Using Blended Learning Strategies to Address Teaching Development Needs: How Does Canada Compare?

The provision of blended learning strategies designed to assist academics in the higher education sector with the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for effective teaching with technology has been, and continues to be, a challenge for teaching centres in Canada. It is unclear, first, whether this is an ongoing issue unique to Canada; and, second, if it is not unique to Canada, whether we might be able to implement different and/or more effective strategies based on what others outside Canada are doing. Teaching centre leaders in Australia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, Scotland, and the United States (n=31) were interviewed to explore how their units used blended learning strategies. Findings suggest that, as in Canada, there is a “value gap” between academics and leaders of teaching centres regarding teaching development initiatives using blended learning strategies.  La disposition de stratégies d’apprentissage mixte conçues pour aider les instructeurs en enseignement supérieur à obtenir les connaissances, les compétences et les aptitudes requises pour enseigner de manière efficace avec les technologies a constitué un défi pour les centres d’enseignement du Canada, et continue de l’être. En outre, on ignore si ce problème récurrent est unique au Canada et, s’il ne l’est pas, s’il serait possible d’établir des stratégies différentes, ou plus efficaces, en fonction de ce qui se fait à l’extérieur du Canada. Par ailleurs, des dirigeants de centres d’enseignement (n = 31) localisés en Australie, en Finlande, en Suède, au Danemark, en Grande-Bretagne, en Écosse et aux États-Unis ont été interrogés pour explorer comment leurs unités ont eu recours aux stratégies d’apprentissage mixte. Les données suggèrent que, tout comme au Canada, il existe un écart de valeurs entre ce que font les instructeurs en ce qui concerne les initiatives de perfectionnement de l’enseignement à l’aide de stratégies d’apprentissage mixte, et ce que font les dirigeants des centres d’enseignement

Using Web-Based, Group Communication Systems to Support Case Study Learning at a Distance

This study explored the capacity of Web-based, group communication systems to support case-based teaching and learning. Eleven graduate students studying at a distance were divided into three groups to collaborate on a case study using either a synchronous voice, an asynchronous voice, or a synchronous text communication system. Participants kept a detailed log of the time they spent on various activities, wrote a 1,500-word reflection on their experience, and participated in a group interview. Analysis of these data reveals that each group supplemented the system that had been assigned to them with additional communication systems in order to complete the project. Each of these systems were used strategically: email was used to share files and arrange meetings, and synchronous voice systems were used to brainstorm and make decisions. Learning achievement was high across groups and students enjoyed collaborating with others on a concrete task. Keywords: Distance Education, Case-based Learning, Collaboration Software, Online Learning. The evidence in favour of case-based teaching and learning continues to mount (cf. Lundeberg, Levin, and Harrington, 1999). One interesting facet of this research suggests that group discussions are the active ingredient of case study learning. For on-campus students this is simple to arrange, but where does it leave students who are studying at a distance? Case studies are often used in distance education, but traditionally they have been implemented in an independent mode, with students reading a problem-centred or exemplary narrative in order to contemplate its central issues. This type of case-based teaching omits what may be the most important part of case-based pedagogy. Fortunately, a wide array of Web-based communication software exists that supports various types of communication at a distance, including text or voice, person-to-person or multi-person, and synchronous or asynchronous interaction. The relative effectiveness of these systems to support collaboration among students is an important issue to distance educators

Perceptions Of An Impending High Speed, Broadband Network: Anticipation And Anxiety Among K-12 Teachers, Technical Support Personnel, And Administrators

The purpose of this study was to solicit educators’ perceptions of a high speed, broadband network being built in the Canadian province of Alberta, the Alberta SuperNet. We interviewed eight administrators, teachers, and technical support personnel in six Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 (K-12) schools that concentrate at teaching at a distance. They perceive the coming network with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. They anticipate enhancing teaching and learning opportunities with multimedia learning objects and synchronous interaction on a faster, more reliable network. They are anxious about its associated costs, its compatibility with their existing systems, and its demands for sophisticated technical skills. This study is part of a larger, multidisciplinary SSHRC-funded project examining the affect of the Alberta SuperNet on several aspects of Alberta society. In 2000, the federal government of Canada announced a four billion dollar plan to build a high speed, broadband Internet throughout Canada (National Broadband Taskforce, 2001). Amidst much criticism (and a key ministerial change), the plan was set aside. Convinced of the appropriateness of the plan, our provincial government took on the segment of the plan that applied to Alberta. As of this writing, the Alberta SuperNet is nearly complete. A central part of our government’s justification for the network is its role in enhancing and extending educational opportunities. As the SuperNet was about to arrive at their doors, we talked to administrators, teachers, and technical support staff in several of Alberta’s Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 (K – 12) distance schools to ascertain their perceptions of this coming network. (In this paper, distance schools refer to schools that undertake all of their programming at a distance through a variety of electronic and paper based technologies.) In the subsequent pages, we will report their anticipations of how it will enhance their current practice by allowing them to use bandwidth intensive applications (e.g., videoconferencing and multimedia learning objects), and their anxieties about increasing expenses, training requirements, and conflicts with existing social and technological systems

