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This article addresses the role of language and quality translation in museum communication. The production of texts in museums is increasingly demanding as institutions are asked to rethink audience-oriented actions in co-design and diversity. This study is based on data provided by audio guides made available online to engage the public and provide free educational materials, something especially relevant in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis indicates that quality materials are crucial in understanding the exhibits and that accessibility may profit from multilingualism. We argue that tailoring texts can improve translation quality and provide more stimulating materials to diverse audiences.
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Purpose: This study aims to explore how the local tour guides (LTGs) operate through the sharing economy platform. This study explores how LTGs have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions using self-efficacy and other resources to improve resilience and performance. This study also delineates the working mechanisms of peer-to-peer (P2P) platform-enabled, dynamic capability building processes, in the tourism sharing economy. Design/methodology/approach: This research adopted an interpretive approach to understand the focal phenomenon using two types of data. A total of 40 semi-structured interviews with LTGs and 26,478 online tourist reviews from tour guide service participants' before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were used. Findings: The findings of this study revealed that LTGs used sharing economy platforms to arrange flexible tour guide services. Resilience emerged through dynamic capability that addressed contextual factors in real time. LTGs coordinated different resources and customers during a time of uncertainty. Different sources of self-efficacy and types of dynamic capability were identified. The interplay between LTGs' self-efficacy and dynamic capability was also delineated. Practical implications: The findings provide guidance for LTGs on P2P platforms and other sharing economy sectors on how diverse resources enabled by the sharing economy can enhance resilience during times of uncertainty. LTGs that engage with contextual information and are dynamic can adopt itineraries and services that will benefit tourists and their business. Originality/value: This study contributes to the sharing economy literature by theorizing the working flow that enables LTGs to exert self-efficacy and leverage dynamic capability on P2P platforms. This study also contributes by linking resilience to contextual factors in real time. The outcomes provide guidance for LTGs to remain competitive and establish resilience in uncertain environments.
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To overcome the challenges presented by COVID-19, the tourism sector has introduced online tours to the market, in which tour guides introduce product via video conferencing tools. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing people's behavioral intentions to consume this new product. For this study, we conducted a web-based questionnaire survey in Japan in December 2020. The data analysis results confirm that positive emotions and telepresence positively influence people's intention to participate in online tours. Additionally, we identified that travel constraints did not directly influence participation intention. Alternatively, they have an indirect influence through interactions with other factors. Specifically, structural constraints caused by external factors, such as lack of time, amplified the effect of authenticity, but attenuated the effect of telepresence. In addition, interpersonal constraints, such as incompatibility of schedules with companions, were found to increase the effect of telepresence, but weaken the effect of authenticity. Furthermore, the analysis results suggested that while daily travel constraints indicated a significant mediation influence on tourists' participation intention, COVID-19 constraints indicated no significant influence for either direct or indirect effects. The findings of this study are beneficial in designing online travel experiences that can benefit tourists under travel constraints in the future.
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This article enquires how ‘spatial hinges' between author Philip Pullman's series The Book of Dust and different sites are unexpected and elusive, but may opened by mindfulness. Natalie Goldberg's mindful writing practice techniques are used as an interpretative instrument to measure this hinging together of parallel worlds. The research data amalgamates interviews with Oxford fantasy tour guides conducted before COVID 19 restrictions with writing sprints about Lockdown walks in both a local park and on a guided tour of ‘Philip Pullman's Oxford'. The data reveals how a secret commonwealth of elves and fairies infuse the parks with otherworldly, unexpected and exaggerated bucolic awakenings and intersubjectivity, exposing ancient mythical places, including a holloway. On a tour of Oxford, the imaginative storytelling techniques of the guide include impromptu flights of fancy and tilted perspectives that contribute to an atmosphere of unlikeliness, suggestive of Pullman's texts. In addition, an experience of getting lost or ‘de-touring', leads to unexpected encounters with the affective mystical presence of Pullman's novels. The findings conclude that mindfulness may create a state of attunement to the reverberations of the opening of spatial hinges, allowing stories to reveal themselves spontaneously.
