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Nearly 1 million students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) live in rural communities in the United States and, to date, no reviews have examined the transition literature related to supporting students in rural settings. The purpose of this review was to examine transition-related functional skill interventions conducted in rural settings. We conducted a systematic review of the experimental literature and identified 19 articles. Interventions reviewed included transition curricula, skill-based interventions, or other interventions (e.g., occupational therapy, interagency collaboration). Few articles included substantive reporting on rurality or the effects of community context on intervention design and implementation. We discuss the paucity of rural transition research and provide recommendations for conducting and reporting future research. Understanding best practice for conducting transition interventions in rural settings requires a framework that considers how the multidimensional elements of a given community influence postsecondary needs and outcomes. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2024.

Purpose: We investigate whether women are more likely than men to choose to pursue a competency-based labour market integration programme, rather than the time-based labour market integration programme. We further investigate whether women with existing but uncertified skills are even more likely to pursue a competency-based labour market integration programme. Design/methodology/approach: We test our hypotheses using ordinary least squares applied to linear probability models. We discuss the relative advantages of this methodology. We show the robustness of our results through multiple specifications and estimation methods. Finally, we discuss the reasons preventing us from granting our results a causal interpretation and discuss how they are surmountable in future research. Findings: Women are significantly more likely to enrol into competency-based programmes, relative to time-based. Women with existing but uncertified skills are significantly more likely to enrol into competency-based programmes, whereas women without skills or with college degrees are not significantly different from the baseline. Our findings are robust to various specifications, and we include a comprehensive set of fixed-effect vectors, addressing industrial, occupational and time-varying state specificities. Research limitations/implications: First, our empirical test of hypothesis H2 is hindered by the construction of the “some college or associate’s degree” variable in RAPIDS data. “Some college” is very different from an associate’s degree. Second we had to choose between omitted variable bias and selection bias. Because of the demonstrated importance of the occupation and industry variables in existing literature, we included those variables at the risk of selection bias. Occupation and industry fixed effects reduce, but do not eliminate, omitted variable bias. Finally, the third limitation of this paper is external validity. Registered Apprenticeship programmes are quite idiosyncratic to the United States. Social implications: The rollout and expansion of CBRA may thus be an avenue through policymakers may reduce the gender training gap. This may in turn give more women access to the labour market and allow more women to benefit from the “wage premia” of Registered Apprenticeship completion on the labour market (Lou and Hawley, 2019). Originality/value: This article is the first that applies econometric methods to investigate women’s choices of labour market integration programmes, using Registered Apprenticeship as a case study. We discuss the implications of our findings, highlighting how competency-based programmes may be an approach to better serving more diverse populations in Registered Apprenticeship. © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Vocational education enhances traditional education by providing students with the advanced information and skills necessary for career success. Based on the traditional course structure, vocational education places equal emphasis on self-governance and occupational skills. This article proposes a Modularization-based Training Control Optimization (MTCO) approach to leverage the adaptability of vocational education training for market skills. This optimization approach classifies the training and its adaptability for the occupational and self-governance skills of the students. Based on the demand, the modular priority for skill-based training is pursued to provide better training efficiency. As optimization is induced for the personnel training, standard interchangeable modules based on the skills and agenda are optimized for maximum efficiency and the minimum swapping between the training sessions. The optimization uses fuzzy control to consider the current demand for personnel for modularization. This optimization relies on the modularization process’s minimum swapping criterion for maximum training efficiency in consecutive and distinct training sessions. Based on this minimum swapping, the new fuzzy control criteria are designed to prevent modularization failures and time demands. © 2025, Zarka Private University. All rights reserved.