Using Peer Teams to Lead Online Discussions

Abstract: This study investigated an online course in which groups of four students were used to lead online discussions. The teams were examined for their ability to bring instructional design, discourse facilitation, and direct instruction to the discussions. The setting was a graduate-level communications networks course delivered asynchronously to a cohort group of 17 adults enrolled for professional development education. Interviews, questionnaires, and content analyses of the discussion transcripts indicate that the peer teams fulfilled each of the three roles and valued the experience. Students preferred the peer teams to the instructor as discussion leaders and reported that the discussions were helpful in achieving higher order learning objectives but could have been more challenging and critical. Editors: Xiufeng Liu (U. Prince Edward Island, CA) Reviewers: Martha Gabriel (U. Prince Edward Island, Canada), William Hunter (U. Calgary, Canada), Gilly Salmon (Open U., UK

Methodological Issues in the Content Analysis of Computer Conference Transcripts

This paper discusses the potential and the methodological challenges of analyzing computer conference transcripts using quantitative content analysis. The paper is divided into six sections, which discuss: criteria for content analysis, research designs, types of content, units of analysis, ethical issues, and software to aid analysis. The discussion is supported with a survey of 19 commonly referenced studies published during the last decade. The paper is designed to assist researchers in using content analysis to further the understanding of teaching and learning using computer conferencing

Assessing Social Presence In Asynchronous Text-based Computer Conferencing

Instructional media such as computer conferencing engender high levels of student-student and student-teacher interaction; affectively into a community of inquiry. A template for assessing social presence in computer conferencing is presented through content analysis of conferencing transcripts. To facilitate explication of the scheme and subsequent replication of this study, selections of coded transcripts are included, along with interrater reliability figures. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications and benefits of assessing social presence for instructors, for instructors, conference moderators, and researchers

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Macroeconomic conditions, welfare state policy, and the evaluation of disability

Rates of self-reported disability vary widely across the U.S. and Europe and are not always strongly correlated with other measures of population health. This dissertation analyzes how two elements of social context--labor market conditions and welfare state policy--influence evaluations of disability status. Using data on local labor market conditions in the United States, in Chapter two I find that increasing local area unemployment is associated with increased rates of self-reported disability, including among currently employed and highly educated workers who are less likely to be influenced by the availability of disability benefits. I argue that worsening macroeconomic conditions may produce disability through a direct effect on health or through increasing the salience of existing health conditions. In the third chapter, I explore how welfare state policy influences self-reported disability cross-nationally. Using data from 15 Western European countries, I find that residents of generous welfare states-particularly the Netherlands and Nordic countries-are significantly more likely to report a disability net of self-reported health, sociodemographic and labor force characteristics. I argue that welfare state context directly shapes what it means to be disabled, which in turn may have consequences for social stratification and empiric evaluations of welfare state performance. Chapter four investigates how the monetization of illness in disability benefit policy influences the evaluation of health symptoms. I conducted an original survey experiment in which a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States was asked to evaluate a series of vignettes describing the health conditions of adults and children. The treatment group was told that individuals in the U.S. who are found to have a work-limiting disability may be eligible for hundreds or thousands of dollars a month in government assistance. I find respondents who were primed with information about the existence of disability benefits are significantly less likely to evaluate a health condition as being disabling. In addition, individuals in the treatment condition were significantly more likely to blame the individual for his or her health condition. These findings have important implications for policymakers and medical practitioners as applications for disability assistance have increased dramatically in recent years

Exploring Social Presence In Computer Conferencing

This study explores the relationship between asynchronous, text-based forms of social communication and students' perceptions of the social climate of computer conferences. A 21-item questionnaire was administered to 74 students from 4 faculties. Students rated the social climate of the conference along six dimensions. A majority of students found the conference warm, friendly, trusting, disinhibiting, and personal. Students also rated the perceived frequency of 15 types of social communication The correlation between aggregate scores for both sets of variables was r = .4, p <.001, r squared = .16. A series of one way-ANOVA's indicated that an increase in the perceived frequency of 7 of the 15 social expressions corresponded to more positive ratings of the social environment. The 7 social expressions included addressing others by name, complimenting, expressing appreciation, using the reply feature to post messages, expressing emotions, using humor, and salutations. Based on responses to two open-ended questi ons, moderators are encouraged to seek a balance between social communication and challenging and productive discussion