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Background: The electronic National Immunization Information System (NIIS) was introduced nationwide in Vietnam in 2017. Health workers were expected to use the NIIS alongside the legacy paper-based system. Starting in 2018, Hanoi and Son La provinces transitioned to paperless reporting. Interventions to support this transition included data guidelines and training, internet-based data review meetings, and additional supportive supervision visits., Objective: This study aims to assess (1) changes in NIIS data quality and use, (2) changes in immunization program outcomes, and (3) the economic costs of using the NIIS versus the traditional paper system., Methods: This mixed methods study took place in Hanoi and Son La provinces. It aimed to analyses pre- and postintervention data from various sources including the NIIS; household and health facility surveys; and interviews to measure NIIS data quality, data use, and immunization program outcomes. Financial data were collected at the national, provincial, district, and health facility levels through record review and interviews. An activity-based costing approach was conducted from a health system perspective., Results: NIIS data timeliness significantly improved from pre- to postintervention in both provinces. For example, the mean number of days from birth date to NIIS registration before and after intervention dropped from 18.6 (SD 65.5) to 5.7 (SD 31.4) days in Hanoi (P<.001) and from 36.1 (SD 94.2) to 11.7 (40.1) days in Son La (P<.001). Data from Son La showed that the completeness and accuracy improved, while Hanoi exhibited mixed results, possibly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Data use improved; at postintervention, 100% (667/667) of facilities in both provinces used NIIS data for activities beyond monthly reporting compared with 34.8% (202/580) in Hanoi and 29.4% (55/187) in Son La at preintervention. Across nearly all antigens, the percentage of children who received the vaccine on time was higher in the postintervention cohort compared with the preintervention cohort. Up-front costs associated with developing and deploying the NIIS were estimated at US $0.48 per child in the study provinces. The commune health center level showed cost savings from changing from the paper system to the NIIS, mainly driven by human resource time savings. At the administrative level, incremental costs resulted from changing from the paper system to the NIIS, as some costs increased, such as labor costs for supportive supervision and additional capital costs for equipment associated with the NIIS., Conclusions: The Hanoi and Son La provinces successfully transitioned to paperless reporting while maintaining or improving NIIS data quality and data use. However, improvements in data quality were not associated with improvements in the immunization program outcomes in both provinces. The COVID-19 pandemic likely had a negative influence on immunization program outcomes, particularly in Hanoi. These improvements entail up-front financial costs., (©Thi Thanh Huyen Dang, Emily Carnahan, Linh Nguyen, Mercy Mvundura, Sang Dao, Thi Hong Duong, Trung Nguyen, Doan Nguyen, Tu Nguyen, Laurie Werner, Tove K Ryman, Nga Nguyen. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 18.03.2024.)

This paper discusses key themes of the 15th biennial conference of the Association for Language Awareness (2020), with a focus on increasing digital engagement in language education. The COVID-19 pandemic occasioned an abrupt transition to emergency remote language teaching and learning (ERLTL) worldwide. The ALA 2020 conference was also affected by this transition; originally planned as a located conference in Geelong, Australia, it was eventually held online, a first in ALA's conference history. The current paper engages with contemporary debates of language teaching and learning in two ways. Firstly, it traces recent discussions by presenting key findings from five papers given at the conference, and secondly, via a scoping review of literature focusing on critical lessons from the pandemic regarding language teaching and learning. The review captures recent research from the Australasian region. Key debates identified in the literature include the needs of teachers and learners during the transition to online learning, and how student engagement was affected. The literatures highlight that both educators and students have been developing new practices in teaching and learning resulting from the shift to online and blended modes, which may continue to shape language education and new pedagogies in the future.

During attempts to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic in China, higher education programs shifted their traditional educational models to online models. This paper aimed to explore how Chinese universities organized online teaching and learning during the pandemic. It investigated the factors affecting the implementation of online teaching and provided policy recommendations for improving the quality of education in the post-pandemic period. The primary data for this study came from in-depth interviews with nine students and five teaching and administrative staff at eight major universities in mainland China. Literature was obtained in both English and Chinese from January 2020 to September 2021. Peer-reviewed journals, policy reports, and university documents regarding online education in Chinese universities were reviewed, and their challenges and countermeasures were investigated. The paper found that the implementation of online education was affected by various sources, including technologies, teachers' teaching skills, network information literacy, and students' learning motivations and self-directed learning skills. Based on the insiders' views, the paper suggested that to promote the quality of online education in the post-COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutes and programs could develop their infrastructure construction, improve teachers' quality of teaching, and focus on students' learning motivations.

