Parental involvement has been recognized as an important factor for student achievement in tradit... more Parental involvement has been recognized as an important factor for student achievement in traditional school settings. The lack of research regarding the effect of parental involvement on student achievement in virtual schooling is, in part, due to the absence of a valid and reliable instrument to measure this construct. This paper provides an overview of parental involvement in traditional education, discusses its role in K-12 virtual schooling, and describes a study that validates a parental involvement assessment with a virtual school population. The results of this study show the instrument is overall a valid and reliable measurement for parental involvement in the virtual school environment. Implications for research in virtual schooling are addressed, and suggestions were given to modify this instrument for use in future studies.
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 2009
Limited data exists related to teaching and learning in K-12 virtual schools. This paper builds u... more Limited data exists related to teaching and learning in K-12 virtual schools. This paper builds upon a recent study related to successful practices of K-12 online instructors. The paper describes the utilization of a survey built upon qualitatively derived best practices of K-12 online instructors and provides the opportunity to relate these practices to teacher’s perceived professional development needs. Outcomes indicate that virtual school instructors identify online presence, diligent student monitoring and an enjoyment of technology among factors that contribute to virtual school instructor success. Instructors also identified face-to-face student mentors as a key component for success. Respondents felt that they would benefit from professional development focused on technological skills, content-based technological integration and evaluative resources for online learners. The paper concludes with a call for additional research to refine and implement the assessment.
BACKGROUND The United States public educational system encourages inclusion, integrating learners... more BACKGROUND The United States public educational system encourages inclusion, integrating learners with different needs in the same classroom students, including those with chronic disability and illness. However, a small but significant number of students with chronic illnesses or disabilities may not be healthy enough to attend school in a traditional environment. Hospital homebound programs serve these children by providing educational instruction for those living with short-term and chronic disabilities in non-school settings. These programs are publicly supported, differing significantly from homeschooling where, traditionally, a child’s parent or guardian assumes responsibility for the delivery of educational services. The limited research exploring hospital homebound programs describes them as challenged, characterized by instructors who may lack the qualifications to teach critical core subject matters and teach with limited instructional time. As online learning continues to...
PURPOSE Despite the importance of early intervention and remediation, the relatively short durati... more PURPOSE Despite the importance of early intervention and remediation, the relatively short duration of physician assistant education programs necessitates the importance of early identification of at-risk learners. This study sought to ascertain whether machine learning was more effective than logistic regression in predicting remediation status among students, using the limited set of data available before or immediately following the first semester of study as predictor variables and academic remediation as an outcome variable. METHODS The analysis included one institution and student data from 177 graduates between 2017 and 2019. We employed one data mining model, random forest trees, and compared it to a traditional predictive analysis method, logistic regression. Due to the small sample size, we employed leave-one-out cross-validation and bootstrap aggregation. RESULTS Data provided evidence that the random forest algorithm correctly identified individuals who would later experience academic intervention with a 63.3% positive predictive value, whereas logistic regression exhibited a positive predictive value of 16.6%. CONCLUSIONS This single-institution study indicates that predictive modeling, employing machine learning, may be a more effective means than traditional statistical methods of identifying and providing assistance to learners who may experience academic challenges.
PROBLEM There is an unmet need for economically feasible, valid, reliable, and contextually relev... more PROBLEM There is an unmet need for economically feasible, valid, reliable, and contextually relevant assessments of interprofessional collaborative knowledge and skills, particularly at the early stages of health professions education. This study sought to develop and gather content and internal structure validity for an Interprofessional Situational Judgement Test (IPSJT), a tool for the measurement of students' interprofessional collaborative intentions during the early stages of their professional development. APPROACH After engaging in an item development and refinement process (January-June 2018), an 18 question IPSJT was administered to 953 first-year students enrolled in 10 different health professions degree programs at the University of Florida Health Science Center in October 2018. The IPSJT's performance was evaluated using item-level analyses, item difficulty, test-retest reliability, and exploratory factor analysis. OUTCOMES Seven hundred thirty-seven (77.3%) students consented to the use of their data. Student IPSJT scores ranged from 0-69, averaging 42.68 (standard deviation = 12.28), with some statistically significant differences in student performance by health professions degree program. IPSJT item difficulties ranged from .13-.91. Once one item with poor properties was excluded from analysis, the IPSJT demonstrated an overall reliability of .63. Students were slightly more successful at identifying the least effective than the most effective responses. Test-retest reliability provided evidence of consistency (r = .50, P < .001) and similar item-difficulty across administrations. An exploratory factor analysis indicated a 3-factor model with multiple cross-factor loadings. NEXT STEPS This work represents the first step toward the development of a valid, reliable IPSJT for early learners. The emergent 3-factor model provides evidence that multiple competencies can be assessed in early learners via this tool. Additional research is necessary to build a more robust question bank, explore different scoring and response methods, and gather additional sources of validity evidence, including relations to other variables.
Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation: InterProfessional Team Training and Simulation
Interprofessional education (IPE) is an emergent topic that has received considerable attention d... more Interprofessional education (IPE) is an emergent topic that has received considerable attention during the recent years among health science educators in a variety of fields and at all levels. This chapter discusses the present state of simulation in pre-professional interprofessional health science education and describes eight attributes associated with programs that have established successful IPE curricula. Finally, it will discuss relevant concepts necessary to support programs as they work to establish sustainable pre-professional interprofessional simulation experiences.
Abstract Background Interprofessional team care is a model that demonstrates positive effects on ... more Abstract Background Interprofessional team care is a model that demonstrates positive effects on the triple aim of improving quality of care, improving health and reducing costs. Nurse-led practices are well suited for these models. Archer Family Health Care (AFHC) is a nurse-led practice that utilizes interprofessional team care. Purpose To describe interprofessional team training at AFHC and evaluate effects of training on perceived team functioning. Methods The AFHC team participated in TeamSTEPPS® guided trainings throughout the three year grant period. All staff and providers were included in the team trainings. Training consisted of participation in team retreats, training modules and focus group discussions on team functionality, goal setting and workflow analysis and revision. Standardized assessment of the team competencies was completed five times over three years using the TeamSTEPPS® Team Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ), the Collaborative Practice Assessment Tool (CPAT), and the Team Competencies (TC) questionnaire. Results identified perceived strengths and weaknesses of interprofessional team and served to guide team training activities. Discussion Improvements occurred over time for several measures, including teamwork, team performance, communication, and decision-making. Conclusion Standardized evaluation of team competencies is a useful tool to enhance perceived functioning of a nurse-led interprofessional team. Results support the need for ongoing interprofessional team evaluation and training.
Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of six online modules, the... more Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of six online modules, the Cross Cultural Case Stories, designed to teach healthcare professionals and trainees to provide culturally competent care to children with chronic respiratory conditions and their families. Modules increase provider awareness of the types of factors that may vary between cultures. This study assessed learner change in the three domains of knowledge, attitudes and self-reported skills. Improving on earlier studies, this evaluation included a control group for comparison. Methods Subjects comprised 66 first and second year pediatric residents at the University of Florida. Each module includes Objectives, Key Word definitions, Case Story, Lecture, Interactive Exercises and References. Intervention subjects completed an assessment tool before and after training. Control subjects completed the spaced assessments without completing the modules in-between. Results Within the intervention group there was a significant effect associated with the intervention. On average, participants within this group improved 1.67 points on the knowledge assessment (p &amp;amp;lt; .01), 13.64 points on the attitudes self-assessment (p = .01) and 6.86 points on the skills assessment (p ≤ 0.01). When comparing between the intervention and control group significant differences were found in the post knowledge, post skills and post attitudes assessment, with the intervention group exceeding scores from the control group. Conclusions The Cross Cultural Cases provide an accessible, comprehensive and effective means for teaching healthcare and public health professionals and trainees. These cases can potentially provide training for students and practicing professionals from multiple medical and public health related disciplines.
Introduction Early childhood caries has become a significant public health issue in selected popu... more Introduction Early childhood caries has become a significant public health issue in selected populations in the US and is one of the most common infectious diseases of childhood. It is imperative therefore that medical and dental professionals collectively advocate for children's oral health and establish a medical workforce that is comfortable screening and providing anticipatory guidance related to dental caries. To address this issue, we used an interprofessional small-group approach to teach oral health concepts to both first-year medical and dental students, who are at the same learning stage regarding infectious disease knowledge and its relationship to oral health. Methods This small-group learning exercise uses the concept of the flipped classroom, in which students acquire foundational knowledge prior to the classroom experience, demonstrate their understanding prior to class by means of an online assessment, and actively apply this knowledge to a specific case. The instructional activities include a preparatory reading and assessment, a case-based interactive exercise, and a concluding hands-on oral exam and fluoride varnish application exercise. Results More than 81% of participating faculty members and dental and medical students rated the experience as excellent or very good. Students stated they valued the presence of their peer counterparts in the learning experience. Discussion This interprofessional experience, conducted early in professional school curricula, establishes a foundation for future cooperative working relationships as well as faculty development regarding oral health and local community health resources.
