Online teaching experience of the healthcare faculty during the pandemic: A cross sectional analysis.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted the teaching in most of the educational institutes worldwide. It has tested the readiness of educational institutes in their ability to deal with crisis. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the perception of health sciences faculty toward online education during the period of pandemic in Pakistan. METHODS: This cross-sectional research determined the perception using online survey which had been taken from the study conducted by Almahasees et al. Questions related to faculty's perception regarding IT skills, online classes taking more effort than on-campus learning, online platforms having adequate tools to facilitate teaching. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Statistical tests comprised of descriptive statistics and Kruskal-Walli's test. RESULTS: From a total of 318 participants, there were 234 females and 84 males. A statistically significant association was identified between field of specialization and competency to teach online (p = 0.022). Faculty stated that more efforts were required to teach online (p <  0.001). Most of the tutors reported virtual sessions helped improved the interaction with their students (p <  0.001). Most of the time faculty had to prompt students to complete their assignments on time (p <  0.001). Many of the faculty members disagreed that delivering virtual sessions from home was quite ineffective (p = 0.221) and reported experiencing distractions (p <  0.001). CONCLUSION: This study showed that online learning proved less effective than face-to-face learning. The main drawback of distance learning was the lack of teacher-student interaction. Online learning promotes student-centered learning and could be applied in situations of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trust, performance and level of happiness of healthcare employees in the presence of authentic leadership.

BACKGROUND: Authentic leadership (AL) is an interesting topic in the organizational behavior literature that has attracted the attention of researchers since the last decade. OBJECTIVES: This research examines the employee-centered aspect among AL, trust, happiness at work and individual performance through a sequential mediating approach. METHOD: Data was collected from 435 healthcare professionals working in various hospitals in Pakistan. AL-independent variables were measured and the trust mediating variables were assessed through a questionnaire. The level of happiness at work and IP-dependent variables were measured through a survey. RESULTS: The results revealed a significant and positive effect of AL on the individual performance that is connected both directly and indirectly through mediating effects of trust and happiness at work. Furthermore, the results showed that AL created a trustworthy atmosphere among the workers that enhanced employee's happiness at work and, subsequently, improved their job performance and motivation. CONCLUSION: This research delivers new and important results as, one the one hand, it depends on the sequential mediating effects of constructs whereas, on the other hand, it integrates four important variables in one model. Theoretical and practical implications along with future recommendations were presented for organizational management.

The role of financial development, R&D expenditure, globalization and institutional quality in energy consumption in India: New evidence from the QARDL approach.

The aim of this research is to explore the association between financial development, research and development (R&D) expenditures, globalization, institutional quality, and energy consumption in India by using the quarterly data of 1995-2018. Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag (QARDL) approach is employed to examine the relationship. An application of the QARDL approach suggests that the R&D, financial development, globalization, and institutional quality significantly influence energy utilization in India. R&D and institutional quality have a negative effect on energy utilization which shows that due to the increase in the quality of institutions and R&D in the country, energy utilization is likely to decrease. However, globalization and financial performance have a positive influence on energy which depicts that due to the increase in financial performance and globalization in India the energy consumption is likely to increase. According to the outcomes of this research, India should make a policy to ease the penalties of energy utilization by monitoring resource transfer by means of globalization and by implementing energy conversation procedures through the advancement of the financial sector.