Rethinking the External Space of Japanese Public Libraries from the Perspective of Urban Sustainability in a Post-Pandemic Era

In the post-pandemic era, cities are facing new demands and challenges. Both telecommuting and dense development require communities to provide more public space to meet people's psychological and physical needs. The insufficient space currently left in the city calls for stock development. The Japanese public libraries affected by COVID-19 are part of this stock. We aimed to determine and propose strategies for using the external space of libraries to enhance the sustainability of cities. Ultimately, we expect to achieve a synergy between public libraries and cities in terms of sustainability. We found that the most dominant element in the exterior space of Japanese public libraries is parking lots, which have the potential to be flexibly utilized in the post-pandemic era. We also summarized the current patterns of external space for public libraries in Japan. Finally, we proposed six strategies to enhance the sustainability of libraries and cities. These strategies can simultaneously enhance the sustainability of cities and public libraries from multiple perspectives, especially in the post-pandemic era. Our proposal will not only help to build or renew public libraries in the future, but also fills a gap in the urban perspective of Japanese public libraries and their external spaces.

Interdisciplinary Teaching Reform of Financial Engineering Majors Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Post-Pandemic Era

In the post-epidemic era, the labor market has become increasingly complex, making it even more crucial to incorporate sustainability into employment demand. As we enter the post-pandemic era, a globalization trend has become more apparent. It is crucial to modernize employability through educational reform in order to assist employees in enhancing their professional skills. This study began by analyzing the importance of financial engineering practice instruction and graduate employability in the post-epidemic era. Second, the study proposed the content and a plan for inter-disciplinary teaching reform to address talent cultivation needs based on labor market requirements. Third, a face-to-face survey and interview were conducted with students affected by changes in teaching, and the results were analyzed and summarized. On this basis, the impact of education reform was evaluated using both the expert scoring method and the analytic hierarchy approach. The results indicated that the suggested financial engineering teaching reform program improved the school's discipline strength, enrollment rate, employment rate, and competition awards, especially discipline strength. This research can be used to inform the teaching of financial engineering majors in various countries, assist job candidates in enhancing their professional skills, and build a formidable talent pool for the labor market.

Exploring actor-network theory in a volunteer tourism context: A delicate balance disrupted by COVID-19

Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork and using Actor-Network Theory (ANT), the authors trace the interactions of a primary actor and other agents within the context of the volunteer tourist experience at a children's home in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This paper has two key objectives;first to sketch the volunteer tourism reality as it is shaped by the actions of different actors, and second to showcase how this sensitively balanced ecosystem was significantly disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Staying true to the ANT approach and ‘following the actor' (Latour, 1993), the authors demonstrate how the volunteer tourist setting is relationally reproduced through the incessant alignment of different human and non-human actors and their sometimes conflicting interests and actions. By taking this radical approach, we reveal the need to reconsider the narrative that views all children in orphanages in the global South as victims and pawns of the ‘orphan industrial complex' and how the children's home in the study offers much-needed support to children and people that have no safety net. The study shows that these actors sometimes unknowingly become part of the network and serve a good cause while acting in pursuit of their own interests.

International Students' Perceptions towards Their Learning Experience in an International Network Seminar in Japan: During and Post the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck educational experience systems around the globe. This paper investigates and evaluates the student participants' perceptions who joined the international exchange seminar on global citizenship and peace held at a University in Hiroshima, Japan. Approximately seventy students and faculty members from nine to ten different universities from around the globe joined this summer program in August 2021 (online) and 2022 (face-to-face). This study is a mixed-method study. The first part consists of a quantitative analysis of BEVI data obtained from the students in the seminar before COVID-19 and after. The research concludes that there are no changes in the effects of what students learn. The second part consists of qualitative data. The data shows the perceptions of students of online teaching versus hybrid teaching. It compares the differences in participants' perceptions reported in students' feedback on the programs during and post-COVID-19. Our results confirm prominent differences exist in the students' perceptions of their learning experience during the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The findings indicate based on lessons learned post-pandemic, universities need to strive and define the meaning and purpose of international seminars, which enable students to experience a high level of intercultural social interaction online and face-to-face. As the world becomes more interconnected, virtual environments, such as the ones presented within the International Seminar in Hiroshima, Japan, are vital to facilitating intercultural teaching environments and the implications within this paper indicate that these virtual mediums can promote inclusion, leading to a more sustainable world.

