This paper presents user testing findings on a chatbot used to train physiotherapy students in clinical history-taking, and the enhancements made based on the findings. The chatbot takes on the role of a Standardized Patient and offers structured conversations based on scenarios to guide students into an effective flow of questioning. It integrates components of existing technologies such as Google, AWS, and Unity to reduce barriers to its (re)development and acceptance.
Institutions assess teaching effectiveness in various ways, such as classroom observation, peer evaluation and self-assessment. In higher education, student feedback continues to be the main teaching evaluation tool. However, most of such forms include characteristics of good teaching that the institutions deem important and may not adequately reflect what students perceive to be good teaching. This study explored students' understandings of good teaching via a survey with students from two faculties at a Singapore university. Students were asked what characteristics they thought constituted the following categories of teaching: preparation and organization, knowledge, learning and thinking, enthusiasm and delivery. It was found that while distinct characteristics were highlighted for the first four categories, the last saw recurring characteristics of teacher attributes and teaching strategies. These two aspects weigh in significantly in the way students perceive whether the teacher is effective. The study has implications for teacher development programmes and the design of student evaluation forms for more accurate assessments of teacher ability and foci on areas of improvement. This study is potentially useful to teachers, as knowing the characteristics of teaching that matter to students could help teachers determine for themselves how to maintain or improve their performance in the classroom.
Much research work on teacher feedback has concentrated on the perceptions of students and teachers on feedback, but few studies have addressed the extent to which students respond to their teachers’ written feedback, particularly at the tertiary level. This study analysed the extent to which students made appropriate revisions based on the feedback they received. Forty-one sets of drafts and final papers written by first-year undergraduates were compared. The analysis focused on the main components of the grading criteria for the assignment: language and style, rhetorical structure, and format. The findings showed that the students paid more attention to feedback on the rhetorical structure of their writing. There was no statistically significant difference in the students’ revisions of language/style and format. The results suggest that the students were more concerned with macro issues concerning the clarity of their thesis/topic statements and the logical development of ideas, than with the mechanical aspects of writing. This study serves as a useful guide to teachers when providing feedback, and also serves to encourage further research involving different groups of students in different contexts.
The accountancy profession is now challenged by the pace of technological advancement and the ubiquitous digitalization leading to data explosion and advanced analytics. Digital technology is also replacing mundane tasks and manual work which accountants undertook in the past. Besides data analytics skills, accountants now need to possess critical thinking skills, knowledge of data science tools and communication skills. Consequently, equipping accounting professionals with data analytics skills is critical. Professional accounting bodies address this need by emphasizing continuing professional education and developing guidelines for data analytics. At the same time, higher education institutions are taking the initiative to integrate data analytics into their accounting curricula. However, given the numerous professional accreditation requirements that higher education institutions must fulfill, a big challenge remains for any institution to insert rigorous data analytics training into their existing curriculum. This chapter describes the development of a data analytics roadmap for undergraduate accountancy education—from reviewing our academic and industry data analytics curricula and evaluating existing modules that could be integrated with relevant data analytics topics, to seeking feedback from industry partners regarding the curriculum model we had developed. In delivering our curricula across the levels of study, a spaced retrieval teaching technique was opted to ensure that students could progressively develop data analytics competencies.
Research on feedback on student writing has investigated numerous aspects over the years. However, focused studies involving perspectives of both teachers and students in a particular educational setting are rare. This study investigated the views of teachers and students from a university in Singapore regarding feedback on academic writing and feedback practice. Nine experienced writing teachers and eight undergraduates participated in focus-group discussions in separate sessions. Discussions covered topics on the purpose of feedback and the specific areas that feedback should cover. Both teachers and students agreed that the purpose of feedback should be to help students become reflective and independent learners. The teachers tended to use feedback to justify the grades awarded to the assignments, and tailored their feedback to the requirements of the respective courses. The students, however, felt that the feedback needed to be more detailed. The individual needs of the students were also not always met. We propose recommendations to create a dialogic environment between teachers and students, and so facilitate the provision of personalized feedback on academic writing.
Abstract Background: Crowdlending is increasingly popular among investors as a means of alternative investment or for raising capital. This platform emerged in Asia in 2009, with China being one of the earliest countries to introduce crowdlending. Since its inception over a decade ago, the industry has grown significantly; yet multiple unresolved issues remain. Method: Using computer-assisted textual analysis and content analysis, our study examined articles from representative online newspapers in Asian countries to understand crowdlending diffusion in Asia, both within China and outside China. Results: Using the issue-attention cycle and the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, our analysis of news excerpts relating to crowdlending over a ten-year period (2009-2019) showed that crowdlending diffusion took two different paths. In China, it started with the practical use of crowdlending, with government regulations introduced after numerous problems emerged. In contrast, outside China, the rules were enacted simultaneously with IT artifact and practice. Furthermore, in connecting the DOI theory with an IT-based regulatory system, we demonstrated the usefulness this approach in explaining how DOI can inform IT sensemaking and rulemaking, which can help crowdlending practitioners remove potential impediments from crowdlending practices. Lastly, media coverage on crowdlending practices was found to have offered multiple perspectives, which could have had an impact on public opinion and attitude towards the new technology. Conclusion: Our study’s chief contribution lies in showing how media facilitates crowdlending diffusion. In painting a broad picture of crowdlending in Asia, we show that media can help the public, practitioners, and governments to be aware of the crowdlending platform’s potential risks and to find ways to mitigate them. Knowing about crowdlending diffusion can help authorities in Asian countries consider more effective ways of regulating the industry. Hence, media as a contextual factor could be considered in other innovation research and IT-based regulation frameworks.
With the increased adoption of artificial intelligence and metaverse applications, there is an increase in the adoption of the use of Virtual Patients for the clinical training of physiotherapy students. This paper provides details of our implementation of a prototype voice-input Virtual Patient Chatbot system for the training of physiotherapy students in taking patients' histories and improving their communication skills. We will share some challenges faced in the implementation of the chatbot system, which integrates components from Unity 3D, Amazon Web Services, and Google DialogFlow. We will also present findings from our initial study with a group of physiotherapy students.
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