Analysis of technostress experienced by students at the university of cape town, during the COVID-19 pandemic

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is used to improve the quality of many people's lives. However, heavy reliance on ICT can lead to technostress, causing health and productivity problems. Technostress has been analysed in organisations, but not in a university context, especially under remote learning during COVID-19. The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanatory contribution to knowledge regarding university students' experiences of technostress and how it impacts their academic productivity and performance. The data for this paper was collected using an online questionnaire among the students of one leading research university in Africa and used to test hypotheses related to a technostress theoretical model. The data was gathered from a convenience sample of 100 student responses. A technostress model (based on transaction theory of stress) was formed for hypothesis testing. Some hypotheses were not supported, but those that were indicated that universities should ensure that techno-complexity is reduced, and remote learning environments are improved. It was also found that technostress has a negative impact on academic productivity and performance, and that coping mechanisms can moderate the relationship between technostress and academic productivity and performance. The findings related to student remote learning environments and the moderating effect of student coping mechanisms are unique to this study. © 2022 International Association for Computer Information Systems

Determinants and challenges of distance geographical education in Polish schools

The Covid-19 pandemic, which has swept around the world since the beginning of 2020, has had a significant impact on education. Overnight, there has been a transition from traditional to distance learning. Both teachers and students of all types and levels of education had to face a new, unknown reality for which, in the vast majority, they were not properly prepared. The paper attempts to comprehensively identified the determinants of geographic education online at the level of primary and secondary schools, and analyzed selected conditions that have the greatest impact on its implementation. Qualitative and quantitative data was provided by literature research and the results of a survey conducted among 123 geography teachers. The model of the determinants of the geographic education process in the distance form adopted in the study indicates the extraordinary complexity of the online education process. Three groups of determinants were subjected to in-depth analysis: technological, law, and the teacher's capacity, considering them necessary for the implementation of the distance learning process. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Research in Geographical & Environmental Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Impacts of COVID-19 on Future Preferences Toward Telework

This paper presents a study in capturing the impacts of the mandatory pandemic-induced telework practice on workers' perceptions of the benefits, challenges, and difficulties associated with telecommuting and how those might influence their preference for telework in the future. Data was collected through an online survey conducted in South Florida in May 2020. Survey data showed that telework indices (either measured through actual behavior or stated preference) before, during, and after the pandemic were heterogeneous across socio-economic, demographic, and attitudinal segments. Before the outbreak, males, full-time students, those with PhD degrees, and high-income people showed higher percentages of involvement in jobs with a telework option. They also had higher pro-technology, pro-online education, workaholic, and pro-telework attitudes. During the pandemic, professional/managerial/technical jobs as well as jobs with lower physical-proximity measures showed the highest telework frequency. In view of future telework preferences, our analysis showed that those who were more pro-telework, pro-technology, and showed less dislike of telework dislike preferred higher telework frequency. A structural equation model was developed to assess the impacts of different predictors on telework behavior before the pandemic and preferences after the pandemic. While telework frequency before the pandemic was highly affected by the pro-telework attitude, the after-pandemic preferences were influenced by several other attitudes such as dislike telework, enjoy interaction, workaholic, as well as productivity factors. This might confirm the assumption that the mandatory practice through the pandemic has provided employees more experiences with work-from-home arrangements, which could reshape decisions and expectations around telework adoption in the future. © National Academy of Sciences: Transportation Research Board 2021.

Equity Implications of Ride-Hail Travel during COVID-19 in California.

COVID-19 has shocked every system in the U.S., including transportation. In the first months of the pandemic, driving and transit use fell far below normal levels. Yet people still need to travel for essential purposes like medical appointments, buying groceries, and-for those who cannot work from home-to work. For some, the pandemic may exacerbate extant travel challenges as transit agencies reduce service hours and frequency. As travelers reevaluate modal options, it remains unclear how one mode-ride-hailing-fits into the transportation landscape during COVID-19. In particular, how does the number of ride-hail trips vary across neighborhood characteristics before versus during the pandemic? And how do patterns of essential trips pre-pandemic compare with those during COVID-19? To answer these questions, we analyzed aggregated Uber trip data before and during the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic across four regions in California. We find that during these first months, ride-hail trips fell at levels commensurate with transit (82%), while trips serving identified essential destinations fell by less (62%). Changes in ride-hail use were unevenly distributed across neighborhoods, with higher-income areas and those with more transit commuters and higher shares of zero-car households showing steeper declines in the number of trips made during the pandemic. Conversely, neighborhoods with more older (aged 45+) residents, and a greater proportion of Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Asian residents still appear to rely more on ride-hail during the pandemic compared with other neighborhoods. These findings further underscore the need for cities to invest in robust and redundant transportation systems to create a resilient mobility network.