Past, present, and post(?)-pandemic future: Instructional designers in higher education

At the onset of widespread COVID-19 in early 2020, institutions of higher education were abruptly faced with the need to rely on educational technology as a primary mode of teaching students, referred to as emergency remote teaching (ERT). Almost overnight, there was a corresponding and urgent need for instructional designer support and expertise. The realities of sudden, ubiquitous online educational delivery may have impacted the practice, practitioners, and future of instructional design in higher education. This dissertation is composed of three studies focused on instructional designers' experiences in higher education, before, during, and following the COVID-19- associated shift to ERT.With this dissertation as a whole and within each study individually, it is possible to begin to understand what it is like to be an instructional designer in higher education: what has changed for them since the height of the pandemic;what has not changed;and most importantly, what do they need as professionals and who can provide it for them?The first study is a literature review focused on identifying the roles, challenges, supports experienced by instructional designers in higher education as captured in scholarship from 2000-2020. The second study extends the body of research outlined in the first study by taking a participatory, qualitative approach to explore the challenges experienced by instructional designers during the COVID-19 pandemic and the supports they think can help them address these challenges. The third study presents a qualitative investigation focused on the future of instructional design in higher education as envisioned by instructional designers, including exploring their ideas of the agency they possess to influence that future. Together, the second and third studies aim to update and contextualize the findings of the first study in the current post-/pandemic era. These three studies, individually and together, illuminate instructional designers' experiences in higher education during what may ultimately prove to have been a tipping point for technology-supported education and the field of instructional design in general. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Urban Mobility in the Postpandemic Stage: A Comprehensive Investigation of a Variety of Cities in China

The global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected the urban mobility of nations around the world. The pandemic may even have a potentially lasting impact on travel behaviors during the post-pandemic stage. China has basically stopped the spread of COVID-19 and reopened the economy, providing an unprecedented environment for investigating post-pandemic travel behaviors. This study conducts multiple investigations to show the changes in travel behaviors in the post-pandemic stage, on the basis of empirical travel data in a variety of cities in China. Specifically, this study demonstrates the changes in road network travel speed in 57 case cities and the changes in subway ridership in 26 case cities. Comprehensive comparisons can indicate the potential modal share in the post-pandemic stage. Further, this study conducts a case analysis of Beijing, where the city has experienced two waves of COVID-19. The variations in travel speed in the road network of Beijing at different stages of the pandemic help reveal the public's responses towards the varying severity of the pandemic. Finally, a case study of the Yuhang district in Hangzhou is conducted to demonstrate the changes in traffic volume and vehicle travel distance amid the post-pandemic stage based on license plate recognition data. Results indicate a decline in subway trips in the post-pandemic stage among case cities. The vehicular traffic in cities with subways has recovered in peak hours on weekdays and has been even more congested than the pre-pandemic levels;whereas the vehicular traffic in cities without subways has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. This situation implies a potential modal shift from public transportation to private vehicular travel modes. Results also indicate that commuting traffic is sensitive to the severity of the pandemic. This may be because countermeasures, e.g., work-from-home and suspension of non-essential businesses, will be implemented if the pandemic restarts. The travel speed in non-peak hours and on non-workdays is higher than pre-pandemic levels, indicating that non-essential travel demand may be reduced and the public's vigilance towards the pandemic may continue to the post-pandemic stage. These findings can help improve policymaking strategies in the post-pandemic new normal. © 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Challenges and Opportunities: Dance Education in the Digital Era

