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Purpose: This paper aim to analyse the motives behind the commitment of nurses to their profession despite their intense job duties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical sample comprises of 35 semi-structured interviews with public sector hospital nurses in under-researched contexts of Egypt and Peru. Findings: Three types of motives were found to play a critical role in nurses' commitment to their profession despite the difficulties associated with extreme work conditions. These factors include cultural (religious values, governmental coercion), contextual (limited education, organisational support) and personal (good nurse identity, submissive nature) dimensions. Originality/value: This paper is one of the pioneering works to link existing literature streams on career commitment, extreme jobs, extreme context and management under disruptions (particularly COVID-19) by analysing these aspects in the under-researched Peruvian and Egyptian contexts. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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The aim of the article is to show the role of digital skills and literacy as a consequence of the processes of digitalization, but also as a prerequisite for conducting online learning in educational systems. The different dimensions of digitalization and the formation of digital skills by people of different ages and professions are analysed. The methodology is based on various surveys, including an online survey conducted by the authors of the article among the Bulgarian population on the state of digitalization and online learning. An important place in the study is occupied by online education in secondary and higher education in the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Views and assessments of the participants in the learning process and their readiness for mobile learning are shown. The main conclusion of the article is that in Bulgarian society there is a relatively good availability of digital skills, which are important for modern processes. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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COVID-19 is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that attacks the respiratory tract. On August 14th, 2021, 653,741 persons had been proven positive for COVID-19. The number of patients tends to increase as the number of COVID-19 cases grows. The more infected people, the more cases of COVID-19 there will be. The Bed Occupancy Ratio (BOR) in West Java reached an all-time high of 91.6 percent in June 2021, far exceeding the WHO recommendation of 60 percent, before gradually declining to 30.69 percent in August. Because of the new cases mentioned, the rate of spread of COVID-19 in West Java, the forecast of new cases is very strategic. The number of new cases in this study was predicted using a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP). The data used in this study were sourced from the COVID-19 Task Force. The data is the number of positive and new cases from 34 provinces in Indonesia from March 2nd, 2020, to August 14th, 2021. The results of the evaluation using test data on the number of active cases in the last 19 weeks, namely April 10th - August 14th, 2021, The MLP is accurate in forecasting the number of new cases 18 times for both forecast periods with APE < 15%, with the value MAPE, RMSE and MAE obtained were 5.52%, 1157,61, and 706.811. The results of this study can be helpful for the government as a reference in conditioning hospital bed capacity to deal with active COVID-19 cases in West Java in the next two weeks so that the hospital rejects no COVID-19 patients because the hospital is full. (c) 2022 by the authors;licensee Growing Science, Canada.
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This study investigates the interconnection among several commodities in the advent of two well-known phenomena: the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic. We use a daily return series for selected commodities: three base metals (copper, zinc, and lead), two benchmark crude oils (WTI and Brent), and gold. Three different methods have been considered to study interconnection: Multifractality, Network theory, and Wavelet coherences. By applying Detrending Moving-average Cross-correlation Analysis (DMCA) method, we witnessed an increase in cross-correlation in the higher time windows in most time series. Generally, we observe that the benchmark crude oils have the highest relationships, and then, in the following positions, we have the dependency among base metals (copper, lead, and zinc) and between the base metals and the crude oils. In the context of the Wavelet analysis, we notice that the significant fluctuations and changes in the extent of interconnections among data could be traced when the two crises occurred, particularly between October 2018 and April 2021, and in the frequency range of 4-128 days. This phenomenon indicates the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in creating a volatile situation in the commodity markets. The findings of this study have significant implications for investors, academic researchers, and policymakers.
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In the current global pandemic, actions are taken to prevent Covid-19 spread, residents are embracing small-scale gardening activities in their homes;especially in low to middle income communities, 3rd world countries as in Africa, depending on individual activities.Despite that, there is a lack provided by literature review about home gardening, the paper then shifts to the exploration of the gender influence on home gardening, poses questions;how do gender roles influence home gardening habits, and how would such activities potentially benefit the gardeners, and are the benefits equally distributed or are they potentially skewed to one gender over the other?Using an imperical quantitative approach through a survey, the results imply hypotheses and test them using WarpPLS, to verify their validity.This paper highlight effects on the connection between gender, gardening activities, and their potential benefits. The findings can help urban authorities to create a fair and inclusive environment. CO 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/4.0/).