American journal of pharmaceutical education, Jan 25, 2016
Objective. To compare the effectiveness of face-to-face and online team-based learning (TBL) to t... more Objective. To compare the effectiveness of face-to-face and online team-based learning (TBL) to teach phenytoin pharmacokinetics. Design. A TBL format was used to teach an online cohort of 222 pharmacy students and two face-to-face cohorts (Tampa and Las Vegas) of pharmacy students. Students in all cohorts completed individual and team readiness tests (iRATs and tRATs), and a self-assessment survey to determine teamwork and content understanding. Knowledge retention questions also were added to the final examination. Assessment. Mean scores on iRATs were: 54% for the Tampa group; 72% for the Las Vegas group; and 58% for the online. Mean tRAT scores were 78.5% for the Tampa cohort and 82.2% for the Las Vegas cohort, compared to 89.5% for the online cohort. The mean tRAT scores for the online cohorts were significantly higher than those of the face-to-face cohorts. Data from the teamwork survey provided evidence of positive interactions among teams for all cohorts. Conclusion. Team-ba...
Abstract While a valid instrument for analysis of classroom environment exists for high school st... more Abstract While a valid instrument for analysis of classroom environment exists for high school students, a valid and reliable instrument for use with post-secondary distance education populations has yet to be developed. This paper discusses the outcomes of a study to determine if it is possible to accurately measure classroom environment within post-secondary online educational classes.
Handbook of Research on Effective Electronic Gaming in Education, 2009
Abstract A better understanding of virtual character avatars is needed in order to explore the un... more Abstract A better understanding of virtual character avatars is needed in order to explore the underlying psychology that the avatar represents to the user. In addition to providing an overview and introduction to massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), this chapter provides an introduction to visual ethnographic analysis of character avatars in video game environments. The chapter details an example of mixed methodology for conducting visual analysis research specific to Linden Lab&amp;#x27;s Second Life and details some ...
Parental involvement has been recognized as an important factor for student achievement in tradit... more Parental involvement has been recognized as an important factor for student achievement in traditional school settings. The lack of research regarding the effect of parental involvement on student achievement in virtual schooling is, in part, due to the absence of a valid and reliable instrument to measure this construct. This paper provides an overview of parental involvement in traditional education, discusses its role in K-12 virtual schooling, and describes a study that validates a parental involvement assessment with a virtual school population. The results of this study show the instrument is overall a valid and reliable measurement for parental involvement in the virtual school environment. Implications for research in virtual schooling are addressed, and suggestions were given to modify this instrument for use in future studies.
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 2009
Limited data exists related to teaching and learning in K-12 virtual schools. This paper builds u... more Limited data exists related to teaching and learning in K-12 virtual schools. This paper builds upon a recent study related to successful practices of K-12 online instructors. The paper describes the utilization of a survey built upon qualitatively derived best practices of K-12 online instructors and provides the opportunity to relate these practices to teacher’s perceived professional development needs. Outcomes indicate that virtual school instructors identify online presence, diligent student monitoring and an enjoyment of technology among factors that contribute to virtual school instructor success. Instructors also identified face-to-face student mentors as a key component for success. Respondents felt that they would benefit from professional development focused on technological skills, content-based technological integration and evaluative resources for online learners. The paper concludes with a call for additional research to refine and implement the assessment.
BACKGROUND The United States public educational system encourages inclusion, integrating learners... more BACKGROUND The United States public educational system encourages inclusion, integrating learners with different needs in the same classroom students, including those with chronic disability and illness. However, a small but significant number of students with chronic illnesses or disabilities may not be healthy enough to attend school in a traditional environment. Hospital homebound programs serve these children by providing educational instruction for those living with short-term and chronic disabilities in non-school settings. These programs are publicly supported, differing significantly from homeschooling where, traditionally, a child’s parent or guardian assumes responsibility for the delivery of educational services. The limited research exploring hospital homebound programs describes them as challenged, characterized by instructors who may lack the qualifications to teach critical core subject matters and teach with limited instructional time. As online learning continues to...
PURPOSE Despite the importance of early intervention and remediation, the relatively short durati... more PURPOSE Despite the importance of early intervention and remediation, the relatively short duration of physician assistant education programs necessitates the importance of early identification of at-risk learners. This study sought to ascertain whether machine learning was more effective than logistic regression in predicting remediation status among students, using the limited set of data available before or immediately following the first semester of study as predictor variables and academic remediation as an outcome variable. METHODS The analysis included one institution and student data from 177 graduates between 2017 and 2019. We employed one data mining model, random forest trees, and compared it to a traditional predictive analysis method, logistic regression. Due to the small sample size, we employed leave-one-out cross-validation and bootstrap aggregation. RESULTS Data provided evidence that the random forest algorithm correctly identified individuals who would later experience academic intervention with a 63.3% positive predictive value, whereas logistic regression exhibited a positive predictive value of 16.6%. CONCLUSIONS This single-institution study indicates that predictive modeling, employing machine learning, may be a more effective means than traditional statistical methods of identifying and providing assistance to learners who may experience academic challenges.
