Isolation: An Interactive Animated Trilogy Short Film about Mental Health Awareness during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Mental health is more than the presence or absence of a mental illness. COVID-19 has led to self and social isolation, disconnection from family and friends. More people than ever are experiencing feelings of helplessness, isolation, grief, anxiety, and depression. In such cases, the team took advantage of the opportunity to raise mental health awareness by developing a trilogy of interactive short films with a website that would support the project's purpose. The film has three characters with different stories, namely Marion;a college student who is struggling to adjust to his new average experience from his online class and Kayla;a nurse who is also a mother of three children, who must participate in treating the patients with COVID at the hospital, and Marie;an OFW who works from Saudi Arabia wants to go home to visit her family. The study also intends to explore the impact of coping strategies and perceived social support on one's ability to handle social isolation stress. Each of the characters' stories will represent the different outlook on possible mental health symptoms that everyone has experienced during the pandemic. The stories presented in the film will be based on real-life circumstances and experiences of people who have lived through the pandemic. The story aims to give hope to its viewers on what lies ahead of the pandemic. Upon testing the produced output, the study results show that most people only have a general idea when it comes to the topic of mental health issues. The study also yielded that the project has spread and increased awareness about the topic under study. Although the project could attain its specific goals and adjectives, the best and only conclusion is to seek professional help from credible and trusted experts in their respective health fields. © 2022 IEEE.

Kalakip: A Short Animation Film about Depression in Young Adults during COVID-19 pandemic

This paper highlights the functionality of producing a 2-Dimensional animation as a visual supporting material to raise awareness about depression. The study explored the significance of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good health and well-being, wherein the discussion emphasized the importance of managing the mental health, particularly raising public awareness about depression among young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The researcher followed the conceptual framework of multimedia production cycle in creating a short-Animated film. The creation of story line and visual assets described the notion of depressive disorder for audiences to have a sense of urgency, awareness, and learnings on how the young adult students become vulnerable in depression throughout the pandemic. © 2022 IEEE.

Multimedia Pedagogy among Literature Lecturers in Two Universities in Uganda post COVID-19

Multimedia pedagogy embodies the use of text materials, photography and other still images, audio files, video presentations and forms of animation, which are all excellent vehicles for Literature teaching. Prior to COVID-19, most lecturers in the selected universities had used multimedia to watch literature films but not to conduct entire lectures. After that pandemic, when schools reopened, the ODEL (Online Distance Education Learning) department's pleas to lecturers to continue with some online courses fell on deaf ears. This study undertook ethnographic research to establish the reasons for the apparent reluctance by both lecturers and students to interface using multimedia during creative writing classes. The observations and interview findings revealed that subject specifications and psychological factors influenced the lecturer and student more than the economic factors against the use of multimedia during lectures. The study recommended retooling teacher trainers in multimedia pedagogy because a person cannot effectively conduct online lectures unless taught how to. The study concluded that human beings are social beings drawn to learning using methods that involve close interaction between the teacher and the taught, and the elaborateness of literature with its genres consists of the teaching of intangible interactions between words and listener, demand for physical interface between teacher and teacher trainee to chisel and polish the genre specifications.

E-learning among 2-year MBBS students in a Government Medical College in South India - A KAP study

Background: E-learning or electronic learning is a popular modality to address the educational needs of a population. In the context of medical education, E-learning is useful but has its limitations. Aim and Objectives: This study was conducted among 2-year MBBS students of a Government Medical College in South India to know their knowledge, attitude, and practice of E-learning and also to learn from their experiences during the COVID pandemic. Material(s) and Method(s): After obtaining informed consent, students were asked to fill up a questionnaire containing 15 questions in Google Forms and submit it. Result(s): This study shows that more than 70% of students consider themselves capable of using computers for everyday activities. They also reported using search engines and online animations for updated medical information. However, they preferred their course content to be delivered through blended learning, a combination of classroom and E-learning. The students reported poor internet connectivity as a major limitation in E-learning. They also suggested having a separate website for each college where the teaching material can be uploaded by the faculty and can be accessed by all the students of the institution. Conclusion(s): From this study, it can be concluded that a majority of students have good knowledge and are already using E-learning modalities. They are also open to the idea of blended learning for clinical cases.Copyright © 2023 Jeyasudha J, et al.

