Biomedical subjects
David M Kennedy
Publications and source records attributed to David M Kennedy.
Standards for online teaching: lessons from the education, health and IT sectors.
Online teaching is a growing, but not a new, phenomenon. It is most associated with distance education, but it also features in classroom education, in the form of blended learning. During this period of growth in online teaching, there has been time for the development of standards to ensure its quality. Yet the standards that have emerged tend to be derivatives of the standards for conventional, classroom teaching. They do not adequately address the specific demands of online education. Is this acceptable for online teachers? Is it supportive of online students? This contribution to the debate outlines how nurse educators can generate--and are generating--credible standards for their online practice. It identifies flaws in the current guidance for online teachers. It points out that knowledge of standard setting in the health service can support standard setting in higher education. And it highlights that the most useful guidance for the online teacher comes not from the education sector but from the industrial sector, specifically from the IT industry. It finishes on a practical note, describing how nurse educators in the University of Paisley are using these findings to develop standards for their online teaching practice.
Dimensions of distance: a comparison of classroom education and distance education.
Distance is obviously a core issue in distance education. But distance is a factor in classroom-based education as well. Classroom-based teachers and distance educators have a common interest in the dynamics of distance. The focus of much discussion in distance education is on geographical distance and how it may be bridged. However, this focus obscures the more fundamental issue of educational distance. Educational distance includes cognitive distance, role distance and access distance. This form of distance is as potent in the classroom environment as it is in a virtual learning environment. The writer explores this theme by his analysis of the communication patterns between teacher and students in one module in a BSc Health Studies degree programme. The writer has taught this module in both distance education format and in traditional classroom-based format. His finding is that the communication time between the teacher and students in the distance education form of the module is 29% greater than the communication time in the classroom-based form. The most significant feature of the communication pattern is the greater quantity of individual communication between student and teacher in the distance education format. Both the quantity and type of the communication in each of these modes suggest that the more communication-rich distance education format has greater potential for overcoming the problems of educational distance within this module.
Near-patient testing of blood glucose using the Bayer Rapidlab 860 analyser in a regional neonatal unit.
BACKGROUND: We evaluated the use of the glucose biosensor on the Bayer Rapidlab 860 (BR 860) blood gas analyser for neonates and compared it with two laboratory-based methods for measuring blood glucose using the Yellow Springs Instruments 2300 STAT PLUS (YSI) analyser and the Vitros 750 XRC (Vitros) analyser. METHODS: Arterial, capillary and venous blood samples were taken from 50 neonates, and blood glucose was measured using all three instruments. Blood pH, PO(2), haematocrit and plasma albumin data were also recorded. The effect of varying the degree of haemolysis and the haematocrit was examined using cord blood samples prepared in vitro. RESULTS: Day-to-day imprecision of the BR 860 was 4.90% at a mean glucose concentration of 2.55 mmol/L (n = 60), compared with 3.03% at 2.33 mmol/L (n = 34) for the YSI and 2.64% at 3.52 mmol/L for the Vitros (n = 59). Using Deming regression, the BR 860 results correlated well with results produced on both the YSI (r = 0.962, n = 47, P < 0.001) and Vitros (r = 0.980, n = 46, P < 0.001) analysers. Bland-Altman difference plots showed that the BR 860 had a mean of the differences of 0.30 mmol/L compared with the YSI and 0.09 mmol/L compared with the Vitros. The Bland-Altman standard deviation of the differences was 0.46 mmol/L when the BR 860 was compared with the YSI and 0.31 mmol/L when the BR 860 was compared with the Vitros. No significant correlation was found between the BR 860 glucose measurements and haematocrit, degree of sample haemolysis, plasma albumin, blood pH or PO(2). CONCLUSIONS: The BR 860 analyser provides neonatal blood glucose measurements in the clinical setting of a neonatal unit that compare well with results obtained using laboratory-based methods.