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E-learning has increased through the years in MLIS programs, a trend that has been intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some students choose to take online classes;others have been required to do so by the pandemic. This raises the question: Are students properly prepared to learn online? For this study, researchers created an E-Learning Guide with resources and tips for e-learning. Several sessions were offered during orientation for incoming graduate students in a Library and Information Science program in the northeast United States. During these sessions, the researchers reviewed the E-Learning Guide. Students were surveyed immediately after the sessions and at the end of the semester to learn what, if any, resources were useful. Based on the results, students appreciated having a synchronous session wherein the researchers reviewed the E-Learning Guide, having specific resources to use for e-learning, and having access to a guide with resources for e-learning.
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In 2022, the image governs daily life. The Image guides navigation, the sharing of affections, political geography, and the evolution of knowledge in the most varied scientific areas. In this article, we will try to reflect on the positioning of the subject before digital technology and on how we can think about the real at this moment in history. In practical terms, the real has imposed itself in the last three years in which the pandemic by COVID-19 made us rethink the bases of our existence. Its relationship with image expressions, like indexicality, mimicry or visibility, seems obvious. However, the complexity of the image brought by digital technologies that capture, edit and or construct in a participative way in realtime, implies that expressions like illusion, participation, simulation or creativity;become much more pertinent to the discussion of the image and the positioning of the subject. By dislocating displacing reality,replacing it, through the manipulative capacity offered by the technology that is essentially plasma through computer graphics and exponentiated in portable devices, the image lost one of the fundamental characteristics of its essence as testimony, gaining an interactive synaesthetic dimension and enhancing the creativity of the users fruiters. © 2022 IEEE.
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This article reports findings from a study on the effect of the adjustments or 'easements' that were made to the 2014 Care Act when measures to manage the impact of COVID-19 were introduced in England in 2020. Only eight local authorities (LAs) implemented the changes permitted. The experiences of five are explored in this article. Data were collected in 2021 through interviews with Directors of Adult Social Services and other senior managers in these LAs and analysed using a thematic approach. Participants referred to the challenges under which they were working pre-pandemic, including resource pressures and problems recruiting and retaining staff. Despite the conditions attached to adopting easements these LAs had done so because of the uncertainties they were facing. All ceased to use them within a short time because they could manage without them. They had been shocked by the concerted opposition to easements and the time necessitated in responding to this. They contrasted their experiences with the apparent ease with which NHS colleagues had been able to change their practices. The experiences of these LAs may contribute to planning for the continuity of social care in any future emergency.
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This study aims to 1) study the potential of the accommodation business in Phu Kradueng district, Loei province, and 2) to propose guidelines for the development of the accommodation business to promote tourism in the New Normal era for Phu Kradueng district, Loei province. The research methodology used mixed-methods research consisting of;quantitative data collected by questionnaires from 400 guests/tourists who stayed in Phu Kradueng district, Loei province, and qualitative data collected through interviews from the government sectors, private sectors, and people in Phu Kradueng district, Loei province. The results of the study found that 1) the current situation of the potential of the accommodation business in Phu Kradueng district, Loei province consists of;a lack of public relations, reservations and online payments, lack of application of computer systems to manage the accommodation business, lack of coordination with nearby attractions, and lack of tour guides and information on current interesting tourist activities. There is local waste and environmental management system, the quality of life is improved and the distribution of income to the local people by promoting and supporting the employment of local people, local enterprises are promoted and supported to use existing resources for sustainability, and arts, traditions, culture and local sports are preserved. 2) Guidelines for the development of accommodation business to promote tourism in the New Normal era for Phu Kradueng district, Loei province consisting of;the project's development of facilities, technology, digital marketing, safety, cleanliness, adoption of local identity, and Activities to connect the local way of life.
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Introduction. In the 21st century, the struggle to achieve truly inclusive education continues. The explosion of the pandemic has only served to highlight the great inequalities that exist in the different education systems. Method. In this starting scenario, a qualitative study has been conducted with the aim of reviewing the guidelines and reports offered in the literature to support educational centres on their path towards inclusion in times of pandemic. The article provides content analysis of a total of 17 documents that constitute the first sources of knowledge on this topic (published in Spanish and English, and contextualised in the educational stages from Early Childhood Education to Higher Education). This has made possible the identification of the main challenges facing the inclusive education model, the key priorities/areas for inclusion and the proposed guidelines to address this current period of crisis from an inclusive educational and social response. Results. The results point to overcoming the digital divide, the continuity of learning, the application of new methodologies, the improvement of teacher training in inclusive education and socioemotional support, among others, as the major bulwarks on which to fortify the post-COVID school. Discussion. The conclusions note the opportunity provided by the pandemic to make another (fairer and more inclusive) education possible. © 2023, Universidad Compultense Madrid. All rights reserved.
