Challenges and Possibilities of Online Courses from Actual Experience

Este trabajo retoma el modelo de McIsaac y Gunawardena (1996) para el diseño de interfaces de cursos en línea y revisa su eficacia en base a una experiencia. Se describe la plataforma utilizada y las competencias docentes deseables, así como el sistema tutorial brindado y la presentación/manejo de contenidos temáticos y materiales didácticos que dicha plataforma permite. Complementa este análisis los resultados de la experiencia en términos del grado de satisfacción de los participantes (estructura y diseño del curso) y el registro de actividad en la plataforma, información que se obtuvo mediante una encuesta de opinión en línea y la observación no participativa.This paper recovers the model of McIsaac y Gunawardena (1996) for the interface design of online courses, and reviews their effectiveness based on an actual experience. The platform used is described: desirable teaching skills, tutorial system, presentation / thematic content management and materials. The analysis is completed with the results of the experience in terms of participants' satisfaction level (of the course structure and design) and the activity log on the platform, the information is obtained through an online opinion survey and nonparticipatory observation

Evolution and Analysis about Uses of Room and Desktop Videoconferences

Este trabajo describe la evolución del servicio de videoconferencia que presenta un centro de investigación en México durante los últimos diez años con énfasis en la presentación genérica de las herramientas utilizadas y los cambios tecnológicos que han revolucionado el campo de las comunicaciones. Se describen los cambios a partir de las áreas en las que se han integrado las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación, sus límites de uso y la oportunidad que representa para potenciar la cobertura de los programas de especialización y posgrado. Para la recogida de datos se utilizó el diseño longitudinal de tendencia y el Sistema Gestionnaire Libre de ParcInformatique (GLPI). Los resultados muestran el proceso de mejora y aprendizaje que ha acompañado el servicio de videoconferencia y el potencial que representa para dos áreas sustantivas de la institución: investigación y docencia.This paper describes evolution of videoconferencing system, in a research center in Mexico during the last ten years with emphasis on generic presentation of the tools used and the technological changes that have revolutionized the communication area. We describe changes from the areas that have been integrated Information Technology and Communication, limits of use and the opportunity presented to enhance the coverage of specialization and postgraduate programs. The longitudinal design trend System Gestionnaire Free Parc Informatique (GLPI) was used for data collection. The results show the improvement process and learning that has accompanied the videoconferencing and the potential it represents for two substantive areas of the institution: research and teaching

La digitalización de ambientes de aprendizaje: reto impostergable

Hoy en día, es común que las instituciones educativas utilicen tecnologías a fin de enriquecer los ambientes de aprendizaje. Sin embargo, son pocos los estudios sistemáticos que analizan el impacto de tales procesos de cambio en los objetivos de los programas académicos. La información que presenta este documento pretende contribuir a tal análisis. Para el proceso de digitalización del programa académico se utilizaron la plataforma Moodle (pm) y el sistema de videoconferencia Blue Jeans (vbj). La pm se eligió por su fácil manejo, y el vbj con el propósito de grabar las sesiones del curso y facilitar así los enlaces a distancia entre los participantes. El proceso de monitoreo y seguimiento de esta transformación digital se realizó durante todo el semestre a través de una orientación teórica tanto en lo relativo a los conceptos centrales de los ambientes de aprendizaje como en lo que concierne al enfoque por competencias y usos de la tecnología en la educación. Se concluye que el proceso de digitalización adoptado logró fortalecer la interacción comunicativa de la comunidad escolar en torno a los objetivos del curso.&nbsp

