79% of patients were on cART. The 2-year overall and progression-free survival rates were both 75% (95% confidence interval: 64%, 88%). Factors associated with progression or death in univariate analysis were poor performance status [hazard ratio: 3.3 (1.2, 8.9)], more than one extranodal site [hazard ratio: 3.4 (1.1, 10.5)] and an advanced aaIPI [hazard ratio: 3.7 (1.0, 13.1)]. Progression-free survival after R-CHOP therapy did not differ from that of the HIV-negative counterparts (P = 0.11).Conclusion: In the recent cART era, despite frequent high-risk features, the 2-year overall survival of HIV-DLBCL patients reaches 75%. Outcomes after R-CHOP therapy are similar to those of HIV-negative patients with similar aaIPI. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved

HCV or HBV coinfection and lymphoma risk in people living with HIV

International audienceObjective: Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis virus (HBV) infections are associated with increased risks of lymphomas in the non-HIV setting. Their impacts on HIV-associated lymphomas deserved further studies in the modern combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) era.Design: We evaluated the associations between HCV, HBV and HIV-related lymphomas in the Lymphovir-ANRS-CO16 cohort.Methods: Prevalence of HCV-seropositivity and chronic HBV infections were compared to those observed in the French Hospital Database on HIV (FHDH-ANRS-CO4).Results: Between 2008 and 2015, 179 patients with HIV-related lymphomas from 32 French hospitals were enrolled, 69 had Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) (39%), and 110 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) (61%). The prevalence of HCV infection was higher in patients with NHL than in the FHDH-ANRS-CO4 (26% versus 14%, Odd-Ratio (OR): 2.15; 95% confidence interval [1.35-3.32]) while there was no association between HL and chronic HCV infection. Chronic HBV infection was not associated with NHL in our cohort with a prevalence of 5% versus 7% in FHDH-ANRS-CO4 but tended to be associated with HL (prevalence of 14%, OR: 2.16 [0.98-4.27]). Chronic HCV infection tended to pejoratively impact 2-year overall survival in patients with NHL: 72% [57%, 91%] versus 82% [74%, 91%], Hazard-ratio: 2.14 [0.95-4.84]. In contrast, chronic HBV infection did not correlate with outcome.Conclusions: In the modern cART era, chronic HCV infection is associated with an increased risk of NHL in PLWHIV and tends to pejoratively impact overall survival. HBV infection is not associated with the risk of NHL but with a borderline increase of HL risk