Immersive Virtual Learning (IVL) is increasingly recognized as an innovative approach to technical skills training. Its immersive, engaging, and interactive nature enhances the learning experience. This study addresses the need for a structured understanding of IVL’s effectiveness in technical skills training. A systematic search of scholarly articles from Scopus, Web of Science (WoS), IEEE, and ERIC publications from 2020 to 2024 was conducted following the PRISMA framework. The database found (n=36) that the final primary data was analyzed. The findings were categorized into three themes: (1) Effectiveness of Immersive Learning Technologies, (2) Integration and Implementation Strategies, and (3) User Experience (UX) in IVL Environments. The results reveal that IVL significantly improves learning outcomes, especially in technical skills training, by enhancing theoretical knowledge and practical abilities. UX factors, including usability, cognitive load management, intuitive interaction design, real-time feedback quality, engagement, motivation, and perceived realism, influence UX. Well-designed IVL enhances user acceptance, although future research is necessary to optimize these technologies and UX in IVL for technical skills training. © © 2025 KSII.

Background: Young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face challenges in obtaining employment. Objective: To test the practicality and feasibility of using instructional videos in a community organization involved in vocational rehabilitation and work integration for people with autism. Methods: Three methodological steps were achieved: ‘Research-development’, iterative content validation and practicability study. Eleven employees of a grocery store were filmed performing tasks in seven departments. Each video was followed by questions. Four validation phases were carried out with different groups of stakeholders (n = 25). Four autistic youth in a work training organization had tested successfully 6 to 9 instructional videos. Results: A man of 26 years old was positive for 6 videos and negative about 3 tasks (Wrapping cheese, Placement of Products in the charcuterie section, Sous-vide). He had no discomfort 67% of the time. What bothers him often were the smell, social contacts and the texture. Twenty-one instructional videos from 2 to 6 min cover fish section(n = 5), fruits and vegetables(n = 2), cash register(n = 2), grocery store display(n = 2), bakery(n = 3), cheese and charcuterie(n = 4) and ready-to-eat(n = 3). Conclusion: Education, orientation and job placement service, rehabilitation and community stakeholders can use the response to the questions to target socio-professional interests while providing a space for discussion about future integration into grocery store work. © The Author(s) 2025

Background: Employment rates of individuals with disabilities are consistently below those without. Keeping students with disabilities on track to earn a regular diploma, and gain career preparation and paid work experiences can improve their outcomes. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), awarded a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), established a Rehabilitation and Research Training Center (RRTC) focused on employment for transition-age youth with disabilities. One study examined the benefits of the Start on Success paid internship model for at-risk students with disabilities. Objective: To investigate whether the SOS internship model, comprising a career and technical education course followed by a paid internship, improves postschool outcomes for students with disabilities who earned a regular diploma. Methods: This quantitative, quasi-experimental design study compared the postschool outcomes of students with disabilities who participated in the SOS program with those who received standard transition services. Seniors took a CTE course in the fall and a paid internship in the spring. Both groups took the Transition Assessment Goal Generator (TAGG) at the start and end of their senior year, and Indicator #14 data were analyzed for both groups. Results: The results revealed that students in the SOS model showed significant improvements in self-determination and were more likely to pursue postsecondary education, training, or employment compared to their peers who did not participate. Conclusion: The study underscores the benefits of combining structured career and technical education with real-world experience to enhance postschool outcomes for students with disabilities. The authors recommend further research involving families and community partners in transition planning to prepare these students for their future goals better. © The Author(s) 2025

Virtual reality (VR) technology has been widely used in nursing laboratory courses to effectively making up for the shortcomings of traditional teaching. However, challenges such as cell phone addiction, negative emotions, and reduced communication between teachers and students still exist during the application process, which makes it difficult to achieve the goal of cultivating high-quality nursing talents. Students, as the main body of VR technology application in nursing laboratory teaching, directly affect the teaching effect of VR courses. This study aims to identify the factors influencing undergraduate students’ learning preferences in nursing laboratory courses with VR technology through a scoping review. Following the PRISMA guidelines, 231 articles were retrieved from 6 databases, with 20 documents meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results show that prior experience, debriefing format, and instructor involvement are the most common influencing factors in the operational, debriefing, and undifferentiated phase of the virtual course, respectively. During the virtual operation phase, it is important to consider the integration between the disciplines and the VR technology. A group learning approach is used, and the length of the course and the frequency of learning can be adjusted according to previous experience. In the debriefing phase, synchronous debriefing can be chosen and the time is set between 15 and 30 min. Meanwhile, timely feedback from teachers is necessary for effective learning outcomes. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024.

