The impact of virtual site visits on programmatic accreditation

Introduction: While programmatic and institutional accreditation remain the vital components of a quality education, the associated costs of a site visit can be excessive, especially when the technology is available to accomplish this process virtually. In the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic, it also became evident that a virtual site visit was the only viable means to accredit diagnostic medical sonography programs, given safety concerns for site visitors. Method(s): The study followed a mixed method, quasi-experimental design. This virtual site visits includes all learning concentrations (e.g. general sonography, adult cardiac sonography, and vascular technology) along with programs offering a multi-concentration educational program (i.e. combinations of any the listed learning concentrations). This research was based on the three quantitative questions and a fourth qualitative question. Result(s): The data analyses confirmed the McEwan and Walsh theory that the virtual accreditation site visit is a viable option given the many possibilities of communication technologies available today. This cost-saving alternative has the potential to reshape the rigorous accreditation process while saving educational institutions the expense of the on-site visit which was noted by the program directors. Conclusion(s): A future study of this kind could be enhanced by using a larger sample size than 28 programs that participated in this study. Take home message: In an era of cutting costs and maximising efficiency while still upholding the integrity of the programmatic accreditation, the virtual site visit does maintain the effectiveness and efficiency of the accrediting process.

Virtual educational therapy: A case study of clinical supports and advocacy

A case study is a research approach that is used to generate an in-depth, multifaceted understanding of a complex issue in its real-life context. It is both time- and space-bound and is useful to explore, describe, and explain phenomena. It is an established research design that is used extensively in a wide variety of disciplines, particularly in the social sciences, including education. Many master's programs employ the case study methodology as the basis for the culminating project. The case study methodology is especially relevant to advancing "younger disciplines" such as educational therapy. Many do not understand the training and difference in approaches between an Educational Therapist and a tutor, so publishing case studies is crucial. This book presents a board-certified educational therapist's year-long case study of clinical supports and advocacy for a student with learning disabilities who is attending school remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. With online and blended learning, now the norm in K-12 education, educational therapists need new models of intervention, treatment, and relationship-building for their child-age clients. The book offers detailed single-case research focused on a middle-school student who is learning virtually while challenged with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as well as visual and verbal memory issues, but who is nonetheless found ineligible for special education services. Across eight chapters, the book describes the neuropsychological principles, research-based techniques, personal interactions, clinical approaches, and advocacy efforts that led to a vulnerable student's significant gains in academic skills and outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Researching children and disasters: What's different in pandemic times?

The repercussions of the global COVID-19 pandemic are far-reaching and extend to the ways in which scholars conduct disaster research. Research on children and disasters is no exception. Focusing on methodologies, this paper explores the methodological constraints and innovations of studying children during the current crisis, and the implications for post-pandemic research on children and disasters. We begin by reviewing research methodologies to study children and disasters, drawing upon scholarly and grey literature as well as on our own research project on the pandemic experiences of children, adolescents, and older adults. We then discuss how these research approaches, tools, and spaces have changed during the pandemic. Methodological adaptation and innovation are necessary because traditional data collection methods are largely not feasible during the current pandemic;for example, many researchers cannot travel to the disaster site, hold in-person focus groups, interview children and their families face-to-face, or conduct extensive participant observation in places people would usually frequent. We pay particular attention to research ethics issues, including the challenges of navigating the research design process when children are involved. We contend that the massive adoption of online methods during the COVID-19 pandemic is laying the foundation for a seventh wave of research on children and disasters characterized by the integration of in-person and virtual worlds, and of in-person and virtual research methods. Rather than initiating this transition to a hybrid or blended model, the pandemic is accelerating the transition, and compelling more of the research community to engage than might have otherwise. The "bricolage" of methods originating in both in-person and virtual fields, adapted in various ways for both in-person and virtual fields, is better attuned to the spaces where children live their lives, and the ways in which they live their lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

New scenarios for experiments in Psychology: The online modality

An increasing number of behavioral studies are conducted online with the aim of including a wider and more heterogeneous sample of participants. This practice was encouraged by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which implied social distancing, hence preventing access to laboratories as a measure to contain the infection. In the present work some online platforms will be discussed, considering their characteristics, advantages and limitations, in order to facilitate researchers in the possible selection of the most suitable tool for their needs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Italian) Sempre piu ricerche comportamentali vengono condotte online con lo scopo di raggiungere un piu ampio e diversificato campione di partecipanti. Con l'avvento della pandemia da Covid-19 questa pratica si e diffusa sempre di piu a causa delle misure precauzionali di distanziamento sociale che hanno impedito l'accesso ai laboratori. Nel presente lavoro verranno descritte alcune piattaforme online, le loro caratteristiche e potenzialita, nonche i limiti ad esse connessi allo scopo di agevolare i ricercatori nella possibile scelta dello strumento piu adatto alle proprie esigenze. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Digital phenotyping of student mental health during COVID-19: an observational study of 100 college students.

