70 research outputs found
Illustrations for Students’ Self-Learning: A Review using Dentistry as an Example
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Introduction: With the growth of available video and multimedia resources, there is a need to revisit the relevance of illustrations in contemporary dental education. Knowing whether online illustrations help students self-learn will provide information for educators on whether illustrative materials are self-explanatory in the study topic of interest.
Materials and methods: This literature review followed the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis” (PRISMA) guidelines. Scopus was the selected database as it includes Medline, Embase and Compendex coverage of studies published to July 2020. The search strategy consisted of a string of important keywords: 1) Type of activity “Learning”: (learn OR educat OR stud); 2) Medium of learning “Online”: (e-learning OR online OR virtual OR internet); 3) Field of study “Dentistry”: (dental OR dentistry); and 4) Type of material “Visual”: (visual OR photo OR image OR illustrat OR manual skills).
Results: Three studies met the inclusion criteria. Two studies were conducted as questionnaire-based surveys and one was carried out as a focus group discussion. Evidence suggests students found online illustrative materials important, helpful and they enhance confidence in their learning.
Conclusion: Visual learning is important in education and based on these review findings, students found online illustrations useful. This allows us to reaffirm the importance of including pictures and illustrations during our learning course
The fate and transformation of pharmaceutical and personal care products in wastewater treatment plants – (ii)
No full textPharmaceuticals are emerging pollutants, widely found in today’s wastewaters. Their exposure to humans has raised the alarm worldwide, where many sought solutions to eliminate these pollutants in the wastewaters through treatment processes such as the MBR. Seven pharmaceuticals, namely, Caffeine, Carbamazepine, Diclofenac, Ibuprofen, Ketoprofen, Naproxen and Salicylic acid had been experimented to study their removals by the MBR, with relevance to two HRTs at 15 and 11 hours. In addition, an experiment was conducted to investigate possible sludge removal effects on these pharmaceuticals’ removal. This report incorporated findings from past researches as a basis of discussion for the results. Of the seven pharmaceuticals, only caffeine, ibuprofen and salicylic acid produced satisfactory removal results whilst ketoprofen and naproxen displayed the potential to be removed efficiently. Contrastingly, diclofenac was inconclusive due to diverse results obtained and carbamazepine was deemed as resistant to removal by MBR with its unsatisfactory removal performance. Across the two HRTs, only caffeine and naproxen demonstrated higher removal efficiencies with a longer HRT whereas salicylic acid verified to be independent of HRT. Ketoprofen was inclined to be independent of HRT but more studies are required to affirm this relationship. HRT’s relationship with the remaining pharmaceuticals were indeterminable. For the effects in response to a reduced sludge concentration, most pharmaceuticals proved to be efficiently removed even at lower sludge concentrations with TSS of 2g/L in contrast to 6g/L. This is with the exception of carbamazepine and diclofenac as they persist with poor and peculiar removal results, respectively. It is recommended for future studies to explore a wider range of HRTs to gain better insights on the relationship between HRT and pharmaceuticals’ removal due to a lack of research conducted in this aspect.Bachelor of Engineering (Environmental Engineering
To investigate what is important to medical students' online learning in medical education: a quantitative study using the example of dental trauma as the subject of research
Get PDFThis doctoral research focuses on expanding medical students’ knowledge and understanding of a non-core curricular topic not normally offered in the medical curriculum. The critical juncture explores how to introduce a less prioritised subject into medical education that complements without competing for space/time in medical students’ core studies.
This research focuses on answering the question, “what is important to medical students’ online learning in medical education using dental trauma as the subject for research?”
This research is significant because it addresses how online medical education introduces the learning of important extra-curricular topics. Using dental trauma as an example, this research identified evidence to support the opportunity for medical students to learn about managing dental injuries and to raise their awareness of the need for accurate diagnosis and treatment of traumatic dental injuries (TDIs) before they graduate as medical doctors.
The originality of the research is demonstrated with the introduction of a new non-core curricular topic related to the medical profession (i.e., dental trauma) into the medical curriculum. The newly developed (online dental trauma) course will be introduced into a new environment (the medical school).
The contribution of this research is demonstrated by showing how the online dental trauma course provides a path for cross-disciplinary learning in medical education without the need for a specialist (e.g., dental) educator being present at the medical school. This research also contributes the development of a framework that can be applied for other disciplines (e.g., physiotherapy, optometry, etc.) and provides an online educational pathway to expand new knowledge into medical education.
This research identified gaps in knowledge regarding medical doctors’ management of TDIs. Ten important features were identified for medical educators to consider when they develop an online course to introduce a non-curricular core topic. These features are 1) prioritising information to TDI, 2) provide specific facts and information to TDI, 3) information must be easily retrieved, 4) provide career-related information, 5) promote self-confidence, 6) promote learning of new knowledge, 7) easy to understand content materials, 8) establish a logical sequence of learning, 9) visual illustrations to complement written text, and 10) promote self-directed learning.
In conclusion, this doctoral research has justified that online medical education enhances extra-curricular learning of a less traditional but important health-related topics considered important to medical professionals. A new topic not normally offered in the medical curriculum is made available through the medical school as an online learning course. Online learning provides an educational pathway for cross-disciplinary learning without any change to the existing curriculum. This research identified important key features that should be included in the design of an online course to provide a positive online learning experience for medical students
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