Effects of COVID-19 on Telework and Commuting Behavior: Evidence from 3 Years of Panel Data.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced employers and employees to re-evaluate their attitudes toward telecommuting. This induced a change in the sheer number of people who have started to work from home (WFH). While previous studies highlight differences between telecommuters based on their level of telecommuting experience, these effects have not been studied in detail. This may limit the evaluation of implications for post-pandemic times and the transferability of models and predictions based on data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study expands on previous findings by comparing the characteristics and behavior of those who have started to telecommute during the pandemic and those who had already telecommuted before. Furthermore, this study addresses the uncertainty that exists about whether the findings of studies conducted before the pandemic-for example about sociodemographic characteristics of telecommuters-still hold true, or if the pandemic induced a shift in telecommuters' profiles. Telecommuters show differences when considering their previous experience in WFH. The results of this study suggest that the transition induced by the pandemic was more drastic for new telecommuters compared with experienced telecommuters. The COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on how household configurations are considered in the choice to WFH. With decreased access to child care resulting from school closings, people with children in the household were more likely to choose to telecommute during the pandemic. Also, while people living alone are generally less likely to choose to WFH, this effect was reduced as a result of the pandemic.

Longitudinal Analysis of COVID-19 Impacts on Mobility: An Early Snapshot of the Emerging Changes in Travel Behavior.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge disruption worldwide with direct and indirect effects on travel behavior. In response to extensive community spread and potential risk of infection, during the early stage of the pandemic many state and local governments implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions that restricted non-essential travel for residents. This study evaluates the impacts of the pandemic on mobility by analyzing micro panel data (N = 1,274) collected in the United States via online surveys in two periods, before and during the early phase of the pandemic. The panel makes it possible to observe initial trends in travel behavior change, adoption of online shopping, active travel, and use of shared mobility services. This analysis intends to document a high-level overview of the initial impacts to spur future research to dive deeper into these topics. With the analysis of the panel data, substantial shifts are found from physical commutes to teleworking, more adoption of e-shopping and home delivery services, more frequent trips by walking and biking for leisure purposes, and changes in ridehailing use with substantial variations across socioeconomic groups. The social and environmental implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for effective policy and directions for future research are made in the conclusion.

The use of ICT in Secondary Music Education and its relationship with teachers' beliefs

One of the most notable effects that COVID 19 has engendered in education is the ICT use in teaching at all educational levels. This study provides data on the ICT usage by teachers in the teaching of Music in Secondary Education in Andalusia (Spain). It also explores the relationship between ICT practices and teachers' perceptions of the educational value of ICT for teaching and learning. The empirical results obtained indicate that Secondary Education Music teachers use ICT in their teaching in a highly heterogeneous manner, with limited use prevailing. A statistically significant relationship is also observed between ICT practices in music teaching and teachers' beliefs regarding the educational value of ICT as a tool for teaching and student learning. © 2022 Research Group Education and Virtual Learning (GREAV). All rights reserved.

Application of Component Organized Learning Method for DIGSCM 4.0 Hybrid Courses

Higher education as the education whole faced an unprecedented challenge last year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the educational process had to change rapidly. The need for redesign and renovation was obvious already before the crisis driven by the pandemic started. As all other methods have become more personalised, education had to follow. In the current paper, the authors will solve the efficient delivery of know-how and skills requested by developing Component Organised Learning components that can be applied in different courses. The required solution should find a way to use the COL concept to avoid the repetition of materials and excessive work of collaborative HEI-is. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence Victimization during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Behaviors and Attitudes

Despite the growing attention to Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence (TFSV) experienced by adults, this is still an underexplored topic. This study involved a sample of 289 adults (aged 18 to 56), focusing on reported indicators of TFSV in a year dominated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Reports of TFSV victimization were analyzed using an existing 21-item scale that encompassed four TFSV dimensions: i) digital sexual harassment;ii) image-based sexual abuse (IBSA);iii) sexual aggression and/or coercion;and iv) gender and/or sexuality-based harassment. While examining the experience of one or more TFSV behaviors by independent socio-demographic variables (e.g., gender, age, or sexuality), the results showed that women were significantly more likely than men to report several forms of sexual harassment victimization. LGB+-identifying adults were significantly more likely than heterosexual-identifying respondents to report 11 behaviors from the used TFSV victimization scale. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, many types of violence against women and the LGBT+ community have been intensified, and this study indicates TFSV as no exception to that. The results show gendered patterns in online sexual victimization, as well as in the nature of TFSV. These findings indicate the importance of considering additional institutional measures to prevent this phenomenon.Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis.