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, dance education, which is heavily dependent on a face-to-face model, had to change and continue in a virtual environment. How did the rapid adoption of online technologies affect tertiary dance educators' teaching? More importantly, what were the practical ideas and effective tools/strategies learned to move dance scholarship and practice into a post-pandemic era? This study investigates nine tertiary dance educators from Europe, Oceania, North America, and Asia, who conducted online dance classes during the pandemic. This study has utilized multiple sources of data (images, videos, and writings) from dance educators to explore the challenges, benefits, and innovations in the context of virtual dance teaching. Dance educators have shared their views on teaching dance online: tools they have utilized as well as pros and cons with regards to different pedagogies and learning spaces. Findings indicate that the present online model will have a significant impact on future dance education. This article shares lessons and insights on tools, pedagogies, and strategies, which not only support dance education in a post-pandemic era but can also benefit other practice-based subjects at large. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Exploring the Role of Technology Application in Tourism Events, Festivals and Fairs in the United Arab Emirates: Strategies in the Post Pandemic Period

This chapter aims to explore the role of technology application in tourism events, festivals, and fairs in the The United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the post-pandemic period of COVID-19. The chapter specifically focuses on various technical Apps based on the latest technology that may affect tourism events, festivals, and fairs. Existing literature lacks the ubiquitous role of technology Apps in sustainable tourism development in collaboration with tourism festivals, events, and fairs. The study identifies how tourists are affected by technology application, revealing in particular an increased tourism development and how tourists are continually enthralled by and attracted to tourism festivals, events, and fairs due to the advancement of the latest technology application in tourism. In this chapter, the perspective of the UAE is brought into the discussion. The chapter reveals that technology application in tourism festivals, events, and fairs can ensure sustainable tourism development in the UAE, especially in the post-pandemic period of COVID-19. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Post-Pandemic Mental Health: Psychological Distress and Burnout Syndrome in Regular Basic Education Teachers

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of regular basic education teachers. Despite the fact that in recent months the number of infections has decreased significantly, the return to face-to-face classes is of great concern to teachers due to the adverse educational context they must face. In this sense, the objective of this study was to determine whether or not psychological distress is significantly related to burnout syndrome in regular basic education teachers upon their return to face-to-face classes. This research employed a quantitative approach, the design was non-experimental, and the type of study was descriptive–correlational and cross-sectional. In total, 184 teachers participated and responded using the Psychological Distress Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which are instruments with adequate psychometric properties. The results indicated that 40.7% of the teachers had a moderate level of psychological distress, and 45.1% also had a moderate level of burnout syndrome. Likewise, it was found that the Pearson's r correlation coefficient between the variables psychological distress and burnout syndrome was 0.752, and the p-value was below the level of significance (p < 0.05). It was concluded that there is a direct and significant relationship between psychological distress and burnout syndrome in regular basic education teachers upon their return to face-to-face classes. For this reason, it is suggested that the Ministry of Education should design policies that allow a reassessment of the work that teachers have been carrying out and that promote the implementation of preventive and corrective programs to improve their mental health. © 2023 by the authors.

Mental health in teachers of rural schools in the post-pandemic context

The COVID-19 pandemic caused reforms in the educational field, among which the migration from face-to-face education to the virtual modality stands out. However, in rural areas, this reform significantly affected the teaching-learning process, since many students did not have the accessibility and connectivity to continue learning during said context, which indicates that the educational crisis that existed before the pandemic has worsened and the gaps between urban and rural areas have deepened. However, this worrisome, discouraging and frustrating context from the return to face-to-face to the present would be generating the wear and tear of teachers' emotional resources and affecting fundamental aspects of their mental health, among which depression, anxiety and stress stand out. For this reason, it is necessary that the Ministry of Education and its decentralized instances implement and strengthen the services and strategies of care, prevention, protection, approach and recovery of the psychological well-being and quality of life of teachers, giving greater emphasis to those who work in areas rural areas, due to the multiple limitations and needs that historically exist in the aforementioned context.

An Empirical Analysis of the Dimension of Loyalty to Determine Customer Retention for E-Commerce

COVID-19 has fostered the growth and transformation of digital media in every aspect, importantly in the area of electronic commerce. During these days, many new practices inhabiting in human behaviour bring new norms for the marketers. Use of online shopping has increased incrementally due to the government advisory, changing consumer buying behaviour as well. An amalgamation of the old and new medium of selling goods and services are now bringing new business challenges post pandemic for the marketer, and customer retention is one of them. Henceforth, there is a dearth of studies addressing the impact of dimension of loyalty (behaviour/ attitude) on customer retention in online shopping platforms post pandemic. This study considers post pandemic as the context of research to determine the impact of behavioural and attitudinal loyalty on customer retention for the online shopping platforms. Further research also aims to determine whether the brand image plays a critical role in mediating the relationship between dimensions (Behavioural/ Attitudinal) of loyalty and customer retention for online shopping platforms or not? In the research, primary data represent the respondent from Delhi NCR. The author applied linear regression to validate the research idea. The findings indicate that attitudinal loyalty significantly enforces customer retention over behavioural loyalty. Also, brand image mediates the impact of attitudinal loyalty on retention. © 2023 SAGE Publications.

