ABSTRACT
The State of Emergency declaration in Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic affected many aspects of society in the country, much like the rest of the world. One sector that felt its disruptive impact was education. As educational institutions raced to implement emergency remote teaching (ERT) to continue providing the learning needs of students, some have opened to innovative interventions. This paper describes a case of ERT where Filipino vocabulary was taught to a class of Japanese students taking Philippine Studies in a Japanese university using a cognitive innovation based on virtual reality, an immersive technology often researched for immersion and presence. Students were divided into three groups to experience six lessons designed around virtual reality photo-based tours at different immersion levels. While the effect of immersion on satisfaction was not found to be statistically significant, presence and satisfaction were found to be correlated. Despite challenges that were encountered, benefits like enjoyment, increased engagement, and perceived learning were reported by the students. Our findings exemplify how emerging multisensory technologies can be used to enhance affective and cognitive dimensions of human experience while responding to gaps created by the spatial limitations of remote learning.
ABSTRACT
A relatively high proportion of U.S. workers started working from home during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. There has been extensive tracking of employment trends, but it is less clear what kind of impact working from home during the pandemic has had on job experiences. The authors use data from the October 2020 Pew Research Center American Trends Panel. On the basis of a sample of 4,508 respondents, the authors find that working from home improves job satisfaction, flexibility over when to put in one’s work hours, work-family balance, productivity, and work hours. Working from home reduces connectedness to coworkers, job security, and opportunities for advancement. The benefits for both workers and employers of working from home may encourage working from home even after the pandemic. © The Author(s) 2021.