The Orientation to Life Questionnaire: Validation of a Measure to Assess Older Adults’ Sense of Coherence

Increasingly, the literature suggests that the sense of coherence (SOC) positively influences well-being in later life. This study reports the assessment of the following psychometric properties: distributional properties, construct, criterion and external-related validities, and reliability of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OtLQ) in an cross-national population of older adults. We recruited 1291 community-dwelling older adults aged between 75–102 years (M = 83.9; SD = 6.68). Convenience sampling was used to gather questionnaire data. The construct validity was asserted by confirmatory factor analysis and convergent and discriminant validity. Moreover, criterion and external-related validities, as well as distributional properties and reliability, were also tested. Data gathered with the 29-items OtLQ scale showed overall good psychometric properties in terms of distributional properties, construct, criterion, and external-related validities, as well as reliability. Three factors were validated for the OtLQ scale: (a) comprehensibility; (b) manageability; and (c) meaningfulness. We validated the three-factor OtLQ scale, which produced valid and reliable data for a cross-national sample with older adults. Hence, it is an adequate instrument for assessing sense of coherence among older people in health care practice and program development contexts.     

Remote learning during Covid-19 lockdown: A study on anatomy and histology education for pharmacy students in Jordan

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed almost all aspects of education. The anatomy and histology courses for pharmacy students focus heavily on the face-to-face communication of theory and practical knowledge, and due to the pandemic, only theory content was delivered in an online format. This brought up many concerns about pharmacy student preparedness. This work explores the effectiveness and student perspective of remote teaching of the theoretical anatomy and histology course in Jordanian universities from the perspective of pharmacy students. The objectives are to determine the strengths, challenges, and the effectiveness of remote delivery on student learning. An online-based validated questionnaire was distributed to students majoring in Pharmacy and enrolled in the course during the second semester of 2019–2020 at 11 universities in Jordan. A total of 442 students participated in the study. Results showed that there were significant differences in perceptions of the social media platforms used in distance learning and remote delivery of the course. Most participants had positive perceptions of the educational process and studying via distance learning. There were many strengths noted including time flexibility and several challenges such as the lack of face-to-face interaction with instructors, inadequate internet connectivity, and technical issues. In conclusion, online-taught anatomy and histology course during the Covid-19 lockdown in Jordan was a success as perceived by students, but the course still possessed challenges need to be overcome in the future.