Optimization of Timetables on the Prague - Bratislava / Vienna and Rail Transport Route in the Post-Pandemic Period

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for public passenger transport has decreased significantly in many European countries since March 2020. Due to several measures and restrictions adopted, this decrease was particularly pronounced in international long-distance transport due to several restrictions and measures adopted. A significant decrease in demand could also be observed on the international rail transport route Bratislava / Vienna - Prague in the form of the decline in the number of transported passengers on this railway line. Therefore, it is very important and necessary to propose various measures to increase the demand and achieve a significant long-term increase in the number of passengers in long-distance rail transport not only on the mentioned transport route. This paper analyses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on passenger transport usage frequency and proposes solutions to improve the quality of the timetables. It deals with the long-term and systematic concept of international long-distance passenger rail transport on the Prague - Bratislava / Vienna and back in the post-pandemic period. For this purpose, specific scientific methods are selected, which can be applied in order to rationalize and optimize train timetables. © 2023 Milan Dedík et al.

Social presence, synchrony, and personalization: challenges of online education in the post-pandemic university

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a forced transition to the virtuality of face-to-face training proposals from universities. But what happened in those higher education careers that already had a distance modality? What lessons learned does the pandemic leave in the subjects that have already been developed online, mediated by digital technologies? In search of answers to these questions, a paradigmatic case study was completed: a distance career with a helping profile, accredited by a private Argentine university2. The research covered two phases: exploration and description, arriving at a categorization that dialogues with con-cepts of the theoretical framework. The data obtained reveals the installation of videoconference as a common practice in traditionally asynchronous spaces. The conclusions highlight the relationship of the categories: social presence and per-sonalization, with the situation of synchrony associated with presence. Everything seems to indicate that the return to normality does not constitute a return to the previous situation, but rather an opening to a transformative process that conso-lidates synchrony as a common practice in distance learning modality, and that causes -in terms of De Alba (2021)- a structural dislocation whose derivations must be mapped to broaden the understanding of the phenomenon.

The post-pandemic public transport crisis: a statistical analysis of travel habits in Sicily, Italy

The mobility sector accounts for about 10% of Italy's GDP, where the role of local Public Transport (PT) is crucial. Generally, PT use can limit the negative environmental impacts. However, with the advent of the recent pandemic, the local PT demand and mobility rate in Italy has decreased significantly, particularly during the lockdown period. Further restrictions were recently implemented (October - December 2021) on PT and on gathering areas to reduce potential contagion from virus variants. Such an uncertain situation has resulted in an epoch-making change in travel habits due to both the relevant restrictions for containing contagions (e.g., quotas of seats on-board, sanitization, use of masks) and the consequent psychosocial effects (e.g., anxiety, fear, and stress perceived by users when travelling). The present research assesses the PT use habits in the different pandemic phases. The data were collected from a sample of regular PT users in Sicily, Italy. The correlation analysis helped uncover significant factors responsible for influencing travel habits. The statistical analysis further revealed that the users travel habits have certainly changed during all the pandemic phases. The results lay the foundations for planning transport services and improving post-pandemic mobility in the examined context. © 2023 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.

The Key Role of Social Movements in Protecting the Health of People and the Planet Comment on "Ensuring Global Health Equity in a Post-pandemic Economy"

In his recent article, titled "Ensuring Global Health Equity in a Post-pandemic Economy," Ronald Labonte addresses a key challenge the world is facing, trying to 'build back' after the global crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He explores and critically examines different policy options, from a more inclusive 'stakeholder model' of capitalism, to a greater role of states in shaping markets and investing in the protection of health and the environment, to more radical options that propose to reframe the capitalist mantra of growth and look at different ways to value and center our societies around what really matters most to protect life. Social movements are key players in such transformation, however the political space they move in is progressively shrinking.