Students attracted to quantitative disciplines of study can be reluctant to devote much attention to the critical task of communicating, and previous research (Hostager, 2018) has identified statistically significant differences in learning approaches by major among undergraduate business students. This paper presents results of learning assurance for writing skills (direct measures) even when the course content relates to the highly quantitative topics of data analytics and finance. The approach combines various pedagogical methods in an undergraduate, writing-intensive setting: traditional testing in an iterative framework, "flipped classroom" intensive work using spreadsheet software, repeated submission of brief papers incorporating analytical finance work, and student research presentations (including at an undergraduate research conference). We present quantitative and qualitative data demonstrating assurance of learning for evaluation purposes, including the recently announced (2020) competency-based Assurance of Learning standards from the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). To assess the robustness of our findings, we also report results using alternate learning resources (old and new) and delivery methods (in-person, hybrid, fully online), taking advantage of the pandemic natural experiment. We found that learning progress was assured in each context for hybrid and fully online delivery; however, learning was not as monotonic as for fully in-person implementation.

This paper presents a midterm review of a 4-year factor analysis project aimed at validating an outcome-based assessment of study-abroad programs attended by Japanese students. This paper outlines how the results from the initial two years captured changes in perceptions and reasons for studying abroad. It found that students have become increasingly focused on how the experience will impact their future careers. This is a shift from those who studied abroad before the COVID-19 pandemic. Those students motivations for studying abroad were primarily internal and experiential, such as wanting to improve their language skills and experience life in another country, or external and passive reasons arising from the circumstances or opinions of family or friends. The research also indicates how awareness of this shift could assist administrators in designing and conducting successful international experiences.

Due to the recent developments in the delivery of teaching-learning processes when COVID-19 hit the world with a health crisis and pandemic, it is crucial to look into the quality of courses delivered via online means or through distance education modality. This paper examines implementation and application of quality assurance (QA) landscape in Distance Education (DE). A documentary review using bibliographic inquiry is used as a methodology approach to gather relevant information to address the study questions. Previous studies on QA in DE are examined and arranged into themes using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that most of the literature on QA in DE in Africa and Asia based on the reviewed Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions are basically dealing with frameworks, outcomes and performance, instructional design, student services and challenges as well as parity in terms of quality with the traditional institutions. Therefore, this paper concludes that more studies are needed for QA in DE to match the post-COVID-19 trends on improving QA. This implies that there is a need to expand research on QA in DE to include areas of artificial intelligence.

Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020, English language learners could no longer learn from face-to-face interactions and had to adapt to online lessons. This paper reports a study that investigated their learning strategies during their online sessions. To achieve the objective, a survey was conducted with 257 university students who were taking an English course as a compulsory subject. Several questions in a questionnaire were designed to elicit their cognitive, affective, sociocultural, and interactive strategies. The findings showed that taking notes, attending recorded lectures, quietly observing online interactions, doing the assignments, chatting with their classmates, and utilizing internet-based lessons were the most prominent strategies. Their seemingly passive attitude seems to stem from the Asian culture in which they were raised. A reliable internet connection was seen as vital for their learning, playing games, and watching movies, which were the ways to relieve stress and boredom while studying at home. Chatting with classmates could give them a sense of community which probably helped them relieve stress and boredom. Overall, the paper offers insights into how EFL learners coped with difficult learning circumstances. Some suggestions for English teachers that are related to the enhancement of online teaching are then proposed based on these findings.

This design case details the design process of a multiple-choice assessment of socio-scientific systems thinking. This assessment is situated within a larger project that aims to understand the ways students use multiple scientific models to understand complex socio-scientific issues. In addition to the research component, this project entails developing curriculum and assessment resources that support science teaching and learning. We begin this paper by framing the needs that motivated the design of this assessment and introducing the design team. We then present a narrative outlining the design process, focusing on key challenges that arose and the ways these challenges influenced our final design. We conclude this paper with a discussion of the compromises that had to be made in the process of designing this instrument.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, universities were already exploring the potential of online education. Colleges and universities throughout the world became more reliant on online learning management systems (LMSs) and videoconferencing tools like "Zoom" and "Microsoft Teams" during the 2020-2021 campus' lockdowns. The transition from traditional face-to-face teaching to online learning presented significant difficulties for universities, particularly those that depended heavily on international students. The project reported in this paper was undertaken in Australia in 2021 at the request of a private higher education institution. A new student-centric version of the Moodle learning management system (LMS) was created to maximise the platform's pedagogical, communicative, and informational capabilities. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how online learning platforms that are flexible, utilise embedded interactive features and resources, and are freely available can enhance and support the delivery of quality online education. The paper discusses how well-designed learning management systems have the capacity to motivate, engage and retain students in online learning. Academics, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as those working in curriculum development and information technology at institutions of higher learning, may find this article to be of interest and value.

The researchers aimed to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing education through semi-structured interviews with undergraduate nursing students. The researchers explored themes related to online education, clinical placements, and mental health. Findings revealed that the sudden shift to online learning caused increased stress, and decreased confidence. Clinical placements were affected, leading to missed time and altered learning experiences. Mental health suffered as students faced stressors and challenges brought on by the pandemic. These interviews elucidate the challenges faced by nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide valuable information for future planning in nursing education during crises. [Articles in this journal were presented at the University of Calgary Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching.]

