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Social virtual reality (VR) platforms have increased in popularity with many people turning to these platforms to experience social connection, including a rapid influx of users during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is limited understanding of how people appropriate and use emerging social VR applications to actively support their mental health and wellbeing in daily life. Through an online questionnaire and exploratory interviews conducted within the social VR app VRChat during the COVID-19 pandemic, we document how social VR is being used explicitly as a mental health support tool. Participants reported positive wellbeing benefits, mostly attributed to the anonymity provided by avatars and perceived safety within digital worlds and communities of practice. We also report how people use social VR to practice social interaction, reduce negative thoughts and form strong social bonds and connections with others. © 2023 ACM.
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The COVID-19 pandemic forced the educational institutions in the Philippines to go full online, full modular or blended during its height in 2020. This study surveyed students' perception of online classes after having experienced the modality for one school year. An online questionnaire was developed and validated to collect data relevant for this research. The Cronbach's alpha value obtained is 0.85 suggesting an acceptable internal reliability. The survey went through evaluation by experts and was found to be valid and reliable. The quantitative and qualitative data gathered show that the students perceive online or virtual classes as innovative. It increases their autonomy and self-determination. It opens access to variety of platforms, online resources, and materials. However, there is a need to improve conduct of online classes to make learning easy and enjoyable, make it more engaging and motivating. Findings in this study reveal that the general perception of students on the conduct of online classes is neither positive nor negative. However, most of the negative feedback come from unreliable internet connectivity, physiological issues, financial demands, delayed feedback and issues with authenticity of examination scores that come along with online instruction. The results of this study can be used as a basis for development of interventions that could help address the issues that come along with online learning. Further research is recommended to fill the gaps created by the virtual teaching and learning arrangements to assist educators and institution administrators in drafting policies and strategies in managing the challenges of online modality. © 2023 ACM.
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The pandemic crisis compelled organizations to adopt telework to continue their activity. This study seeks to determine the perception of individuals regarding teleworking, and also the role of Information Systems in the paradigm shift along the pandemic period, in the Portuguese health sector. An online questionnaire was applied to health professionals working in Portugal, obtaining a sample of 264 professionals. The perceptions identified in relation to telework can be especially useful when considering the progressive incorporation of non-face-to-face activities in the health sector. Participants identify advantages in teleworking, namely in reducing travel costs, but also identify work overload as a disadvantage. Despite the difficulties, Information Systems are identified as facilitators in this process of change. Most participants express availability to work in a mixed regime, in the post-pandemic period. © 2022 Associacao Portuguesa de Sistemas de Informacao. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic boosted the production and circulation of false information, especially online, leading the World Health Organization to classify this phenomenon as an infodemic, i.e., a misinformation epidemic. In addition to this, the growing aging of the population is a reality not only in Portugal, but throughout the world. The Internet, and in particular social networks, can be an important contribution to the well-being of the elderly, reducing their social isolation. However, it makes them even more susceptible to the consumption of false information. Considering the increasing contact with fake news, it is important to evaluate the determinants of the ability of the elderly to identify fake news. In this article we present a research proposal with a quantitative methodology, based on a hypothetical-deductive process, supported by a self-administered online questionnaire survey for data collection, to meet this objective. © 2022 Associacao Portuguesa de Sistemas de Informacao. All rights reserved.
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Manufacturing small- and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs), which play a decisive role in the Spanish and European economy, have been particularly affected by the disruption generated by the COVID-19 crisis, being their strategic decisions key to maintain their competitiveness. This article explores the strategic priorities defined by managers of manufacturing SMEs to face COVID-19 related challenges. Data were collected from 167 manufacturing companies through an online questionnaire and exploited with factorial and cluster analysis. The results highlight the strategic importance of developing more advanced business models, boosting customer responsiveness and developing the innovative value propositions in developing a proactive response to the Covid-19 crisis. The value of this ongoing study lies in its contribution to quantitative research on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the strategic management of manufacturing SMEs. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Background: Hand hygiene is the simplest and most effective method to prevent hospital acquired infections (HAI). Compliance with hand hygiene among health providers is, however, widely variable due to significant knowledge gaps and behavioral issues. The knowledge and practices of hand hygiene among medical undergraduate students, the future health workforce in the current COVID-19 pandemic will enable a reality check and ensure course correction at an early stage of their learning. Methods: An online questionnaire-based survey based on a standard, validated WHO 25-point (multiple-choice question and Yes/No answers) hand hygiene survey was undertaken among medical undergraduate students in an urban city from April to June 2020. Each correct response was awarded 1 point, and an incorrect response was awarded 0 points. The maximum achievable score was 25, and the minimum score was 0. Results: A total of 457 students with a mean age 20.24 ± 1.27 years completed the survey. A total of 415 (90.8%) students received hand hygiene training in the past three years. Overall 27.6% (n = 126) students had good knowledge, 65.4% (n = 299) had moderate and 7% (n = 32) had poor knowledge of hand hygiene practices. Conclusions: There were significant knowledge gaps regarding hand hygiene among medical undergraduate students in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a need to strengthen existing teaching methods to positively impact behavioral change and potentially translate into better hand hygiene compliance among the future health workforce of the country.