Nuevas formas de aprendizaje mediante recursos educativos a distancia

The change and incorporation of technologies in all areas (social, political, scientific, technological and professional, among others) have been a constant in recent times; hence the interest in analyzing how new technologies facilitate communication and interaction between groups while dissipating barriers between teachers and students. The aim of this study is to assess whether the use of new technologies impacts the purpose of learning by facilitating teacher-student and student-student rapprochement. As an example, an English language teaching course was given in two school years to graduate students who took it in five geographically distant locations. The course was offered face-to-face and in distance modality as a complementary activity. Only mandatory activities corresponding to the course were considered for the analysis. The results showed that the teaching of this language in the distance modality is not an impediment to its learning; it was observed that it is other types of factors which influence the English teaching-learning process, particularly teachers’ didactic skills and abilities and students’ attitude towards the use of didactictechnological resources.Una constante en los últimos tiempos ha sido el cambio y la incorporación de las tecnologías en todos los órdenes (social, político, científico, tecnológico y profesional entre otros). De ahí el interés por analizar cómo las nuevas tecnologías facilitan la comunicación e interacción entre los grupos a la vez que disipan las barreras entre docentes y estudiantes. El objetivo de este estudio es valorar si el uso de las nuevas tecnologías impacta el propósito de aprendizaje al facilitar el acercamiento docente-estudiante y estudiante-estudiante.Se toma como ejemplo un curso de enseñanza del idioma inglés, impartido en dos ciclos escolares a estudiantes de posgrado que lo tomaron en cinco localidades distantesgeográficamente unas de otras. El curso se brindó en modalidad presencial y a distancia como una actividad complementaria. Para el análisis se consideraron solo actividades obligatorias correspondientes al curso. Los resultados mostraron que la enseñanza de este idioma en la modalidad a distancia no es un impedimento para su aprendizaje; se observó que son otro tipo de factores los que influyen en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje del inglés, particularmente las competencias y habilidades didácticas de los docentes y la actitud de los estudiantes hacia el uso de recursos tecnológicos didácticos

Educación a distancia en México: acreditación y/o certificación como garantía de calidad

La educación es una piedra angular en el desarrollo de cualquier sociedad. Actualmente, al tomar cada vez más fuerza la modalidad educativa a distancia, surge el interés por analizar la calidad de tal oferta educativa así como de los programas de certificación y/o acreditación que existen al respecto. A continuación, un breve análisis de la evolución y aplicación del concepto de calidad en este campo y un esbozo de algunos lineamientos o criterios que han emergido en el contexto internacional y nacional para orientar los programas de certificación y/o acreditación (modelos, mecanismos y/o estrategias sustentados en criterios, subcriterios, requerimientos, auditorias y medios de verificación para garantizar la calidad). Se concluye que los cambios que trajo consigo el incremento de la oferta educativa en la modalidad a distancia, reclaman la emergencia de un marco normativo que asegure su calidad; y se destaca que el reto está en asegurar la calidad en la interacción de saberes, metodologías, programas y recursos

Validity of the energy-restricted Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener

[Background]: Short dietary assessment tools can be useful to estimate food intake and diet quality in large-scale epidemiological studies with time constraints. [Objective]: To determine the concurrent validity of the 17-item energy-restricted Mediterranean Adherence Screener (er-MEDAS) used in the PREDIMED (PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea)-Plus trial and to analyse its capacity to detect 1-year changes in diet and cardiometabolic risk factors. [Methods]: Validation study nested in the PREDIMED-Plus (n = 6760, 55–75 years). Dietary data were collected by the 17-item er-MEDAS and a 143-item validated semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) at baseline and after 1-year intervention. Cardiometabolic risk markers were measured at both time points. A Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) score was derived from both instruments. Concurrent validity was evaluated by Pearson and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) and Bland and Altman limits of agreement. Construct validity was evaluated by assessing 1-year changes in FFQ-reported dietary intake and cardiometabolic profile changes in relation to changes in er-MEDAS. [Results]: A moderate to good correlation between the MedDiet score calculated by both measurement instruments was found: r = 0.61 and ICC = 0.60 (both p < 0.001). Agreement of each of the er-MEDAS items ranged from 55.4% to 85.0% with a moderate mean concordance (kappa = 0.41). Between baseline and 1-year follow-up, energy intake measured by the FFQ decreased by 242 kcal, while Mediterranean food consumption increased in participants with the highest increase in the er-MEDAS MedDiet score. An increase in the er-MEDAS MedDiet score ratings was associated with a decrease in BMI, waist circumference, triglycerides, fasting glucose, diastolic blood pressure, and triglycerides/HDL-cholesterol ratio (p < 0.001 for all), and with an increase in HDL-cholesterol (p = 0.006). [Conclusion]: The er-MEDAS shows a modest to good concurrent validity compared with FFQ data. It shows acceptable construct validity, as a greater er-MEDAS score was associated with more favourable dietary and cardiometabolic profiles over time.The PREDIMED-Plus trial was supported by the official funding agency for biomedical research of the Spanish government, ISCIII through the Fondo de Investigación para la Salud (FIS), which is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund four coordinated FIS projects led by Jordi Salas-Salvadó and Josep Vidal, including the following projects: PI13/00673, PI13/ 00492, PI13/00272, PI13/01123, PI13/00462, PI13/00233, PI13/02184, PI13/ 00728, PI13/01090, PI13/01056, PI14/01722, PI14/00636, PI14/00618, PI14/ 00696, PI14/01206, PI14/01919, PI14/00853, PI14/01374, PI16/00473, PI16/00662, PI16/01873, PI16/01094, PI16/00501, PI16/00533, PI16/00381, PI16/00366, PI16/01522, PI16/01120, PI17/00764, PI17/01183, PI17/00855, PI17/01347, PI17/00525, PI17/01827, PI17/00532, PI17/00215, PI17/01441, PI17/00508, PI17/01732, PI17/00926; the Special Action Project entitled Implementación y evaluación de una intervención intensiva sobre la actividad física cohorte" PREDIMED-Plus grant to Jordi Salas-Salvadó; the Recercaixa grant to Jordi Salas-Salvadó (2013ACUP00194); the European Research Council Advanced Research Grant 2013–2018 (340918) granted to Miguel Ángel Martínez-Gonzalez, grants from the Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (PI0458/2013; PS0358/2016, PI0137/2018), the PROMETEO/2017/017 grant from the Generalitat Valenciana, the SEMERGEN grant and FEDER funds (CB06/03) to Josep A. Tur; the Astra Zeneca Young Investigators Award in Category of Obesity and Diabetes 2017 to Dora Romaguera; the ‘FOLIUM’ programme within the FUTURMed project from the Fundación Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Illes Balears (financed by 2017annual plan of the sustainable tourism tax and at 50% with charge to the ESF Operational Program 2014–2020 of the Balearic Islands). JR17/00022 contract to Olga Castaner from ISCIII. CIBERobn (Centros de Investigación Biomedica en Red: Obesidad y Nutrición), CIBEResp (Centros de Investigación Biomedica en Red: Epidemiología y Salud Publica) and CIBERdem (Centros de Investigación Biomedica en Red: Diabetes y Enfermedades). J. Salas-Salvadó gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided by the ICREA Academia programme. None of the funding sources took part in the design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data; in writing the manuscript; or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication

Unraveling the effect of silent, intronic and missense mutations on VWF splicing : contribution of next generation sequencing in the study of mRNA

Large studies in von Willebrand disease patients, including Spanish and Portuguese registries, led to the identification of >250 different mutations. It is a challenge to determine the pathogenic effect of potential splice site mutations on VWF mRNA. This study aimed to elucidate the true effects of 18 mutations on VWF mRNA processing, investigate the contribution of next-generation sequencing to in vivo mRNA study in von Willebrand disease, and compare the findings with in silico prediction. RNA extracted from patient platelets and leukocytes was amplified by RT-PCR and sequenced using Sanger and next generation sequencing techniques. Eight mutations affected VWF splicing: c.1533+1G>A, c.5664+2T>C and c.546G>A (p.=) prompted exon skipping; c.3223-7_3236dup and c.7082-2A>G resulted in activation of cryptic sites; c.3379+1G>A and c.7437G>A) demonstrated both molecular pathogenic mechanisms simultaneously; and the p.Cys370Tyr missense mutation generated two aberrant transcripts. Of note, the complete effect of three mutations was provided by next generation sequencing alone because of low expression of the aberrant transcripts. In the remaining 10 mutations, no effect was elucidated in the experiments. However, the differential findings obtained in platelets and leukocytes provided substantial evidence that four of these would have an effect on VWF levels. In this first report using next generation sequencing technology to unravel the effects of VWF mutations on splicing, the technique yielded valuable information. Our data bring to light the importance of studying the effect of synonymous and missense mutations on VWF splicing to improve the current knowledge of the molecular mechanisms behind von Willebrand disease. identifier:02869074

Dairy product consumption and changes in cognitive performance: two-year analysis of the PREDIMED-Plus Cohort

