Assisted Reality as an enabler for resilient remote learning during COVID-19

During the COVID'19 pandemic the vital practical aspect of Technical Vocational Educational Training (TVET) almost halted completely., as most providers were insufficiently prepared to respond to the containment measures applied to stop the spread of the virus. In this paper., we report on our preliminary work towards developing a resilient maritime TVET ecosystem by enabling remote learning and examination using Assisted Reality (AR) technologies. We present a novel framework for remote maritime TVET., incorporating AR devices., and evaluate our approach in real world conditions., in a class of more than 28 students of the Rotterdam Mainport Institute. We attempt to qualitatively and quantitatively measure the effect such systems have on the students learning process and report on the results. © 2022 IEEE.

Prevalence of anxiety and depression during COVID-19 pandemic among healthcare students in Jordan and its effect on their learning process: A national survey

Rational: During pandemics, including the most recent COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health of university healthcare students' is expected to be affected negatively, impacting the students' learning process. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the level of anxiety and depression of healthcare students living in Jordan, and the effect on their learning process during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted via an online survey completed by students studying a healthcare-oriented degree in a university in Jordan. Participants were recruited through social media (Facebook and WhatsApp). The validated previously published Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire was used as a part of the online survey to assess students' anxiety/depression scores. Students' responses regarding their learning process during the COVID-19 was also assessed. Results: The mean age of participants was 21.62 (SD = 4.90), with the majority being females (67.1%). The HADs' assessment revealed that 43.8% and 40.0% of participants had normal anxiety and depression scores, while 22.4% showed borderline abnormal anxiety/depression scores (33.8%). Many students (33.8%) were classified to have abnormal anxiety scores, while a smaller proportion (26.2%) was classified to have abnormal depression scores. Smoking (p = 0.022), lower family income (p = 0.039), and use of medications (p = 0.032) were positively associated with higher (worse) anxiety scores. Ranking the learning process during COVID-19 showed that 45.8% of the participants believed it was a 'good/ very good/excellent' process. Conclusions: Anxiety and depression levels amongst university healthcare students in Jordan were found to be high when assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the learning process during the pandemic was not accepted by more than half of the students. Implementing psychological interventions for healthcare students during pandemics is strongly recommended in order to optimize students' mental health and their learning process alike. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Online education in Covid-19: Limitations and improvements

The world and its ways of living have seen a massive change post the Covid lockdown in multiple aspects as, new practices, new trends and a new lifestyle of maintaining social distancing has wholly altered the world's standard. This change has severely affected the ways of learning, teaching and schooling as in-person classes have shifted to online live courses. But the available platforms of online classes don't provide a classroom-like feel, thereby creating hindrance in students learning process and diminishing the quality of education. This study provides a novel paradigm with complete architecture and implementation of a platform that caters explicitly to online learning and lives classes with provisions to provide class like atmosphere. It aims to do so with graded feature break down aided by a detailed description and plans to set up, build maintain such a paradigm from both technical administration fronts. In addition to the above, it further provides a framework that helps colleges education institutes to conduct "in-person classes"after pandemic enervates while following norms of social distancing. © 2021 IEEE.