Pseudorandom: generative animation as performance in Emergent (2020–2022)

The body is the database of lived experience. Emergent was created during COVID-19 from the desire to explore the extended possibilities of digital performance beyond lens-based media. The work includes generative animations and sound compositions using data collected from a consumer fitness tracker worn since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. As a portrait of experience through the data body (as both body of data and body producing data), Emergent engages with the memories of the flesh, becoming the impetus for aesthetic encounters through digital performance. In this article about the work, Putnam describes how it was produced, provides a detailed overview of the work and its theoretical context, and discusses how it functions as a digital performance between the artist and computer. The result is a work where data visualisation and sonification generates ambiguity, rather than clarity, introducing difference in how biometric sensing devices are used and understood. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Facial Affect Recognition in Depression Using Human Avatars

This research assesses facial emotion recognition in depressed patients using a novel dynamic virtual face (DVF) collection. The participant sample comprised 54 stable depressed patients against 54 healthy controls. The experiment entailed a non-immersive virtual reality task of recognizing emotions with DVFs representing the six basic emotions. Depressed patients exhibited a deficit in facial affect recognition in comparison to healthy controls. The average recognition score for healthy controls was 88.19%, while the score was 75.17% for the depression group. Gender and educational level showed no influence on the recognition rates in depressed patients. As for age, the worst results were found in older patients as compared to other cohorts. The average recognition rate for the younger group was 84.18%, 78.63% for the middle-aged group, and 61.97% for the older group, with average reaction times of 4.00 s, 4.07 s, and 6.04 s, respectively.

Recreation and Virtual Animation as an Active Learning Aid of the Aircraft Engines Course

The virtual modelling and animation of a turbo propeller with Catia is of great significance in regard to facilitate its visualization and analysis, offering multiple possibilities in the field of teaching–learning of air-breathing jet engines in aeronautical engineering studies. This work shares the teaching experience carried out, during the two academic courses of the pandemic (19/20 and 20/21), to explain the assembly and operation of the Garrett TPE331 turbo propeller, without the need to own it physically, only using its virtual modelling and animation and the Blackboard Collaborate virtual teaching platform. The results achieved in these courses are presented to be compared to those prior to Covid to verify the effectiveness of the teaching process applied. Lastly, it is intended that this model serve as support for its implementation through apps to the world of virtual reality, being able to combine the theory related to the engine with three-dimensional representations, thus facilitating the complex educational task that involves explaining the operation of this or any other engine that are not physically available. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Developing an animated COVID-19 e-curriculum for adults with dementia and caregivers: Challenges and solutions.

OBJECTIVES: Effective education and support for adults with dementia and their caregivers around pandemic issues is critical for protecting them. Animation-based learning has shown promise in patient education. We collaborated with educators and support staff at Alzheimer's Association Connecticut (AACT) to conduct a mixed-methods study and develop an animated e-curriculum addressing pandemic related challenges. METHODS: We conducted focus groups and surveys with dementia and caregiver educators and support staff at AACT for the initial needs assessment and the later e-curriculum evaluation. An interdisciplinary team of educators followed a step-wise process to transform the needs assessment results into an animation based e-curriculum. RESULTS: Participants identified the following pandemic challenges: 1) social isolation, 2) caregiver fatigue, 3) safety, and 4) difficulty navigating the healthcare system. The overall quality and usefulness of the e-curriculum was "very good" or "excellent". CONCLUSIONS: An animated e-curriculum addressing pandemic related issues relevant to adults with dementia and caregivers had positive reviews and was associated with improvement in self-reported ability to perform curriculum objectives among community dementia educators. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The pandemic challenges identified may facilitate the development of further resources. Additionally, this project may serve as a guide for clinicians interested in incorporating animation into education efforts.

