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The government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) considers technology to be one of the main pillars of its vision for moving towards a knowledge-based society. Due to several factors such as globalisation, demand for information technology infrastructure and COVID-19 lockdowns, e-learning has become a popular method of delivery across higher education institutions in the UAE. In a first step, the authors of this article conducted a systematic review of existing literature (49 items published between 1999 and 2020). They found that the existing literature on online learning predominantly focuses on student-specific challenges, while there is still a dearth of published work covering faculty members' specific challenges in facilitating online learning in the UAE. The second part of this exploratory study drew on stakeholders' reflections of several years of designing and delivering online courses, analysing faculty members' perspectives on online teaching and learning in the UAE. The authors present their qualitative research, which involved open-ended semi-structured interviews with 15 faculty members, followed by a thematic analysis of their responses using NVivo 12 pro software. The most critical themes which emerged were learners' expectations, culture, perception, pedagogy and technology. The article also reveals how these topics contribute to the various strategies for seamless adoption and delivery of online education in the UAE.
Une étude exploratoire pour comprendre les perceptions et les défis des enseignants dans l'enseignement en ligne Le gouvernement des Émirats Arabes Unis (EAU) considère la technologie comme l'un des principaux piliers de son projet d'évolution vers une société axée sur la connaissance. En raison de plusieurs facteurs tels que la mondialisation, la demande d'infrastructures pour les technologies de l'information et les confinements dus au COVID-19, l'apprentissage en ligne est devenu une méthode d'enseignement populaire dans les établissements d'enseignement supérieur aux EAU. Dans un premier temps, les auteurs de cet article ont procédé à une revue systématique de la littérature existante (49 articles publiés entre 1999 et 2020). Ils ont constaté que la littérature existante sur l'apprentissage en ligne se concentre principalement sur les défis propres aux étudiants, alors qu'il y a encore peu de travaux couvrant les défis spécifiques aux membres du corps enseignant pour faciliter l'apprentissage en ligne aux EAU. La deuxième partie de cette étude exploratoire s'est appuyée sur les réflexions de différents acteurs sur plusieurs années de conception et d'enseignement de cours en ligne, analysant les perspectives des membres du corps enseignant sur l'enseignement et l'apprentissage en ligne aux EAU. Les auteurs présentent leur recherche qualitative, qui comprend des entretiens semi-structurés ouverts avec 15 membres du corps enseignant, suivis d'une analyse thématique de leurs réponses à l'aide du logiciel NVivo 12 pro. Les thèmes les plus importants qui ont émergé ont été les attentes des apprenants, la culture, la perception, la pédagogie et la technologie. L'article révèle également comment ces sujets contribuent aux diverses stratégies pour une adoption et une diffusion harmonieuses de l'enseignement en ligne aux EAU.
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This book addresses a broad range of issues related to mental health in higher education in Australia, with specific reference to student and staff well-being. It examines the challenges of creating and sustaining more resilient cultures within higher education and the community. Showcasing some of Australia's unique experiences, the authors present a multidisciplinary perspective of mental health supports and services relevant to the higher education landscape. This book examines the different ways Australian higher education institutions responded/are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, with reference to domestic and international students. Through the exploration of practice and research, the authors add to the rich discourses on well-being in the higher education. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
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Teaching staff are especially vulnerable to COVID-19-related stress, due to the significant demands they have experienced. Yet, many have shown resilience-good mental health despite stress exposure. The current study used a person-centered approach to identify distinct profiles according to individual differences in psychosocial risk and protective factors. Latent Profile Analysis and ANOVAs were employed among 350 Israeli teaching staff during the fourth wave of COVID-19. Two distinct profiles, "risk" (55%) and "resilience" (45%) were identified. While groups showed no differences in COVID-19-related stress outcomes, they consistently differed in their psychological reaction to COVID-19 (psychopathology, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction).