ABSTRACT
Facemasks are personal protective equipment worn to reduce the risk of the transmission of Covid-19. University students and teachers/lecturers in Serbia are required to wear facemasks in class at all times. However, such practice may cause challenges in student-teacher communication. We present students' experiences regarding speech intelligibility in the educational setting. We distributed an anonymous online questionnaire among students from various universities. Speaking with a facemask in class creates communication challenges for teachers and students alike. Students claim that teachers often have difficulties understanding students who speak wearing masks;teachers often ask students to repeat the sentence, and teachers often ask students to speak louder. Similarly, when teachers talk with their facemasks, students often report not hearing or understanding teachers back. In turn, students would ask teachers to repeat the sentence and raise voices. Students pay more attention to teachers' facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and tone of voice. Students tend to engage their non-verbal interaction skills more often to facilitate communication. We further discuss the differences regarding students' gender and the type of facemask typically worn. We express concern that the inability to communicate clearly may cause annoyance and frustration in the academic setting. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.
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Governments utilize various media channels to disseminate knowledge pertaining to infectious diseases such as COVID-19. When it was declared a pandemic, society began to depend on the media for critical information and countermeasures that would facilitate tackling the virus. The main objective of this research is to examine the impact of verified Saudi government accounts across various media outlets on respondents' knowledge, attitudes, and intentions regarding COVID-19. A structured online questionnaire was distributed and 315 responses were used for analysis. The results were analyzed using SPSS. The results indicate that the residents of Saudi Arabia have adequate knowledge concerning the symptoms, precautionary measures, and modes of transmission of COVID-19. The respondents have gained this knowledge from verified Saudi government accounts across various media outlets, most prominently via social media. Copyright © 2022, IGI Global.
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Since SARS-CoV-2 spread worldwide in early 2020, many countries established lockdowns for protection. With a main transmission by aerosols, ventilation was promoted. This article analyses natural ventilation of Spanish housing during the spring 2020. An online questionnaire was launched, obtaining for this study 1502 responses. The comparative window opening before and during confinement, and households, dwellings and home activity variables, were analysed. The binary logistic regression model before pandemic indicated that ventilating properly related to: a worse perceived IAQ (OR = 1.56);thermal adaptation measures, especially those that prefer to open/close windows (OR = 1.45);not having heating system (OR = 1.15);and using power to heat water (OR = 1.60). For the confinement period, the model highlighted: being an employee (OR = 1.88);using heavy clothing in the home (OR = 2.36);and again, open/close windows for adaptation (OR = 2.24). According to specific tasks in quarantine, frequent ventilation was boosted by: an increasing use of oven (OR = 14.81);and alteration of work-habits (OR = 2.70), sport-habits (OR = 1.79), and outdoor-activities (OR = 1.60). Thus, an adequate natural ventilation pattern during the quarantine was linked to low environmental comfort in general, by virtue of indoor air quality. This is corroborated by less acoustic-thermal insulation, worse indicators of heating use, and the adaptive response to opening/closing windows when external temperature changed. © 2022 The Authors
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Fake news has led to a polarized society as evidenced by diametrically opposed perceptions of and reactions to global events such as the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and presidential campaigns. Popular press has linked individuals' political beliefs and cultural values to the extent to which they believe in false content shared on social networking sites (SNS). However, sweeping generalizations run the risk of helping exacerbate divisiveness in already polarized societies. This study examines the effects of individuals' political beliefs and espoused cultural values on fake news believability using a repeated-measures design (that exposes individuals to a variety of fake news scenarios). Results from online questionnaire-based survey data collected from participants in the US and India help confirm that conservative individuals tend to exhibit increasing fake news believability and show that collectivists tend to do the same. This study advances knowledge on characteristics that make individuals more susceptible to lending credence to fake news. In addition, this study explores the influence exerted by control variables (i.e., age, sex, and Internet usage). Findings are used to provide implications for theory as well as actionable insights. © 2022 The Author(s)