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Z402 Youth Theatre Tour was designed from a critical performative pedagogical positioning (Weltsek, 2019). Here learning emerges from how individuals and communities perform their emergent identities as they cross literal and metaphorical socio-cultural borders. Z402 resulted in a 100% student created new play, parallel workshop, and study guide. This new play was based solely upon the students' perspectives, voices, and ways of being. The design used devised theatre, the use of improvisation and games, to create a new play versus a solely written approach. The new play dealt with healing in the face of suicidal thoughts. The course addressed four Indiana educational licensing requirements, student technical, artistic, educational, and class practicum experiences. In March 2020, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the University instituted obligatory Online instruction. Students redesigned their stage play into a virtual experience using Zoom and integrated their emotional struggles due to pandemic isolation. The live play, slated for three schools, is now accessible to a large virtual audience.
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The COVID-19 pandemic exposed students to increased social-emotional stressors and instigated an emergency pivot to online teaching and learning. In doing so, it highlighted the need for effective social-emotional learning (SEL) programming in online learning environments. In response, this study explored how to adapt a widely used, traditional, school-based SEL program for online delivery. This small study describes a partnership between SEL researchers and educators that identified lesson components that were problematic for online delivery, designed potential online adaptations, and tested the feasibility of those online adaptations in an online learning context. Lesson review data, observational data from lesson rehearsals, as well as interview data were collected from teachers and counselors who teach SEL in schools across the US. Descriptive and thematic coding of the qualitative data indicated teacher-reported online delivery issues fell into six major categories: 1) partner work, 2) small-group work, 3) whole-class discussions, 4) role-playing, 5) physical movement, and 6) student handouts. For each of these six categories, at least five adaptation options were generated, allowing teachers choice and variety as well as developmental attunement when adapting instructional practices for online delivery. Taken together, the results of this study culminated in the creation of a toolbox of online adaptations that teachers can use when converting common instructional practices from face-to-face teaching to online, distance teaching. This study contributes to the underdeveloped research literature on online SEL teaching and learning by providing recommendations that are teacher-generated and tested, applicable to other SEL and academic programs, and practical for educators to implement.
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Introduction. In the 21st century, the struggle to achieve truly inclusive education continues. The explosion of the pandemic has only served to highlight the great inequalities that exist in the different education systems. Method. In this starting scenario, a qualitative study has been conducted with the aim of reviewing the guidelines and reports offered in the literature to support educational centres on their path towards inclusion in times of pandemic. The article provides content analysis of a total of 17 documents that constitute the first sources of knowledge on this topic (published in Spanish and English, and contextualised in the educational stages from Early Childhood Education to Higher Education). This has made possible the identification of the main challenges facing the inclusive education model, the key priorities/areas for inclusion and the proposed guidelines to address this current period of crisis from an inclusive educational and social response. Results. The results point to overcoming the digital divide, the continuity of learning, the application of new methodologies, the improvement of teacher training in inclusive education and socioemotional support, among others, as the major bulwarks on which to fortify the post-COVID school. Discussion. The conclusions note the opportunity provided by the pandemic to make another (fairer and more inclusive) education possible. © 2023, Universidad Compultense Madrid. All rights reserved.
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In this study, the authors analyzed 147 AAHSL member libraries' COVID-19 research guides to determine the volume and origin of links included. Through stratified sampling based on total enrollment of health sciences academic institutions, 51 eligible AASHL library websites were selected for inclusion in the study. Content from COVID-19 research guides was analyzed, and the origin of each link was categorized. Most AAHSL libraries have at least one COVID-19 research guide, while some have two or more. A total of 8,848 links within examined research guides were visited. Links to academic institutions including universities' own internal links were most common while news outlets, social media, and international government were linked least. Regarding individual organizations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)were most frequently linked. The overwhelming majority of sampled health sciences libraries use research guides to share COVID-19 information with their users. It is necessary to further investigate how libraries can optimize research guides to benefit their users. These results and conclusions reveal information resource patterns in research guides at health sciences academic libraries and are consistent with those reached by researchers investigating academic libraries' research guides in 2020.