Objective: This study assessed the feasibility of capturing smartphone based digital phenotyping data in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic with the goal of understanding how digital biomarkers of behavior correlate with mental health. Participants: Participants were 100 students enrolled in 4-year universities. Methods: Each participant attended a virtual visit to complete a series of gold-standard mental health assessments, and then used a mobile app for 28 days to complete mood assessments and allow for passive collection of GPS, accelerometer, phone call, and screen time data. Students completed another virtual visit at the end of the study to collect a second round of mental health assessments. Results: In-app daily mood assessments were strongly correlated with their corresponding gold standard clinical assessment. Sleep variance among students was correlated to depression scores (ρ = .28) and stress scores (ρ = .27). Conclusions: Digital Phenotyping among college students is feasible on both an individual and a sample level. Studies with larger sample sizes are necessary to understand population trends, but there are practical applications of the data today.

Fish Cam: An Online Program to Deliver Behavioral Experiments to the Classroom

First pioneered in 2010, Fish Cam provides the opportunity for students to engage in novel behavioral research without the need for extensive materials or for leaving the classroom. Fish Cam utilizes a robust behavioral paradigm, shoaling behavior in fish, and enables students to collect information from simple, easy-to-understand observations, allowing for student-led experimental design, data collection, analysis, and discussions on the scientific process. In these ways Fish Cam removes the cost and time-intensive aspects of doing this sort of work in the classroom. Shoaling behavior, which is well represented in the scientific literature, refers to social aggregations of fish. Almost all species of fish form shoals, and this process is easy to study under laboratory conditions. An evolutionary adaptation, shoaling provides individuals better access to resources and decreases the risk of predation. In its initial launch, Fish Cam was highly successful as a learning tool but suffered from difficulties associated with delivering the information online in 2010. Now, with the rapid development of online communication tools associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have the second iteration of Fish Cam. The flexibility of new delivery platforms enables partner organizations to view experiments and adapt the experience to their specific educational goals. Here we present an overview of Fish Cam, including lesson plans, a description of shoaling behavior in fish, and the results of Fish Cam studies run in the fall of 2020.

Development of a multivariate model with desirability-based optimization for simultaneous determination of five co-administrated drugs for the management of COVID-19 infection in their dosage forms via validated RP-HPLC method

More than 2.9 million people have died as a result of the global demographic impact of the coronavirus illness of 2019 (COVID-19). Numerous antiviral and anti-inflammatory medications have FDA approval to treat COVID-19 patients. For the simultaneous determination of COVID-19 utilized medications (Remdesivir, Moxifloxacin, Dexamethasone, Apixaban, and paracetamol) in their dosage forms, a sensitive technique has been developed and validated. The aforementioned medications were separated and quantified with the help of experimental design. The Box-Behnken design was used in the experiment to optimize the chromatographic method's analytical parameters. It employed RP-HPLC with a UV detector. An INERTSIL ODS-3 C18 column (5 µm, 250 × 4.6 mm) with mobile phase composed of acetonitrile: 30 mmoL potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer (pH = 7.5) (50:50, v/v), at room temperature was employed to separate the aforementioned drugs. Paracetamol was linear over the concentration range (1–50 µg/mL), Moxifloxacin (5–70 µg/mL), Apixaban (5–70 µg/mL), Dexamethasone (1–100 µg/mL), and Remdesivir (5–100 µg/mL). According to ICH guidelines, the new approach underwent thorough validation. Between the proposed method's results and those from the reference or reported methods, there was no significant difference. The technique is simple to use in research of the cited medications in their dosage forms for quality control aspects.

An empirical analysis of American Passenger's willingness to fly in commercial airplanes after vaccination against COVID-19.