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Smart cities carry the burden of utilizing technologies to support city life during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. More than ever, true smartness needs to address the broader health implications of the shared urban space. Especially highly populated cities tend to suffer more from the consequences of Covid-19 than rural areas. Without a doubt, the pandemic has revealed particular weaknesses of the existing urban environment, in urban space and population demographics, so evident of unprepared city infrastructure systems. The traditional design of public space has created inequalities, and such space design serves the needs of a commercialized urban context and enables public gatherings or private/commercial access. The sudden behavioral shift needed in cities means that smart solutions are also needed for the health and well-being of city populations. This paper examines the impact in the urban environments for London, Manchester, Newcastle, and Liverpool. This paper maps the implications of physical distancing due to Covid-19 using cases studies in three main areas: i) roads, ii) parks, and iii) retail. A matrix of urban, social, and health consequences is suggested, which will shape urban policy. It will focus on terms of access and use of urban space during the pandemic and beyond. The expected outcome of this research is to map some of the metropolitan area to demonstrate restrictions, changes in sharing behavior, and gamification opportunities of urban space. The expected outcomes will provide evidence-based scenarios for gamification technologies (for example, wayfinding, location, and character-based) of the challenged urban space in roads, parks, and retail to support change in future policy. The paper will discuss the implications of behavior change and consider so-called "gamification” practices in the urban space, using examples of social distancing, movement tracing, and techniques that add to a truly smart city. Overall, the aim is to demonstrate the spatial constraints of Covid-19;social distancing as the main challenge and to explore how the design of urban form and smart systems will provide for a healthy and resilient urban environment. This research addresses good urban health and a playful approach to the new way of urban living. © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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Facebook has become an essential tool for hospices in their engagement with their communities online, and during the COVID-19 pandemic it became a lifeline to many hospices as a way to continue communicating with supporters. Yet, there is a severe lack of academic research into how hospices can use the tool to successfully generate engagement. This piece of research aims to fill this gap and create practical recommendations by comparing Facebook posts curated by hospices of different sizes who use the same technique with different levels of interaction. This highlights that the focus of research needs to move away from what content charities are creating and look at how they are creating it.
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Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, visitors' worries about health and safety in tourist destinations have become paramount. Consequently, this research aims to evaluate the impact of health and safety considerations on visitors' satisfaction. It also examines the influence of health consciousness and satisfaction on visitors' willingness toward robot-delivered tourism and hospitality services usage and the impact of destination healthcare system and satisfaction on loyalty intentions. Applying a quantitative-based methodology, 650 responses were collected from domestic tourists visiting Egyptian tourism destinations using multiple non-probability sampling techniques. Using PLS-SEM, the results articulated that emotional well-being, perceived safety, and perceived green image positively impacted visitors' satisfaction, which in turn, positively affected their willingness toward service robot's usage and loyalty. Tourists' health consciousness also positively affected their satisfaction and intentions to use robot-delivered services. Additionally, destination healthcare system significantly influenced visitors' satisfaction and loyalty intentions. Theoretical and managerial contributions as well as future research are outlined.
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The SARS-CoV-2 delta variant (B.1.617.2) appeared for the first time in December 2020 and later spread worldwide. Currently available vaccines are not so efficacious in curbing the viral pathogenesis of the delta strain of COVID; therefore, the development of a safe and effective vaccine is required. In the present study, we envisaged molecular patterns in the structural genes' spike, nucleoprotein, membrane, and envelope of the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant. The study was based on determining compositional features, dinucleotide odds ratio, synonymous codon usage, positive and negative codon contexts, rare codons, and insight into relatedness between the human host isoacceptor tRNA and preferred codons from the structural genes. We found specific patterns, including a significant abundance of T nucleotide over all other three nucleotides. The underrepresentation of GpA, GpG, CpC, and CpG dinucleotides and the overrepresentation of TpT, ApA, CpT, and TpG were observed. A preference towards ACT- (Thr), AAT- (Asn), TTT- (Phe), and TTG- (Leu) initiated codons and aversion towards CGG (Arg), CCG (Pro), and CAC (His) was present in the structural genes of the delta strain. The interaction between the host tRNA pool and preferred codons of the envisaged structural genes revealed that the virus preferred the codons for those suboptimal numbers of isoacceptor tRNA were present. We see this as a strategy adapted by the virus to keep the translation rate low to facilitate the correct folding of viral proteins. The information generated in the study helps design the attenuated vaccine candidate against the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant using a synthetic biology approach. Three strategies were tested: changing TpT to TpA, introducing rare codons, and disrupting favored codons. It found that disrupting favored codons is a better approach to reducing virus fitness and attenuating SARS-CoV-2 delta strain using structural genes.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and trans (LGBTQ) parents become parents in a variety of ways, including via reproductive technologies, through foster care and adoption, and in the context of different-gender relationships. This review addresses research developments over the past 5-6 years, revealing that LGBTQ people continue to face barriers in becoming parents, especially those who are trans, of color, and have limited financial means. Bisexual and trans parents are increasingly centered in research, and have unique experiences of parenthood related to navigating (in)visibility and stigma in various contexts. Recent work has documented the impacts of sociopolitical events (e.g., COVID-19, the Trump presidency) on LGBTQ parent families, particularly those with multiply marginalized statuses. Likewise, an increasingly intersectional lens has exposed how axes of privilege and oppression impact LGBTQ parents' sense of belongingness in various contexts and social groups. Finally, recent work has continued to document the powerful role of context and family processes in the lives and adjustment of youth raised by LGBTQ parents. More research is needed on LGBTQ parents with marginalized identities that have been poorly represented in the literature, such as nonbinary parents and parents with disabilities.