The prevalence of telework under Covid-19 in Canada

Purpose: This study investigates the determinants of teleworking before and during COVID-19 in Canada. It explores the extent of telework adoption across industrial sectors, as well as the long-term impacts of large-scale adoption of teleworking on urban travel demand and the dwindling demand for commercial real estate in downtowns. Design/methodology/approach: Using data from a survey of business establishments, this study employs data visualization techniques to illustrate how telework adoption evolved during the early stages of the COVID-19 lockdown. The study also estimates Logit models to explore the determinants of telework before and during the pandemic using a subsample from the Canadian labor force survey. Findings: The study found that telework adoption reached a peak in March and April of 2020 when almost 40% of the workers in Canada were teleworking. Only 12% of employees reported teleworking before the pandemic. The adoption of teleworking was far more pronounced amongst firms that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) extensively. Teleworking appears to be far more frequent among university-educated (knowledge economy) workers. Practical implications: Knowledge economy and highly educated workers, who switched to teleworking during the pandemic at higher rates than workers with less education, are more frequently employed in offices located in the urban core or downtowns. The drastic decline in commuting to the urban core via public transit and record low occupancy levels in downtown office towers suggests that, even if telework prevailed at levels much lower than those observed during March and April of 2020, landlords holding large portfolios of commercial real estate must prepare to cope with the lower demand for commercial real estate. This is especially significant when commercial leases come up for renewal in the next few years. In addition, governments struggling to address traffic congestion by spending hundreds of billions of dollars on transport and transit infrastructure might want to promote teleworking as a means of reducing travel demands and costly infrastructure expenditures. Social implications: Teleworking has partially eroded the boundaries between work and home by enabling millions to continue being productive while working from home. However, teleworking would require new norms and rules to maintain a work-life balance. This change requires workers and employers to cooperate. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that explores the extent of telework adoption during COVID-19 in Canada and the determinants of telework adoption, presenting both employee and firm-level perspectives using Canada-wide representative data. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Online foreign language teaching in high school – research report

The global pandemic has forced changes in education. About 1.5 billion students worldwide have experienced school closures. The aim of the article is to present the results of a survey on teaching during the coronavirus pandemic in Polish secondary schools, where the research group consisted of students and teachers. For many students and teachers, the new way of learning and teaching was a great challenge, caused many difficulties and exposed deficiencies in education systems. During the research, the focus is on students, teachers, school principals and parents who had to find themselves in a new and challenging situation of distance learning at school. The research addresses aspects related to the situation, well-being and roles of students and teachers during the new virtual reality, methods of teachers' work in the virtual school, as well as the importance of principals and parents as a support for students and teachers during the global pandemic. © 2022 Maison du Medicine. All rights reserved.

Venezuela in times of the Covid-19 pandemic: Social representations and the multi-level mitigation strategy. The emerging local economy in the Caroni municipality, Bolivar State

In March 2020, a pandemic was declared by COVID-19 and the governments of the world implemented the quarantine. We start from the premise that everything would depend on the social representations of the pandemic, a variable that also impacted the economy on all its scales. In Venezuela on March 16, 2020, the government decreed a radical quarantine that was restructured to a method called 7+7. The article shows the multilevel collective action of the socio-institutional actors with emphasis on the Bolivar State, of national and international economic importance due to its border link with Brazil. The field work was carried out in the Caroni municipality between March 2020 - December 2021, with a real-time research approach on the processes of interactions between the actors involved and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). As a result, the collective actions undertaken;between the levels of government and its institutions, the private sector and civil society were significant in containing the spread of the virus and maintaining the subsistence of the local economy. It is concluded that the 7+7 quarantine scheme and the actions at the local level resulting from the agreements between most segments of society were decisive. Finally, they will highlight the form and method for the management of information and communication that made it possible to clean up the norms, agreements, and functional rules in a pandemic in the midst of complex and confusing social representations