To bridge the gap between the learning goals of the classroom and the overtaxed, returning-from-the-pandemic learner, adapting teaching practices to respond to present-day experiences became a way to facilitate success. Weaving anecdotal experiences with pedagogical scholarship, this discussion explores the impact of practices that approach the learning experience with grace (Su, 2021) and care (Mehrotra, 2021). These practices include the value of putting Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning (Mutch & Peung, 2021), and adopting a trauma-informed approach to create opportunity for all students' success. This includes: Incorporating opportunities for students to make decisions and exercise choice over aspects of their assignments and facilitating a sense of ownership over their learning (Wolpert-Gawron, 2018), incorporating structured engagement among peers to create a supportive learning community (Lang, 2020), and incorporating practices of instructional care and holistic recognition to build trusting relationships. [Articles in this journal were presented at the University of Calgary Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching.]

The scope of this preliminary study revolves around investigating the effectiveness of experiential learning in upper-year science laboratory courses in a post-pandemic era. In this study we have explored two key questions: 1. Can experiential learning facilitate independent inquiry in an upper-year undergraduate laboratory in a post-pandemic era? 2. Do incoming students feel prepared to carry out an in-person, hands-on, upper-year undergraduate laboratory experiments in a post-pandemic era? By exploring these questions through student reflections and perceptions in an advanced analytical chemistry inquiry-based laboratory course, we hope to acknowledge the impact the pandemic has had on first- and second-year foundational labs, and on the preparation of students for upper-year undergraduate labs. The shift towards virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic may have heavily impacted the development of core wet laboratory skills and thus made it challenging for students to build their confidence and skillset and attain success when challenged at a higher level. [Articles in this journal were presented at the University of Calgary Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching.]

The universal design for learning framework aims to remove barriers from the learning environment so that as many students as possible can fully participate in it. The COVID19 pandemic has brought about additional challenges in higher education, but in many cases, it has also provided a unique opportunity to examine change. This study investigated students' and faculty's perceptions of how frequently various elements of universal design for learning were used in the classroom as well as how useful these elements were perceived to be for student learning. Different groups of students and faculty responded to an online survey pre-pandemic and then again approximately one year into the pandemic. The findings indicated consistently robust correlations between the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. However, the pandemic initiated certain shifts, notably an uptick in faculty incorporating specific UDL elements, such as recording lectures. Additionally, students perceive a greater number of UDL elements as advantageous for their learning compared to the faculty perspective. [Articles in this journal were presented at the University of Calgary Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching.]

The digital pivot of 2020-21, which moved teacher education online, created a catalyst for teacher educators to develop their digital literacies. This paper reports on a Collaborative Inquiry which sought to examine the factors which influenced teacher educators' digital skills during this time. Additionally, this paper aims to address the need for research on digital technology in teacher education, as previous studies have reported that some student-teachers feel ill prepared to engage with digital technology in their practice. In seeking to examine the factors which influence the development of teacher educators' engagement with digital technology, this research adds to knowledge and understanding in this area, informing professional learning provision for teacher educators with digital technologies. The Technology Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPACK) model was used to examine the ways in which teacher educators were influenced in their practice and what impact this had on their experience. Analysis highlighted how the positioning of teacher educators within the framework influenced their experience of teaching online. The lived experiences of teacher educators when using technology for teaching online moved beyond their understanding of content, pedagogy, and technology, and highlighted the importance of context. Relationships, wellbeing, and emotional factors influenced engagement with digital technology as it mediated social practices. The findings add to knowledge and understanding of teacher educators' engagement with digital technology and have implications for professional development.

This paper investigated the literacy practices, challenges, and coping strategies of the More Knowledgeable Others (MKO) in helping the learners accomplish literacy tasks included in the online and modular worksheets during the lockdown period because of COVID-19 pandemic. MKO is a person who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner; this includes the teachers, the parents, and the guardians. This study focused on the parents and guardians as they assume two significant roles during the time of pandemic, namely a teacher and a parent. Two hundred six parents and guardians were surveyed, and selected respondents were requested to participate in the semi-structured interview to provide opportunities to express their experiences during the pandemic. The results revealed that MKO's practices include their role as a: (1) support in children's school tasks; (2) spending read aloud time with their children; and (3) their use of Internet and gadgets. For the challenges, four subthemes emerged: (1) duality of roles; (2) lack of knowledge and skills; (3) Internet connectivity; and (4) financial challenges. With the challenges come MKO's coping strategies: (1) managing time wisely; (2) they provide unfathomable moral support; and (3) their faith in God. With the findings, this paper recommends creation of consultative body among parents so they can be included in the curriculum design for the education of their children.