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COVID-19 , Sexual and Gender Minorities , Female , Adolescent , Humans , Intersectional Framework , Parents , Social EnvironmentABSTRACT
Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic started a new era in understanding the topic of resilience and adaptability. The human society has not faced such a widespread global challenge until now. This paper aims to address a context change influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, using a case study in high education. While the character of the issues emerging is the same as in any other domain, in high education, the principles and consequences can be more directly studied and analyzed. Design/methodology/approach: This paper describes a framework to evaluate how the context of the tertiary education service has been disrupted and the influence on the adherence of the students to the educational process, via primary quantitative data collection. This paper tackles the problem of distinguishing the change in context and context change and the possibility of system reconfiguration. Findings: To properly face the evolving conditions induced by the pandemic, the education service system must be aligned to the imposed emergency situations, trying to "find” where the changes have emerged, i.e. what kind of reconfiguration is, whether it appears in the goals or in the service system itself. Furthermore, this study discusses how the findings can be valuable and applied to situations beyond the pandemic, in other cases of context disruption to highlight how general the service activities are within our reconfiguration approach. Originality/value: From a theoretical point of view, this work is in line with main assumptions of system thinking, by confirming several insights of service systems' behavior, even in a logic of B2B interactions (from the offer side);first in terms of openness and adaptation, in addition to readiness to change and – when and how – this change can occur. From a practical point of view, this paper's contribution is directed toward achieving the more successful change management process, as reached together by motivated partners working hard for a common final goal. Realizing that the pandemic has brought a completely new context of education, managers should focus now on monitoring all aspects of the education business, not only directly affected projects and processes. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Purpose>This study aims to empirically develop a reliable and valid instrument measuring the online service quality in the context of the banking sector in India.Design/methodology/approach>The methodological framework of this research comprises developing an instrument that is based on previous literature, qualitative and quantitative procedure. The study used the survey method and collected data via a well-structured questionnaire from a sample of active Internet banking users. The proposed instrument is identified by the data-reduction technique that is exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and validated through the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).Findings>The results confirmed that the digital banking service quality scale (DBSQual) contains 24 items in seven dimensions: (1) web architecture, (2) user friendliness, (3) efficiency of website, (4) reliability, (5) responsiveness, (6) security and (7) personalization. The relationship between digital banking service quality and e-customer satisfaction has also been found to be significant in this study.Research limitations/implications>The results of this study do not find general application for different banks operating in the same sector in India. More testing of DBSQual is required across various different contexts for validity augmentation. In addition, findings would be more reliable if the non-Indian context could be taken into consideration. Thus, such limitations open a window for future research.Practical implications>This study is quite fruitful for the banking organizations in measuring their online services, and enables them to implement their marketing and operational strategies more effectively and efficiently.Originality/value>The contribution of this study is the development and validation of a new instrument that is DBSQual that contains seven determinants of customers' e-service quality perception, emphasis on measuring online service quality in the Indian banking sector. These determinants will offer banks a promising starting idea for establishing an effective quality management for their online businesses. They will be able to increase the opportunities by tapping themselves at a competitive edge.