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Facing the difficulties and the new challenges that COVID-19 has created for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), the future needs to analyse and reflect on this crisis. Considering the increasing value of international mobility in Portuguese HEIs in the last decades, this research aims to study the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the flow of student and faculty mobility. Since international students, as well as teaching staff mobility, are an asset for many HEIs, this study will be applied to the Instituto Politécnico de Bragança (IPB), an institution located in the interior of Portugal where the weight of international students is quite significant. The paper provides an overview of the mobility flows between the period 2004/2005 and the 2020/2021 academic year. According to the findings obtained, the restrictions on international physical mobility are observed as the biggest challenges that occurred in IPB during the COVID-19. From the results presented, a sharp growth in international mobility flows is evident until the 2018/2019 academic year, as a consequence of the investment made by the IPB's presidency, in which one of the pillars of the institution's growth is based on the internationalisation strategy. Afterwards, in the last two academic years, there has been a sharp decline;both in terms of student mobility, on average, there was a decrease of around 26.0%, and faculty mobility, on average, there was a decrease of approximately 55%. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 marked a turning point in the delivery of education globally. The exponential rise in positive cases left the majority of universities in the developing world overwhelmed as they had inadequate or no infrastructure to enable them to switch to emergency delivery modes. This paper applies the five-stage model to examine engagement and communication processes between taskforce members and academic staff during the implementation of emergency remote teaching and learning at a Malawian university. The study was largely qualitative and data collection involved a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews. Whilst staff members initially held negative perceptions, the situation gradually changed as positive sentiments became widespread. Apparent increase in academic autonomy, ostensibly arising from the urgent search for innovative methodologies, further influenced favourable dispositions among the staff. This study suggests the need to integrate both synchronous and asynchronous methods of delivery in the model. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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Building Information Modelling is being adopted worldwide and universities are thus expected to provide the market with new professionals with BIM knowledge and skills. However, introduction of this theme into the curriculum can be challenging to teaching staff. Having successful implementation examples can help carrying on this task. This paper presents the structure, syllabus, adopted tools and activities of an introductory BIM course offered to first-year engineering students. Implemented with only 2 credits, it covers BIM fundamental concepts and develops collaboration skills and abilities with BIM software tools. It was effectively deployed on big classes and successfully offered both in face-to-face and remote modes, adopting a practice focus. An innovative organization for student group projects was adopted, enabling student participation on several projects, performing a different role in each one. Perceived benefits to students' development are reported. The covid-19 pandemics impact is discussed. Future improvements in the course are suggested. Overall results achieved were considered very good. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools were closed, teachers had to teach from home and after a while, they had to return to the classroom while the pandemic was still on-going. Even before the pandemic, teachers were already more at risk for burn-out syndrome compared to the general population. Furthermore, not much research pertaining to this population has been carried out during the pandemic and so the impact of the pandemic on teachers' risk of burn-out syndrome and recovery need remains unclear. The aim of the current study was to fill this knowledge gap and map out the impact on risk of burn-out syndrome and recovery need at different time points during the pandemic. Methods and findings: At baseline, 2,167 secondary school teachers in Flanders were included in this prospective study. Questionnaire data were obtained at ten different time points between September 2019 and August 2021. To assess risk of burn-out syndrome and its dimensions, the Utrecht Burn-out Scale for Teachers was administered. Need for recovery was assessed using questions adopted from the Short Inventory to Monitor Psychosocial Hazards. The results revealed an initial positive effect of the first lockdown (Mar/Apr 2020) with a decrease in risk of burn-out syndrome [Odds ratio (OR) Jan/Feb 2020-Mar/Apr 2020 = 0.33, p < 0.001], emotional exhaustion (EMM Jan/Feb 2020-Mar/Apr 2020 = -0.51, p < 0.001), depersonalization (EMM Jan/Feb 2020-Mar/Apr 2020 = -0.13, p < 0.001) and recovery need [Estimated marginal mean (EMM) Jan/Feb 2020-Mar/Apr 2020 = -0.79, p < 0.001]. No significant effect on personal accomplishment was found (p = 0.410). However, as the pandemic went on, higher risk of burn-out syndrome, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and recovery need, and lower personal accomplishment were observed. Conclusions: Despite the initial positive impact on risk of burn-out syndrome, its dimensions and recovery need, a negative long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic became visible. This study highlights once again the importance for interventions to reduce teachers' risk of burn-out syndrome, especially in such difficult times as a pandemic.