This paper is an adapted version of the Brian Nettleton Lecture given at the Outdoors Victoria Conference, 2022. It explores how the last two decades have seen an ever-accelerating Digital Revolution which has impacted on almost every aspect of human experience to the point that it is now omnipresent. Life is now mediated through the screen. As a result, children and young people have become hyper-vigilant, overly anxious, experience a sense of climate trauma, and have decreasing access to, and time spent in, the outdoors. In addition, children have just experienced two years of isolation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and evidence suggests that they are already experiencing significant mental health issues as a result. This paper considers the implications of this for Outdoors Victoria and Outdoor Education.

Oral language is the primary means through which a child controls, describes, organises, and evaluates their life experiences and their ability to use oral language which effectively impacts their future literacy development. Currently, the world is awash with dynamic change and constant disruption. These include natural disasters such as the ongoing Australian floods and bush fires, droughts, the global COVID-19 pandemic, the pervasive use of digital technologies, continuing global unrest, and impacts on economic and social adversity. Many of these disruptions are having a negative impact on the development of children's oral language and ongoing communication capacities. This is interesting given the prioritisation in many western nations, including Australia, of learning to read and write over learning to talk and communicate. This paper serves as an example of what makes good classroom literacy research. It outlines the elements of robust research including a research proposal structure. In this instance, our research investigates educator perceptions of children's developing oral language and communication skills and practices in birth to 8-year-old education contexts within the current backdrop of extreme disruption. The paper includes a literature review, our proposed research methodology which includes interviews from participants in birth to 8-year-old education settings, in both national and global contexts sourced via snowball sampling. The data analysis uses Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the contextualised interview responses from educators within a socio-cultural global malaise of disruption and power. We outline future plans and funding sources, including publications and potential school resources in the spirit of collegial cooperation to support excellence in literacy classroom research.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we develop and test experimentally three phone-based interventions to increase vaccine acceptance in Mozambique. The first endorses the vaccine with a simple positive message. The second adds the activation of social memory on the country's success in eradicating wild polio with vaccination campaigns. The third further adds a structured interaction with the participant to develop a critical view toward misleading information and minimize the sharing of fake news. We find that combining the endorsement with the stimulation of social memory and the structured interaction increases vaccine acceptance and trust in institutions., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The importance of entrepreneurship in socio-economic development is increasingly present, not only in the papers of researchers but also in the minds of policymakers. In fact, entrepreneurship education has received a lot of attention because of the role it can play in stimulating entrepreneurial intention among students. Given that the tourism and hospitality industry is the economic sector most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper examines the relationship between entrepreneurship education and tourism entrepreneurial intention and reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneurial intention of students in tourism. Survey data was collected from 502 Moroccan students studying hospitality and tourism and analyzed using SEM-PLS. Our findings show a non-significant effect of entrepreneurial education on tourism entrepreneurial intention in the COVID-19 era. The results also reveal a significant negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneurial intentions of students in tourism.

The global pandemic was traumatic for everyone, and it revealed the vast inequity in public services to which people have access. Fortunately, community schools had been coordinating services to meet the needs of their families prior to the pandemic, and when schools closed in 2020, they kicked into high gear to provide for those needs. This paper reports on interviews with 15 community school coordinators in Baltimore conducted at the end of the pandemic period to find out how they went about meeting community needs. Findings indicate that coordinators played a crucial role in getting families' basic needs (i.e. food, shelter, clothing) met, but they also built trusting relationships, generating social capital in their neighborhoods set in racially segregated neighborhoods as a result of decades of redlining and policies meant to isolate Black communities. In the end, this paper argues that community school coordinators need more support to convert the social capital into further advocacy alongside the families with whom they work.

