The experiences of social and health care and health sciences educators of implementing hybrid teaching in higher education: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Educators in the social and health care and health sciences fields play a key role in developing the competencies of health professionals and experts. The increase in hybrid education in higher education provides flexible education but also causes additional stress for educators. In order to develop educators' competencies in hybrid teaching, it is necessary to understand educators' experiences of that. In this study, hybrid teaching means synchronous face-to-face and distance teaching.

OBJECTIVES

The study aims to describe the experiences of social and health care and health sciences educators of hybrid teaching in higher education.

DESIGN

We employed a qualitative descriptive research design.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 21 social and health care and health sciences educators were interviewed.

METHODS

The data was collected through semi-structured interviews in seven group interviews and an individual interview from February 2022 to April 2022. The data was analysed using inductive content analysis.

RESULTS

Educators felt that hybrid education brought flexibility to their teaching activities and have implemented it successfully. Moreover, educators shared that implementing hybrid teaching requires them to have pedagogical competence and technology skills, ensuring interaction with students and creating a safe learning environment. Their positive attitude towards digital pedagogy is essential. Educators recognised the need to ensure students' digital skills in hybrid education. Moreover, challenges related to assessment were also identified. Educators experienced increased workload due to pressures, psychological strain and distribution of attention. They felt that they needed support and adequate resources to implement it.

CONCLUSIONS

The results have societal value in enhancing educators' continual professional development, developing high-quality evidence-based teaching and student skills, and assessing and applying different digital solutions to hybrid education.

Development and psychometric testing of hybrid education competence instrument for social and health care, and health sciences educators

BACKGROUND

The competencies of educators in social and health care, and health sciences fields have been studied; however, studies related specifically to hybrid (synchronous face-to-face and online) teaching competence are scarce.

AIM

To develop and psychometrically test the hybrid education competence instrument for the purpose of self-assessment of hybrid education competence.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study was conducted to develop and psychometrically test the instrument.

METHODS

The instrument was developed in four phases: (I) establishing the conceptual framework, (II) testing the face and content validity, (III) testing the construct validity, and (IV) testing the internal consistency of the instrument. The conceptual framework was based on studies related to digital pedagogy and hybrid teaching. The face and content validity were tested using an expert panel (n = 12). Pre-testing (n = 10) was performed prior to the cross-sectional data collection (N = 1689, n = 206) which was performed during the autumn of 2022. The data was collected from educators in social and health care, and health sciences fields at six universities and twelve universities of applied sciences in Finland. Construct validity was tested using exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency was tested using Cronbach's alpha.

RESULTS

The newly developed and psychometrically tested instrument contains 46 items across 5 factors: (1) Competence in planning and resourcing hybrid teaching; (2) technological competence in hybrid teaching; (3) interaction competence in hybrid teaching; (4) digital pedagogy competence in hybrid teaching; and (5) ethical competence in hybrid teaching. These five factors explain 70.83 % of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha values ranged from 0.901 to 0.951.

CONCLUSION

The instrument developed in this study can be used to measure the hybrid education competence of educators in social and health care, and health sciences fields. The instrument can also be utilised in an interdisciplinary manner to assess hybrid teaching competence in other educational fields, but also it can be used in the design of continuous learning and training for educators.

Affective states and regulation of learning during socio-emotional interactions in secondary school collaborative groups

BACKGROUND

Group affective states for learning are constantly formed through socio-emotional interactions. However, it remains unclear how the affective states vary during collaboration and how they occur with regulation of learning. Appropriate methods are needed to track both group affective states and these interaction processes.

AIMS

The present study identifies different socio-emotional interaction episodes during groups' collaborative learning and examines how group affective states fluctuate with regulation of learning during these episodes.

SAMPLE

The participants were 54 secondary school students working in groups across four science learning sessions.

METHODS

Multichannel process data (video, electrodermal activity [EDA]) were collected in an authentic classroom. Groups' affective states were measured with emotional valence captured from video data, and activation captured as sympathetic arousal from EDA data. Regulation of learning was observed from the videotaped interactions.

RESULTS

The study disclosed four clusters of socio-emotional interaction episodes (positive, negative, occasional regulation, frequent regulation), which differed in terms of fluctuation of affective states and activated regulation of learning. These clustered episodes confirm how affective states are constantly reset by socio-emotional interactions and regulation of learning. The results also show that states requiring regulation do not automatically lead to its activation.