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COVID-19 , Pandemics , Humans , Prospective Studies , Cross-Sectional Studies , COVID-19/epidemiology , Communicable Disease Control , Burnout, Psychological , SchoolsABSTRACT
This study was carried out to evaluate the perception that the teaching staff of a private university in southern Peru had about the quality of virtual teaching conditioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted in 2022 with 341 participants, for a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 5%, measuring dimensions such as: academic aspect, materials and connectivity, participation and evaluation, and research and university social responsibility. The results showed that figures greater than the minimum proposed were reached, the best valued dimension was that of materials and connectivity and the least valued was research and university social responsibility. This change in teaching modality has represented an opportunity to improve the quality of university teaching, leaving interaction with other people-typical of attendance-in areas such as health sciences as a pending task. © 2022 IEEE.
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This research seeks to know the opinions of faculty members in media colleges and departments in Iraq about the experience of e-learning, after which it is an exceptional experience that came in abnormal circumstances that coincided with the spread of the COVID-19. The research belongs to descriptive research, the researcher relied on the survey method, using the questionnaire tool to collect field data from a sample of (150) respondents in the research sample from media teaching staff. The research reached a set of results, most notably that (47.33%) of the respondents in the research sample are not ready to accept the idea of e-learning, and that (25.37%) of them suggest organizing specialized courses and workshops for professors to provide them with e-learning skills and methods. © 2022, Association Res Militaris. All rights reserved.
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During the global COVID pandemic, the importance of professionals in the health care sector has been put in a new light, including pharmacists. In this context, the focus is also on how pharmacists are trained in different countries. Through an exchange of pharmacy teaching staff from a German to a Vietnamese university, the pharmacy education programs in both countries were compared. Aspects such as access to studies, structure of studies, and further training opportunities were considered. Differences and similarities emerged. In both countries, students first acquire basic knowledge and then delve deeper into pharmaceutical content in main studies. There is, expectedly, a great overlap in the content of the courses. Overall, the education at Vietnamese universities seems to be more practice-oriented due to a large number of placements. This also allows a specialization, which can be pursued in Germany with self-interest after graduation. There, the preparation for everyday work in the community pharmacy is separated from the university by a mandatory practical year. For the future, efforts are being made in both countries to strengthen the importance of clinical pharmacy in the curriculum. To this end, the Vietnamese are taking their inspiration from abroad in many cases, including Germany.
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COVID-19 caused teaching to shifted online which emanated challenges for both teachers and students. To overcome such challenges, self-efficacy plays a vital role. The major objective of this study was to investigate the self-efficacy of teaching staff during the time of COVID-19. The population was a total of over 1100 the university instructors, out of which a sample of 212 (Female=62, Male= 150) participants was administered. The research data was collected through Likert scale after given a training of using various online teaching strategies with language skills for three days. The factors including in this scale were students’ engagement, classroom management, and instructional strategies with 22 statements. Descriptive and Infrential statistics were assessed by using AMOS software. The findings of this research revealed that the respondents showed a high level of self-efficacy towards teaching during pandemic;and that online teaching was challenging for both pre-service teachers and experienced teachers. Further, there was a significant difference found among the demographic variables of the study regarding students’ engagement, classroom management and instructional strategies with language skills. Further, the qualitative results revealed no significant difference about the demographic characteristics of the respondents regarding self-efficacy through online teaching. There was a significant difference found in mean score where female score was greater than male score. This research is expected to make a great contribution for the development of the self-efficacy of the teaching faculty for the successful completion of teaching-learning process through online teaching. © 2022 EJAL & the Authors. Published by Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics (EJAL).
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Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutes quickly turn to the use of online tools, radically transforming the modes of teaching and communication with students. This educational shift significantly affected the conduct of artistic laboratory courses, where physical presence is essential for students and teaching staff. In order to address this shift, the teaching staff for the laboratory course 'Digital Artistic Creation 2', of the Department of Digital Arts and Cinema of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens adopted a project-based learning methodology and used a combination of teleconferencing tools and multiuser 3D Social Virtual Environments, to teach the creation of interactive and possibly dynamically evolving 3D assemblages and spatial compositions. This paper presents a research study which aims at investigating the result of this teaching course with regards to the educational impact and the experience of the students. The study was conducted at the end of the semester with the use of questionnaires delivered to the students in order to explore the learning experiences, outcomes and improvisation suggestions concerning this novel, combined form of teaching, as well as to detect the emerging collaborative and self-regulated learning patterns that emerged throughout the course. © 2022 IEEE.