Although several studies have explored the effects of the pandemic on aviation, little remains known about whether members of the public are willing to fly again after they have been vaccinated. The current study uses the Health Belief Model (HBM) to fill this missing gap by manipulating the following variables: 1) whether or not the participant is vaccinated; 2) whether or not airlines require that all passengers and crew receive vaccinations; 3) length of flight; 4) destination; and 5) the number of passengers. The data from 678 participants revealed that willingness to fly is much higher if the participants themselves have been vaccinated, if the airlines require all passengers to be vaccinated, if the flight is short, if the destination is domestic, and if the number of passengers is low. These findings did not appear to differ as a function of flying business versus pleasure. We discuss the practical implications of these data as airlines struggle to bring back their customer base.

The impact of activity type and use of health and safety protocols for destination recovery following a health crisis

This paper examines whether, following a prolonged health crisis, the offer of a tourist destination coupled with the use of health and safety protocols at the destination, influences brand equity and intention to visit. Specifically, it (a) examines whether the indoor/outdoor activity offers influence brand equity and intention to visit, (b) demonstrates whether health and safety protocols influence brand equity and intention to visit, and (c) tests whether there is a moderating effect by the use of health and safety protocols in destinations specializing in indoor, rather than outdoor, activities. The study is based on an experimental design in which the type of offer (out/indoor activities) and the use of anti-covid protocols versus their non-use were manipulated. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The effect of involvement on attitude formation and strength in the digital domain

The spike in e-commerce caused by COVID-19 mandates a re-evaluation of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) vis-à-vis digital marketing communications. The experiment presented here focuses on product involvement on attitude formation and strength. A sample of 185 students was exposed to mock websites of fictitious high- and low- involvement products (a laptop and a soft drink) chosen through a free-association exercise with the involvement level measured using two independent samples of 20 and 30 students respectively. Exposure to the high involvement product website elicited a greater number of product- and website-related thoughts (central route processing) than exposure to the low involvement one (peripheral route processing). Involvement was found to influence attitude formation, but it did not affect attitude strength (measured at a later time after a single exposure). The efficacy of the measurement scales and the applicability of the ELM to the digital domain are confirmed but e-commerce marketers are advised to encourage the constantly connected 21st century consumers to regularly revisit their website to strengthen the attitudes their Marcoms have formed. Further research is required to further elucidate the changes to consumers' cognitive processes that were brought about by the COVID-19 lockdown-imposed switch to e-commerce and assess their stability.

Trauma-informed phone interviews: Learning from the COVID-19 quarantine

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and associated lockdowns have significantly affected populations with prior trauma histories, as well as research studies with trauma survivors. This article describes the transition from in-person to virtual research during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda in 2020. The lockdown occurred during an evaluation study of a trauma-informed yoga intervention (hartyoga .org) with survivors of human trafficking residing in shelters. We discuss strategies taken and lessons learned in conducting virtual intervention and interview sessions with trauma survivors. Approaches we found to be particularly important included preinterview calls with participants;intense active listening for changes in tone, cadence, and background noises;reacquiring informed consent at multiple points in the interview;actively engaging interviewees as partners in ensuring ethical guidelines;and ensuring support for research team members to avoid burnout or secondary trauma. We believe that these strategies have relevance for other virtual or telephone research studies with trauma survivors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Ethical dilemmas and reflections in a collaborative study with children during the pandemic

This chapter explores the ethical dilemmas that emerged in situ from an ethnographic study in collaboration with Latin American children and youngsters. It was developed in the challenging conditions of isolation and lockdown, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In such times, a group of eight researchers from different geographical locations in the Americas looked into the ways children reorganise, reconstruct and reinterpret their daily lives in social isolation. The methodological approach, which enabled dialogue and conversation, began through a system of correspondence-in oral, written, recorded, drawn, photographed and audiovisual forms-among Latin American children. The expectations about the viability of this field-work modality brought, from the beginning, ethical challenges that required continuous adjustments, agreements, rectifications, adaptations and explicit reflection on such ethical aspects. Here we focus on three challenges that we analyse individually, although in practice they were interconnected. The first one was the dilemma regarding perception and use of time. The second ethical challenge is based on the fact that we recruited the young participants through friendships and kinship networks that each of the eight researchers previously had. The third challenge was connected to the decision to communicate through letters (a markedly confessional, private and intimate epistolary genre) that were both intervened by our 'special' position and also taken as ethnographic documents. In our fieldwork, in the specific spatial and temporal situations we worked, we understand the self as emerging from intersubjectivity and knowledge relations as co-created between researcher and researched. Thus, ethical decisions are made during the research process itself and, for us, in situ ethics entails a reciprocal commitment, between children, youth and adults as co-researchers, to adjust themselves to the developments and boundaries of the ethnographic field. This also allowed the participants to manage the adjustments in this specific and situated context that circumscribed everybody, seeking answers in conversations and paying careful attention to the situation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Engaging with program adaptations in evaluation: A range of existing options and a new opportunity