Chunk Learning Media for Cognitive Load Optimization on Science Learning

The sudden shift in the education world due to the pandemic of Covid-19 bring both challenge and opportunity at the same time. Since decades ago, the understanding of the importance to manage cognitive load for effective learning had been applied in multiple methods. Having said that, only a few addresses the opportunity to combine it with the latest trend attractive for today's young learners to minimize more extraneous cognitive load. This research discusses the matter by proposing the adoption of the combination of chunk learning, animation, and super short video in social media platforms to convey learning materials on nervous system science, which has been stamped as a hard subject for high school students. The adaptation of super short video animation on nervous system science successfully helps students cope with the daunting pile of materials align with the cognitive load theory. © 2022 IEEE.

Creating Audio-Visual Content for a Personalized Prevention Programme in Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the leading cause of premature death worldwide. Better risk stratification tools and personalized care of patients are needed for reducing the morbidity and mortality of CHD and the associated economic burden. However, contemporary e-learning solutions lack personalization and shared decision making and as a result, overwhelm patients with large amounts of information. CoroPrevention is a multiyear, EU-funded Horizon 2020 research project aiming to shape and implement a personalized secondary prevention strategy for patients with established CHD. As a part of the project, new digital tools will also be validated. In this paper, we discuss the process of creating audio-visual content for the CoroPrevention mobile application during the challenging COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 IEEE.

Exploring Visualisation for Embryology Education: A Twenty-First-Century Perspective.

Embryology and congenital malformations play a key role in multiple medical specialties including obstetrics and paediatrics. The process of learning clinical embryology involves two basic principles; firstly, understanding time-sensitive morphological changes that happen in the developing embryo and, secondly, appreciating the clinical implications of congenital conditions when development varies from the norm. Visualising the sequence of dynamic events in embryonic development is likely to be challenging for students, as these processes occur not only in three dimensions but also in the fourth dimensions of time. Consequently, features identified at any one timepoint can subsequently undergo morphological transitions into distinct structures or may degenerate and disappear. When studying embryology, learners face significant challenges in understanding complex, multiple and simultaneous events which are likely to increase student cognitive load. Moreover, the embryology content is very nonlinear. This nonlinear content presentation makes embryology teaching challenging for educators. Embryology is typically taught in large groups, via didactic lecture presentations that incorporate two-dimensional diagrams or foetal ultrasound images. This approach is limited by incomplete or insufficient visualisation and lack of interactivity.It is recommended that the focus of embryology teaching should instill an understanding of embryological processes and emphasise conceptualising the potential congenital conditions that can occur, linking pre-clinical and clinical disciplines together. A variety of teaching methods within case-based and problem-based curricula are commonly used to teach embryology. Additional and supplementary resources including animations and videos are also typically utilised to demonstrate complex embryological processes such as septation, rotation and folding.We propose that there is a need for embryology teaching in the twenty-first century to evolve. This is particularly required in terms of appropriate visualisation resources and teaching methodologies which can ensure embryology learning is relevant to real-world scenarios. Here we explore embryology teaching resources and methodologies and review existing evidence-based studies on their implementation and impact on student learning. In doing so, we aim to inform and support the practice of embryology educators and the learning of their students.

Real-Time Facial Animation Generation on Face Mask

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing a mask is crucial to avoid contracting infectious diseases. However, wearing a mask is known to impair communication functions. This study aims to address the communication difficulties caused by wearing a mask and provide a strategy for aiding in understanding the speaker's speech through facial animation. Facial animation is generated in real-time, and upper facial information is processed to detect the speaker's emotions, generating a lower facial expression. In addition, the system detects the mask's shape and enables accurate registration in the proper position. This technology can improve communication and alleviate challenges associated with communication between persons wearing face masks. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Development of Animation as a Medium for Public Health Education

One of the diseases still suffered by many Indonesian people, especially in the city of Depok, is respiratory disease. Currently, respiratory tract disease is a case with a high number of sufferers. An effort to handle these cases is to provide counseling and education for the community. This education aims to enable people to apply a healthy lifestyle independently and prevent various types of diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this role was somewhat difficult to carry out due to limited movement and space. As a solution to this problem, the part of information technology is crucial. One is utilizing multimedia technology as a medium for health education for the community, namely animation. Animation can describe and visualize something so that information can be presented clearly and visually. This study aims to develop animation as a medium of health education for the community, especially in respiratory health. The animation video was generated using the MDLC (Multimedia Development Life Cycle) method. The resulting animated video can inform the public about health that focuses on the health of the respiratory system. 85 % of users stated that this animated video helps them to understand the material presented. © 2022 IEEE.