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COVID-19 , Libraries, Medical , Social Media , HumansABSTRACT
Under the circumstance of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, enhancing human’s awareness of self-protection is one practical method to slow down the epidemic. In this study, we utilize mobile sensing to track human activity and guide human’s epidemic prevention behavior by gamified feedback techniques by our developed application. Virtually, human’s self-protection awareness is affected by many factors and the measures to enhance people’s self-protection behavior against the epidemic COVID-19 has always been an unresolved issue. In order to search for factors that influence human’s self-protection behavior, we analyzed the relationships between various human activities and the percentage complete of human’s self-protection behavior and we have extracted some more general conclusions from the results. Based on our data analysis results, we also made some proposals to enhance self-protection behavior. Meanwhile, our study illustrates the effectiveness of the method that analyzes human self-protection behavior through mobile sensing. Our study also validates the effectiveness of persuasive technology on human’s self-protection behavior against the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore we advocate enhancing human’s self-protection awareness through external intervention and guidance by smart device. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Background: Tourists are at risk of experiencing health problems during their travel. However, even though tour guides have the potential to become travel health promoters, their participation has not been optimal. Objective: This study aims to develop a comprehensive travel health education model to help tour guides improve health information delivery to tourists. Methods: This is an exploratory sequential mixed methods research. The first phase consisted of a qualitative study with an informed grounded theory design. In-depth interviews were carried out with tour guides from all language divisions and policymakers of the Indonesian Tour Guide Association Bali Branch or Himpunan Pramuwisata Indonesia Daerah Bali (HPI Bali). The interview guidelines were developed based on the theory of planned behavior and identity theory. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically. In the interim phase, a travel health education model and questionnaire were developed based on the qualitative findings. The initial model and its instruments were finetuned after consultation with travel medicine and health promotion experts. Furthermore, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were tested on 30 tour guides. The second phase consisted of a quantitative study with a randomized pretest-posttest control group design. A total of 76 tour guides in the intervention group received comprehensive travel health education, while 76 in the control group received no specific intervention. Outcome variables (ie, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, actual behavioral control, role identity, and behavioral intention) were measured at baseline (T0), after the online training (T1), before information sharing via WhatsApp (T2), a month after the start of the WhatsApp intervention (T3), and at the end of the WhatsApp intervention (T4). The mean difference of each outcome variable before and after the intervention will be compared between the intervention and control groups. Thereafter, the quantitative and qualitative findings will be integrated into a joint display. Results: The qualitative phase was conducted through in-depth interviews with 21 informants who included tour guides and policymakers from HPI Bali from May to June 2021. The education model, educational materials, and questionnaire were developed based on the qualitative findings and consultation with experts. The education model consists of online training and information sharing through WhatsApp and was trialed with tour guides from November 2021 to February 2022. As of April 2022, this study is in the quantitative data analysis stage. Conclusions: A travel health education model was developed based on qualitative findings and consultation with experts. The model was tested with tour guides, and a series of self-administered questionnaires were completed. This study is in the quantitative data analysis stage and will continue by integrating qualitative and quantitative findings into a joint display. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04961983;https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04961983
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ObjectivesCOVID-19 has prompted the reconfiguration of hospital services and medical workforces in countries across the world, bringing significant transformations to the work environments of hospital doctors. Before the pandemic, the working conditions of hospital doctors in Ireland were characterised by understaffing, overload, long hours and work–life conflict. As working conditions can affect staff well-being, workforce retention and patient outcomes, the objective of this study was to analyse how the pandemic and health system response impacted junior hospital doctors’ working conditions during the first wave of COVID-19 in Ireland.Methods and analysisUsing a qualitative study design, the article draws on semi-structured interviews with 30 junior hospital doctors. Informed by an abductive approach that draws iteratively on existing literature and empirical data to explain unexpected observations, data were analysed using inductive and deductive coding techniques to identify the key themes reflecting the experiences of working in Irish hospitals during the first wave of COVID-19. We use the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research to present this research.ResultsOur analysis generated three themes which demonstrate how COVID-19 prompted changes in medical staffing which in turn enhanced interviewees’ work environments. First, interviewees felt there were more doctors staffing the hospital wards during the first wave of the pandemic. Second, this had positive implications for a range of factors important to their experience of work, including the ability to take sick leave, workplace relationships, collective workplace morale, access to senior clinical support and the speed of clinical decision-making. Third, interviewees noted how it took a pandemic for these improvements to occur and cautioned against a return to pre-pandemic medical staffing levels, which had negatively impacted their working conditions and well-being.ConclusionsInterviewees’ experience of the first wave of COVID-19 illustrates how enhanced levels of medical staffing can improve junior hospital doctors’ working conditions. Given the pervasive impact of staffing on the quality of interviewees’ work experience, perhaps it is time to consider medical staffing standards as a vital job resource for hospital doctors and a key policy lever to enhance medical workforce retention. In a global context of sustained COVID-19 demands, pressures from delayed care and international health worker shortages, understanding frontline experiences and identifying strategies to improve them are vital to the development of more sustainable work practices and to improve doctor retention.