Could a transformative, inclusive and emancipatory educational framework like the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) advance academic success for all? Could racism and dis/ableism be dismantled through such an emerging educational trend that offers a redefinition of dis/ability abolishing oppressive pedagogical practices that perpetuate constructed views of special needs, often negatively correlated with racial and intellectual superiority? Could such a framework that foregrounds physical, cognitive and linguistic injustices advance achievement beyond merely meeting academic literacy standards within higher education settings like writing centres in a post-COVID 21st-century South Africa? These critical questions are some of the tensions raised in this paper proposing a compelling, yet controversial attempt at advancing student learning and achievement within an expanded definition of disability offered by the UDL framework developed by Rose and Meyer at the Center for Applied Special Technology at Harvard University. While COVID-19 centred around a pandemic, this global catastrophe accelerated the technological thrust into virtual and blended learning mediums of learning and engagement. Yet, given the technological explosion of the mid- and late 20th century, in many ways education have headed towards this direction. Now more than ever, the awareness of the Universal Design for Learning within the role of the writing centre and academic literacy is especially critical, given the drive for technologically driven approaches to address issues of social justice. This paper seeks to understand the obstacles and opportunities of the UDL framework within the role of writing centres in post-COVID 21st-century South African higher education. Through professional insights as a qualified practising writing consultant both locally in South Africa and in the United States, this reflective critique on the emerging vociferous dialogue around the adoption of the Universal Design for Learning framework at higher education institutions in South Africa, and its implications for the role of the writing centre, are based on this author's pragmatic, commonplace experiences as well as research studies conducted on UDL and the Harvard Review. It is hoped that this reflective paper may make visible some of the inherent juxtapositions Universal Design for Learning may hold for meeting individual students' learning needs principled on its universal approach to learning success for all, affording opportunities for further research and critique.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the concept of design literacy by exploring what it means to learn design literacy through making. To support my argumentation, I draw on a case study where I followed two student teachers of design and craft as they learned design literacy through woodworking. Due to COVID-19, the learning environment was located at the students' homes rather than the design and craft studio at the university. Two research questions guide the case study: What stories does the student recall from learning woodworking and what do these stories provide that are relevant for learning design literacy? Three 'making' stories are presented from the case study: (1) Making with the unknown, (2) Making alone educationally, and (3) The affective and embodied making. These stories provide numerous making skills that are relevant when teaching and learning for design literacy, which is further discussed in the paper.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the intersection of social class inequality and education policy through the lens of an analysis of the experiences and effects of state, local, and federal policy meant to engage communities around the use of federal funds to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students. The author intends to examine the discord between policy financed by the U.S. Federal government and practice. In doing so, a critical lens will be cast toward the application of policies that promote stakeholder engagement in the decision making process for determining how to use federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, which were funds obligated to schools and communities in order to mitigate the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper will review policy aimed at assessing whether state and local guidance promoted the implementation of the federal guidance. Given the role of federal education awards are to assist in supplementally financing education at the local level, our review will include reviewing state and local education agencies (also referred to as districts) applications, state and local education guidance; public school board meeting material, memorandums, and other publicly available resources designed to provide guidance to schools and districts on funding schools with the emergence federal ESSER funds. These documents have been chosen as representative of current policy. They are sociocultural artifacts that mediate policy and practice for schools across the country and touch on socio-dynamic issues of society and therefore they need to be viewed critically.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on doctoral education. Pandemics throughout history have generated new educational theories and practices, accelerated some trends and signalled the abrupt end of others. The unpredictable effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have particularly impacted upon First Nations and transcultural communities and People of Colour throughout the globe. A second significant recent global trend that occurred at the height of the pandemic was the reignited #BlackLivesMatter (#BLM) protest campaign. This campaign drew attention to the vast inequities faced by black, transcultural (migrant, refugee, culturally diverse and international) and Indigenous peoples and triggered rapid action in higher education institutions against racism and unconscious bias. Design/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper draws upon postcolonial/decolonial theory to demonstrate how the COVID pandemic and #BLM movement prompts us to revitalise doctoral education. Findings: These two issues have created renewed urgency around the need to decolonise higher education and a desire to transform the "business-as-usual" geopolitical power dynamics that continue to privilege Northern knowledge over culturally diverse knowledge systems from First Nations and transcultural contexts. A key site where special opportunities exist to effect this transformation lies in doctoral education. Doctoral education is a significant location of new knowledge creation and the development of the world's future researchers. Research limitations/implications: Applying post/decolonial theory enables one to rethink how doctoral education should be changed to work towards greater decolonisation. Originality/value: This study applies Santos' ideas about "the sociologies of emergence" in the global South to think about how doctoral education should be reconstructed as a liberated zone of decolonisation and epistemic justice.

This paper analyzes the risks to child development and school readiness among children under age 6 in Pakistan. Drawing on a nationally representative telephone survey conducted in the midst of a global pandemic, between December 2021 and February 2022, we present the first nationally representative estimates of child development for children under 3 years of age and school readiness for children 3-6 years of age, using internationally validated instruments. The paper examines how risk factors that were exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as parental distress, lack of psychosocial stimulation, food insecurity, low maternal education, no enrollment in early childhood education, and living in a rural area, are associated with children's outcomes. The data indicate that more than half (57 percent) of parents with children under age 3 were distressed and that 61 percent of households reported cutting down on the size of or skipping meals since the start of the pandemic. The data reveal that over half of parents fail to engage in adequate psychosocial stimulation with their child and enrollment in early childhood education is very low (39 percent). The paper finds that child development outcomes decline rapidly as the number of risks increase. Specifically, for children under 3 years, lack of psychosocial stimulation at home and higher levels of parental distress were most significantly associated with lower child development levels. For a child aged 3-6 years, early childhood education enrollment and the amount of psychosocial stimulation the child received at home had the strongest association with school readiness scores.

