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OBJECTIVES: Virtual reality (VR) teaching methods have potential to support medical students acquire increasing amounts of knowledge. EVENT (Easy VR EducatioN Tool) is an open educational resource software for immersive VR environments, which is designed for use without programming skills. In this work, EVENT was used in a medical student VR course on pancreatic cancer. METHODS: Medical students were invited to participate in the course. Before and after VR simulation, participants completed a multiple-choice knowledge assessment, with a maximum score of 10, and a VR experience questionnaire. The primary endpoint compared pre- and post-VR simulation test scores. Secondary endpoints included usability and factors that could affect learning growth and test results. RESULTS: Data from 117 of the 135 participating students was available for analysis. Student test scores improved by an average of 3.4 points (95% CI 3.1-3.7, P < 0.001) after VR course. The secondary endpoints of gender, age, prior knowledge regarding the medical subject, professional training completed in the medical field, video game play, three-dimensional imagination skills, or cyber-sickness had no major impact on test scores or final ranking (top or bottom 25%). The 27 students whose post-VR simulation test scores ranked in the top 25% had no prior experience with VR. The average System Usability Scale score was 86.1, which corresponds to an excellent outcome for user-friendliness. Questionnaire responses post-VR simulation show students (81.2% [95/117]) interest in more VR options in medical school. CONCLUSIONS: We present a freely available software that allows for the development of VR teaching lessons without programming skills.

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Introduction: The free open access medical education (#FOAMed, or FOAM) movement creates educational content intended to inform medical education and clinical practice and is distributed in an unrestricted fashion (e.g., open access website). The who, what, and in particular the how of FOAM has raised important questions about the sustainability of the movement. Methods: We recruited a diverse research team that included educational researchers, FOAM contributors, a business academician, and medical trainees to design and conduct a qualitative study exploring the work of FOAM creators. We analyzed the transcripts of interviews with 11 participants from top FOAM websites in emergency medicine and critical care. The team met frequently to iteratively identify and discuss emergent themes (major and minor) until saturation of concepts was achieved. Results: Creators of FOAM could be categorized using three archetypes: the rebel, the professor, and the entrepreneur. The rebel was categorized as distinctly rejecting "traditional academic structures" yet was compelled to deliver educational content via alternative routes. The professor retained a traditional academic role, instead creating FOAM to supplement academic activities (teaching courses, disseminating scholarship, promotion). Entrepreneurs focused on creating a sustainable entity in an effort to supplement their income and reduce clinical obligations. Conclusion: While all FOAM creators appear unified in their passion to create, promote, and distribute educational material with unfettered access to educators, their motivations for creating content could be differentiated. Given the grassroots nature of FOAM, creators share concerns related to financing, time commitments, and threats to sustainability of these businesses. The longevity of FOAM and what business models are best suited to support them are uncertain. Further exploration of the implications could investigate the best ways to engage with and support the different FOAM creator archetypes and develop models of sustainability.

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The Purdue Repository for Online Teaching and Learning (PoRTAL) was developed as an Open Educational Resource (OER) for graduate students and faculty in higher education settings to enhance their online teaching skills and strategies. The PoRTAL team used a design-based research approach (DBR; Wang & Hannafin, Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(4), 5-23, 2005). In this study context, we used Van Tiem et al.'s (2012) model to identify problems faced by instructors who struggled with or were new to online teaching from a Human Performance Technology (HPT) standpoint. To address the identified needs, we created resources for online teaching and embedded our research within practical activities to further study our design process. Our efforts resulted in an HPT-OER Model for Designing Digital Repositories. The purpose of this paper is to share the DBR process that we used to develop an OER repository within an HPT model.