The use of ICT in Secondary Music Education and its relationship with teachers' beliefs

One of the most notable effects that COVID 19 has engendered in education is the ICT use in teaching at all educational levels. This study provides data on the ICT usage by teachers in the teaching of Music in Secondary Education in Andalusia (Spain). It also explores the relationship between ICT practices and teachers' perceptions of the educational value of ICT for teaching and learning. The empirical results obtained indicate that Secondary Education Music teachers use ICT in their teaching in a highly heterogeneous manner, with limited use prevailing. A statistically significant relationship is also observed between ICT practices in music teaching and teachers' beliefs regarding the educational value of ICT as a tool for teaching and student learning.

Use of digital resources in the virtual teaching of STEM subjects in Foundation Courses during national lockdown

The lockdown caused by COVID-19 led to the adoption of new virtual methodo-logies using digital tools. The aim of this study was to design and validate a ques-tionnaire on the use of digital media in the virtual teaching of STEM subjects in Foundation Courses. For this purpose, a descriptive non-experimental quantitative design was used and, with the administra-tion of the designed questionnaire, data were collected from 61 students enrolled in these courses during the academic year 2021/2022 at Northumbria University (United Kingdom). The results showed that the reliability and internal consistency of the implemented questionnaire were good (Cronbach's Alpha = .78;Composite Reliability = .79;Mean Extracted Varian-ce = .48;Omega = .95;KMO = .64) and that in general the student body stated that they had good access to and use of digital media and smooth communication with lecturers during the placement. In addition, they stated that they had adap-ted favourably to virtual teaching and that they had successfully acquired subject competences. The pandemic has brought about the implementation of these new methodologies and has meant a renewal and implementation of new resources, with the consequent acquisition of digital competences by both teaching staff and students.

ICT, Energy Intensity, and CO2 Emission Nexus

The relationship between information and communication technology investment (ICT), environmental impacts, and economic growth has received increasing attention in the last 20 years. However, the relationship between ICT, energy intensity, environmental impacts, and economic growth was relatively neglected. In this paper, we aimed to contribute to the environmental literature by simultaneously analyzing the relationship between ICT, energy intensity, economic growth, Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and energy consumption for the period of 1990–2020 in G7 countries. We employed the Panel Quantile Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (PQARDL) method and Panel Quantile Granger Causality (PQGC) methods. According to the results of PQARDL method, energy consumption, ICT, CO2 emission, and energy intensity have effects on economic growth in the long and short run. According to the of PQGC methods allowing causality results for different quantiles, there is evidence of a bidirectional causality between ICT investment and economic growth for all quantiles and evidence of a unidirectional causality from ICT to energy consumption and from CO2 emissions to ICT investment and energy efficiency. Our results indicate that the governments of the G7 countries have placed energy efficiency and ICT investment at the center of their policies while determining their environmental and energy policies, since energy consumption is a continuous process.

THE ETHICAL ASPECTS OF ICT USAGE IN INTERCOMMUNION WITH PARENTS OF PRESCHOOLERS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

In today's world, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has become much more relevant because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequences of quarantine restrictions have sharpened the problems connected with the education and upbringing of preschoolers with special educational needs (SEN), who needed to establish an effective intercommunion of parents with specialists through ICT. The authors' aim was to clarify the theoretical basis of the research problem and to determine the ethical aspects of the ICT usage in communication with parents of preschoolers with SEN. Based on the methods of analysis, synthesis and generalization, the authors presented a theoretical review of the feasibility of ICT in the process of working with preschoolers, outlined the specifics for children with SEN, and established the role of ICT in cooperation of teachers with parents of preschoolers in preschool educational institutions (PEI). Empirical material was collected using the method of written survey (questionnaire) of parents. The research group consisted of parents of preschoolers with SEN (n=124) from four PEIs in Ukraine. The results testified to the existing problems and difficulties that parents face in the process of communication through ICT. The key and additional ethical aspects of the use of ICT in communication between teachers and parents are identified, which not only raises knowledge about information content, but also produces a friendly attitude between all participants, aimed at compliance with socio-ethical norms of behaviour, respect and mutual trust.

