Study of Post-COVID-19 Syndrome in Saudi Arabia.

Background Post-COVID-19 syndrome may be predisposed by organ damage as a complication of COVID-19. Patients may experience persistent symptoms after recovering from their initial illness. Objectives To identify manifestations and predisposing factors for post-COVID-19 syndrome in Saudi Arabia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from May 2021 through June 2021 using an online structured pre-coded closed-ended, pilot-tested questionnaire in Arabic. It included male and female inhabitants of Saudi Arabia aged 18 years and above with a past history of COVID-19 infection. Descriptive statistics were carried out for all variables. A univariate analysis Chi-square test and independent t-test were used. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results A total of 85.3% of post-COVID-19 cases had general manifestations: 77.3% had musculoskeletal and joint complaints, 61.3% had mental and psychological problems, 58.7% had gastrointestinal manifestations, 44% had renal complaints, 41.3% had respiratory complaints, and 36.0% had cardiovascular symptoms. Gender, age, smoking, BMI, associated morbid condition, number of previous COVID-19 attacks, the severity of illness, place of treatment, and complications of COVID-19 due to treatment or hospitalization were significantly correlated with the occurrence of post-COVID-19 syndrome. Conclusion Post-COVID-19 syndrome could be manifested by fatigue, malaise, myalgia, joint pain, depression, anxiety, sleep, memory and concentration disturbances, cough, dyspnea, palpations, arrhythmias, and chest pain. It may be influenced by male gender, smoking, old age, high BMI, comorbidities, and past COVID-19 attacks with regard to the number, place of treatment, and occurrence of complications.

University students' behavioral intention and gender differences toward the acceptance of shifting regular field training courses to e-training courses.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, all the courses at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) were delivered fully online, including field-training courses. Since there was no previous experience in offering field-training courses in a distance format, the current study aims to identify factors that could impact students' behavioral intention to accept the e-training approach in teaching field training courses at IAU. In order to gather the data, the researchers designed a questionnaire based on the UTAUT model and they ensured the face, content, and construct validity of the questionnaire by sending it to five experts in the relevant field and by using exploratory factor analysis. Also, all the questionnaire's items were reliable since the Cronbach's alpha values were above 0.77 for all the items. A total of 397 participants provided valid responses. The result of this study indicated that Effort Expectancy (EE), Facilitating Condition (FC), Performance Expectancy (PE), and Social Influence (SI), respectively were the primary predictors for students' intention to use e-training. These factors explained 32.1% of the variance in students' behavioral intentions. As far as students' gender is concerned, there were significant differences between students' PE, FC, and SI. Based on these results, policymakers at IAU will have a clear image of the most essential factors that colleges should target to increase students' acceptance of e-training.

Digitalization of learning in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 outbreak: A survey.

Following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in China in late December 2019, more than 217 countries became almost immediately infected in the resulting pandemic. Consequently, many of them decided to close their educational institutions as a way of preventing the spread of this virus. For many of them, though, the closure made them unable to deliver learning materials to students owing to their inability to provide the right technology for the purpose. To assist with the digitalizing of learning during this time, this study reviews the most common technologies used in the delivery of learning materials, with the experience of most infected countries being considered. Major challenges in online learning are discussed in this study as well. Further, Saudi Arabia was considered as a case study for the effectiveness of distance learning during the 2020 spring semester, where 300 undergraduate students were surveyed on their opinions of distance learning. The responses to the survey indicated that distance learning was effective in providing the required knowledge to the students during the outbreak of COVID-19. The findings showed that although the lack of interaction and poor internet connections were factors affecting comfortable and successful learning of physics and mathematics, 63% of students were satisfied with learning management systems, 75% of students found it easy to understand course materials, and 67% of students found it easy to understand assignments and could deal with them comfortably. The study findings can encourage educational institutions to digitalize their learning materials in the future.