PROBLEM There is an unmet need for economically feasible, valid, reliable, and contextually relev... more PROBLEM There is an unmet need for economically feasible, valid, reliable, and contextually relevant assessments of interprofessional collaborative knowledge and skills, particularly at the early stages of health professions education. This study sought to develop and gather content and internal structure validity for an Interprofessional Situational Judgement Test (IPSJT), a tool for the measurement of students' interprofessional collaborative intentions during the early stages of their professional development. APPROACH After engaging in an item development and refinement process (January-June 2018), an 18 question IPSJT was administered to 953 first-year students enrolled in 10 different health professions degree programs at the University of Florida Health Science Center in October 2018. The IPSJT's performance was evaluated using item-level analyses, item difficulty, test-retest reliability, and exploratory factor analysis. OUTCOMES Seven hundred thirty-seven (77.3%) students consented to the use of their data. Student IPSJT scores ranged from 0-69, averaging 42.68 (standard deviation = 12.28), with some statistically significant differences in student performance by health professions degree program. IPSJT item difficulties ranged from .13-.91. Once one item with poor properties was excluded from analysis, the IPSJT demonstrated an overall reliability of .63. Students were slightly more successful at identifying the least effective than the most effective responses. Test-retest reliability provided evidence of consistency (r = .50, P < .001) and similar item-difficulty across administrations. An exploratory factor analysis indicated a 3-factor model with multiple cross-factor loadings. NEXT STEPS This work represents the first step toward the development of a valid, reliable IPSJT for early learners. The emergent 3-factor model provides evidence that multiple competencies can be assessed in early learners via this tool. Additional research is necessary to build a more robust question bank, explore different scoring and response methods, and gather additional sources of validity evidence, including relations to other variables.
Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation: InterProfessional Team Training and Simulation
Interprofessional education (IPE) is an emergent topic that has received considerable attention d... more Interprofessional education (IPE) is an emergent topic that has received considerable attention during the recent years among health science educators in a variety of fields and at all levels. This chapter discusses the present state of simulation in pre-professional interprofessional health science education and describes eight attributes associated with programs that have established successful IPE curricula. Finally, it will discuss relevant concepts necessary to support programs as they work to establish sustainable pre-professional interprofessional simulation experiences.
Abstract Background Interprofessional team care is a model that demonstrates positive effects on ... more Abstract Background Interprofessional team care is a model that demonstrates positive effects on the triple aim of improving quality of care, improving health and reducing costs. Nurse-led practices are well suited for these models. Archer Family Health Care (AFHC) is a nurse-led practice that utilizes interprofessional team care. Purpose To describe interprofessional team training at AFHC and evaluate effects of training on perceived team functioning. Methods The AFHC team participated in TeamSTEPPS® guided trainings throughout the three year grant period. All staff and providers were included in the team trainings. Training consisted of participation in team retreats, training modules and focus group discussions on team functionality, goal setting and workflow analysis and revision. Standardized assessment of the team competencies was completed five times over three years using the TeamSTEPPS® Team Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ), the Collaborative Practice Assessment Tool (CPAT), and the Team Competencies (TC) questionnaire. Results identified perceived strengths and weaknesses of interprofessional team and served to guide team training activities. Discussion Improvements occurred over time for several measures, including teamwork, team performance, communication, and decision-making. Conclusion Standardized evaluation of team competencies is a useful tool to enhance perceived functioning of a nurse-led interprofessional team. Results support the need for ongoing interprofessional team evaluation and training.
Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of six online modules, the... more Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of six online modules, the Cross Cultural Case Stories, designed to teach healthcare professionals and trainees to provide culturally competent care to children with chronic respiratory conditions and their families. Modules increase provider awareness of the types of factors that may vary between cultures. This study assessed learner change in the three domains of knowledge, attitudes and self-reported skills. Improving on earlier studies, this evaluation included a control group for comparison. Methods Subjects comprised 66 first and second year pediatric residents at the University of Florida. Each module includes Objectives, Key Word definitions, Case Story, Lecture, Interactive Exercises and References. Intervention subjects completed an assessment tool before and after training. Control subjects completed the spaced assessments without completing the modules in-between. Results Within the intervention group there was a significant effect associated with the intervention. On average, participants within this group improved 1.67 points on the knowledge assessment (p &amp;amp;lt; .01), 13.64 points on the attitudes self-assessment (p = .01) and 6.86 points on the skills assessment (p ≤ 0.01). When comparing between the intervention and control group significant differences were found in the post knowledge, post skills and post attitudes assessment, with the intervention group exceeding scores from the control group. Conclusions The Cross Cultural Cases provide an accessible, comprehensive and effective means for teaching healthcare and public health professionals and trainees. These cases can potentially provide training for students and practicing professionals from multiple medical and public health related disciplines.