In line with the philosophy of inclusion and various legislative instruments which encourage 'education for all', ODL institutions have made provision for sign language interpreters (SLIs) to facilitate participation for deaf students. Although, some studies have examined issues of virtual learning and the ODL programme; a paucity of studies assessing virtual sign language interpretation (VSLI) in remote educational activities is evident. Therefore, a research study was instituted to probe into perceived enablers and or constraints of providing VSLI during the Covid-19 lockdown in Nigeria. Based on the Job Demand Resources Model, two research questions were raised and answered in this paper. This study adopted the qualitative research design and seven SLIs who had participated in virtual teaching and learning activities during the lockdown were purposively selected to participate in the study. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection, and the data collected were coded and analysed thematically through using an iterative process. Government policies and the empathetic nature of SLIs were found to be enablers of VSLI, while four themes, namely epileptic power supply; internet connectivity; lack of institutional support and the comprehensibility of deaf students who attended remote lectures were found to serve as barriers to effective and efficient VSLI. Based on the findings, appropriate recommendations were made.

Educator leaders play a vital role in fostering educators' and students' mental health and wellbeing. Through qualitative research, this paper provides insights from eight education leaders working in State Schools in Malta on their perceptions of, and experiences in, the promotion and support of mental health and wellbeing among educators and students. The objective of the study is to examine how mental health and wellbeing are being promoted, addressed, and supported in schools. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with education leaders followed by a reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes emerged from the data, namely school philosophy, ethos, and leadership; mental health and wellbeing in schools; loss and grief; and COVID-19 and its impact on mental health and wellbeing in schools The findings suggest the need for more proactive and supportive considerations of mental health and wellbeing in schools in Malta, along with the implementation and evaluation of mental health and wellbeing whole-school projects in schools.

Individual's risk perception regarding specific hazards is a dynamic process that evolves over time. This study analyzed the relationship between the number of COVID-19 cases and the South Korean public's risk perceptions from the outset of the pandemic to the recent past. More than 70 repeated cross-sectional surveys were conducted biweekly to measure individuals' risk perception. An autoregressive integrated moving average with explanatory variable time series analysis was used to characterize the relationship between the number of COVID-19 cases and level of risk perceptions. It revealed that individuals' risk perception and the number of COVID-19 cases were not linearly related but were logarithmically correlated. This finding can be understood as a psychic numbing effect, suggesting that people's perception of risk is not linear but rather exponentially sensitive to changes. The findings also revealed a significant influence of individuals' trust in local governments on their risk perceptions, highlighting the substantial role played by local governments in direct risk management during the COVID-19 pandemic., (© 2024 Society for Risk Analysis.)

Online education, while not a new phenomenon, underwent a monumental shift during the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing educators and students alike into the uncharted waters of full-time digital learning. With this shift came renewed concerns about the integrity of online assessments. Amidst a landscape rapidly being reshaped by online exam/homework assistance platforms, which witnessed soaring stocks as students availed its questionable exam assistance, and the emergence of sophisticated artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, the traditional methods of assessment faced unprecedented challenges. This paper presents the results of an observational study, using data from an introductory statistics course taught every semester by the author, and delves into the proliferation of cheating methods. Analyzing exam score results from the pre and post introduction of ChatGPT periods, the research unpacks the extent of cheating and provides strategies to counteract this trend. The findings starkly illustrate significant increases in exam scores from when exams of similar difficulty were administered in person (pre-COVID) versus online. The format, difficulty, and grading of the exams was the same throughout. Although randomized controlled experiments are generally more effective than observational studies, we will indicate when we present the data why experiments would not be feasible for this research. In addition to presenting experimental findings, the paper offers some insights, based on the author's extensive experience, to guide educators in crafting more secure online assessments in this new era, both for courses at the introductory level and more advances courses The results and findings are relevant to introductory courses that can use multiple choice exams in any subject but the recommendations for upper-level courses will be relevant primarily to STEM subjects. The research underscores the pressing need for reinventing assessment techniques to uphold the sanctity of online education.

Purpose: This paper evaluated the effectiveness of blended learning of business courses in higher learning institutions (HEIs) in developing economies. Design/methodology/approach: A survey, involving 215 learners, was used to collect data. A stratified sampling technique was used in this study. The data were analyzed using the PROCESS macro in SPSS. Findings: In the blended learning approach, student attitudes, social presence, IT infrastructure and flexible learning are all favorable predictors of learner satisfaction. The impact of blended learning on learner satisfaction is further mediated by IT infrastructure, social presence and learner attitude. Practical implications: HEIs need to invest in planning and resource mobilization in order to realize several benefits derived from the use of blended learning. For optimal learning outcomes, this should be combined with training on IT infrastructure usage for both facilitators and learners. In order to assist learners in developing competencies through consistent use, institutions should also invest in tailored blended learning technologies. In addition, emphasis should be placed on training all actors in order to better manage change. Originality/value: This paper presents and ranks several dimensions for blended learning success in low-budget universities. In addition, the study contributes to the understanding of intervening variables necessary for enhancing the potential of pedagogy in maximizing learner satisfaction.

