Trialling HyFlex at TU Dublin – stakeholders’ voices and experiences

HyFlex is a multi-modal instructional approach that offers students the opportunity to engage with modules face-to-face and online in a mode that best suits their learning style and situation. Covid-19 forced many universities and lecturers to offer HyFlex opportunities. This emergency flip and required agility to deliver HyFlex provides the opportunity to learn from the experiences of using this mode of teaching and learning. This research presents the results of a survey of 44 lecturers who were part of the HyFlex Community of Practice (COP) or who were employing HyFlex in their practice, and 490 students who engaged with HyFlex at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), Ireland. Mini vignettes are used to provide deeper insight. Key findings are that HyFlex was viewed positively by both students and lecturers, and 92% of students would recommend this form of attendance in the future. From a lecturer\u27s perspective, key challenges related to the technology, student engagement and high cognitive load. The research showed that some students who avail of university learning supports preferred the HyFlex approach as it felt that it gave them equal opportunity and allowed them to learn in a way that suited them best. While the majority of students believe that the HyFlex approach resulted in the same level of academic rigour and quality as face-to-face delivery, several lecturers had some concerns. This research is valuable as it positions HyFlex as a feasible form of delivery at a time when a new University Educational Model (UEM) is being developed for TU Dublin. However, it is particularly valuable as it identifies key issues and gives voice to various stakeholders, which is important in terms of contributing to international and institutional debates and policies going forward regarding the changing pedagogical landscape post-Covid

Learning from and Engaging with Assessment and Feedback (LEAF): Growing Practice

The LEAF (Learning from and Engaging with Assessment and Feedback) project addressed a key issue in third-level teaching and learning: assessment and feedback. The LEAF team comprised 18 academics from across the TU Dublin City Campus and representatives from all Colleges, along with the Director of Student Affairs and the Students’ Union Education Officer. This paper presents the findings of the LEAF project. Assessment strategies have been shown to have a large impact on shaping student learning process strategies which feedforward into key employability skills. Learning from best practice, surveys from staff and students and analysis of the quality documents, the project developed a set of recommendations to enhance practices in assessment and feedback. Many challenges were identified over the course of this project in relation to the timeliness, amount and quality of feedback, assessment load, burden on staff and students, student expectations, monologue versus dialogue approach to feedback, inconsistency across programmes and poor integration of assessment and feedback into the academic quality framework. Key drivers identified throughout the project that are necessary to enhance assessment and feedback strategies include adequate resourcing, alignment of assessment with graduate attributes, inclusion of the student voice and more widespread use of technology

LEAF (Learning from and Engaging with Assessment and Feedback) Final project report

The LEAF (Learning from and Engaging with Assessment and Feedback) project was funded under the Teaching Fellowship in TU Dublin, city campus for 18 months beginning in January 2018. The project team comprised 18 academics from across the TU Dublin - City Campus and there are representatives from all colleges. Also included were two further members who represented the student voice: the Director of Student Affairs and the Students’ Union Education Officer. This project sought to address a key issue in third level Teaching and Learning, that of assessment and assessment feedback. Assessment strategies have been shown to have a large impact on shaping how students learn and how they develop key employability skills. Learning from best practice nationally and internationally, and research from staff, students and quality documents, this project has developed a set of recommendations which will enhance practices in, and experiences of, assessments and feedback in TU Dublin

Touch Receptor-Derived Sensory Information Alleviates Acute Pain Signaling and Fine-Tunes Nociceptive Reflex Coordination

Painful mechanical stimuli activate multiple peripheral sensory afferent subtypes simultaneously, including nociceptors and low-threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMRs). Using an optogenetic approach, we demonstrate that LTMRs do not solely serve as\ua0touch receptors but also play an important role\ua0in acute pain signaling. We show that selective activation of neuropeptide Y receptor-2-expressing (Npy2r) myelinated A-fiber nociceptors evokes abnormally exacerbated pain, which is alleviated by concurrent activation of LTMRs in a frequency-dependent manner. We further show that spatial summation of single action potentials from multiple NPY2R-positive afferents is sufficient to trigger nocifensive paw withdrawal, but additional simultaneous sensory input from LTMRs is required for normal well-coordinated execution of this reflex. Thus, our results show that combinatorial coding of noxious and tactile sensory input is required for normal acute mechanical pain signaling. Additionally, we established a causal link between precisely defined neural activity in functionally identified sensory neuron subpopulations and nocifensive behavior and pain

The somatostatin receptor-4 agonist J-2156 alleviates mechanical hypersensitivity in a rat model of breast cancer induced bone pain

In the majority of patients with breast cancer in the advanced stages, skeletal metastases are common, which may cause excruciating pain. Currently available drug treatments for relief of breast cancer-induced bone pain (BCIBP) include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and strong opioid analgesics along with inhibitors of osteoclast activity such as bisphosphonates and monoclonal antibodies such as denosumab. However, these medications often lack efficacy and/or they may produce serious dose-limiting side effects. In the present study, we show that J-2156, a somatostatin receptor type 4 (SST4 receptor) selective agonist, reverses pain-like behaviours in a rat model of BCIBP induced by unilateral intra-tibial injection of Walker 256 breast cancer cells. Following intraperitoneal administration, the ED50 of J-2156 for the relief of mechanical allodynia and mechanical hyperalgesia in the ipsilateral hindpaws was 3.7 mg/kg and 8.0 mg/kg, respectively. Importantly, the vast majority of somatosensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia including small diameter C-fibres and medium-large diameter fibres, that play a crucial role in cancer pain hypersensitivities, expressed the SST4 receptor. J-2156 mediated pain relief in BCIBP-rats was confirmed by observations of a reduction in the levels of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (pERK), a protein essential for central sensitisation and persistent pain, in the spinal dorsal horn. Our results demonstrate the potential of the SST4 receptor as a pharmacological target for relief of BCIBP and we anticipate the present work to be a starting point for further mechanism-based studies

Table_1_The Somatostatin Receptor-4 Agonist J-2156 Alleviates Mechanical Hypersensitivity in a Rat Model of Breast Cancer Induced Bone Pain.pdf

<p>In the majority of patients with breast cancer in the advanced stages, skeletal metastases are common, which may cause excruciating pain. Currently available drug treatments for relief of breast cancer-induced bone pain (BCIBP) include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and strong opioid analgesics along with inhibitors of osteoclast activity such as bisphosphonates and monoclonal antibodies such as denosumab. However, these medications often lack efficacy and/or they may produce serious dose-limiting side effects. In the present study, we show that J-2156, a somatostatin receptor type 4 (SST4 receptor) selective agonist, reverses pain-like behaviors in a rat model of BCIBP induced by unilateral intra-tibial injection of Walker 256 breast cancer cells. Following intraperitoneal administration, the ED₅₀ of J-2156 for the relief of mechanical allodynia and mechanical hyperalgesia in the ipsilateral hindpaws was 3.7 and 8.0 mg/kg, respectively. Importantly, the vast majority of somatosensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia including small diameter C-fibers and medium-large diameter fibers, that play a crucial role in cancer pain hypersensitivities, expressed the SST4 receptor. J-2156 mediated pain relief in BCIBP-rats was confirmed by observations of a reduction in the levels of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (pERK), a protein essential for central sensitization and persistent pain, in the spinal dorsal horn. Our results demonstrate the potential of the SST4 receptor as a pharmacological target for relief of BCIBP and we anticipate the present work to be a starting point for further mechanism-based studies.</p