Premised on the idea that evaluators should be familiar with a range of approaches to program modifications, I review several existing approaches and then describe another, less well-recognized option. In this newer option, evaluators work with others to identify potentially needed adaptations for select program aspects in advance. In describing this approach, I note the general steps involved and present alternative techniques for identifying, a priori, adaptations that may come to be needed. In the final section, I discuss implications of the a priori adaptation planning approach for the fidelity-adaptation trade-off, past criticism of logic models as overly fixed and linear, potential research and evaluation questions, the development of more detailed views of programs in evaluation theory and training, and possible resistance to adaptation planning. Discussion also considers the potential future of program adaptations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Conducting cross-cultural qualitative interviews with mainland Chinese participants during COVID: Lessons from the field

The COVID-19 global pandemic has had a significant impact on researchers as the normal and expected difficulties of research are exacerbated as education and our way of life has drastically changed. This research note is a reflective narrative of the author's experience transitioning from face-to-face to online interviews in light of social distancing and global travel restrictions. Through a descriptive analysis, this article details the numerous ethical, logistical, practical, and cultural issues the author confronted in preparation for qualitative cross-cultural online interview research through personal reflections, current events, and existing literature. The aim of this article is to highlight personal experience to better inform future research and encourage flexibility and reflexivity in research. It is hoped that this article can be of use to further develop cross-cultural qualitative methodology and expand upon the emerging field of literature surrounding videoconferencing qualitative research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Assemblage thinking in lockdown: An autoethnographic approach

Over the past year, COVID-19 and the restrictions imposed in its wake have meant that a range of research methodologies involving social contact could no longer be pursued. Whilst this time has been challenging, this article aims to showcase how it nonetheless presents opportunities for methodological innovation that can be carried forward into the future. Drawing upon an autoethnographic dissertation that sought to conceptualize the researcher's lived experience in Scotland's lockdown as an assemblage that was situated within, and intersected with, the wider "lockdown cultural assemblage," it proceeds chronologically from how the research began to inductively drawn findings on shifts to lived experience produced by the lockdown across five interrelated dimensions to lived experience: embodiment, spatiality, temporality, a changing vocabulary of sociality, and narratological environment and broader context. In recounting this journey, it demonstrates how assemblage theory can both benefit from, as well as transform, autoethnography as its primary methodological strategy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Applying the framework method to qualitative psychological research: Methodological overview and worked example

This article is presented in two parts. First, an overview of the Framework Method is given, a contemporary method of qualitative analysis for psychological research. The method's background, distinguishing features, seven steps of data analysis, and suitability to psychological research are discussed. Second, to demonstrate how the method can be applied to a psychological study, a worked example of the analytical steps is detailed. This article aims to (a) demonstrate the utility and appropriateness of the Framework Method for qualitative research in the psychological sciences and (b) support researchers who might consider using this method by providing a worked example to illustrate how this method can be utilized in psychological research. The Framework Method has been widely used in social and public policy-based research, and more recently, health research, but rarely in psychology. It differs from other qualitative approaches due to its emphasis on matrix-based data summary and display, which supports the systematic generation of themes. The Framework Method will be applied to data collected from participants in Australia. The study described in the worked example explored the impact of COVID-19 on parent-adolescent relationships. Across seven steps, the authors explain how data were analyzed, which are followed by a reflective discussion on the use of the method, including strengths and limitations. This article will provide a methodological overview and worked example of the Framework Method for the psychological sciences. It will support psychological researchers to better understand and consider adopting this method in their qualitative research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Informative initiatives as a useful tool to raise awareness of food waste. An application to higher education