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Building Information Modelling is being adopted worldwide and universities are thus expected to provide the market with new professionals with BIM knowledge and skills. However, introduction of this theme into the curriculum can be challenging to teaching staff. Having successful implementation examples can help carrying on this task. This paper presents the structure, syllabus, adopted tools and activities of an introductory BIM course offered to first-year engineering students. Implemented with only 2 credits, it covers BIM fundamental concepts and develops collaboration skills and abilities with BIM software tools. It was effectively deployed on big classes and successfully offered both in face-to-face and remote modes, adopting a practice focus. An innovative organization for student group projects was adopted, enabling student participation on several projects, performing a different role in each one. Perceived benefits to students’ development are reported. The covid-19 pandemics impact is discussed. Future improvements in the course are suggested. Overall results achieved were considered very good. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the everyday professional life of teaching staff. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the pandemic on teachers' emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. METHODS: A sample of 2531 school administrators and teachers from North Rhine-Westphalia was recruited in October 2020. Changes in emotional exhaustion during the pandemic were directly measured with nine items of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and changes in job satisfaction with six items. Adjusted regression models were used to determine risk and protective factors associated with changes in emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. RESULTS: Risk factors associated with both more frequently perceived symptoms of exhaustion and reduced job satisfaction were as follows: the additional workload during the pandemic, the stress of uncertainty, the perceived change in workload, concerns about the students, and being employed at an elementary school. A supportive school environment was associated with both fewer perceived symptoms of exhaustion and stable job satisfaction. DISCUSSION: From the perspective of the teaching staff, the COVID-19 pandemic was related to subjective changes in emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with higher emotional exhaustion for more than half of the teaching staff and with reduced job satisfaction for one in five teachers. Due to the study design, causal conclusions are not possible.
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Burnout, Professional , COVID-19 , Burnout, Professional/epidemiology , Burnout, Professional/psychology , Germany/epidemiology , Humans , Job Satisfaction , Pandemics , Surveys and Questionnaires , Workload/psychologyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers (HCWs) is an important determinant of its acceptance among the general population. Dentists are an essential group of HCWs who are at an increased risk of COVID-19 infection. This study aimed to assess vaccine acceptance and its determinants among a group of dental teaching staff in Egypt. METHODS: An Internet-based cross-sectional study was conducted where the dental teaching staff of a governmental university in Egypt were targeted using total population sampling. Data was collected on socio-demographics, attitudes towards COVID-19, risk perception, general attitudes towards vaccination, vaccine acceptance, and concerns about COVID-19 vaccines, along with barriers and motivators to vaccination. Multivariate regression was done to determine factors significantly associated with unwillingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine. RESULTS: A total of 171 dental faculty members participated in the study. At the time of data collection (August 2021-October 2021), 45.6% of the dental teaching staff were willing to receive the vaccine, while 46.7% were against vaccination, and 7.6% were vaccine hesitant. Female gender, not having a private practice, not intending to travel internationally, having anyone sick in the immediate social circle, and being more anxious about COVID-19 were significantly associated with unwillingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. CONCLUSION: At the time of conducting this study (August 2021-October 2021), less than half of the participating dental teaching staff in the studied Egyptian university were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Findings of the current study can guide Egyptian health authorities to adopt strategies that correct misconceptions among HCWs, educate them and build their trust in the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines, which can ultimately increase its acceptance in the general population.