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BACKGROUND: Free open-access meducation (FOAM) refers to open-access, web-based learning resources in medicine. It includes all formats of digital products, including blogs and podcasts. The number of FOAM blog and podcast sites in emergency medicine and critical care increased dramatically from 2002 to 2013, and physicians began to rely on the availability of these resources. The current landscape of these FOAM sites is unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to (1) estimate the current number of active, open-access blogs and podcasts in emergency medicine and critical care and (2) describe observed and anticipated trends in the FOAM movement using the Theory of Disruptive Innovation by Christensen as a theoretical framework. METHODS: The authors used multiple resources and sampling strategies to identify active, open-access blogs and podcasts between April 25, 2022, and May 8, 2022, and classified these websites as blogs, podcasts, or blogs+podcasts. For each category, they reported the following outcome measures using descriptive statistics: age, funding, affiliations, and team composition. Based on these findings, the authors projected trends in the number of active sites using a positivist paradigm and the Theory of Disruptive Innovation as a theoretical framework. RESULTS: The authors identified 109 emergency medicine and critical care websites, which comprised 45.9% (n=50) blogs, 22.9% (n=25) podcasts, and 31.2% (n=34) blogs+podcasts. Ages ranged from 0 to 18 years; 27.5% (n=30) sold products, 18.3% (n=20) used advertisements, 44.0% (n=48) had institutional funding, and 27.5% (n=30) had no affiliation or external funding sources. Team sizes ranged from 1 (n=26, 23.9%) to ≥5 (n=60, 55%) individuals. CONCLUSIONS: There was a sharp decline in the number of emergency medicine and critical care blogs and podcasts in the last decade, dropping 40.4% since 2013. The initial growth of FOAM and its subsequent downturn align with principles in the Theory of Disruptive Innovation by Christensen. These findings have important implications for the field of medical education.

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This method utilizes a template for an open pedagogy lesson plan using US government documents that can be applied to academic levels ranging from elementary to post-secondary. This method addresses concerns about OER quality, exposes students to the wealth of information in U.S. government documents, and develops research skills. The topic can be changed to accommodate diverse subject areas, and the duration can be adjusted to meet the instructional expectations. Students gain familiarity with government document search engines and resources which they can use throughout their lives. Through this process they strengthen their critical thinking, evaluative, and analytical skills as they explore a set of documents to create a narrative based on an overarching theme. Students use a worksheet to guide their narrative development. Examples of this method, as applied to a history topic, are included. An existing open pedagogy method to increase student engagement was used (Hollister, 2020). The proposed application of this method results in: • A flexible lesson that introduces students to various types of U.S. government documents. • An approach to develop research skills while generating a project that can vary based on discipline and academic level.

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As a lower middle-income nation, Cambodia has made significant improvements in basic health but hand surgery development continues to lag behind due to scarcity of trained and quality surgical manpower. Most of the hand surgery development locally has been due to surgical volunteers from Asia, Europe, and the United States. The introduction of a structured and systematic community-oriented hand surgery training over a 5-year period was successful in producing local surgeons to meet the basic needs of hand surgery patients. Brachial plexus surgery has benefited significantly, with local surgeons able to independently manage cases with minimal support. With the expansion of local surgical manpower and guidance, motivation, and assistance of regional hand surgeons, the future of hand surgery in Cambodia looks promising.

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The steadily-rising cost of higher education is a tremendous financial burden, and the purchasing of textbooks represents a significant cost of higher education. Financial hardship exaggerates wealth disparities, decreasing the diversity of learners. Additionally, a growing interest in the field of neuroscience among the population at large has increased the demand for easily accessible learning resources. The Open Neuroscience Initiative (ONI) is an open educational resource (OER) that covers several major topics that may be addressed in an undergraduate introductory neuroscience course. The ONI is a collaboratively-written and -edited free to download digital textbook in English that replaces the traditional print textbooks that may be used in typical introductory neuroscience, non-major brain and behavior, or physiological psychology courses. Adoption of the ONI for these types of classes therefore decreases the financial burden that college students face and increases inclusivity, improving accessibility to the knowledge acquired in a college undergraduate introductory neuroscience course.