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COVID-19 has heavily influenced the mental health and academic performance of students all around the globe. The purpose of this study was to investigate the academic performance and psychological well-being of students in distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kosovo. The study was conducted through social media channels from October 2020 to December 2021. One thousand five hundred and eighty-eight (N=1588) undergraduate students from Public and Privat Higher Education Institutions in Kosovo were surveyed using a user-designed online questionnaire. Data were analyzed through the Social Science Package (SPSS), version 21.0. Correlation analysis and regression were used to explore the relationship between students' academic performance and psychological well-being during distance learning. From Pearson correlation analysis, it is seen that academic performance and psychological well-being have very high significant positive correlations (r= .836**;p =.000). Results highlight that academic performance is a strong predictor (69.9%) of students' psychological well-being. The current study's findings can provide policymakers and professionals in education with valuable information on academic performance and psychological well-being as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Copyright © 2022 The Authors.
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The COVID-19 has made it impossible for students to have face-To-face classes in the classroom. Online education provides a practical method for learning. This article makes an online questionnaire survey in S University (n = 57), describes and analyzes the online behavior characteristics of students in S University and the attitude evaluation of online educational videos. The survey found that watching videos is the main entertainment way for college students to surf the Internet. Students watch 4.5 hours of video every day. The statistical comparison of GPA shows that students can acquire knowledge in online education just like face-To-face teaching. Further research found that the quality of video played a significant positive role in students' complete viewing of video. Therefore, improving the quality of video education will provide better learning services for students. © 2022 IEEE.
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This study assessed the psychological impact of 91 students and 89 dentists during the Covid-19 pandemic through an anonymous online questionnaire. Statistical processing was done in SPSS 26.0. The psychological impact on dental students and dentists due to the Covid-19 pandemic was moderate;negative sensations of insecurity, stress, nervousness and feelings of sadness were moderate (scores≥3). The fear of infection with the SarS-CoV-2 virus from patients was moderate (scores≥3), but the fear of infecting close people was high (scores≥4). Concerns about their families' health problems were also increased (scores≥4). Students and dentists did not regret choosing this profession and did not lose control over their lives (scores≥1). Respondents' answers correlated statistically significantly with some independent socio-demographic variables (p≤0.05). Our study revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the psychological health of dental students and dentists, who had moderate symptoms and signs of stress and anxiety than of depression, but they knew how to control their lives despite the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic. © 2022 IEEE.
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In line with the recent development of technology, various access to health can be done through smartphones. Many developers are looking for profit by making mHealth applications, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the display features in these apps have not used ergonomic design principles. Therefore, this study aims to design an ergonomic interface design concept for mHealth apps. The method used refers to the meta-principle for designing digital applications. The initial stage was carried out by distributing online questionnaires to identify user needs. The second stage is benchmarking which is done by evaluating the interfaces of the 4 existing mHealth applications. The next step is to develop the meta-principles needed to design the interface for the mHealth application. The final result of this study is an interface design concept for mHealth apps which is obtained by combining user needs data, benchmarking evaluation and meta-principles. The design concept consists of the top, middle and bottom part of application displays. © 2022 ACM.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries have acclimated their closest work and set diurnal Work from Home (WFH) schedules, so it is imperative for leaders to truly develop employee engagement and organizational commitment. This study aims to dissect the influence of personality on organizational commitment through employee engagement. This study uses a quantitative method with convenience sampling technique. The data were collected through the distribution of online questionnaires to 26 respondents. The data analysis technique used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that personality has a significant impact on employee engagement, and employee engagement also has a significant impact on organizational engagement. Personality, on the other hand, does not significantly affect organizational commitment. In a perfect brokerage relationship, personality has a significant impact on organizational commitment through employee engagement The results show that personality has a significant effect on employee engagement and employee engagement also has a significant effect on organizational commitment. Meanwhile, personality has no significant effect on organizational commitment. In the relationship between the three variables in the form of full mediation, personality has a significant effect on organizational commitment through employee engagement. Based on the results of the study, indicators that provide comfort for others, enthusiastic, and feel they have a close relationship with the company get the lowest score on filling out questionnaires, so companies need to improve these indicators, for example through training. © 2022 IEEE.
