Universal design for learning [HPEC Fast Facts]

Recent years have seen a greater focus on equity and diversity in higher and health professions' education. As part of this conversation, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has emerged as a promising and practical approach to teaching and learning which helps to provide students with equal opportunities to succeed. UDL principles can be used to create learning environments that suit a wide variety of learners, offering flexibility in the ways in which students can access and engage with resources. In this month's Fast Facts, we provide an overview of UDL, explore the organisation of the UDL framework, and consider how we might apply UDL to curriculum planning.</p

Evaluation of virtual assessment for a high stakes' clinical examination — physician assistant students' and their examiners' perspectives

Purpose: This case study emerged from the necessity to reschedule an in-person long case examination to an online platform for physician assistant students' final clinical examination during COVID-19 restrictions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the experiences of students and examiners for a high stakes' clinical examination online. Methods: This was an evaluation research study using the Context, Input, Process, Product model, which provided a framework to establish the effectiveness and/or success of an online format for a high stakes' clinical examination. All students and examiners were invited to take part in virtual interviews. Results: The results suggest that both students (n = 5) and examiners (n = 7) agree that, although the stress of a face-to-face examination was lessened for the student, this was balanced by a new stressor of potential Internet problems. All agreed that a virtual setting for a high stakes' assessment is not transferable, with both groups citing the lack of opportunities to "read the patient" and "showcase their physical examination skills" as challenging. Conclusion: Our study suggests that, in the context of balancing the risks of the pandemic with graduating health care professionals, the online clinical examination format met the required assessment criteria. Recommendations suggest that the long case could be planned so that students and patients are in the same setting to perform a physical examination, confirming the finding that questions on "how to" examine a patient are no substitute for "doing."</p

Are we ever going back? Exploring the views of health professionals on postpandemic continuing professional development modalities

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly altered the ways in which health care professionals engage with continuing professional development (CPD), but the extent to which these changes are permanent remains unknown at present. This mixed-methods research aims to capture the perspectives of health professionals on their preferences for CPD formats, including the conditions that inform preferences for in-person and online CPD events and the optimum length and type of online and in-person events. Methods: A survey was used to gain a high-level perspective on health professionals' engagement with CPD, areas of interest, and capabilities and preferences in relation to online formats. A total of 340 health care professionals across 21 countries responded to the survey. Follow-up semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 respondents to gain deeper insights into their perspectives. Results: Key themes include CPD activity before and during COVID, social and networking aspects, access versus engagement, cost, and time and timing. Discussion: Recommendations regarding the design of both in-person and online events are included. Beyond merely moving in-person events online, innovative design approaches should be adopted to capitalize on the affordances of digital technologies and enhance engagement.</p

Lessons learned from navigating the COVID pandemic in a health sciences university: a disaster medicine perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about an unexpected transformation in teaching and learning across health professions education, necessitating an unprecedented operational shift. When exploring the factors at play in this shift, it is useful to analyse the pandemic response in terms of the field of disaster scholarship. This paper employs a qualitative case study methodology to review the application of a disaster framework to one health sciences university’s response to the pandemic. It aims to identify the factors that facilitated the university’s dramatic operational shift, with a particular focus on leadership and culture. The research questions were: (1) How does the application of a disaster framework enhance our understanding of a health sciences university’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) What implications does a disaster preparedness focus have for leaders within health professions education? The data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 4 of the university’s senior leaders and focus groups with 53 staff and 48 students across campuses in Ireland and Bahrain. Ciottone’s disaster cycle provided the conceptual lens, and framework analysis was used to guide the data interpretation process. The analysis found that IT infrastructure and digital education, an empowering and supportive organisational culture, and a facilitatory leadership style facilitated the disaster response. The disaster scenario created a window of opportunity for innovation, collaboration, and problem-solving, but posed challenges for maintaining the momentum of change and ensuring student wellbeing. In preparing for future disruptions, consideration should be given to fostering a sense of purpose for students to enhance wellbeing. </p

Experiential learning: lessons learned from the COVID pandemic

This paper describes some innovative online and simulated solutions that were developed at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) to enable continued provision of experiential learning opportunities for healthcare students during the Covid-19 pandemic. It shows how elements of experiential learning practice are amenable to virtual modes of delivery and considers the possible implications of this for experiential learning practice beyond the realm of health professions education.</div

AI report

We have seen in the previous discussion and scenarios that AI has the potential to deliver great benefits for education. However, we have also seen that there are also risks associated with its use. In many cases, we may determine that these are minimal risk. Examples we’ve discussed include the provision of formative feedback, help for teachers in creating lesson plans, and assistance in some of the administrative functions of schools. As we move away from the use of AI as a support system, so the risk increases. As we have seen, using AI for learning analytics may help teachers adjust their teaching strategies to cater to individual needs. However, using learning analytics without adequate teacher oversight may disadvantage students dealing with adverse life circumstances that are impacting their performance, thus increasing the risk level. When it comes to relying on AI for decisions that may impact a learner’s future opportunities, we are moving into the ‘high’ and perhaps ‘unacceptable’ risk territories. Therefore, we can see that the level of risk resides not so much within the tool as within the contexts in which they are used. While human oversight may help to mitigate some of the risks, we should be aware of the danger of dependence lock-in, in which humans become increasingly dependent to AI to make decisions. All this underscores the importance of the development of Explainable AI, as discussed above. In order to ensure its responsible use in educational settings, it is important to remain ever aware of the balance that needs to be struck between leveraging AI’s benefits and evaluating and mitigating potential risks and ensuring that human oversight is included and human values are served </p