Background: Transformative changes in nursing education are compelling nursing programs to transition to a backward design-driven competency- and clinical judgment-based curriculum design. Little guidance exists on backward design application in nursing. Purpose: This rapid review aims to identify what is known about the use, implementation, and outcomes of backward design (BWD) in healthcare professional education programs. Methods: A rapid review of the literature was conducted using the Interim Guidance for Rapid Reviews Methods in concert with the PRISMA-P protocol, the PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration, and the PRISMA 2020 reporting guidelines. Results: There was no empirical evidence of the efficacy of BWD in achieving competency-based outcomes. Results focused on strengths and benefits for students and faculty and provided implementation tips. BWD better assured the alignment of course learning outcomes, assessments, and learning activities. There was more student engagement and mastery of skills, and greater faculty effectiveness in the learner-centered BWD approach. Conclusions: Our findings show the utility of BWD in healthcare education and provide models for application of BWD as an effective curricular framework in nursing. Our review shows the importance of the adoption of a standardized curricular framework in nursing education. © 2025 Elsevier Inc.

This work presents the development of a comprehensive healthcare app designed to improve early disease detection and enhance healthcare accessibility. The application integrates cutting-edge yet lightweight machine learning (ML) algorithms like Multinomial Naive Bayes and Decision Tree for symptom analysis and incorporates a range of innovative healthcare APIs like Edamam and Exercise API by Ninjas. Its primary objectives include empowering users with proactive health insights, facilitating timely medical assistance, and promoting overall well-being through personalised health recommendations. Key features of the app include accurate disease prediction through ML-driven symptom analysis, healthy recipe recommendations, customised exercise plans, and a conversational chatbot for diagnosis and treatment suggestions. By leveraging these functionalities, the app aims to enable users to take control of their health effectively, promoting paperless transactions via digital appointment and prescriptions. It also reduces physical visits to healthcare facilities, lowering carbon emissions associated with travel, which eventually paves the way to reduce environmental impact. The database integration via Firebase Auth offers data accessibility and security to data via services like encryption and Cloud Store. The intuitive navigation through the chatbot makes it approachable for users, including those who are less tech-savvy. Dark mode support aligns with sustainability goals by reducing eye strain and energy consumption. Thus, the work adheres to material design principles. With a user-centric approach, this app combines innovative ML-driven features and healthcare APIs to set a new standard in the digital health space, paving the way for advancements in early detection, personalised care, accessible healthcare services and long-term societal impact. © 2025 by the authors of this article.

The wrong use of learning models in the robotics learning process can cause students to not understand how to build a robotic system step by step. Likewise, the use of irrelevant technology in the learning process can result in low graduate competence, as the competen-cies possessed are not in accordance with industry needs. So, this study aims to assess the impact and how robotic technology is applied in vocational education. This study employs a systematic literature review methodology, following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The review includes articles published between 2018 and 2024, focusing on the use of robotic technology in vocational education. A total of 26 relevant research studies were selected for analysis. The results of this study show that universities, vocational high schools, and robotics training institutions use robotics technology. The types of robots used include mobile robots, ARM robots, humanoid robots, animal robots, training kits, and robotics system simulator applications. Learning models integrated with this technology include project-based learning (PjBL), the most widely used, problem-based learning (PBL), computer-based robotics, hands-on learning, CPLM, pair learning, and EL-CP. Robotic technology impacts almost all knowledge domains, including cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. © 2025 by the authors of this article. Published under CC-BY.