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This article explains how Senior University at the University of A Coruna (NW Spain) was adapted to the blended learning model in the 2020/2021 academic year, as a result of the emergency situation brought about by COVID-19. The reorganization had to take into account the needs of both teaching staff and participants. The students had to overcome obstacles to embrace new technologies and follow what was being taught. The results of the surveys handed out to teachers and students at the start of the year are summarized here. A brief description of the new Specific Training Program “Current Events, Science, Health and Life” is also provided, as well as the outcomes of the study carried out to know to what extent the key players -teaching staff, students and Senior University management team- felt satisfied with the new program. All in all, both teachers and students replied that they were very satisfied with the blended learning model, which will continue running into the following academic years as a complement to face-to-face teaching. Copyright © 2021 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
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We face an unprecedented period of history during which COVID-19 is clustered with other global conditions, such as obesity, undernutrition, an infodemic, and climate change. This syndemic (synergy of epidemics) calls for the development of children's and youth's health literacy and socioemotional skills, support for behavioural hygiene (e.g. washing hands, wearing masks), and adults' responsibility and caring. Moreover, it calls for creating conditions for healthy living and learning for all and paying extra attention to inequalities that have increased during the pandemic. Today, more than ever, there is an essential demand for schools to create environments that maintain and promote health for all. Within this commentary, we argue that whole-school approaches, such as the health promoting school, are essential to fight against the pandemic and to prepare schools for future challenges.
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COVID-19 , Health Promotion , Adolescent , Adult , COVID-19/epidemiology , Child , Humans , Learning , Pandemics/prevention & control , SchoolsABSTRACT
Background: There are significant concerns for student mental health in higher education. New factors affect student mental health, and campus counselling services are overwhelmed. Struggling students turn to ideally placed familiar teaching staff for support. This qualitative study, conducted in an East of England university, aimed to explore student and staff perceptions of support offered by teaching staff to students grappling with their mental health. It is unique, combining both staff and student perceptions, many of which overlapped. Methods: A thematic analysis was conducted of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a small number of self-selecting staff/students. Findings (results): Staff felt inadequate in several aspects, and students agreed to give useful suggestions for their preferred support. Conclusions: It was cautiously established that staff training in mental health literacy (knowledge, skills, attributes, and understanding) was required. Specific training was recommended in pastoral care for personal tutors and for staff pedagogy on health professional programmes. Finally, teaching staff needed support when supporting students with poor mental health. Such training and support can be integrated into a preventative, university-wide, holistic policy for student mental health commensurate with the University Mental Health Charter. Embedding such supportive practice into the curriculum is preferable to add-on services and/or interventions.
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The present study provides evidence for a valid and reliable tool, the Academic Quality at Work Tool (AQ@workT), to investigate the quality of life at work in academics within the Italian university sector. The AQ@workT was developed by the QoL@Work research team, namely a group of expert academics in the field of work and organizational psychology affiliated with the Italian Association of Psychologists. The tool is grounded in the job demands-resources model and its psychometric properties were assessed in three studies comprising a wide sample of lecturers, researchers, and professors: a pilot study (N = 120), a calibration study (N = 1084), and a validation study (N = 1481). Reliability and content, construct, and nomological validity were supported, as well as measurement invariance across work role (researchers, associate professors, and full professors) and gender. Evidence from the present study shows that the AQ@workT represents a useful and reliable tool to assist university management to enhance quality of life, to manage work-related stress, and to mitigate the potential for harm to academics, particularly during a pandemic. Future studies, such as longitudinal tests of the AQ@workT, should test predictive validity among the variables in the tool.
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Quality of Life , Humans , Italy , Pilot Projects , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Based on the background and expertise gained during almost two decades of development and implementation of virtual laboratory applications for teaching mechanics in engineering faculties, the authors propose a novel approach for this field, in which students themselves become developers of educational computer simulations. The method, called DYOVL (“Do Your Own Virtual Laboratory”), was applied, first experimentally and then on a regular basis, with gradual optimization during consecutive years, within the practical sessions of the mechanics course taught to students in automatic control and computers. An educational website, containing application examples and several downloadable resources, was recently developed, to assist teaching by the new method. The co-creative character of this process is manifold, as students work together with the teaching staff and with their team colleagues to program virtual laboratory applications or to suggest improvements for the existing ones. The method demonstrated favorable outcomes in terms of engagement, motivation, and inclusiveness, as well as a positive attitude of the students, shown both by pre- and during-COVID satisfaction surveys. To assist potentially interested academic staff in implementing this approach in their universities, detailed methodological guidance is provided. © 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC