Barriers and Facilitators of Robot-Assisted Education in Higher Education: A Systematic Mixed-Studies Review

Lack of motivation and enjoyment is a challenge that many students face. Due to the current coronavirus pandemic, many lessons are not being conducted face-to-face. However, the use of robots has been proven able to alleviate this challenge. This review explores the barriers and facilitators of robot-assisted education among higher education students. Ten databases were comprehensively searched for studies in English. Both published and unpublished studies were considered without a time limit. A systematic mixed-studies review was adopted and the mixed method appraisal tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the selected articles. The qualitative and quantitative findings were then synthesized via thematic and narrative syntheses, respectively. To integrate these two sets of findings, a result-based convergent synthesis was performed. A total of 28 studies covering 1689 higher education students across 14 countries were eventually used for the analysis. Most of these studies had average to high methodological quality. Two barrier themes were identified from these studies, namely, poor audio verbatim from the robots, and disruption and restrictions from software and hardware of the robot. Meanwhile, three themes related to facilitators were identified, namely, greater engagement in learning, facilitation in remote learning, and knowledge enhancement. The use of robot-assisted education has been proven to improve student learning in higher education. Robot-assisted education is an alternate educational technique that can be utilized to supplement and augment ongoing teaching arrangements. Future studies should examine a specific type of robot in a comparable learning environment. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10758-022-09637-3.

Generation Z undergraduate students' resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study.

Resilience has been documented as an essential component in managing stress. However, understanding how undergraduate students with different sociodemographic characteristics perceive resilience remains understudied. This study aimed to explore how undergraduate students in one university define and build resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students' perception and preferences for receiving resilience training were additionally solicited. A descriptive qualitative cross-sectional study was conducted. Twenty-seven students were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide via Skype instant messaging. The thematic analysis generated five themes: resilience as enduring and withstanding; the building blocks of resilience; resilience: learning or earning; pedagogical considerations for resilience training; and a blended platform for resilience training. Participants described resilience as an enduring and withstanding trait essential for university students. Resilience can be built from intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors that enhanced resilience included desire to succeed and motivation. Extrinsic factors were relational in nature, and friends, family, teachers, and religion were found to boost resilience. Students had several recommendations in designing resilience training, and they recommended the use of a blended platform. Further, students suggested the use of videos, narratives from resilient individuals, and using reflective practice as a pedagogy in resilience training. Future resilience training should consist of personal and interpersonal factors and should be introduced early during the academic term of students' university life. As the COVID-19 pandemic compounds an already challenging academic climate, this study lends it findings to expand the resilience literature and develop future resilience training.

Becoming More Resilient during COVID-19: Insights from a Process Evaluation of Digital Resilience Training.

Resilience training is gaining attention as a strategy to build students' resistance to adversity and promote their mental well-being. However, owing to inconsistencies and variations in the content and delivery of resilience training, more work is needed to examine students' experiences and preferences to address issues relating to intervention fidelity. This study adopted a qualitative approach in exploring students' experience of synchronous and asynchronous versions of a digital resilience training program. Seventeen students were interviewed using a semi-structured virtual face-to-face interview via Zoom. The thematic analyses unveiled four themes: embarking on a journey toward resilience, discovering strategies to develop resilience, finding a balance to benefit from resilience skill enhancement, and instilling resilience in the everyday. Future resilience training should consider students' workload and interactivity to enhance their engagement. As being resilient is associated with better mental well-being, the findings of this study may support the development of future wellness programs.

Resilience for Undergraduate Students: Development and Evaluation of a Theory-Driven, Evidence-Based and Learner Centered Digital Resilience Skills Enhancement (RISE) Program.

Protective factors that build students' resilience are known. A six-week digital resilience training program was developed on the basis of theory, evidence, and contextual information. The feasibility study sought to evaluate the acceptability, appropriateness, demand, implementation, and limited efficacy of a digital resilience skills enhancement program for undergraduate students. A single group, pre-test, post-test, concurrent mixed methods design among 10 undergraduate students was conducted in one university in Singapore. The content analysis concluded that students accepted and perceived the digital resilience skills enhancement program as appropriate. Students also proposed several improvements, such as the initiation of the program and revisions to the content. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test found significant improvements in resilience (p = 0.02) and meta-cognitive self-regulation (p = 0.01) scores with medium (d = 0.79, 95% CI: -0.15 to 1.74) and very large effect sizes (d = 1.31, 95% CI: 0.30-2.33), respectively. Students found the digital resilience program appropriate and were able to apply their newly acquired skills to promote their resilience and learning. Although, several improvements are proposed to enhance the rigor of the digital resilience program, the findings of this study suggests that digital resilience programs are important for students' well-being.

Spotlight on noncognitive skills: Views from nursing students and educators.

BACKGROUND: Noncognitive skills have a considerable role in influencing nursing students' performance in clinical and educational settings. Understanding how nursing students and educators perceive noncognitive skills is important given the broad classifications of noncognitive competencies. OBJECTIVE: This study sought to examine nursing students' and educators' perception of noncognitive skills. DESIGN: This study adopted a descriptive qualitative approach. SETTING: This study was conducted virtually via Zoom in one university in Singapore. PARTICIPANTS: Purposive sampling through a maximum variation technique was used to select 35 nursing students and 12 educators. METHODS: Semistructured interviews were conducted through eight virtual face-to-face focus group discussions. Interviews were audio- and videorecorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed through thematic analysis. RESULTS: The participants stated that individual and interpersonal skills contribute to one's noncognitive skills. Two themes emerged from the participants' narratives: (1) the ability to manage oneself and (2) social interactions with others. The first theme describes the various individual characteristics such as growth mindset, adaptability, resilience, and emotional regulation. The second theme describes the importance of empathy and meaningful relationships as types of non-cognitive skills. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study provide the basis for the development of noncognitive assessment tools by educators. In addition, they pave the foundation for the curation of future programs that promote the noncognitive skills of nursing students. Hospital-based educators may use these findings to curate suitable programs for improving the noncognitive abilities of nurses.

