The current state of using learning analytics to measure and support K-12 student engagement: A scoping review

Student engagement has been identified as a critical construct for understanding and predicting educational success. However, research has shown that it can be hard to align data-driven insights of engagement with observed and self-reported levels of engagement. Given the emergence and increasing application of learning analytics (LA) within K-12 education, further research is needed to understand how engagement is being conceptualized and measured within LA research. This scoping review identifies and synthesizes literature published between 2011-2022, focused on LA and student engagement in K-12 contexts, and indexed in five international databases. 27 articles and conference papers from 13 different countries were included for review. We found that most of the research was undertaken in middle school years within STEM subjects. The results show that there is a wide discrepancy in researchers' understanding and operationalization of engagement and little evidence to suggest that LA improves learning outcomes and support. However, the potential to do so remains strong. Guidance is provided for future LA engagement research to better align with these goals

Practitioners’ perspectives on quality of life in aphasia rehabilitation in Denmark

Objective: This study reports on Danish speech and language therapists’ knowledge and understanding of quality of life (QOL) in aphasia, including therapists’ views on education and training in relation to preparedness for working on QOL, use of measures, and barriers to applying QOL in practice. Methods: 14 Danish clinicians completed a 48-item online questionnaire regarding their views, perspectives and practices that included multiple-choice questions, rating scales, and boxes permitting free text responses. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the numerical data, and content analysis was applied to text responses. Results: The clinicians interpreted QOL as subjective wellbeing and participation, and explored it with most clients and relatives using informal methods, primarily conversation, for the purposes of identifying relevant goals to direct treatment. Clinicians perceived a need for greater theoretical, practical and experiential knowledge regarding QOL. They also identified a need for translated QOL instruments and training in these measures in practice. Conclusion: Despite a reported lack of knowledge about and tools for measuring QOL, Danish clinicians are applying QOL issues in their practice and perceive these issues as valuable and important in assessment and therapy. The findings have clear implications for tool development, and workforce education

"Practical Knowledge" and Perceptions of Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance Among Drugsellers in Tanzanian Private Drugstores.

Studies indicate that antibiotics are sold against regulation and without prescription in private drugstores in rural Tanzania. The objective of the study was to explore and describe antibiotics sale and dispensing practices and link it to drugseller knowledge and perceptions of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. Exit customers of private drugstores in eight districts were interviewed about the drugstore encounter and drugs bought. Drugsellers filled in a questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions about antibiotics and resistance. Data were analyzed using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. Of 350 interviewed exit customers, 24% had bought antibiotics. Thirty percent had seen a health worker before coming and almost all of these had a prescription. Antibiotics were dispensed mainly for cough, stomachache, genital complaints and diarrhea but not for malaria or headache. Dispensed drugs were assessed as relevant for the symptoms or disease presented in 83% of all cases and 51% for antibiotics specifically. Non-prescribed drugs were assessed as more relevant than the prescribed. The knowledge level of the drugseller was ranked as high or very high by 75% of the respondents. Seventy-five drugsellers from three districts participated. Seventy-nine percent stated that diseases caused by bacteria can be treated with antibiotics but 24% of these also said that antibiotics can be used for treating viral disease. Most (85%) said that STI can be treated with antibiotics while 1% said the same about headache, 4% general weakness and 3% 'all diseases'. Seventy-two percent had heard of antibiotic resistance. When describing what an antibiotic is, the respondents used six different kinds of keywords. Descriptions of what antibiotic resistance is and how it occurs were quite rational from a biomedical point of view with some exceptions. They gave rise to five categories and one theme: Perceiving antibiotic resistance based on practical experience. The drugsellers have considerable "practical knowledge" of antibiotics and a perception of antibiotic resistance based on practical experience. In the process of upgrading private drugstores and formalizing the sale of antibiotics from these outlets in resource-constrained settings, their "practical knowledge" as well as their perceptions must be taken into account in order to attain rational dispensing practices

Responsible learning analytics: Creating just, ethical, and caring la systems

Ethical considerations and the values embedded in the design, development, deployment, and use of Learning Analytics (LA) systems have received considerable attention in recent years. Ethical frameworks, design guidelines, principles, checklists, and a code of practice have contributed a conceptual basis for focused discussions on ethics in LA. However, relatively little is known about how these different conceptual understandings of ethics work in practice and what specific tensions practitioners (e.g., administrators, developers, researchers, teachers, learners) experience when designing, deploying, or using LA with care.This half-day interactive workshop aims to provide participants with a space for information, dialogue, and collaboration around Responsible LA. The workshop will begin with a brief overview of Responsible LA. After that, the participants will present their cases drawing attention to the ethical considerations covered and not covered in LA practices. Following this, participants in groups will discuss the cases illustrating ethical tensions and create semantic categories to document such edge cases. The collected edge cases will be shared in a wiki or database. The workshop outcomes will help inform LA practitioners on ethical tensions thatneed to be discussed with care while highlighting places where more research work is required.

Observations of whistler mode waves with nonlinear parallel electric fields near the dayside magnetic reconnection separatrix by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission

We show observations from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission of whistler mode waves in the Earth's low-latitude boundary layer (LLBL) during a magnetic reconnection event. The waves propagated obliquely to the magnetic field toward the X line and were confined to the edge of a southward jet in the LLBL. Bipolar parallel electric fields interpreted as electrostatic solitary waves (ESW) are observed intermittently and appear to be in phase with the parallel component of the whistler oscillations. The polarity of the ESWs suggests that if they propagate with the waves, they are electron enhancements as opposed to electron holes. The reduced electron distribution shows a shoulder in the distribution for parallel velocities between 17,000 and 22,000 km/s, which persisted during the interval when ESWs were observed, and is near the phase velocity of the whistlers. This shoulder can drive Langmuir waves, which were observed in the high-frequency parallel electric field data

The effect of type of femoral component fixation on mortality and morbidity after hip hemiarthroplasty:A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Hip hemiarthroplasty is a well-established treatment of displaced femoral neck fracture, although debate exists over whether cemented or uncemented fixation is superior. Uncemented prostheses have typically been used in younger, healthier patients and cemented prostheses in older patients with less-stable bone. Also, earlier research has suggested that bone cement has cytotoxic effects and may trigger cardiovascular and respiratory adverse events. Questions/Purposes: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to compare morbidity and mortality rates after cemented and uncemented hemiarthroplasty for the treatment of displaced femoral neck fractures in elderly patients. Methods: Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we searched seven medical databases for randomized clinical trials and observational studies. We compared cemented and uncemented hemiarthroplasty using the Harris Hip Score (HHS), as well as measures of postoperative pain, mortality, and complications. Data were extracted and pooled as risk ratios or standardized mean difference with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals in a meta-analysis model. Results: The meta-analysis included 34 studies (12 randomized trials and 22 observational studies), with a total of 42,411 patients. In the pooled estimate, cemented hemiarthroplasty was associated with less risk of postoperative pain than uncemented hemiarthroplasty. There were no significant differences between groups regarding HHS or rates of postoperative mortality, pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, acute cardiac arrhythmia, or deep venous thrombosis. Conclusions: While we found that cemented hemiarthroplasty results in less postoperative pain than uncemented hemiarthroplasty in older patients with femoral neck fracture, the lack of significant differences in functional hip scores, mortality, and complications was surprising. Further high-level research is needed