“Heard immunity”-pandemic teaches immunology vocabulary through hearing from news and social media outlets

COVID-19 surprised the world and brought with it free immunology lessons. Ever since the pandemic news broke, the public were bombarded with immunological vocabulary. Immunology as a biomedical science had never attained student interest, let alone having an overwhelming global attention among the general public. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the extent to which immunology had become a common knowledge because of the main stream media and social outlets broadcasting news. We conducted a global survey of all people, regardless of gender identity, age, education, and geographical location to ask if they knew the meanings of specific immunological terms used in mainstream news outlets and social media. The words included, but were not limited to, antigen, antibody, T-cell, B-cell, mRNA, DNA, coronavirus, quarantine, lockdown, social distancing, PCR, rapid antigen tests, outbreak, herd immunity, vaccine, viral infections, infection rate, mortality rate, immunotherapy, and immune boosting drugs, etc. When we analyzed the data, we found the following trends. 139/179 (77.7%) said 'yes', they did learn about immunology in lockdown. 100/179 (55.9%) said they learnt about Pfizer, followed by Moderna (33.5%), BioNTech (31.8%), and AstraZeneca (29.6%). 86/179 (48%) learnt about the body's defense system, while 20.7% of people already knew about T cells, B cells, immune therapy, and immunity. 95/179 (53.1%) of people asked learned about airborne infections, making them the most common type of respiratory infections learnt about during COVID-19. The word ‘pandemic’ was learnt by 111/179 (62%) people. Overall, COVID-19 has propelled immunology into the general public’s vocabulary and knowledge in a way that has never been done before.

Instagram-a non-conventional learning tool in post-covid educational world. Repurposing of an entertainment app

Who would have thought that social media will ever be employed as a non-conventional learning tool. Before March 2020 everybody would have raised eyebrows and shunned the practice of even going in that direction. Pandemic changed the world! A tool of pure entertainment and pleasure had a positive effect on the generations “Z” and “X”. Little did the educators realize that one of the most intrinsic tool of self-directed learning is to stay “relevant” stay “motivated: and staying “alive” in a COVID-19 deadly environment was an app called “Instagram”. We conducted a global survey from university students across Asia, Europe, Russia, and Americas. In the current study we used “instagram” as a tool to collect anonymous data from more than 500 respondents and summarized the following points. Firstly, 80% of the respondents were females, and between the age group of 15–25 years. Only 9% reported negative mental health issues while the rest of respondents reported a positive, competitive, and highly focussed group of students who helped each other in small or large social circles to keep reminding each other of educational needs, helping with difficult assignments, and small group studying and quizzing each other. 50% of the respondents reported to get more work accomplished by communicating through messaging, pictures and videos. There was a small 10% of the students who got distracted and sometimes would get carried away but still performed well in learning objectives as compared to those who did not join the trends. 30% of the students did notice impulsiveness, increased anxiety and burnt out by excessive multitasking. Overall, we report that the best purpose for the use of instagram may not be a tool in teachers locker but definitely a peer-mentoring source.

The global digital divide: Younger and older teachers at odds in this COVID19-induced remote teaching experiment

COVID-19 was anticipated to target aging population and surely it did in world of health, but did collateral damage in education. Lack of preparedness and digital divide became more obvious among old-aged teachers as compared to younger faculty. The later found themselves more equipped with skill sets and more motivated to embrace the realities of the virtual world. We studied a cohort of teachers across the spectrum of age or years of service compared to younger or newly hired faculty. We solicited teachers in both cohorts from Asia, Europe and Americas and surveyed their responses to a given set of questions. We also recruited a group of students to independently and anonymously verify if they noticed any major effect in their learning process. Our global data showed a clear digital divide among the aged and younger faculty. Both groups found themselves unprepared and lacking necessary skill set to deal with this unprecedented, sudden and mandatory online education being forced upon them. However, younger faculty reported to have adapted to the onslaught of technology in an abrupt and timely manner as compared to their senior colleagues. Mostly, both group of teachers considered the learning experience at best as “on job training module”. High anxiety levels with fear of lack of performance, proper delivery methods also played a role in this panic-stricken educational world. Both group of teachers also reported lack of historical perspective and pilot studies for the use of technological gadgets as one of the artifacts in this experiment. The students being at the recipient end also reported in their surveys that the haste and rush of delivery and assessment methods negatively influenced the teaching methods and reciprocally their learning process.

Oxytocin is required for remote learning. Students need a bonding-hormone to improve their learning

Humans being a social animal need physical presence of their own kind to learn and educate themselves. COVID-19 has increased the need and desire for oxytocin more than any time in history of education. The purpose of this research project was to look at how pandemic-induced remote learning has reduced students’ social interaction, and impacted their education. With the ability to turn off audio and camera, struck in unproductive environments, students feel not only disengaged, isolated but overly anti-social. For our research, we recruited 25 undergraduate biomedical students at the University of Plymouth, England to survey their experiences with online learning, engagement with the technology and how it has affected their ability to learn in the void of physical presence. Our preliminary data suggests that (84%) of these students agreed that online/remote learning has impacted learning and made them crave for bonding to their classmates. However, for a small percentage (16%) said it did not make any difference. This initially highlights the issue that online learning is of the students seem to have no effect. These cohort of the students also seem to identify themselves as “introverts” and they also seem to have enjoyed being less sociable. We conclude that a statistically significant number of students proved to need a social environment conducive to learning and current pandemic limited that aspect. A social and a societal element of a happy civil environment is needed for not only healthy mind and body but also for a healthy and fruitful education world. A well-known bonding hormone “Oxytocin” is a prerequisite for human learning environment, and we don’t see the virtual world to take that over in any time soon.

Old is Gold! Old School is Back to a New School of Learning

COVID-19 has challenged the way students' learn and gain knowledge. The purpose of this research project was to investigate how students adapted to remote learning due to COVID-19. We selected a group of undergraduate Biomedical Science students at the University of Birmingham, England with the intent of understanding their new approaches to learning and whether remote teaching discriminated against the less fortunate. Our google form survey received 40 responses. 27 students said they forgot how to learn, with only 15 obtaining new ways of learning. This demonstrated how the adjustment to online teaching detracted from the time and energy students could put into learning. 75% of students did not enjoy university as much as they did pre COVID-19, and 3 students liked no aspects of online teaching. 22 students learnt worse online, while 10 felt no difference. Choosing when to watch lectures improved some students time management, self motivation and discipline. However, lack of externally-imposed routine brought new challenges as students had no time pressure, making it easier to fall behind. Cancelled laboratory work meant students missed out on vital skills. Our data showed that student satisfaction decreased, traditional learning methods were lost, and new ways of learning were hard to attain when transitioning to online teaching. With the prospect of learning returning to what the student’s consider normal, students fear this will accentuate how they have forgotten to learn in the traditional way, posing another disruption to their studies as they readjust to a post COVID world, whenever it comes. We anticipate that lessons learnt and forgotten in a pandemic-induced remote environment will remain a challenge to current students at large.

Prepubertal anorexia nervosa and major depressive disorder

A case of a 9-year-old girl with anorexia nervosa and a major depressive disorder is reported. The age of onset brings into focus the relationship between depressive disorders, weight loss, and anorexia nervosa in children. The increasing incidence of childhood dieting and the implications of the prepubertal onset for hypotheses of the etiology of anorexia nervosa are discussed.