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The outbreak of sudden public health incidents notes the agenda setting of the media in the process of message diffusion, but the audience's expectation for the media framework is seldom paid attention to. Through an online questionnaire, the media usage, satisfaction, intuitive evaluation of different message framing and placement methods of the audience (N=401) are investigated. The results notes that: audiences attach the most importance to message placement and gain-framing, where the importance of message placement is basically the same as the agenda setting of official media;audiences are satisfied with media coverage overall and are most concerned about the speed of media response, while the ability to deal with false message needs to be improved;some audiences attach equal importance to additional message on sudden public events. This study proposes an audience-led agenda-setting in response to public health emergencies, providing a new perspective to understand the audience's message needs and agenda setting. © 2022 ACM.
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In the context of dealing with Covid-19, the PeduliLindungi application is a type of government policy that the people is obligated to use, has a feature such as vaccines, affected locations, and doctor consultations. Finding information on user satisfaction in the PeduliLindungi application is the focus of this paper due to the lack of understanding regarding the factors influencing satisfaction, As a result, the purpose of this research is to see if Usefulness, Ease of Use, and Ease of Learning have an impact on User Satisfaction in the PeduliLindungi application. An online questionnaire was used to collect 171 responses in order to evaluate the hypothesis. The significance value is calculated using SPSS after the data has been collected. When comparing Ease Of Use, Usefulness and Ease Of Learning, this study discovered that Ease Of Use is more influential, but when the three variables are combined, the result are even more influential. The findings of this study can be used by app developers to generate new apps that similar as PeduliLindungi. © 2022 IEEE.
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COVID 19 pandemic has swiftly forced the change in the teaching from traditional to online style. Teachers have become recording and holding online sessions without enough training. Moreover, students have had to acclimatize to deal with this change. This paper considers the satisfaction of students and teaching staff members of adopting the e-learning technique at the Libyan International Medical University (LIMU). This study has been carried out using data collected by two types of online questionnaires for teaching staff members and students at LIMU. The data analyzed in this study is from 47 teaching staff members and 170 students. The analysis of the collected data has shown that the majority of students and teaching staff members are satisfied with the online learning style at LIMU. However, they often suffer from slow internet connections. In addition, the teaching staff members complain that the interaction with students is insufficient comparing with the face-to-face teaching style. © 2022 IEEE.
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Patients with cancer are concerned about the effects of the COVID-19 vaccination. We conducted an online survey on the COVID-19 vaccination status and side effects among patients with cancer in Japan between 8 and 14 August 2021. We included 1182 female patients with cancer aged 20-70 years and registered on an online patient website. Of the patients, 944 had breast cancer, 216 had gynecological cancer, 798 were undergoing drug/radiation therapy, and 370 were in follow-up. At the time of the survey, 885 patients had already received at least one dose. Of these, 580 had also received their second dose. The incidence rate of side effects was equivalent to previous reports. In patients with breast cancer, problems such as the onset or worsening of lymphedema or axillary lymphadenopathy metastasis requiring differential diagnosis were encountered following vaccination. A total of 768 patients were concerned about the vaccine at some point, and 726 consulted with their attending physicians about the timing or side effects of the vaccination. Of the 110 patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy, 75 adjusted the timing of the vaccination based on their therapy. The cross-analysis revealed that 81% of those who consulted their physician had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccination compared with 65% of those who had not consulted their physician. Consulting with a physician about the COVID-19 vaccination was found to alleviate the concerns of patients with cancer and encourage them to get vaccinated.
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The report describes a study of the opinion of students from the University of Ruse on their use of mobile learning before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research uses the survey methodology and for this purpose an online questionnaire was developed. A total number of 469 students from four academic years were surveyed - two before COVID-19 and two during the pandemic. Of the total number of surveyed students, 143 are in the academic year 2021-2022 and 133 are in the academic year 2020-2021, when most of the education was online. 72 are in the academic year 2019-2020 and 121 are in the academic year 2018-2019. An analysis and comparison of the results of these three academic years was performed. Relevant conclusions about the impact of COVID-19 on the use of mobile learning are made. © 2022 IEEE.