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Background: Open research involves actions at all stages of the research cycle to make the research process and outputs more transparent and accessible. Though a number of initiatives exist for researchers at PhD, post-doctoral and more senior levels, there remains a critical need for educational resources for research students at earlier career stages and across disciplines. The aim of the Principles and Practices of Open Research: Teaching, Research, Impact, and Learning (PaPOR TRaIL) project is to develop an open educational resource (OER) on the principles and practice of open research for undergraduate and master's students. Methods: In stage 1, interviews and surveys of students and supervisors are being conducted to explore students' and supervisors' knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of open research, in addition to needs and preferences for the content and delivery of the OER. Stage 2 involves development of the OER content and delivery, based on Stage 1 engagement and national and international guidance on best practice in conducting and teaching open research. In Stage 3, students and supervisors will evaluate the developed OER and provide feedback in terms of OER usability, learning experience and learning outcomes. This feedback will guide revisions and finalisation of the OER content, format and learning activities. Discussion: The PaPOR TRaIL project will develop an evidence-based OER that provides a foundation in all aspects of open research theory & practice. Teaching undergraduate and master's students open research will promote development of core research values and equip them with transferable competencies and skills, including how to conduct and use research in a trustworthy and ethical manner within and beyond academia. Enhancing teaching and learning of open research will promote better teaching and research outcomes that will benefit individuals, universities, and science more broadly.

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Evolutionary Evaluation is a framework for understanding the evolution of programs. Just as programs grow and develop, so can standalone interventions. This paper focused on building and evaluating a purpose intervention to scaffold adolescents and young adults' search for purpose. Four studies were conducted at each phase of the intervention's lifespan to assess if modifications were needed and to test the viable validity of using online activities to increase both the search for and the discovery of a purpose in life. These studies can be viewed through the lens of the Evolutionary Evaluation framework. Study 1 evaluated the intervention at its initiation phase, which consisted of developing and testing the intervention activities. Study 2 tested the intervention during the development phase to determine which activities most effectively increased rates of purpose. Study 3 evaluated the intervention in its stability phase by experimentally testing all activities together in a full curriculum via Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Finally, study 4 assessed the dissemination of the intervention by testing the full curriculum with over 500 high school and college students. These studies suggest that the fostering purpose intervention cultivated purpose among adolescents and young adults. Additionally, the success of the intervention demonstrates that the Evolutionary Evaluation framework may be an effective model with which to develop an intervention, from initiation through dissemination phases.

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While it is essential for life science students to be trained in modern techniques and approaches, rapidly developing, interdisciplinary fields such as bioinformatics present distinct challenges to undergraduate educators. In particular, many educators lack training in new fields, and high-quality teaching and learning materials may be sparse. To address this challenge with respect to bioinformatics, the Network for the Integration of Bioinformatics into Life Science Education (NIBLSE), in partnership with Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES), developed incubators, a novel collaborative process for the development of open educational resources (OER). Incubators are short-term, online communities that refine unpublished teaching lessons into more polished and widely usable learning resources. The resulting products are published and made freely available in the NIBLSE Resource Collection, providing recognition of scholarly work by incubator participants. In addition to producing accessible, high-quality resources, incubators also provide opportunities for faculty development. Because participants are intentionally chosen to represent a range of expertise in bioinformatics and pedagogy, incubators also build professional connections among educators with diverse backgrounds and perspectives and promote the discussion of practical issues involved in deploying a resource in the classroom. Here we describe the incubator process and provide examples of beneficial outcomes. Our experience indicates that incubators are a low cost, short-term, flexible method for the development of OERs and professional community that could be adapted to a variety of disciplinary and pedagogical contexts.