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In an article entitled ‘All the Screen's a Stage: A Transmedia Manifesto', theatre artist Jared Mezzocchi draws attention to digital theatre's potential to reform the institution and build an ‘anti-racist, anti-oppressive, accessible theatre'.3 In his ardent call to challenge an oppositional logic of in-person versus digital theatre, Mezzocchi notes that ‘the emergence of digital platforming over the pandemic provides us [with] the opportunity to redefine and recontextualize space, gathering, inclusion, and connectivity that tears at the fabric of gatekeeping'. Auslander argues that ‘the live' is historically and semiotically dependent on the recorded, and that ‘genuine liveness' lacks technological intervention;4 for Phelan ‘a performance's only life is in the present'.5 However, as Auslander has also argued with reference to the updated edition of Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture (2008), ‘the historicity of the concept of liveness, the way that the idea of what counts culturally as live experience changes over time in relation to technological change'.6 This becomes especially apparent in the context of (post-)pandemic theatre and performance: liveness is, similarly to the live theatre broadcasting context, not to be seen as anchored in the nature of the original but is to be regarded as a ‘condition of viewing'.7 Watching a performance or a recording of a performance together with others is thus constitutive of ‘digital liveness'. [...]Presence and Precarity in (Post-)Pandemic Theatre and Performance draws attention to the intertwining of presence and precarity in (post-)pandemic theatre and performance to outline the variety of such displacements, vulnerabilities and insecurities and the effects they have on theatre practice and criticism. Integrating both critical articles and video essays, this special issue also presents an invitation to reflect on and potentially expand the possibilities of critical practice. Since 2020, a number of publications have taken on the task of responding to developments in what has been variously termed viral, pandemic and digital theatre.
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The article considers the impact of transformation processes on business in the context of digitalization. Equally important is the study of the impact of these processes on the training of professionals whose work has had a direct impact on these transformations - accountants, business analysts and auditors. These specialists are faced with the task of analyzing the impact of the facts and determining the change in business development strategy in the context of global digitalization. The field of audit both in the world was able to adapt extremely flexibly to the new realities of functioning in the digitalized world. In this article, the authors reveal the main trends of digitalization of audit in the conditions of economic transformation and limited business practices caused by this global pandemic of 2019-2020. At the same time, the processes of digital transformation are the driving forces of the economy. Computer technology is becoming increasingly involved in reforming the audit institution and changing the trajectory of the auditor's role in such a society.
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Aim/Purpose This study aims to analyze (1) the effect of organizational support on Techno-logical Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), (2) the effect of organiza-tional support and TPACK on teacher performance, (3) the effect of organiza-tional support and TPACK on technostress, and (4) the effect of technostress on teacher performance.Background The disruption of Information Technology (IT) innovation in educational prac-tice happened two decades ago. However, the more massive and intense IT inte-gration in teaching and learning practice was demanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. These circumstances made teachers and students face a new teaching and learning environment with complete IT mediation. Therefore, they will show a unique response valuable for managing effective education and further research regarding teaching and learning in the online environment.Methodology Using a purposive sampling technique, data was collected from 419 pre-service teachers in the economics and business field. The data was then tabulated and analyzed using PLS-SEM.Contribution This study connects the concept of TPACK as knowledge to organizational support and technostress as the organizational and personal response to deal with massive IT integration in fully online learning during the COVID-19 pan-demic. This study bridges the educational concept of teacher competence to the behavioral framework of IS users to deal with the online environment. Teach-ing and learning are tasks that engage human -to-human interaction, which is different from other productive activities like the business sector. Therefore, this study may give fruitful findings, both theoretically and practically, to im-prove educational practice in this digital age.Findings Researchers found that organizational support and TPACK were valuable ante-cedents of teacher performance in an online environment. At the same time, technostress is not a critical threat to teacher performance. However, tech-nostress exists among teachers and is uncontrollable by TPACK and organiza-tional support. Researchers argue it is an unavoidable circumstance. The educa-tional system demands a rapid shift to fully online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the teacher should accept the challenge to maintain the continuity of teaching and learning activities.Recommendations for Practitioners Recommendations for Researchers (1) Teachers' knowledge and organizational support should become an essential concern for policy makers and school leaders to maintain teacher performance in this dynamic online environment. (2) The educational leader should develop a strategy to manage technostress among teachers from another aspect beyond TPACK and organizational support. (3) Policymakers should develop a strategy to compensate for teacher effort and sacrifices resulting from IT disruption in their working experience. Researchers should confirm and refine the framework developed in the private sector to the educational sector to generate more theoretical and empirical un-derstanding regarding the functional integration of IT devices on certain enti-ties' productive tasks. Impact on Society This study gives more understanding of how teachers respond to IT-integrated tasks in their academic activity. This discussion will give more wisdom to under-stand the threshold of IT usefulness in the educational field besides giving pref-erence to managing it to maintain teachers' work quality.Future Research Further research is required to identify the critical factors to manage teachers' technostress effectively. A qualitative research method may be helpful in explor-ing teachers' complex responses regarding IT-integrated tasks.
