The Making of a MOOC: Reflections from the Journey!

The Making of a MOOC': Any relevance to "normal" learning and teaching? MOOCs (massive open online courses) are a hugely topical area of educational policy and practice. The University of Glasgow is developing two new courses in partnership with FutureLearn, a free, open, online platform for courses from multiple UK and international universities. The university will initially offer two courses, one from the School of Medicine and one from the School of Law, beginning in May/June 2014.'Cancer in the 21st Century: The Genomic Revolution' has been developed by the School of Medicine in collaboration with the Institute of Cancer Sciences. In this presentation we will provide an introduction to MOOCs and reflect on our own experiences in the development of the cancer genetics MOOC over the past year. Specific areas of potential relevance to traditional course design such as student retention, student engagement, peer-assisted learning and peer review will be considered. We will review our approach to course design and discuss how factors such as online accessibility, the size of the student cohort, and the varying levels of background knowledge amongst students have influenced our decision making process. The design of the student surveys for the course and how the data generated will impact our model of sustainability for the MOOC in future academic sessions will also be discussed

Playing the Numbers Game: Students as Assessors in a MOOC Context

With increasing focus on online platforms in learning and teaching, it is vital to examine how we can best assess students in the online context. The main rationale driving innovative assessment in MOOCs is the unprecedented scale of class sizes. While it may be logistically challenging for staff to mark/give feedback on the large number of student assignments, peers are plentiful. Assessment and feedback must therefore come either from automated processes, like MCQ quizzes or from other students i.e. peer review (PR). Our study was based on data from the 6-week MOOC ‘Cancer in the 21st Century: The Genomic Revolution’ on which there were >7000 students enrolled. Over 200 students took part in a PR task as part of the MOOC. The aim of our research was to investigate the quality of the PRs produced, what factors influence this and the students’ experience of the PR process. Demographic data (age, gender, previous level of education, whether students are currently employed and field of employment) was collected and linked to 79 students who had participated. Peer reviews were compared with staff marking of the written task and the demographic data was analysed in relation to both written task and peer review performance. Qualitative comments were also gathered from various forums and thematic analysis was carried out on these. Overall, many high quality reviews were generated, and students identified specific benefits to both receiving and giving reviews, including promoting deeper learning. We also found that while several demographic factors may influence both participation in, and quality of initial written task itself, they do not appear to have a marked effect on the quality of the peer review which an individual is able to give. We will discuss the implications of these results for use of PR in both online and offline environments

Twelve tips for online synchronous small group learning in medical education

Undergraduate medical education relies on a variety of small group learning formats to deliver the curriculum, support collaborative learning, encourage critical thinking, as well as the development of a number of professional, clinical and generic attributes. However, the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 reminded us that unanticipated circumstances may necessitate a rapid and abrupt switch to delivering medical education through alternative means, while still upholding teaching standards and meeting learning and graduate outcomes. For many medical schools, the pandemic resulted in small group teaching being moved to an online format. The experience of students and facilitators moving small group learning tutorials to online synchronous delivery forms the basis for a set of recommendations when considering the delivery of small group teaching remotely

Collaboration of MYC and RUNX2 in lymphoma simulates T‐cell receptor signaling and attenuates p53 pathway activity

MYC and RUNX oncogenes each trigger p53‐mediated failsafe responses when overexpressed in vitro and collaborate with p53 deficiency in vivo. However, together they drive rapid onset lymphoma without mutational loss of p53. This phenomenon was investigated further by transcriptomic analysis of premalignant thymus from RUNX2/MYC transgenic mice. The distinctive contributions of MYC and RUNX to transcriptional control were illustrated by differential enrichment of canonical binding sites and gene ontology analyses. Pathway analysis revealed signatures of MYC, CD3, and CD28 regulation indicative of activation and proliferation, but also strong inhibition of cell death pathways. In silico analysis of discordantly expressed genes revealed Tnfsrf8/CD30, Cish, and Il13 among relevant targets for sustained proliferation and survival. Although TP53 mRNA and protein levels were upregulated, its downstream targets in growth suppression and apoptosis were largely unperturbed. Analysis of genes encoding p53 posttranslational modifiers showed significant upregulation of three genes, Smyd2, Set, and Prmt5. Overexpression of SMYD2 was validated in vivo but the functional analysis was constrained by in vitro loss of p53 in RUNX2/MYC lymphoma cell lines. However, an early role is suggested by the ability of SMYD2 to block senescence‐like growth arrest induced by RUNX overexpression in primary fibroblasts

“I wouldn’t know what to do with the breasts”: the impact of patient gender on medical student confidence and comfort in clinical skills