Attention to children's emotional health and wellbeing (EHWB) has increased over the last decade due to a decline in children and young people's mental health. COVID-19 escalated this need globally as children were subjected to immediate and drastic changes to their education and daily lives. This paper reports on a UK qualitative study exploring the perceptions of teachers working in primary schools and the level of support they require for children's EHWB. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with teachers during COVID-19. The findings highlighted four themes of professional support that were required: 1) funding support 2) support with pedagogical responsibilities, 3) external support and 4) home and parental support. Overall, teachers considered there was a lack of provision for their role, with additional pressures placed on them to support children's EHWB. The paper concludes that more resources are required long term to support teachers in a post-COVID-19 education system.

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, in-person data collection methods have been considerably hampered by requirements for social distancing and safety. Consequently, academic inquiry has shifted largely to virtual means, leading to the considerable growth of virtual qualitative research. Conducting virtual research in post-conflict contexts, such as Sri Lanka, with increased state surveillance, security concerns, and censorship presents researchers with additional tensions, particularly during a pandemic. Limited literature, however, has grappled with these unique situations. This paper addresses this gap by reflecting on the process of conducting virtual qualitative research through a case study of faculty members in peace education instruction at Sri Lankan universities. The study drew on semi-structured interviews (n = 32), documentary evidence, and memos created during the data collection and analysis stages. This paper discusses the challenges and complexities of conducting virtual research within the intersections of peace education, post-conflict legacies, ethical dimensions, and positionality dimensions, which are interwoven, adding several layers of considerations in this context. Furthermore, the paper chronicles the key tensions faced: surveillance and consent, residual embodiments, and the choices made in response to navigate them. This paper concludes with a discussion around these tensions and aims to expand the literary discourse beyond the technological aspects of conducting virtual research. The study highlights the need for future research into residual embodiments, ethical and micro-ethical issues, and practical challenges in virtual research in conflict-affected contexts, suggesting that institutions should provide researchers with training to address these complexities and support robust knowledge co-creation.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the move to remote education exposed old and new inequities, yet it also represented an opportunity to rethink inclusive education. This paper presents findings from a one-year project "DIGITAL in a time of Coronavirus" and draws upon policy analysis and interviews with teachers, principals, and community leaders from six countries in the Global North and South (Italy, England, Malaysia, Australia, United States and Chile). By mobilising education assemblage theory to challenge binary divisions (included/excluded, modern/colonial, local/global), it presents five concepts to rethink inclusion and its relationship with technologies. It illustrates how during the pandemic alternative entanglements of digital and non-digital technologies challenged narrow and Eurocentric constructions of the digital divide enabling inclusive subjective experiences. Drawing upon local possibilities and histories, re-habilitating non-scientific knowledges, especially in view of future experiences of blended education, the paper seeks to provide policy tools to rethink current understandings of inclusive education.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the education sector worldwide, including higher education institutions, to adopt relevant measures for the continuity of teaching and learning while ensuring health safety. Using Self-determination Theory as a lens, this paper presents one of the findings of a developmental study on students' experiences on a flexible learning delivery model that is anchored on self-regulated learning, implemented in one of the island state universities in the Philippines during the academic year 2020-2021. Specifically, the paper reports one emergent finding: the enabling/supporting and limiting influence of technology on competence, autonomy, and relatedness. In this qualitative descriptive study, the researchers interviewed 45 pre-service teachers. Results revealed that technology has both enabling/supporting and limiting influence on competence, autonomy, and relatedness, implying that strategic and directed technology-related support and policies related thereto are imperative to succeed in self-regulated learning. The later section of the paper provides implications, reflections, and recommendations not only limited to the study context but also the future of self-regulated learning.