PurposeBecause food waste is a serious problem today, society is currently aiming for more responsible consumption to minimize it, as defined in the 12th goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This study aims to examine whether an informative initiative can help to raise university students' awareness of food waste consequences.Design/methodology/approachThe initiative consisted of explaining the problem of food waste to students of two marketing subject modules within economics and business administration degrees and asking them to participate in an activity in which they analyzed their own behavior. To assess its impact, two questionnaires about the students' food waste behaviors were administered, before and after the initiative, adopting an experimental design.FindingsThe results show that the information and awareness activities were successful, because, after the initiative, the students were more aware about the food waste problem and its consequences and were more critical of their behavior regarding the management of leftovers at home.Research limitations/implicationsDespite some circumstances under which the study was conducted (the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown), the practical and social implications are relevant.Practical implicationsThis study offers some interesting practical implications for educational institutions that want to inform and train students in more responsible consumption behavior. It shows that an initiative in which students are involved, like collecting data about food waste, in their homes with a diary, and informative sessions can be useful to increase students' awareness of food waste to behave in a more sustainable way.Social implicationsThese findings may be of interest to academics for designing initiatives that try to train and educate young people in making more responsible personal and professional decisions.Originality/valueThis study analyzes the impact of an awareness-raising initiative about food waste in higher education, which is a relatively neglected topic in the literature.

Should we make predictions based on social simulations?

The general feeling is that no predictions can be made based on agent-based social simulations. The outcomes of social simulations are based on the behaviors of individuals and their interactions. Behavioral models are always incomplete and often, also incorrect with respect to real behavior and thus the outcomes of agent-based social simulations cannot be trusted as predictions. In this article, we argue that behavioral models do not have to be valid in all respects, but only in the essential aspects in order to be able to make useful predictions. Based on some case studies on the effectiveness of restrictions during the COVID-19 crisis, we show that what are essential aspects of a behavioral model that need to be valid depends on the specific situation that is simulated. The predictions that were needed for the COVID-19 crisis were made with an agent-based social simulation framework using a behavioral model based on needs. The predictions could indicate the relative increase or decrease of COVID-19 infections due to the introduction of a new restriction. It shows that useful predictions can be made based on social simulations, but that we have to be careful on what type of predictions to make. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Tea Culture Tourism Perception: A Study on the Harmony of Importance and Performance

Tea culture tourism is a product of the combination of agricultural tourism and ecotourism. After the COVID-19 period, this product is more and more popular. Tourism performance is an important index for measuring the development level of tourist destinations, and research on the influencing factors of tourism performance is an important way to promote the high-quality development of tea culture tourism. Using the tea tourism town of Wushan as a case study, 452 valid questionnaires were used as research data, and exploratory factor analysis, paired sample t-test and IPA analysis were applied. The results indicate that: (1) tourism performance is mainly divided into 5 dimensions and 22 specific indicators, including service quality, resource environment, tourism transportation, tourism-supporting facilities and tea tourism products;(2) there is a significant difference between the degree of importance and performance of visitors to each indicator, and the overall tourism performance of the case sites at an average level;(3) convenient service, professional service, business management, park traffic, parking conditions, environmental design, shopping environment, tea quality, and tea culture characteristics are potential advantageous factors, and ‘service with a smile', accessibility, trail layout, overall image, air quality, natural scenery, landscape vignettes, network communication, public toilets, sanitation facilities, tourist service centers, tea travel activities, and tourism souvenirs are areas in need of improvement. © 2023 by the authors.

Gratitude Journal as an Instrument to Increase the Level of Gratitude among Adolescent in Ambon during COVID-19

COVID-19, which has plagued the world since 2020, has brought changes in the order of human life globally, and ultimately has an impact on the psychological state of individuals, including teenagers. The aim of this study is to find the differences between students' gratitude score before and after the implementation of writing gratitude journal regularly. Participants on this study was 20 adolescents in Ambon City Maluku Indonesia, consists of 6 boys and 14 girls. The participants age was between 15-16 years old. Quantitative Method with experimental design used in this study. From the results, it was found that the significant value in the table paired samples correlations was 0.418, meaning that there are relationship between the results of the pre-test and post-test because the value was > sig. 0.05. Although the increase in the value of gratitude among adolescents in Ambon is not too large and increases their classification to be included in the criteria for groups that have sufficient gratitude scores, the important thing explained in implementing gratitude education actually lies in its aim to inspire students that it is important to be grateful in all circumstances. and it's not just about saying thank you or showing grateful behavior. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license.Copyright © 2022, Anka Publishers. All rights reserved.