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The objective of the article is to analyze the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically, in the tourist sector of the cities of Bodoquena, Bonito and Jardim, in Mato Grosso do Sul, through data collection in official agencies and application of questionnaires and interviews together with tour guides, businessmen in the tourism sector and representatives of government agencies. The quali-quantitative data were systematized in tables and the analyzes considered the official data and the results of the questionnaire. The tourism sector in the analyzed period closed for three months, causing losses for workers who remained without income during this period, even though some have carried out different activities to obtain some income. It was found that tourism workers and tourist companies did not receive direct support from public agencies during the closing period of activities. In the return of activities, the sector noticed a change in the visitor profile with the increase in the participation of tourists from cities in the state itself. It is also noticeable the appreciation of nature destinations, with isolated accommodation, private access to elements of nature such as rivers and forest areas.
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COVID-19 has struck the tourism industry and its professions with unprecedented severity. The tour guides are among the most impacted group in the industry, with many now facing the dilemma of whether to remain guides or switch to other professions. This study aims to identify the mitigators that keep tour guides from switching to other professions. It also provides insights regarding their current situation and how they cope with the unexpected adversity. Data are mainly collected via in-depth interviews in Macao and analyzed thematically. The findings contribute to the scholarly knowledge of occupational commitment via the lens of mitigating factors.
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Studies point that smartphones show an important role in the improvement of museum visitors experience. Mobile devices have become the main tool available for travellers, which enables the diffusion of augmented reality solutions through this channel. Based on that, a virtual guide prototype was developed to enhance the museum visitors experience inside a famous attraction from Foz do Iguaçu, the Ecomuseu, constructed with the objective to show the work of Itaipu's hydroelectric power plant and the history regarding the region occupied by its reservoir. The developed application inserts virtual elements in different locations of the museum. Whenever such elements are "captured", they tell the visitor information about what is being exhibited so the perception of the visitor and knowledge absorption can be improved. To validate the proposed solution, we tested the app with 15 different users. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we adapted the app and performed the evaluation over the virtual tour of the same museum, which is available online. For the sake of our knowledge, this is the first time an augmented reality application is evaluated over a virtual representation of a museum. Despite the difficulties imposed by the current context, the feedback from the tested users was very positive. © 2021 ACM.
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This article studies the role of Thai guides in protecting marine and coastal environment against impacts from international tourism, in the Andaman Ocean, Thailand. This is a qualitative study with in-depth interviews of 26 licensed guides that were selected by using purposive and snowball sampling. Quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, and qualitative data from in-depth interviews and field notes were analyzed with qualitative data analysis. The results show that behaviors affecting marine and coastal environment mostly involve chasing and catching beautiful fish and/or marine animals (76.9%), feeding fish (73.1%), and collecting beautiful stones, rare shells, and/or coral reefs (73.1%). Guides act in the roles of educator, psychologist, entertainer, ambassador, and servant, and protect against impacts to the extent that they can. While some impacts can be avoided, others remain out of scope and control of the guides. © 2021 Editura Universitatii din Oradea. All rights reserved.