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PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine consumers' dining behaviors and explore their decision-making process when dining out during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachBased on the extended parallel process model (EPPM) and the related literature, a conceptual model was developed and tested. This study conducted an online survey with 351 responses. In addition, a series of statistical analyses, including descriptive analyses and path analyses, were conducted to analyze the associations among key constructs in the proposed model.FindingsThe findings of this study confirmed the pragmatic utility of applying EPPM in a hospitality management context. The findings of this study also outline the different nature between the participants' enactment of self-protective measures and dining out activities. Lastly, while consumers are hesitant about dining out, the results showed that consumers' dining behaviors are directly related to their personality trait of sensation-seeking.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was delimited to a cross-sectional design and self-reported data. Such information may provide insights into individuals' decision-making and behaviors related to dining in a COVID-19 context. In addition, this study only includes US samples, while future studies can extend this study by including samples from different countries and cultural backgrounds.Originality/valueThis study adopts an interdisciplinary approach, which derives from tourism and hospitality management and public health. As a result, the findings of this study not only identify the major influencers affecting consumers' dining behavior but also help contextualize a public health model and contribute to the tourism and hospitality management literature.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed significant challenges on education worldwide, particularly in areas with limited online teaching experience. The research design is based on constructivism learning theory and the technology acceptance model. A questionnaire was also distributed to a university of finance and economics in China. Structural equation model was used to test the influence mechanism of social media interaction on college students' willingness to use e-learning platform continuously. The positive moderating effect of online teaching context on this mechanism is further analyzed. Therefore, the use of social media in the online teaching process in higher education institutions should be encouraged, and a good online teaching context should be fostered.
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On January 30, 2020, WHO officially declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Japan announced the state of emergency and implemented safety protocols the "Three Cs", a warning guideline addressing to voluntarily avoid potentially COVID-19 hazardous situations such as confined and closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings that lead to occurrence of serious clusters. The primary goal of this research is to identify the factors which help to estimate whether the user is in the Three Cs. We propose COVIDGuardian, a system that detects the Three Cs based on data such as CO2, temperature, humidity, and wireless packet log. The results show that estimation of closed space had the highest accuracy followed by close-contact settings and crowded places. The ensemble Random Forest (RF) classifier demonstrates the highest accuracy and F score in detecting closed spaces and crowded spaces. The findings indicated that integrated loudness value, average CO2, average humidity, probe request log, and average RSSI are of critical importance. In addition, when the probe request logs were filtered at three RSSI cutoff points (1m, 3m, and 5m), 1m cut-off points had the highest accuracy and F Score among the Three C models. © 2022 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
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Taking a closer look at the digital monologue series Go mBeire Muid Beo (May We Be Alive [to See Each Other Again]), which was produced by the Belfast-based Irish-language theatre company Aisling Ghéar, this article seeks to document Irish-language theatre produced under coronavirus lockdown measures in Northern Ireland, whilst acknowledging the various issues that continue to haunt the Irish language, and highlighting the particular dangers and potential pitfalls in a context where very limited funding for theatre continues to dwindle. Through an analysis of the monologue series, its content, and the wider sociopolitical context that engulfs Irish-language theatre in Northern Ireland, this article also provides an important snapshot of current and ongoing debates within Irish-language theatre at a critical juncture.
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Purpose>The inclusion of sustainability in higher education courses has been debated in recent decades and has gained particular emphasis throughout the COVID-19. This paper aims to show how the context of the pandemic, which demanded the transition from in-person classes to virtual classes, was used to illustrate better the concepts of life cycle assessment (LCA) for Production Engineering students in a Brazilian University.Design/methodology/approach>The research strategy used was action research. Throughout the discipline offering, the environmental impacts resulting from in-person and remote classes were comparatively assessed through a practical activity using LCA. Students' behaviour and perception of the activities were recorded by the professor and discussed with the other researchers on the team. At the end of the course, students answered a questionnaire to assess their satisfaction with different aspects of the discipline, and these data were analysed via Fuzzy Delphi.Findings>The results focus on discussing the pedagogical aspects of this experience and not the environmental impacts resulting from each class modality. It was possible to notice a greater engagement of students when using a project that directly involved their daily activities (food, transportation, use of electronics, etc.) compared to the traditional approach of teaching LCA concepts. In this traditional approach, the examples focussed on the industrial sector, a more distant context from the reality of most students. Student feedback demonstrated great acceptance by them regarding the approach adopted.Originality/value>This study contributes to expanding debates about sustainability insertion in higher education and the training of professionals more aligned with the sustainable development agenda.