Introduction Early childhood caries has become a significant public health issue in selected popu... more Introduction Early childhood caries has become a significant public health issue in selected populations in the US and is one of the most common infectious diseases of childhood. It is imperative therefore that medical and dental professionals collectively advocate for children's oral health and establish a medical workforce that is comfortable screening and providing anticipatory guidance related to dental caries. To address this issue, we used an interprofessional small-group approach to teach oral health concepts to both first-year medical and dental students, who are at the same learning stage regarding infectious disease knowledge and its relationship to oral health. Methods This small-group learning exercise uses the concept of the flipped classroom, in which students acquire foundational knowledge prior to the classroom experience, demonstrate their understanding prior to class by means of an online assessment, and actively apply this knowledge to a specific case. The instructional activities include a preparatory reading and assessment, a case-based interactive exercise, and a concluding hands-on oral exam and fluoride varnish application exercise. Results More than 81% of participating faculty members and dental and medical students rated the experience as excellent or very good. Students stated they valued the presence of their peer counterparts in the learning experience. Discussion This interprofessional experience, conducted early in professional school curricula, establishes a foundation for future cooperative working relationships as well as faculty development regarding oral health and local community health resources.
American journal of pharmaceutical education, Jan 25, 2016
Objective. To compare the effectiveness of face-to-face and online team-based learning (TBL) to t... more Objective. To compare the effectiveness of face-to-face and online team-based learning (TBL) to teach phenytoin pharmacokinetics. Design. A TBL format was used to teach an online cohort of 222 pharmacy students and two face-to-face cohorts (Tampa and Las Vegas) of pharmacy students. Students in all cohorts completed individual and team readiness tests (iRATs and tRATs), and a self-assessment survey to determine teamwork and content understanding. Knowledge retention questions also were added to the final examination. Assessment. Mean scores on iRATs were: 54% for the Tampa group; 72% for the Las Vegas group; and 58% for the online. Mean tRAT scores were 78.5% for the Tampa cohort and 82.2% for the Las Vegas cohort, compared to 89.5% for the online cohort. The mean tRAT scores for the online cohorts were significantly higher than those of the face-to-face cohorts. Data from the teamwork survey provided evidence of positive interactions among teams for all cohorts. Conclusion. Team-ba...
Abstract While a valid instrument for analysis of classroom environment exists for high school st... more Abstract While a valid instrument for analysis of classroom environment exists for high school students, a valid and reliable instrument for use with post-secondary distance education populations has yet to be developed. This paper discusses the outcomes of a study to determine if it is possible to accurately measure classroom environment within post-secondary online educational classes.
Handbook of Research on Effective Electronic Gaming in Education, 2009
Abstract A better understanding of virtual character avatars is needed in order to explore the un... more Abstract A better understanding of virtual character avatars is needed in order to explore the underlying psychology that the avatar represents to the user. In addition to providing an overview and introduction to massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), this chapter provides an introduction to visual ethnographic analysis of character avatars in video game environments. The chapter details an example of mixed methodology for conducting visual analysis research specific to Linden Lab&amp;#x27;s Second Life and details some ...
Kumar, S., Liu, F., & Black, E. W. (2012). Undergraduates' collaboration and integration of new technologies in higher education: Blurring the lines between informal and educational contexts. Digital Culture and Education. 4(2), 248-259.
To better understand how students’ familiarity with digital media in their daily lives can be har... more To better understand how students’ familiarity with digital media in their daily lives can be harnessed in learning environments, a survey about their informal and educational use of new technologies was administered to undergraduates in three schools at a private university in the United States. The results indicated that undergraduates (n=282) transferred their skills in technology use for personal purposes to their higher education coursework, infusing digital technologies that were not required or used by their professors into their educational endeavours. As in prior research, respondents used new technologies and created online content more for informal purposes than for course-related activities. However, they forged a participatory and collaborative digital culture within their courses despite their professors’ scarce use of such technologies. The results suggest that further research and insight into undergraduates’ voluntary use of technology in educational contexts can contribute to the effective integration of digital media into higher education.
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Papers by Erik Black