The Contribution of Self-Efficacy and Achievement Motivation on The SPIRIT Characters Building for The Students

This paper aimed to show how much Self-efficacy and Achievement Motivation contribute to the formation of SPIRIT character for the students in the post-covid-19 pandemic era when the education process is still ongoing with a combined method of online and offline learning. This research used quantitative methods and literature studies. The results of this research showed that self-efficacy and achievement motivation had not significance contribution to the SPIRIT characters building for the students. The other variables that are not discussed even have a much larger contribution. So it is interested to investigate this result. Even so, it does not mean that students do not need to pay attention to self-efficacy and achievement motivation, because even though they are small, they still need to be owned, so that the SPIRIT characters can be further developed in the post-covid-19 pandemic era. © 2022 ACM.

Post-pandemic Urban World: Rethinking Urban Policies for Selected Indian Cities

With ninety percent of COVID-19 reported cases from urban areas, the urban world became an epicenter of the pandemic. A technology-driven approach was followed by Chinese cities had managed to keep the transmission in control. However, in Western countries, a human-driven approach was followed to combat the pandemic. The cities of global south were relatively more challenged in terms of technology as well as human-driven approaches. Likewise Indian cities too faced additional problems like inadequate infrastructure facilities. The pandemic aftermath did lay bare the disparities among different population groups, particularly the vulnerable ones who had been dually hit by low income as well as weak social and economic coverage. Though a multitude of research has been done on the general impact of pandemic, a limited number of research outpourings were observed on the impact of pandemic on the ‘third space'. As a critical component of social distancing all the ‘communal hangout spots' like park, local markets and gyms were forced to shut down during a pandemic which critically altered the social infrastructure. The study aimed to understand of the impact of pandemics on urban life, with a focus on the ‘third spaces', in the selected Indian cities. The methodology was integrated research review which included research output from popularly used database of scientific articles as well as government reports, documents, etc. This chapter questions how these spaces are perceived and how the perception changed during the outbreak. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Emerging Key Elements of a Business Model for Sustaining the Cultural and Creative Industries in the Post-Pandemic Era

In this article, the challenges that cultural and creative industry (CCI) firms face in forming sustainable business models—issues heightened by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the evolving consumer patterns that it has triggered—are addressed. The goal of this study was to identify a set of unique key elements crucial for the construction of a business model that aligns with the distinct characteristics of CCIs. To achieve this goal, an in-depth, long-term study using semi-structured interviews with proprietors in Eastern Taiwan was conducted. This region is home to unique, small-scale cultural and creative businesses and represents less than 5% of Taiwan's population. The semi-structured, in-depth interviews served as the data collection method, while content analysis was used for data interpretation. This approach allowed the current study to encapsulate a set of key elements that could inform the creation of a business model for CCI firms. The insights gathered by the study provide a robust framework for the development of sustainable CCI business models, offering valuable guidance for both existing businesses seeking to adapt and grow and new entrepreneurs entering the industry. This research also aims to stimulate further scholarly debate on the importance of a tailored, multidisciplinary business model for CCIs, given their unique needs and characteristics.

Navigating the aftermath of the pandemic: exploring school challenges and changes in Bangladesh

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education systems worldwide, and as we navigate the post-pandemic period, schools have been predicted to face diverse challenges. Specially, private schools in rural areas of developing countries often operate on small budgets and rely heavily on student fees to sustain their operations. Their challenges are supposed to be bigger. This study aimed to explore the subjective experiences of 14 entrepreneurs-cum-principals (ECPs) from 14 private kindergarten schools in rural Bangladesh, in terms of the post-pandemic school challenges they faced and strategies to overcome them. The study utilised a qualitative approach employing phenomenological inquiry within an interpretivist paradigm. Data were collected through participant observation notes, school documents, and semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed following Auerbach and Silverstein's coding methods, resulting in themes emerging regarding the challenges the ECPs faced and the strategies they adopted to overcome them. The findings are discussed, and recommendations are made. © 2023 ASPE.