The increasing use of online virtual laboratories (OVLs) in educational institutions as a recent educational technology application necessitates developing a new educational platform for assisting instructors in using such technology in the teaching process without web programming obstacles. The OVLs are online environments that provide students with several types of content such as simulations, videos, scientific images, and infographics related to real laboratory experiments. This article proposes a unified online virtual laboratory platform (OVLP) to support instructors who teach real laboratory experiments in multi-domains. To evaluate the proposed platform, five university instructors and five experts of ICT in education have participated in this study. The data were collected using online questionnaires for both specialists, respectively. Regarding the results, they confirm that the proposed platform is acceptable for teaching real laboratory experiments, especially in the tested domains.
The expanding use of virtual learning applications in educational institutions requires educators to enhance their skills in the design and production of these applications. A novel VLP was proposed in this study to cultivate students’ skills in designing and producing online virtual laboratories (OVLs). To examine the effects of the VLP, thirty Year-4 undergraduate students majoring in educational technology participated in this study using a pre- and post-test design. The data were collected using online instruments; an achievement test, a performance observation card, a product evaluation card, and a usability questionnaire. The results showed that the proposed VLP was effective in increasing student knowledge and practical skills required to design and produce an OVL. Students found the VLP to be a comfortable way for learning relevant knowledge and skills.
Purpose:To evaluate the role of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the liver in children with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH).
Material and methods:A prospective study was done on 42 children with AIH (30 girls and 12 boys, with a mean age of 13 years) and 20 age-and sex-matched healthy control children. They underwent DTI of the liver and laboratory tests. Liver biopsy was done for the patients. The mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) of the liver were calculated and correlated with the pathological results.
Results:The mean MD and FA of the liver in children with AIH were 1.42 ± 0.06 × 10 -3 mm²/s and 0.37 ± 0.11; and in the control children they were 1.55 ± 0.07 × 10 -3 mm²/s and 0.25 ± 0.03, respectively. The MD and FA were significantly different in the children with AIH compared to the control children (p = 0.001). The cutoff MD and FA used to differentiate patients from controls were 1.50 × 10 -3 mm²/s, 0.31 with AUC of 0.919 and 0.813, sensitivity of 97.6% and 66.7%, a specificity of 80% and 70%, an accuracy of 94.2% and 67.3%, PPV of 95.3 and 90.3, and NPV of 88.9 and 33.3, respectively. There was significantly lower MD and higher FA of the liver in children with AIH type I (n = 31) than type II (n = 11) (p = 0.001), and patients with (n = 9) and without (n = 33) overlap syndrome (p = 0.005).
Conclusions:We concluded that DTI parameters can help to diagnose AIH, detect its phenotyping, and give clues as to the presence of associated overlap syndrome.
With the increasing transformation of using distance learning platforms in educational institutions, deaf student instructors in schools and universities have no specialized platform for remotely delivering learning content for deaf students with sign language translation videos. This study suggests a new asynchronous distance learning platform for deaf students with particular capabilities to assist deaf student instructors in developing and delivering educational materials over distance. Nineteen educational technology experts, seven instructors for deaf students, and sixteen undergraduate deaf students participated in this study to assess the proposed platform. Qualitative methods were used to collect data using online questionnaires. According to the findings, the suggested platform is suitable for distance learning when creating and delivering educational materials with sign language translation videos for deaf students. Deaf students could easily access and study the courses remotely with the help of the proposed platform.
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