Purpose: This study aims to explore the management learning during a long-term crisis like a pandemic. The paper addresses both what health-care managers have learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic and how the management learning is characterized. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a qualitative case study carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic at two different public hospitals in Sweden. The study, conducted with semi-structured interviews, applies a combination of within-case analysis and cross-case comparison. The data were analyzed using thematic deductive analysis with the themes, i.e. sensemaking, decision-making and meaning-making. Findings: The COVID-19 pandemic was characterized by uncertainty and a need for continuous learning among the managers at the case hospitals. The learning process that arose was circular in nature, wherein trust played a crucial role in facilitating the flow of information and enabling the managers to get a good sense of the situation. This, in turn, allowed the managers to make decisions meaningful for the organization, which improved the trust for the managers. This circular process was iterated with higher frequency than usual and was a prerequisite for the managers' learning. The practical implications are that a combined management with hierarchical and distributed management that uses the normal decision routes seems to be the most successful management method in a prolonged crisis as a pandemic. Practical implications: The gained knowledge can benefit hospital organizations, be used in crisis education and to develop regional contingency plans for pandemics. Originality/value: This study has explored learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and found a circular process, "the management learning wheel," which supports management learning in prolonged crises.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe this new evaluation experience with portfolio in economics, not only from the teacher's point of view but from the student perspective, and all the learning from its implementation; to provide ideas of evaluation practices in virtual and face-to-face modality in international business education; to motivate the rethinking of assessment practices in higher education to combine the best of each modality in the future. Design/methodology/approach: The present work is a case study based on a qualitative description of the implementation of a portfolio as an assessment practice, supported by a reflection questionnaire with students' perceptions and some elements of metacognition. The first section summarizes the literature used as a theoretical framework of this work. The second section describes the portfolio implementation by analyzing teachers and students reflections with a qualitative approach. The third section presents the findings. The fourth section is a discussion of findings, practical implications, limitations and future research directions. Finally, the conclusions of the work are shared. Findings: Because the portfolio has had overwhelming results to assess what students have learned during the pandemic, it has become the learning and assessment tool after the pandemic, as it transforms the classes experience by shifting the focus from traditional examinations to more comprehensive, personalized and reflective ones. It also empowers students to take ownership of their learning, develop essential skills and cultivate a deeper understanding. Among other benefits, the portfolio means the creation of a safe and supportive environment for honest reflection, the development and design of strategic directions to improve learning and lead students toward metacognitive autonomy. Reflection pieces, a critical component of the portfolio, are a vital tool in the proactive learning process, as through reflection students learn to examine their own performance and discuss strategies to enhance their success in future work. Research limitations/implications: This work began as an educational experience per se, not for research purposes, which caused it to be systematized and reconstructed in a descriptive way, not to measure quantitative results. In this way, the present work describes that the portfolio helps to achieve better results on students' learning than traditional examinations but, as another limitation, it does not measure them nor the process. One more limitation of this work is that it was written in a postpandemic context but was implemented during the pandemic; therefore, the circumstances of writing are not the same as those of implementation, and this could also entail a certain margin of decontextualization. At the same time, this is an experience that is still in process and continually being adapted to this changed and changing educational postpandemic context. Practical implications: One of the main implications of the portfolio experience, transferable to all educational contexts, is that it transforms the final exam into a metacognitive one, letting students be aware of their own process of learning and results--objectives and competences--acquired. In this way, it lets teachers witness a part of the learning process that is not so evident in the traditional assessment practices--focused on some aspect of the learning--as it makes visible the way in which students receive, process and apply content, that is to say, how they make it their own. Social implications: The portfolio promotes reflective learning and metacognition, vital skills that benefit students beyond the classroom. This can have a positive impact on societal attitudes toward education and the quality of learning. Of the students, 82% felt the portfolio creation was helpful in their personal and professional lives, suggesting a broader societal impact. The paper's findings contribute to the body of knowledge about the effectiveness of portfolio-based assessment in higher education, especially in the worldwide transition from online education to postpandemic education. This could guide future studies in similar educational contexts or with different pedagogical innovative tools. Originality/value: In light of the 2020 pandemic lockdown, this work delves into the pressing need for educators to adapt and modify their teaching approaches. The relevance of this study is accentuated by the worldwide transition from online education to postpandemic education. This paper bridges the gap between theory and practice because the research can be applied to the educational practice of any international business education context, as well as lay the foundations for future research in the field that contributes to increasing evidence of the effectiveness of the use of the portfolio to achieve significant and deep learning in higher education.

This paper re-examines the tension between professional and liberal education by revisiting "The Idea of the University" (1852), the seminal mid-nineteenth century treatise of John Henry Newman. In returning to Newman's classic text, we are interested in the significance of his lectures for a contemporary Higher Education increasingly under pressure to be 'useful:' on this understanding, 'useful' denotes an arguably limited and utilitarian sense where the university guarantees its students a well-paying job on graduation. In pressing on this distinction between 'the useful' and 'the useless' -- a distinction that continues to plague discourse on the contemporary university -- our paper focuses on the experiential and pedagogical aspects of education that find recurring emphasis in Newman's classic work: aspects of "place," of community, and of the teacher-student relationship.

In 2022, after two years of the COVID virus profoundly interrupting social connection, learning, work and human mobility, governments worldwide turned material and rhetorical attention to life 'post-pandemic'. Understandably, teachers who were central in keeping communities virtually connected during the pandemic--are positioned as core to a return to the quality of life and to gaining social futures beyond COVID-19. This is reflected in the theme of the 64th ICET World Assembly Building Creative Global Teacher Education Communities Post-Pandemic. This conceptual paper, given initially as a keynote at this conference, argues that for teachers, the state of crisis has not abated, rather, post-COVID educators are 'returning' pre-existing and enduring social, environmental and workforce crises that have been amplified during the global health crisis (Rosehart et al. 2022). The paper contends that for teachers to respond to the major social and environmental justice issues of our time, it is important to examine the structures and practices which standardise and regulate teachers and teaching and limit the creativity required for powerful knowledge building. Drawing on recent research, the paper offers an example of the ways in which teachers might be supported to reimagine disciplines and subjects in order address and respond to the major crises of our time.