Multi-modal Discourse Analysis in Second Language Teaching Class

At the end of 2019, the COVID-19 epidemic spread globally, and the outstanding performance of China in the epidemic caused a new Chinese language craze. However, the epidemic is a double-edged sword. With the continuous development of the epidemic, the international Chinese education has also been greatly impacted. Due to the epidemic situation, offline classes is difficult to achieve, and the cultivation of the teaching practice ability of international Chinese education post-graduates is limited. The postgraduate course Chinese teaching design and management of X University breaks through this limitation by simulating classroom teaching practice. Based on multi-modal discourse analysis theory, this research analyzes various modes of second language classroom: speech modality, image modality, action modality and animation modality. In addition, this research also proposes five strategies: focus on language content, accuracy and humor;add 'Picture Modality', both content and form;cooperate with 'action modality', guide and interact;use 'animation mode' skillfully and help students increase interest;modal multi-pronged approach, jointly promote teaching.

Exploring the Potential of Adopting Computer-graphics Animation to the Switch to a Plant-Based Diet

A healthy lifestyle is a way of living that helps to keep and improve people's health and well-being. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is essential and a great way to combat many health issues, especially in preparation for the upcoming post-pandemic COVID-19 era. Some studies suggested that animals play a role in spreading SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to people. It is thus believed people should be eating more plant-based and less meat diets. Although the development of computer-graphics animation has significantly affected learning media development, there is a lack of evaluative evidence on how it might effectively motivate diet shifts. Therefore, this study explores and analyzes the crucial factors influencing the deliverability and engagement of computer-graphics animation as a learning media to enhance knowledge and promote a plant-based diet. A structured interview, with both closed and open-ended questions, is conducted on various groups of respondents. The analysis results can serve as a guideline for advancing learning media and a basis for future development and research strategies in healthy eating promotion in general. © 2022 IEEE.

When Mouths Went Missing: A Post-Pandemic, Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration for Actors and Animators

In the months following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty in all sectors of higher education scrambled to find solutions for teaching and learning safely. This article examines a pedagogical partnership between acting and animation professors who devised a series of collaborative classroom projects for their students. The two faculty reflect on the outcomes of the project, which unfolded in three different iterations over two semesters and brought undergraduate and graduate students together in collaborative, cross-disciplinary teams. An aspirational vision for future collaborations sets out how this pedagogical partnership might be further developed to enhance students’ training and learning in both the visual and performing arts. © 2022 Voice and Speech Trainers Association.

Effects of animated pedagogical agent-guided loving-kindness meditation on flight attendants' spirituality, mindfulness, subjective wellbeing, and social presence.

Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) was first practiced by Buddhists and then developed by clinical psychologist. Previous studies on LKM have mainly focused on the impact of real person-guided meditation on depression, anxiety, and other negative psychology. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this study explored the effect and mechanism of media-guided LKM on the improvement of social presence, mindfulness, spirituality, and subjective wellbeing (SWB). From the viewpoint of positive psychology, this study compared the different media effects of animated pedagogical agent (APA)-guided LKM and audio-guided LKM. A total of 82 flight attendants were recruited from airlines; then, they were randomly assigned to two groups: APA group (41 participants) and audio group (41 participants), which both underwent an 8-week LKM training intervention. The aforementioned four main variables were measured pre and post the meditation experiment. The results indicated that both APA-guided meditation and audio-guided meditation significantly improved subjects' spirituality and SWB. Compared with audio-guided meditation, APA-guided meditation significantly improved the subjects' spirituality, SWB, and social presence. Audio-guided meditation has no significant effect on social presence. This study highlights APA-guided meditation has a positive effect on spirituality, SWB, and social presence, which may provide individuals with a simple and easy method to improve their mental health.