Determinants and challenges of distance geographical education in Polish schools

The Covid-19 pandemic, which has swept around the world since the beginning of 2020, has had a significant impact on education. Overnight, there has been a transition from traditional to distance learning. Both teachers and students of all types and levels of education had to face a new, unknown reality for which, in the vast majority, they were not properly prepared. The paper attempts to comprehensively identified the determinants of geographic education online at the level of primary and secondary schools, and analyzed selected conditions that have the greatest impact on its implementation. Qualitative and quantitative data was provided by literature research and the results of a survey conducted among 123 geography teachers. The model of the determinants of the geographic education process in the distance form adopted in the study indicates the extraordinary complexity of the online education process. Three groups of determinants were subjected to in-depth analysis: technological, law, and the teacher’s capacity, considering them necessary for the implementation of the distance learning process. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The Coordinator of Information and Communication Technologies: Its Implication for Open Innovation

This study aims to analyze the effects of open innovation on the figure of the Information and Communication Technologies Coordinator (ICTC) in the Higher Conservatories of Music (HCM) and Authorized Centers of Spain (ACSs). In some regions, the HCMs are regulated by the regulations applied to secondary education and that is why the figure of the CICT exists. In others, this figure does not exist and is not regulated by the administration. In the ACSs, because they are private centers, they do not exist either, although they do have persons in charge of these functions. In order to respond to the objective of this study, a tour has been made to the existing regulations, analyzing the endowment that the centers have in addition to applying a questionnaire to 27 CICT of 35 HCMs and ACSs of Spain. The results obtained reveal the lack of knowledge of this figure and the innovation it represents in its field, information on the functions and tasks of the ICTC is scarce, as is the degree of knowledge of the competencies of the latter. There is a clear need for the CICT to exist in all schools and to be regulated under a common competence framework that allows schools to progress in the same way.

The prevalence of telework under Covid-19 in Canada

Purpose: This study investigates the determinants of teleworking before and during COVID-19 in Canada. It explores the extent of telework adoption across industrial sectors, as well as the long-term impacts of large-scale adoption of teleworking on urban travel demand and the dwindling demand for commercial real estate in downtowns. Design/methodology/approach: Using data from a survey of business establishments, this study employs data visualization techniques to illustrate how telework adoption evolved during the early stages of the COVID-19 lockdown. The study also estimates Logit models to explore the determinants of telework before and during the pandemic using a subsample from the Canadian labor force survey. Findings: The study found that telework adoption reached a peak in March and April of 2020 when almost 40% of the workers in Canada were teleworking. Only 12% of employees reported teleworking before the pandemic. The adoption of teleworking was far more pronounced amongst firms that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) extensively. Teleworking appears to be far more frequent among university-educated (knowledge economy) workers. Practical implications: Knowledge economy and highly educated workers, who switched to teleworking during the pandemic at higher rates than workers with less education, are more frequently employed in offices located in the urban core or downtowns. The drastic decline in commuting to the urban core via public transit and record low occupancy levels in downtown office towers suggests that, even if telework prevailed at levels much lower than those observed during March and April of 2020, landlords holding large portfolios of commercial real estate must prepare to cope with the lower demand for commercial real estate. This is especially significant when commercial leases come up for renewal in the next few years. In addition, governments struggling to address traffic congestion by spending hundreds of billions of dollars on transport and transit infrastructure might want to promote teleworking as a means of reducing travel demands and costly infrastructure expenditures. Social implications: Teleworking has partially eroded the boundaries between work and home by enabling millions to continue being productive while working from home. However, teleworking would require new norms and rules to maintain a work-life balance. This change requires workers and employers to cooperate. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the extent of telework adoption during COVID-19 in Canada and the determinants of telework adoption, presenting both employee and firm-level perspectives using Canada-wide representative data. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Covid-19 Pandemic’s Influence on Popular/Folk Culture and Tourism in Greece: Shaping the Future and Beyond

Popular/folk culture, mainly expressed through music and dance performances, was always very important for human societies. In addition to offering entertainment and being a tourist attraction, it can convey different messages according to the context, such as aesthetic/artistic, cultural, religious/spiritual and/or social aspects. Therefore, it is strongly linked to local identity and tourism, thus being an invaluable resource for local communities that needs to be preserved. Pandemics and their consequences pose a huge risk for this community asset, affecting not only the artists practicing it, but the entire associated culture and tourism industry. In this paper, we study how the recent covid-19 pandemic has affected the Greek popular/folk music scene and give insights on new ways and solutions, mainly based on modern information technologies, to mitigate these negative impacts. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.