An m-leaming game for the study of humanities

Unlike the hard sciences, the study of humanities has not adequately leveraged on technologies such as mobile learning and serious games. Hence, this paper introduces SingaRacer, a mobile learning game to study humanities, specifically, history and culture. The ways in which users might perceive its prospect both as a game as well as an educational application was examined. For this purpose, SingaRacer was evaluated through a user study comprising 52 participants. Their intention to use SingaRacer was generally promising. Implications of the findings are highlighted

Acting on Reflection: the Effect of Reflection on Students’ Clinical Performance on a Standardized Patient Examination

BACKGROUND: Little evidence exists to support the value of reflection in the clinical setting. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether reflecting and revisiting the “patient” during a standardized patient (SP) examination improves junior medical students’ performance and to analyze students’ perceptions of its value. DESIGN: Students completed a six-encounter clinical skills examination, writing a guided assessment after each encounter to trigger reflection. SPs evaluated the students with Medical Skills and Patient Satisfaction checklists. During the last three encounters, students could opt to revisit the SP and be reevaluated with identical checklists. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and forty-nine third year medical students. MEASUREMENTS: Changes in scores in the Medical Skills and Patient Satisfaction checklists between first visit and revisit were tested separately per case as well as across cases. RESULTS: On the medical skills and patient satisfaction checklists, mean revisit scores across cases were significantly higher than mean first visit scores [12.6 vs 12.2 (pooled SD = 2.4), P = .0001; 31.2 vs 31.0 (pooled SD = 3.5), P = .0001)]. Sixty-five percent of the time, students rated “reflect–revisit” positively, 34% neutrally, and 0.4% negatively. Five themes were identified in the positive comments: enhancement of (1) medical decision making, (2) patient education/counseling, (3) student satisfaction/confidence, (4) patient satisfaction/confidence, and (5) clinical realism. CONCLUSIONS: Offering third year medical students the option to reflect and revisit an SP during a clinical skills examination produced a small but nontrivial increase in clinical performance. Students perceived the reflect–revisit experience as enhancing patient-centered practices (counseling, education) as well as their own medical decision making and clinical confidence

Preliminary crystallographic characterization of PrnB, the second enzyme in the pyrrolnitrin biosynthetic pathway.

Crystals of PrnB, the second enzyme in pyrrolnitrin biosynthesis are reported

Leading digital transformation: The Scandinavian way

Digital transformation can be seen as the mutual reinforcement of process redesign and innovative use of IT. The literature on digital transformation focuses on digital business strategy and the transformational CIO. Stakeholder engagement in combination with leadership style is seldom discussed. Our research questions are (i) what characterises leadership in the digital transformation, and (ii) what does the Scandinavian workplace model add to the knowledge of digital transformation? Our empirical evidence is the digital transformation in a large airline, the SAS, during the years 2013-16. The process was very turbulent but eventually quite successful. We identify two Scandinavian contributions to transformation research: firstly, the deep engagement with employees, including trade unions, supports a structured process with a focus on finding solutions, not conflicts. Second, a coaching leadership style, allowing space for autonomy, leverages the competence of highlyskilled employees