Online training of teachers using OER: Promises and potential strategies

Teacher education nowadays needs a change in vision and action to cater to the demands of changing societies. Reforms, improvements, and new approaches in teacher education are an immediate need. Online training of teachers using OER has emerged as a new approach in this direction. This approach is based on the assumption that online training will facilitate mass training of teachers as per their convenience and ease and will be helpful in filling the huge gap in demand for skilled teachers. The other assumption is that being OER-based training, it will be easy to adapt it to different cultures and languages. Considering these assumptions, the present paper discusses about on-going initiatives of online training of teachers in different parts of the world; focuses on promises of using OER to make online training of teachers more relevant and up-to-date; and suggests potential strategies for effectively using OER for initial training and continuing professional learning of teachers in online settings

Deficiency of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Dyslipidemia in Indian Subjects

Background. Vitamin D deficiency is widespread throughout the world. Several reports have incriminated vitamin D deficiency as the cause of rickets, osteomalacia, and other chronic diseases. Recent studies have suggested a possible link between deficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and dyslipidemia. Aim. To investigate the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D deficiency and dyslipidemia in Indian subjects. Methodology. We recruited 150 asymptomatic consecutive subjects from patients' attendees at the Departments of Neurology and Medicine in Yashoda Hospital, Hyderabad, India. Study period was from October 2011 to March 2012. All subjects underwent 25-hydroxyvitamin D assay by chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay, fasting blood sugar and lipid profile, calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, and C-reactive protein (CRP). Results. Out of 150 subjects, men were 82 (54.6%), and mean age was 49.4 (±15.6) years. Among risk factors, hypertension was noted in 63/150 (42%), 25-hydroxyvitamin D deficiency in 59/150 (39.3%), diabetes in 45/150 (30%), dyslipidemia in 60 (40%), smoking in 35/150 (23.3%), and alcoholism in 27/150 (18%). Deficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D was significantly associated with dyslipidemia ( = 0.0001), mean serum glucose ( = 0.0002) mean CRP ( = 0.04), and mean alkaline phosphatase ( = 0.01). Multivariate analysis showed that 25-hydroxyvitamin D deficiency was independently associated with dyslipidemia (odds ratio: 1.9; 95% CI : 1.1-3.5). Conclusions. We found that deficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D was independently associated with dyslipidemia in Indian subjects

Clinical outcome, viral response and safety profile of chloroquine in COVID-19 patients — initial experience

Introduction: Chloroquine and its analogues are currently being investigated for the treatment and post exposure prophylaxis of COVID-19 due to its antiviral activity and immunomodulatory activity.Material and methods: Confirmed symptomatic cases of COVID-19 were included in the study. Patients were supposed to receive chloroquine (CQ) 500 mg twice daily for 7 days. Due to a change in institutional protocol, initial patients received chloroquine and subsequent patients who did not receive chloroquine served as negative controls. Clinical effectiveness was determined in terms of timing of symptom resolution and conversion rate of reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on day 14 and day 15 of admission.Results: Twelve COVID-19 patients formed the treatment arm and 17 patients were included in the control arm. The duration of symptoms among the CQ treated group (6.3 ± 2.7 days) was significantly (p-value = 0.009) lower than that of the control group (8.9 ± 2.2 days). There was no significant difference in the rate of RT-PCR negativity in both groups. 2 patients out of 12 developed diarrhea in the CQ therapy arm.  Conclusion: The duration of symptoms among the treated group (with chloroquine) was significantly lower than that of the control group. RT-PCR conversion was not significantly different between the 2 groups

Risk of secondhand smoke exposure and severity of COVID-19 infection: multicenter case–control study

IntroductionExposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) is an established causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic lung disease. Numerous studies have evaluated the role of tobacco in COVID-19 infection, severity, and mortality but missed the opportunity to assess the role of SHS. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine whether SHS is an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection, severity, mortality, and other co-morbidities.MethodologyMulticentric case–control study was conducted across six states in India. Severe COVID-19 patients were chosen as our study cases, and mild and moderate COVID-19 as control were evaluated for exposure to SHS. The sample size was calculated using Epi-info version 7. A neighborhood-matching technique was utilized to address ecological variability and enhance comparability between cases and controls, considering age and sex as additional matching criteria. The binary logistic regression model was used to measure the association, and the results were presented using an adjusted odds ratio. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 24 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).ResultsA total of 672 cases of severe COVID-19 and 681 controls of mild and moderate COVID-19 were recruited in this study. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for SHS exposure at home was 3.03 (CI 95%: 2.29–4.02) compared to mild/moderate COVID-19, while SHS exposure at the workplace had odds of 2.19 (CI 95%: 1.43–3.35). Other factors significantly related to the severity of COVID-19 were a history of COVID-19 vaccination before illness, body mass index (BMI), and attached kitchen at home.DiscussionThe results of this study suggest that cumulative exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke is an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19 illness. More studies with the use of biomarkers and quantification of SHS exposure in the future are needed