Social Media Engagement in Two Governmental Schemes during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Macao.

Social media engagement is a vehicle for effective communication and engagement between governments and individuals, especially in crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, it can be used to communicate resilience measures and receive feedback. This research aims to investigate public social media engagement with resilience measures related to COVID-19 in Macao. We examined 1107 posts and 791 comments about the government's face mask supply and consumption voucher schemes on Facebook. Using the Crisis Lifecycle model, we partitioned the data and analyzed the content and engagement of related posts, as well as the word semantics in user comments. Our findings show that social media engagement in these resilience measures is high and positive in the early stages of the pandemic, suggesting social media's potential in mobilizing society, preserving social resilience, and serving as a two-way communication tool in public health emergencies.

Wearable technology for early detection of COVID-19: A systematic scoping review.

Wearable technology is an emerging method for the early detection of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. This scoping review explored the types, mechanisms, and accuracy of wearable technology for the early detection of COVID-19. This review was conducted according to the five-step framework of Arksey and O'Malley. Studies published between December 31, 2019 and December 15, 2021 were obtained from 10 electronic databases, namely, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ProQuest, Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and Taylor & Francis Online. Grey literature, reference lists, and key journals were also searched. All types of articles describing wearable technology for the detection of COVID-19 infection were included. Two reviewers independently screened the articles against the eligibility criteria and extracted the data using a data charting form. A total of 40 articles were included in this review. There are 22 different types of wearable technology used to detect COVID-19 infections early in the existing literature and are categorized as smartwatches or fitness trackers (67%), medical devices (27%), or others (6%). Based on deviations in physiological characteristics, anomaly detection models that can detect COVID-19 infection early were built using artificial intelligence or statistical analysis techniques. Reported area-under-the-curve values ranged from 75% to 94.4%, and sensitivity and specificity values ranged from 36.5% to 100% and 73% to 95.3%, respectively. Further research is necessary to validate the effectiveness and clinical dependability of wearable technology before healthcare policymakers can mandate its use for remote surveillance.

Virtual Simulation to Enhance Clinical Reasoning in Nursing: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to more virtual simulation training. This study aimed to review the effectiveness of virtual simulations and their design features in developing clinical reasoning skills among nurses and nursing students. Method: A systematic search in CINAHL, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, ProQuest, PsycINFO, and Scopus was conducted. The PRISMA guidelines, Cochrane's risk of bias, and GRADE was used to assess the articles. Meta-analyses and random-effects meta-regression were performed. Results: The search retrieved 11,105 articles, and 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included. Meta-analysis demonstrated a significant improvement in clinical reasoning based on applied knowledge and clinical performance among learners in the virtual simulation group compared with the control group. Meta-regression did not identify any significant covariates. Subgroup analyses revealed that virtual simulations with patient management contents, using multiple scenarios with nonimmersive experiences, conducted more than 30-minutes and postscenario feedback were more effective. Conclusions: Virtual simulations can improve clinical reasoning skill. This study may inform nurse educators on how virtual simulation should be designed to optimize the development of clinical reasoning.

Digital training for building resilience: Systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.

Resilience is learnable and broadly described as an individual's adaptive coping ability, its potential value for stress reduction must be explored. With a global coronavirus pandemic, innovative ways to deliver resilience training amidst heightened mental health concerns must be urgently examined. This systematic review aimed to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of digital training for building resilience and reducing anxiety, depressive and stress symptoms and (2) to identify essential features for designing future digital training. A three-step search was conducted in eight electronic databases, trial registries and grey literature to locate eligible studies. Randomised controlled trials examining the effects of digital training aimed at enhancing resilience were included. Data analysis was conducted using the Stata version 17. Twenty-two randomised controlled trials involving 2876 participants were included. Meta-analysis revealed that digital training significantly enhanced the participants' resilience with moderate to large effect (g = 0.54-1.09) at post-intervention and follow-up. Subgroup analyses suggested that training delivered via the Internet with a flexible programme schedule was more effective than its counterparts. This review supports the use of digital training in improving resilience. Further high-quality randomised controlled trials with large sample size are needed.

Global prevalence of resilience in health care professionals: A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression.

AIMS: This review aims to examine the prevalence estimate of low resilience among health care professionals and identify the factors affecting the prevalence. BACKGROUND: Health care professionals experience high levels of stress. Understanding the health care professionals' resilience may provide an insight into how they perform in a highly stressed environment. EVALUATION: A comprehensive search of 11 databases was conducted. Studies that provided prevalence rates for low resilience among health care professionals working in a health care setting were included. Meta-analyses, sensitivity, subgroup analyses and meta-regression were conducted. KEY ISSUES: Among 27,720 studies, 41 studies (N = 17,073) across 16 countries were included. The prevalence of low resilience was 26% (95% CI: 20-32). Subgroup analyses indicated that types of resilience measures affect resilience prevalence significantly. A higher prevalence of low resilience was observed among allied health professions during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East. CONCLUSIONS: This review indicated the prevalence of low resilience and type of resilience measurement instruments that affected the prevalence. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: This review provides a roadmap to design tailored, discipline-specific and sustainable resilience training for nurses. Nursing managers should monitor the working hours and workload of nursing staffing in order to provide a protective working environment. This is a systematic review, and the PROSPERO registration number is CRD42021235350.