CONCLUSIONS

By advancing existing understanding of how group level socio-emotional processes contribute to regulation of learning, the study has implications for educational design and psychological practice. Methodologically, it contributes to collaborative learning research by employing multiple data channels (including biophysiological measures) to explore the various dimensions of socio-emotional processes in groups.

Biological nitrogen fixation in logging residue piles of different tree species after final felling

Logging residues influence the nitrogen cycling processes that play a key role in risks for nitrogen losses from the ecosystem after the clear cut. Therefore, our aim was to identify the potential ability of logging residues to gain external nitrogen via biological nitrogen fixation. We measured biological nitrogen fixation as nitrogenase activity in logging residues of three different tree species (Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), and silver birch (Betula pendula Roth.). The study site was located in south-eastern Finland and was clear cut in 2014 and piles of logging residues were established. Sampling was performed in June 2016, September 2018, and August 2019 and nitrogenase activity in branches and needles or leaves was measured using the acetylene (C₂H₂) reduction assay. Nitrogenase activity (ethylene production) was shown in all residue types. Nitrogenase activity tended to be higher in branches than in needles or leaves and in coniferous residues than in birch. C-to-N ratios were higher in branches than in needles/leaves and in coniferous residues than in birch. Our results indicate that logging residues can acquire external nitrogen from the atmosphere via biological nitrogen fixation and can thus bring nitrogen to the forest ecosystem and substitute some part of the N losses occurring when residues are retained at the site after clear cutting.

The Sequential Composition of Collaborative Groups’ Emotion Regulation in Negative Socio-emotional Interactions

Research indicates that to adjust a group’s emotional atmosphere for successful collaborative learning, group members need to engage in group-level emotion regulation. However, less is known about the whys and ways regulation is activated at a group level. This research explores what triggers 12-year-old primary school students’ (N = 37) negative socio-emotional interactions during a collaborative science task and whether the nature of the trigger makes a difference to group-level emotion regulation strategies and their sequential composition in these interactions. Groups’ collaborative working was videotaped, and triggers and strategies were analysed. The results reveal that the triggers of negative interactions are linked to the groups’ activated regulation strategies. Motivation control strategies were more represented in situations where negative interactions were triggered by task-related issues, whereas socially related triggers were associated with behavioural regulation strategies. Furthermore, the results illustrate that strategies are concatenated to a series of strategic actions, which mostly begin with sharing an awareness of the trigger. The results indicate a need to focus on the series of strategic actions activated in group interactions. This will help reveal how socially shared regulatory processes build a group’s emotional atmosphere.

Logging residue piles of Norway spruce, Scots pine and silver birch in a clear-cut: Effects on nitrous oxide emissions and soil percolate water nitrogen

We analysed how logging residue (LR) piles of common tree species in Finland, Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and silver birch (Betula pendula Roth), affect nitrogen (N) losses in forest soil after final felling. A Norway spruce dominated stand was clear-cut and followed by two experimental setups to study the nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions and leaching of carbon (C) and N. Experiments consisted of four treatments: tree species treatments consisting of 40 kg m^-2 of LR and a control treatment without residues. The C losses were monitored as dissolved organic carbon (DOC), the N losses as ammonium (NH₄-N), nitrate (NO₃-N) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) fluxes and concentrations in soil percolation waters and the N₂O emissions as fluxes from the forest soil to the atmosphere. In addition the soil temperatures, the molecular size distribution of the DOC from the soil percolation waters and the origin of the N₂O production were determined. The LR piles lowered the soil temperatures and, especially those of birch, increased the concentrations of NO₃-N in the soil percolation waters already 1 year after the establishment of the piles. The LR piles increased the NH₄-N concentrations. The smallest molecular size fraction (<1 kD) of DOC predominated in all treatments. The N₂O fluxes peaked under the piles during the second and third growing seasons; however, the inconsistent fluxes tended to be low. The production of N₂O was driven by both nitrification and denitrification processes, the proportion depending on the tree species. Our results indicate that LR piles accelerate N losses 1 year after the clear-cutting, especially NO₃-N, which predominates in the soil percolation waters under the birch residues, whereas spruce residues tend to stimulate N₂O emissions longer. These results have implications for sustainable forest management practices and nutrition of regrowing vegetation.