Defining Digital Wellbeing Literacy in Remote Work Integrated Learning

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) programs for Higher Education (HE) students, fostered by advances in digital technologies. Emerging as a new post-covid normal, the ‘remote workplace' and remote WIL brings further challenges with students expressing anxiety in dealing with this new form of working environment. Having the capacity to talk about wellbeing issues with others is an important wellbeing literacy (WL) skill. This paper addresses the need for a better understanding of wellbeing literacy (WL) skills in remote WIL workplaces. Interpreting WL in remote settings can further the definition of WL by extending it to a digital context. In contributing to Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) research and the emerging field of WL, this paper explores how WIL students develop WL skills in a remote setting, which we define as Digital Wellbeing Literacy (DWL). In-depth interviews were held with WIL academics, WIL professionals, WIL students and wellbeing experts on digital and pedagogical factors that support WL in remote work. We found that students proactively use digital communication tools and social media to communicate wellbeing concerns, which in turn helps them practice DWL. We propose four strategies toward improving DWL in HE WIL offerings. © 2023 authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Australia License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and AJIS are credited.

Assessing Mask Integrity and Fit of N95 Masks after 5 Cycles of Decontamination and Reuse in a Simulated Clinical Setting

Aim: To evaluate the effect of decontamination and reuse on N95 masks. Background(s): The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has strained the global availability of masks. Such shortage represents a threat to healthcare workers (HCWs). Mask reprocessing and reuse may alleviate the shortage. Many laboratory studies have proven the effectiveness and feasibility of decontaminating N95 masks. However, very few had HCWs wearing them between cycles of decontamination. Our study evaluated mask integrity (assessed by qualitative mask fitting [QMF], as well as technical measures like bacterial filtration efficacy [BFE]) through five cycles of decontamination using four different modalities - steam, moist heat (MH), UV-C irradiation (UVCI), and hydrogen peroxide vaporization (HPV). Method(s): Each study cycle involved a HCW wearing a N95 mask for two hours, followed by the assigned decontamination process, and then a QMF. This was repeated for a maximum of 5 cycles, as long as the wearer passed QMF. 40 HCWs were recruited for each of the four decontamination modalities. The technical measures of mask integrity assessed were: BFE, Particulate Filtration Efficiency (PFE), Pressure Drop and Splash Resistance. Result(s): 60.6% (HPV) to 77.5% (MH) of the masks passed five cycles of wear and decontamination, as assessed by the wearers passing QMF all five times. MH-decontaminated masks retained all technical measures of integrity through all 5 cycles. HPV reduced masks' BFE after the fourth cycle while UVCI tended to increase the Pressure Drop. Conclusion(s): The results suggest that MH is a promising method for decontaminating N95 masks without compromising fit and integrity. [Figure presented] [Table presented]Copyright © 2023 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation.

Emergency Remote Teaching and First-year Student Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Emergency Remote Teaching and Student Engagement during COVID-19

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions worldwide have been facing the imperative of shifting to emergency remote teaching (ERT). This paper presents a case study of ERT at the Macao Polytechnic University, measuring the effectiveness of ERT in light of first-year student engagement. A first-year student engagement survey, using an instrument adapted from the US National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), was conducted in the 2019/2020 cohort after about one month of ERT in 2020. The results were compared to those of the first-year student engagement surveys conducted respectively in 2019 (before the pandemic) and in 2021 (in the post-pandemic era), assessing the extent to which students were engaged in ERT with the objective of contributing to enhanced practices in the delivery of ERT during crises. © 2022 ACM.

Efficacy and Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines in Children Aged 5 to 11 Years: A Systematic Review

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in children aged 5–11 years, a rapid systematic review was conducted on published clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines and studies that analyzed real-world data on adverse events after COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on medical literature in international (Ovid-MEDLINE) and pre-published literature databases (medRxiv), followed by handsearching up to January 4, 2022. We used terms including COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and vaccines, and the certainty of evidence was graded using the GRADE approach. Results: A total of 1,675 studies were identified, of which five were finally selected. Among the five studies, four consisted of data from clinical trials of each of the four types of COVID-19 vaccines (BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, CoronaVac, and BBIBP-CorV). The remaining study consisted of real-world data on the safety of the BNT162b2 vaccine in children aged 5–11 years. This systematic review identified that COVID-19 vaccines in recipients aged 5–11 years produced a favorable immune response, and were vaccines were effective against COVID-19. The safety findings for the BNT162b2 vaccine in children and early adolescents aged 5–11 years were similar to those data noted in the clinical trial. Conclusions: There is limited data on COVID-19 vaccines in children aged 5–11 years. Consequently continuous and comprehensive monitoring is necessary for the evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.

The effect of stress and depression on quality of life of pharmacy students in Malaysia

Objective: This study aims to determine the prevalence of stress and depression among pharmacy students, evaluate their health related quality of life (HRQoL) in Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted among pharmacy students at eight universities from March to May 2020 across Malaysia. Instruments adopted in the survey included perceived stress scale 4 (PSS-4) for stress, patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for depression and WHOQOL-BREF for health related quality of life. Results: A total of 441 students participated in the study. The overall PSS-4 score mean was 7.30 and the differences in PHQ-9 scores mean between public and private universities were not significant. A positive correlation was observed between total PSS-4 scores and PHQ-9 scores. Only 24.5% of pharmacy students reported a good quality of life, with a median score of 96.00. A Significant negative correlation was found between stress and depression against the quality of life. Conclusions: Stress and depression play a significant role in deteriorating the quality of life of pharmacy students. This highlighted the importance of future research in developing useful interventions to improve the quality of life of university students, especially students from the medical and health science fields.

Overcoming the Sudden Conversion to Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in Computing Fiducation

This paper presented a case study on an agile shift from brick-and-mortar to online distance learning as a measure to sustain teaching and learning in higher education in response to the interruption and impact brought by the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (COVID-19) to the society. This case study provided a practical example demonstrating possible practices that can be adopted to deliver different types of modules and carry out assessment under force majeure circumstances. We have applied several methods in module delivery and reflected on their strengths and weaknesses. Our approaches have taken into consideration the different needs of taught and non-taught modules, robustness of online assessment, and quick orientation for students who were unfamiliar with online education. The consequent effectiveness of teaching and learning was evaluated in terms of instructor participation and student participation. The findings indicated a relatively slow start due to the series of necessary adjustments to be made to encounter the shift. However, once the adaptation process was completed, an enhancing trend was observed in students and instructors' engagement in various online teaching and learning practices. Our study highlighted that pastoral support is essential to maintain the motivation and engagement of students. In addition, adjustments to module delivery and assessment methods are highly recommended.