E-Learning Works - Exactly How Well Depends on its Unique Features and Barriers

Key Findings: E-learning is comparable to traditional teacher-led classroom instruction in terms of effectiveness. E-learning has specific features that may influence learning: content, immersion, interactivity, and communication. Barriers to e-learning adoption include fraud and cheating, digital divides and their impact on low income and underprepared students, and cost issues

E-Learning in Postsecondary Education

Over the past decade postsecondary education has been moving increasingly from the class room to online. During the fall 2010 term 31 percent of U.S. college students took at least one online course. The primary reasons for the growth of e-learning in the nation\u27s colleges and universities include the desire of those institutions to generate new revenue streams, improve access, and offer students greater scheduling flexibility. Yet the growth of e-learning has been accompanied by a continuing debate about its effectiveness and by the recognition that a number of barriers impede its widespread adoption in higher education

Self-Assessments of Knowledge: Where Do We Go From Here?

[Excerpt] In this paper, we argue that there remain several unanswered questions surrounding self-assessments of knowledge that must be addressed before we can reach a more definitive conclusion on the viability of these measures. The answers to these questions may provide further evidence that self-assessments should not be used as an indicator of learning or they may serve to qualify the conditions under which self-assessments can be used with reasonable confidence. In either case, addressing these issues is critical if work in this area is to influence how researchers and practitioners evaluate trainees’ learning

The use of neoadjuvant larotrectinib in the management of children with locally advanced TRK fusion sarcomas.

BackgroundThe highly selective oral tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) inhibitor larotrectinib has demonstrated significant activity in adult and pediatric TRK fusion cancers. In the current study, the authors describe the clinical course of children with locally advanced TRK fusion sarcoma who were treated preoperatively with larotrectinib and underwent subsequent surgical resection.MethodsA total of 24 children were treated on a pediatric phase 1 trial of larotrectinib (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02637687). Five children who had a documented TRK fusion sarcoma and underwent surgical resection were included in the current analysis. Tumor response (Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors [RECIST] version 1.1) and surgical outcomes were collected prospectively.ResultsA total of 5 patients (median age, 2 years; range, 0.4-12 years) had locally advanced infantile fibrosarcoma (3 patients) or soft-tissue sarcoma (2 patients). Four patients had disease that was refractory to standard therapy. All 5 patients achieved a partial response to larotrectinib by version 1.1 of RECIST and underwent surgical resection after a median of 6 cycles (range, 4-9 cycles) of treatment. Surgical resections were R0 (negative resection margins with no tumor at the inked resection margin) in 3 patients, R1 (microscopic residual tumor at the resection margin) in 1 patient, and R2 (macroscopic residual tumor at the resection margin) in 1 patient. Three patients achieved complete (2 patients) or near-complete (>98% treatment effect; 1 patient) pathologic responses. These patients remained in follow-up and were no longer receiving larotrectinib for a minimum of 7 to 15 months postoperatively. Two patients had viable tumor at the time of surgical resection and positive resection margins and continued to receive adjuvant larotrectinib. No patients experienced postoperative complications or wound healing issues.ConclusionsChildren with locally advanced TRK fusion sarcomas may proceed to surgical resection after treatment with the selective TRK inhibitor larotrectinib, thereby sparing them the potentially significant morbidity noted with current approaches. These results support the evaluation of larotrectinib as presurgical therapy in children with newly diagnosed TRK fusion sarcomas