Anthropomorphic Character Animations Versus Digital Chalk Talks in a Resident Diabetes Pharmacotherapy Curriculum: a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Animation in medical education has boomed over the past two decades, and demand for distance learning technologies will likely continue in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, experimental data guiding best practices for animation in medical education are scarce. OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of two animated video styles in a diabetes pharmacotherapy curriculum for internal medicine residents. DESIGN: Learners were randomized to receive one of two versions of the same multimodal didactic curriculum. They received identical lectures, group activities, and quizzes, but were randomized to either digital chalk talk (DCT) videos or Sugar-Coated Science (SCS). SCS is an animated series using anthropomorphic characters, stories, and mnemonics to communicate knowledge. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-two internal medicine residents at a single academic medical center received the curriculum within ambulatory medicine didactics. MAIN MEASURES: Knowledge was measured at multiple time points, as was residents' self-reported comfort using each medication class covered. Surveys assessed video acceptability and telepresence. Key themes were identified from open-ended feedback. KEY RESULTS: Baseline knowledge was low, consistent with prior needs assessments. On immediate posttest, mean scores were higher with SCS than DCT (74.8% versus 68.4%), but the difference was not statistically significant, p = 0.10. Subgroup analyses revealed increased knowledge in the SCS group for specific medication classes. Delayed posttest showed significant knowledge gains averaging 17.6% across all participants (p < 0.05); these gains were similar between animation types. SCS achieved significantly higher telepresence, entertainment, and acceptability scores than DCT. Qualitative data suggested that residents prioritize well-designed, multimodal curricula over specific animation characteristics. CONCLUSION: SCS and DCTs both led to learning within a multimodal curriculum, but SCS significantly enhanced learner experience. Animation techniques exemplified by both SCS and DCTs have roles in the medical educator toolkit. Selection between them should incorporate context, learner factors, and production resources.

Rethinking Visual Arts–Based Methods of Knowledge Generation and Exchange in and beyond the Pandemic

This inaugural special issue of ‘Beyond the Text’ brings together a collection of visual arts (animation, creative and fine art, film, photographs, and zines) produced by children, young people, families, artists, and academics as part of co-created research during the 2020–2021 coronavirus pandemic. Our aim, in making these pieces available in this new publication format, is to illustrate the potential of visual arts as a form of co-creation and knowledge exchange which can transcend the challenges of researching ‘at a distance’, enable participants and co-researchers to share their stories, and support different ways of knowing for academic, policy, and public audiences. This is not to suggest that such methods offer transparent windows into participants’ worlds. As the reflections from the contributing authors consider, visual arts outputs leave room for audience interpretations, making them vulnerable to alternative readings, generating challenges and opportunities about how much it is possible to know about another and what is ethical to share. It is to these issues of ethics, representation, and voice that this special issue attends, reflecting on the possibilities of arts-based approaches for knowledge generation and exchange in and beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

Seeing as an Act of Hearing: Making Visible Children’s Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic Through Participatory Animation

‘Our Voices’ is an animation co-created with children aged 9–11 during the 2020–2021 global pandemic. A short, stop-start animation of children’s visual, audio and textual representations of their experiences offers a visceral account of the pandemic in England from their perspectives. In making available the animation in this inaugural issue of ‘Beyond the Text’, we have two key aims. The first is to enable children, who have been barely seen and little heard during the pandemic, to voice their experiences in accordance with their aspirations. The second is to reflect upon the process of transforming creative data made by and with children into an animation that is representative of children’s diverse experiences and acknowledges their contributions in ways which enable audiences to engage through ‘seeing’. Accordingly, our accompanying text explores how, through a feminist ethics of care, we sought to co-produce an animation with children which delivers key messages from them and acknowledges their role as co-researchers while maintaining their anonymity. In describing our methodological and ethical practices, we aspire to make visible the relational, dialogic processes inherent in co-production, offering viewers a way of seeing the complexity of children’s experiences through the multi-layered affordances of participatory animation.