Causes of blindness and vision impairment in 2020 and trends over 30 years, and prevalence of avoidable blindness in relation to VISION 2020: the Right to Sight: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study

Background: Many causes of vision impairment can be prevented or treated. With an ageing global population, the demands for eye health services are increasing. We estimated the prevalence and relative contribution of avoidable causes of blindness and vision impairment globally from 1990 to 2020. We aimed to compare the results with the World Health Assembly Global Action Plan (WHA GAP) target of a 25% global reduction from 2010 to 2019 in avoidable vision impairment, defined as cataract and undercorrected refractive error. Methods: We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based surveys of eye disease from January, 1980, to October, 2018. We fitted hierarchical models to estimate prevalence (with 95% uncertainty intervals [UIs]) of moderate and severe vision impairment (MSVI; presenting visual acuity from <6/18 to 3/60) and blindness (<3/60 or less than 10° visual field around central fixation) by cause, age, region, and year. Because of data sparsity at younger ages, our analysis focused on adults aged 50 years and older. Findings: Global crude prevalence of avoidable vision impairment and blindness in adults aged 50 years and older did not change between 2010 and 2019 (percentage change −0·2% [95% UI −1·5 to 1·0]; 2019 prevalence 9·58 cases per 1000 people [95% IU 8·51 to 10·8], 2010 prevalence 96·0 cases per 1000 people [86·0 to 107·0]). Age-standardised prevalence of avoidable blindness decreased by −15·4% [–16·8 to −14·3], while avoidable MSVI showed no change (0·5% [–0·8 to 1·6]). However, the number of cases increased for both avoidable blindness (10·8% [8·9 to 12·4]) and MSVI (31·5% [30·0 to 33·1]). The leading global causes of blindness in those aged 50 years and older in 2020 were cataract (15·2 million cases [9% IU 12·7–18·0]), followed by glaucoma (3·6 million cases [2·8–4·4]), undercorrected refractive error (2·3 million cases [1·8–2·8]), age-related macular degeneration (1·8 million cases [1·3–2·4]), and diabetic retinopathy (0·86 million cases [0·59–1·23]). Leading causes of MSVI were undercorrected refractive error (86·1 million cases [74·2–101·0]) and cataract (78·8 million cases [67·2–91·4]). Interpretation: Results suggest eye care services contributed to the observed reduction of age-standardised rates of avoidable blindness but not of MSVI, and that the target in an ageing global population was not reached. Funding: Brien Holden Vision Institute, Fondation Théa, The Fred Hollows Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lions Clubs International Foundation, Sightsavers International, and University of Heidelberg

Pedagogical quality enrichment in OER based courseware: Guiding principles

This is a critical phase for Open Educational Resources (OER) movement: on one side the number of OER is increasing rapidly, and on other side debates about quality of OER-based courseware are heating up. These debates emanate from the fact that OER-based courseware are supposed to help users to follow a logical learning path and get an engaging, interactive, and enjoyable learning experience. There are two aspects of quality assurance in OER-based courseware: content and pedagogy. The content aspect primarily rests with subject experts, and pedagogical quality of courseware mainly lies in the hands of developers. Present trends reveal that mainly enthusiasts, working with some support from the institution management are designing and developing OER-based courseware. There seems a possibility that these enthusiasts are developing courseware without undergoing any specific courseware development training, and in the absence of proper knowledge and training about pedagogy, one can not be sure that the produced courseware will be of superior quality. In this backdrop, present paper discusses and details about a number of guiding principles for enrichment of pedagogical quality in OER-based courseware

MOOCs for Teacher Professional Development: Reflections and Suggested Actions

Teacher Professional Development (TPD) has become a major policy priority within education systems worldwide. But keeping teachers professionally up-to-date and providing them professional development opportunities on continuing basis is a big challenge. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be a cost and resource effective means to complement the traditional methods of professional development of teachers. This optimism is based on the assumption that use of MOOCs will facilitate mass training of teachers as per their convenience and ease. The other assumption is that being MOOCs-based training, it will be easy to adapt it to different cultures and languages. Considering these assumptions, this concept paper which is based on reviews of different reports, documents and research papers - discusses the challenges of TPD, reflects upon promises of using MOOCs for TPD; details initiatives and experiences of using MOOCs for TPD; and suggests actions for promoting the use of MOOCs for TPD

Teacher education policies, practices, and reform in Scotland: Implications in the Indian context

India, a country of 1.27 billion, nowadays needs reforms, improvements, and new approaches in teacher education to cater to the demands of changing economy and society. This call to improve teacher education becomes more significant considering the fact that 50% of India’s current population is below the age of 25 and over 65% below 35. There are two ways to proceed in this direction. First, making an internal review and assessment of present scenario of teacher education and suggesting need-based measures. The second one is to learn from those countries that have recently reviewed their teacher education systems and are continuously working for the betterment of teacher education. Following second approach, present paper analyzes teacher education policies, practices, and reform in Scotland, argues that concerns and commitments to reform teacher education in India and Scotland are similar, and suggests implications of Scottish experiences in the Indian context