ABSTRACT
In Spring of 2020, universities and colleges in the USA implemented a number of alternative pedagogical measures in compliance with social distance policies to curb the spread of COVID-19 and persist in academic activities. “Emergency Remote Teaching” ERT, defined as a temporary shift of pedagogy to remote models due to crises, appears to be the most popular among these measures. The transition to ERT has a range of pedagogical implications in many areas including student engagement, technology use and access, emotional stability and student assessment. Data on students and faculty experiences with respect to these areas can offer immediate and strategic insights into the implications of ERT. Current literature focuses on the development of various pedagogical approaches and technologies for remote learning. However, in depth analysis of the implications of ERT is currently lacking. This research seeks to provide insight into the challenges and implications of ERT to pedagogy, specifically we focus on student engagement and academic performance. Hence this research seeks to answer the following research questions: (i) What are the implications of emergency remote teaching on students' learning experience? (ii) What is the impact of emergency remote teaching instructors' teaching experience? In order to answer this research question, we designed a questionnaire in “surveymonkey” and distributed this to students and faculty members at small Universities in Northern Pennsylvania. We received 240 responses. After performing an exploratory analysis on the collected data, we found that although students are engaged with course materials and university staff, peer-to-peer and student-instructor engagement are low in an ERT. Also, ERT appears to have a negative impact on assessment from both students' and instructors' perspectives. As instructors continue to search for effective and alternative pedagogical strategies to deliver their courses in the face of COVID-19, we recommend that future efforts towards implementation of ERT should focus on strategies for improving peer-to-peer and student-instructor engagement. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022
ABSTRACT
Background: Emotional wellbeing of healthcare workers is critical to the quality of patient care, and effective function of health services. The corona virus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exerted unique physical and emotional demands on healthcare workers, however little is known about the emotional wellbeing of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in resource-restricted settings. This study investigated the prevalence of psychological distress, and sleep problems in healthcare workers in a COVID-19 referral hospital in Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
With the occurrence of a mysterious pneumonia in the Hubei province (Wuhan) of China in December 2019, a different coronavirus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has commanded global awareness and has been named by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a public health emergency of international concern. Two other coronavirus infections (SARS and MERS) were also characterized by severe respiratory distress in 2002-2003. In addition to the new coronavirus, the emerging infectious diseases resulting in universal spread are caused by the beta-coronavirus strains. Even though coronaviruses typically target the upper and/or lower respiratory tract, viral shedding into the plasma or serum is frequent, and the human coronavirus (CoV) represents 15%-30% of respiratory syndromes, including common colds. Based on a recent hypothesis, SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to induce lung injury by inhibiting the angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) and could possibly attack organs with high expression. With the lack of a vaccine or major treatment for the disease, palliative care is provided for individuals already infected with the virus. The aim of this review is to discuss the influence and relationship of the coronavirus, particularly SARS-CoV-2, on the respiratory system with a proposed mechanism of action in lung injury and pathogenesis.