Scope: Dairy consumption has been suggested to impact cognition; however, evidence is limited and inconsistent. This study aims to longitudinally assess the association between dairy consumption with cognitive changes in an older Spanish population at high cardiovascular disease risk. Methods and results: Four thousand six hundred sixty eight participants aged 55–75 years, completed a validated food frequency questionnaire at baseline and a neuropsychological battery of tests at baseline and 2-year follow-up. Multivariable linear regression models are used, scaled by 100 (i.e., the units of β correspond to 1 SD/100), to assess associations between baseline tertile daily consumption and 2-year changes in cognitive performance. Participants in the highest tertile of total milk and whole-fat milk consumption have a greater decline in global cognitive function (β: –4.71, 95% CI: –8.74 to –0.69, p-trend = 0.020 and β: –6.64, 95% CI: –10.81 to –2.47, p-trend = 0.002, respectively) compared to those in the lowest tertile. No associations are observed between low fat milk, yogurt, cheese or fermented dairy consumption, and changes in cognitive performance. Conclusion:Results suggest there are no clear prospective associations between consumption of most commonly consumed dairy products and cognition, although there may be an association with a greater rate of cognitive decline over a 2-year period in older adults at high cardiovascular disease risk for whole-fat milk

Mediterranean, DASH, and MIND Dietary Patterns and Cognitive Function: The 2-Year Longitudinal Changes in an Older Spanish Cohort

Background and Aims: Plant-forward dietary patterns have been associated with cardiometabolic health benefits, which, in turn, have been related to cognitive performance with inconsistent findings. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between baseline adherence to three a priori dietary patterns (Mediterranean, DASH, and MIND diets) with 2-year changes in cognitive performance in older adults with overweight or obesity and high cardiovascular disease risk. Methods: A prospective cohort analysis was conducted within the PREDIMED-Plus trial, involving 6,647 men and women aged 55-75 years with overweight or obesity and metabolic syndrome. Using a validated, semiquantitative 143-item food frequency questionnaire completed at baseline, the dietary pattern adherence scores were calculated. An extensive neuropsychological test battery was administered at baseline and 2-year follow-up. Multivariable-adjusted linear regression models were used to assess associations between 2-year changes in cognitive function z-scores across tertiles of baseline adherence to the a priori dietary patterns. Results: Adherence to the Mediterranean diet at baseline was associated with 2-year changes in the general cognitive screening Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE, β: 0.070; 95% CI: 0.014, 0.175, P-trend = 0.011), and two executive function-related assessments: the Trail Making Tests Part A (TMT-A, β: −0.054; 95% CI: −0.110, − 0.002, P-trend = 0.047) and Part B (TMT-B, β: −0.079; 95% CI: −0.134, −0.024, P-trend = 0.004). Adherence to the MIND diet was associated with the backward recall Digit Span Test assessment of working memory (DST-B, β: 0.058; 95% CI: 0.002, 0.114, P-trend = 0.045). However, higher adherence to the DASH dietary pattern was not associated with better cognitive function over a period of 2 years. Conclusion: In older Spanish individuals with overweight or obesity and at high cardiovascular disease risk, higher baseline adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern may be associated with better cognitive performance than lower adherence over a period of 2 years

Morbid liver manifestations are intrinsically bound to metabolic syndrome and nutrient intake based on a machine-learning cluster analysis

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is one of the most important medical problems around the world. Identification of patient ' s singular characteristic could help to reduce the clinical impact and facilitate individualized management. This study aimed to categorize MetS patients using phenotypical and clinical variables habitually collected during health check-ups of individuals considered to have high cardiovascular risk. The selected markers to categorize MetS participants included anthropometric variables as well as clinical data, biochemical parameters and prescribed pharmacological treatment. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out with a subsequent hierarchical cluster analysis using the z-scores from factor analysis. The first step identified three different factors. The first was determined by hypercholesterolemia and associated treatments, the second factor exhibited glycemic disorders and accompanying treatments and the third factor was characterized by hepatic enzymes. Subsequently four clusters of patients were identified, where cluster 1 was characterized by glucose disorders and treatments, cluster 2 presented mild MetS, cluster 3 presented exacerbated levels of hepatic enzymes and cluster 4 highlighted cholesterol and its associated treatments Interestingly, the liver status related cluster was characterized by higher protein consumption and cluster 4 with low polyunsaturated fatty acid intake. This research emphasized the potential clinical relevance of hepatic impairments in addition to MetS traditional characterization for precision and personalized management of MetS patients