Background: Previous research has found a relationship between students’ gender and attitudes surrounding peer physical examination, but relationship between patient gender and confidence/comfort is less clear. We explored whether patient gender affects medical students’ levels of confidence and comfort in clinical examination skills. Methods: An electronic survey and focus groups were conducted with medical students from one UK institution. Students reported levels of confidence/comfort when carrying out clinical examinations on men/women. An inductive thematic analysis was performed. Results:    Of a total of 1500 students provided with the opportunity to participate, ninety (6%) responded. For cardiovascular and respiratory examinations, confidence/comfort were higher when examining male-presenting patients. The opposite was true for mental state examinations. Barriers to confidence/comfort included perceiving males as a norm, difficulty navigating breasts, tutors’ internalised gendered attitudes and a wider sociocultural issue. Facilitators of confidence/comfort included students relating to patients, embodying a professional role, gender blindness, and authentic clinical environments. Fewer than 20% (n = 18) of students felt they had enough opportunity to practice clinical skills on women, versus 90% (n = 82) on men. Conclusion: Our study identified an area where students’ confidence and comfort in clinical examinations could be enhanced within medical education. Changes were implemented in the institution under study’s vocational skills teaching, which is rooted in general practice. Information on gender and clinical skills was provided within course handbooks, time was scheduled to discuss gender and clinical skills in small group settings, and equitable gender representation was ensured in clinical assessment

Lessons learned from early adopters of blended and online learning

In 2013, the University of Glasgow published an e-learning strategy, setting out a vision for the University’s digital education delivery between 2013 and 2020. The strategy’s aim, in part, was the creation of personalised, interactive and feedback-rich courses, and staff were noted as key enablers of the strategic priorities. As a result of this strategy, several initiatives were developed, including the creation of massive open online courses (MOOCs), the implementation of the Blended and Online Learning Development (BOLD) project, which led to the creation of fully online PGT masters programmes, blended Undergraduate courses, and eventually, the creation of a Digital Education unit. More recently, micro-credential courses have been developed, which bridge the gap between MOOCs and full online accredited programmes. Finally, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to the rapid pivot to remote teaching. In this article, we describe the roles, challenges and opportunities of early adopters in a number of these initiatives across the University, giving a reflective account of our lessons learnt and recommendations for staff involved in similar initiatives

Addressing the climate challenge

In 2021, colleagues from across the University of Birmingham community were invited to write articles about topics relevant to the COP26 climate change summit. In this series of articles, experts from across many different disciplines provide new insight and evidence on how we might all understand and tackle climate change

Video Interviews to Improve Sense of Belonging of ODL Students

The Health Professions Education (HPE) programme was one of the University of Glasgow’s first fully Online-Distance-Learning (ODL) programmes. In recognition of the fact that our students generally have full-time clinical jobs, in which they are likely to be working shifts, and also that they are located across a variety of time zones, the main methods of teaching are the use of interactive Articulate Storyline sessions and asynchronous discussion forums. One potential issue with asynchronous learning is that students may fail to develop a ‘sense of belonging’. Trujillo & Tanner (2017) define this as “acquiring a feeling of being part of a community” (p.10), and Moller (1998) stresses the importance of designing communities of learners in the asynchronous environment. Brown (2001) has shown that community-building is possible in asynchronous discussion forums, but in order to improve HPE students’ sense of belonging to the programme and also to the wider community in the University of Glasgow, we created over 60 individual video interviews with members of faculty, illustrating how they apply the theories discussed in the interactive learning sessions. A next step would be to formally evaluate our learners’ sense of belonging /community, and their perceptions about the contribution made by the video interviews. The strategy of using video interviews is applicable to any ODL or campus-based blended programme

Student-Staff Partnership to Improve Assessment and Feedback

The Medical Independent Learning Exercise (MILE) is a summative assessment in MBChB1. Extensive guidelines were provided to students on Moodle, and individual feedback was introduced recently. In 2018-19, a Student-Staff Partnership Scheme grant was received to employ a student partner to improve both assessment guidance and feedback quality in the MILE. The aim of this project was to further enhance student satisfaction with assessment and feedback, in line with the University Strategy 2015-2020.The first part of this project aimed to improve the current guidelines from a student’s perspective. It is hoped that clearer guidelines will lead to better understanding of the task, which will lead to better student satisfaction and performance.In addition, a focus group was organised with volunteer students, aiming to understand what feedback students felt was most useful. The results of the focus group (ie: what feedback they find useful) was then compared with the feedback actually given to students (downloaded from Moodle), and feedback criteria generated. The feedback criteria are being used in this academic year's marking to allow markers to give consistent, useful, constructive individual feedback. Finally, the a feedback glossary was generated, to help students interpret the feedback they receive. It will allow them to explore in more depth key words in the feedback, which might be clear to staff but not necessarily to students. What intended outcomes or learning points do you anticipate for your audience?: • Increase awareness of the Student-Staff Partnership Scheme • Encourage application of the tips for writing assessment guidance, feedback criteria and feedback glossary to other assessments in the University • Establish partnerships with other scholars in other fields within the Universit

Flipped Classroom and Resources

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