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Por mucho tiempo la enseñanza de la anatomía humana, aparte de disecciones y observaciones de muestras cadavéricas se ha basado en textos y posteriormente complementado con softwares de imágenes bidimensionales (2D) o modelos que imitaban estructuras anatómicas. Con el desarrollo de la tecnología en los últimos años, el modelaje digital tridimensional (3D) ha ido teniendo auge, a lo que la anatomía no ha quedado ajena. A través de la fotogrametría digital se puede lograr este objetivo, ya que es un método que consiste en capturar un gran número de imágenes desde los diferentes ángulos de un objeto, en un ambiente de luz controlado, para después ser ingresadas a un software especializado, que se encarga de agruparlas y generar la información necesaria para que el volumen y profundidades del objeto sean convertidos en una malla de polígonos, para posteriormente ser revestidas con una textura, obteniendo así, un modelo digital 3D. El problema de este método es el tiempo que conlleva tomar las imágenes de buena calidad. Por este motivo que a través de la Dirección de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Universidad Austral de Chile, se adquirió un escáner 3D, equipo que tiene la posibilidad de obtener gran cantidad de imágenes en diferentes ángulos en menor tiempo, y que gracias a su propio software permite crear los modelos digitales 3D. Se han digitalizado 76 muestras anatómicas de nuestro laboratorio de anatomía humana, las cuales fueron subidas a la plataforma web Sketchfab, red social que se especializa en compartir modelos digitales 3D. Posterior a esto se creó una página web abierta que permite organizar los modelos alojados en Sketchfab, según el segmento corporal al cual pertenecen. A esta página puede acceder cualquier persona, desde cualquier lugar que tenga internet, a través de un computador personal, celular inteligente o tablets, convirtiéndolo en un recurso educativo abierto (REA).

For a long time, the teaching of human anatomy, apart from dissections and observations of cadaveric samples, has been based on texts and later complemented with softwares with two-dimensional (2D) images or models that imitated anatomical structures. With the development of technology in recent years, three-dimensional (3D) digital modeling has been booming, to which anatomy has not been oblivious. Through digital photogrammetry this objective can be achieved, since it is a method that consists of capturing a large number of images from the different angles of an object, in a controlled light environment, and then to be entered into specialized software, which is responsible for grouping and generating the necessary information so that the volume and depths of the object are converted into a mesh of polygons, to be subsequently coated with a texture, thus obtaining a 3D digital model. The problem with this method is the time it takes to take good quality images. For this reason, through the Directorate of Research and Development of the Universidad Austral de Chile, a 3D scanner was acquired, a device that allows obtaining a large number of images at different angles in less time, and through its own software creates 3D digital models. We have digitized 76 anatomical samples from our human anatomy laboratory, which were uploaded to the web platform Sketchfab, a social network that specializes in sharing 3D digital models. After this an open web page was created that allows organizing the models hosted in Sketchfab, according to the body segment to which they belong. This page can be accessed by anyone, from any place that has internet, through a personal computer, smart cell phone or tablets, making it an open educational resource (OER).

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Sensors for environmental radioactivity based on two novel setups using photodiodes, on the one hand, and an advanced tablet-based hybrid pixel detector, on the other hand, are presented. Measurements of four kinds of terrestrial and every-day radiation sources are carried out: Airborne radon, a mineral containing traces of uranium, edible potassium salt, and an old radium watch. These measurements permit comparisons between different types of ambient radioactive sources and enable environmental monitoring. Available data comprise discrimination between α - and ß - -particles in an energy range of 33 keV to 8 MeV and under ambient air conditions. The diode-based sensor is particularly useful in portable applications since it is small and sturdy with little power consumption. It can be directly connected to a smartphone via the headset socket. For its development, the low-cost silicon positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) diodes BPX61 and BPW34 have been characterised with capacitance versus voltage (C-V) curves. Physical detection limits for ionising radiation are discussed based on obtained depletion layer width: ( 50 ± 8 ) µ m at 8 V. The mobile and low-cost character of these sensors, as alternatives to Geiger counters or other advanced equipment, allows for a widespread use by individuals and citizen science groups for environmental and health protection purposes, or in educational settings. Source code and hardware design files are released under open source licenses with this publication.

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The use of computers as a pedagogical resource is currently on the rise. In the case of immunology, students present difficulties in visualizing molecular phenomena. Thus the use of animations and simulations available on the internet might facilitate the learning of complex immunological concepts. In this context, it is important to map and assess the currently available resources that may be used for educational purposes. This study comprises the search and analysis of educational immunology software freely available on the internet, which can aid students and health professionals in effective learning and continuing education scenarios. A detailed search in English on the existence of free software was carried out on websites and scientific databases. The results clearly indicate a lack of freely available and scientifically validated immunology educational software, despite the existence of several software programs that could be used as auxiliary teaching tools.

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Knowledge about slaughter of animals for human food is often perceived as controversial and therefore not made widely available. An open educational resource on the Internet about the slaughter of animals has created tension at launch but also resolved tension. Aiming to explore how this resource at the boundary between academia and society is perceived, a study was carried out with participants from slaughterhouses, universities, authorities and NGOs. Focus group sessions were video recorded and transcripts were coded using an interpretive thematic analysis. The results show that an open educational resource in addition to contributing to learning and awareness raising can also induce dialogue (and thus resolve tension) about animal welfare and contribute to animal welfare resilience. Our results also indicate that participants had diverse opinions about the influence of multimedia on attitudes towards animal slaughter. The use of additional instruments such as comment fields may lead to more knowledgeable citizens and socially robust knowledge, but has to be carefully weighed against the risk of false or fake data.

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Open educational resources (OERs) are becoming increasingly common as a tool in education, particularly in medical and biomedical education. However, three key barriers have been identified to their use: 1) lack of awareness of OERs, 2) lack of motivation to use OERs, and 3) lack of training in the use of OERs. Here, we explore these three barriers with teachers of medical and biomedical science to establish how best to enhance the use of OERs to improve pedagogical outcomes. An online survey was completed by 209 educators, many of whom (68.4%) reported using OERs in their teaching and almost all (99.5%) showing awareness of at least one OER. The results suggest that key problems that prevent educators from adopting OERs in their teaching include suitability for particular classes, time, and copyright. Most (81.8%) educators were somewhat, very, or extremely comfortable with OERs so there is no innate motivational barrier to adoption. A lack of training was reported by 13.9% of respondents, and 40% of respondents stated that there was little or no support from their institutions. OER users were no more comfortable with technology or better supported by departments but tended to be aware of a greater number of sources of OERs. Our study illustrates key opportunities for the expansion of OER use in physiology and medical teaching: increased breadth of awareness, increased institutional support (including time, training, and copyright support), and greater sharing of diverse OERs to suit the range of teaching challenges faced by staff in different subdisciplines.

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Severe sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the UK. This article describes the collaborative development and implementation of an interactive online learning package to understand the key role nurses have in recognising and then starting to apply the Sepsis Six care bundle in clinical practice. The e-learning package, developed in a UK teaching hospital, uses a case study approach to address the knowledge that is required to be able to recognise sepsis, to understand the processes that occur and the ongoing care and treatment required. The package is relevant to final-year student nurses, newly registered nurses in preceptorship and other health professionals involved in assessing and treating patients who may be developing sepsis.

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OBJECTIVES: To determine whether a group of Ghanaian students are able to easily use electronic learning material and whether they perceive this method of learning as acceptable. SETTING: The University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) and the School of Medical Sciences (SMS), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and fifty third year medical students at SMS and nineteen fifth year medical students at UGMS METHODS: Two e-learning materials were developed, one on the polymerase chain reaction and the other on total abdominal hysterectomy and these were distributed to selected medical students. Two weeks after the distribution of the programmes, a one-page, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the target groups of students at the two institutions. RESULTS: Ninety three percent (139) of respondents at KNUST and 95% (18) at UG report having access to a computer for learning purposes. All of the UG students viewed the TAH programme; 82% (130) of the KNUST students viewed the PCR animations. All students who viewed the programmes at both institutions indicated that the e-learning pro-grammes were "more effective" in comparison to other methods of learning. CONCLUSION: Computer ownership or availability at both medical schools is sufficient to permit the distribution and viewing of e-learning materials by students and the medical students considered both programmes to be very helpful.