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In today's rapidly changing job market, digital competence is quickly becoming a requirement for employability. This has put pressure on the next generation, particularly digital natives, to be well-equipped to deal with the turbulence of technology. This paper aims to compare youth's pre-course and post-course digital competency levels and examine students' perceptions of their employability after taking digital-skills-related courses. The Penang government initiative of an online learning program named "Penang Young Digital Talent Program" is designed to foster digital competencies. The program comprises online courses such as web design, digital marketing, etc. Therefore, the current study has examined the current level of Penang youth's digital readiness and digital competency (survey 1, N = 662) and the evaluate program's effectiveness while determining the impact of course quality on perceived employability (survey 2, N = 385) students undergo. The participants of this program range from 18-30 years old (post-secondary school and graduates), who are either born in Penang or have resided in Penang for a minimum of 3 years. The participants reported that their digital competency improved after participating in the talent program. The results of Smart PLS reported that course quality has a significant and positive relationship with perceived employability. Moreover, there is an indirect impact of student satisfaction and course effectiveness on the perceived employability of Malaysian youth. These findings have implications for educational policymakers who should prioritize young people acquiring digital skills to compete in the modern labor market.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of students to stay indoors and adapt to the new normal, namely distance learning at home, placing online learning in the spotlight. However, students' motivation for online learning and its effectiveness in skill development during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been widely studied. This study examined the relationship between students' fear of COVID-19 and students' social presence in online learning while investigating the parallel mediating role of student psychological motivation and cognitive problem-solving skills related to online learning. The participants were 472 university students in Malaysia and Pakistan. An online data collection technique using Google Forms was employed. Faculty members of the universities were asked to share the survey with their students. Moreover, using a snowball sampling technique, students were requested to share the survey with their friends. SPSS Statistics (Version 21) was employed to do preliminary data analysis, AMOS (Version 21) software was used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis using a maximum likelihood estimation, and Hayes' PROCESS model was used to examine proposed hypotheses. The results show that only cognitive problem solving mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and students' social presence in online learning in Malaysian samples. In Pakistan, cognitive problem solving and psychological motivation mediate the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and students' social presence in online learning. The study found that developing cognitive problem-solving skills and providing psychological motivation could enhance their engagement with online learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of students to stay indoors and adapt to the new normal, namely distance learning at home, placing online learning in the spotlight. However, students' motivation for online learning and its effectiveness in skill development during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been widely studied. This study examined the relationship between students' fear of COVID-19 and students' social presence in online learning while investigating the parallel mediating role of student psychological motivation and cognitive problem-solving skills related to online learning. The participants were 472 university students in Malaysia and Pakistan. An online data collection technique using Google Forms was employed. Faculty members of the universities were asked to share the survey with their students. Moreover, using a snowball sampling technique, students were requested to share the survey with their friends. SPSS Statistics (Version 21) was employed to do preliminary data analysis, AMOS (Version 21) software was used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis using a maximum likelihood estimation, and Hayes' PROCESS model was used to examine proposed hypotheses. The results show that only cognitive problem solving mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and students' social presence in online learning in Malaysian samples. In Pakistan, cognitive problem solving and psychological motivation mediate the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and students' social presence in online learning. The study found that developing cognitive problem-solving skills and providing psychological motivation could enhance their engagement with online learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retailers try their best to make their online store environment more entertaining and attractive to capture customers' attention. Therefore, it is interesting and beneficial to explore how the store environment impacts the customer emotions in store and how these emotions change customer's buying behaviour. The main focus of this study is to measure the impact of atmosphere cues, such as colour and music on respondent's emotional response and their shopping behaviour in an online store. Respondents were exposed to different combinations of music and colour, and both cues had significant impacts on the respondent's emotional response and behavioural intention. The questionnaire responses of 230 valid respondents from Pakistan revealed that cool colours and fast tempo music showed greater levels of pleasure and arousal as compared to slow tempo music with warm colours. Arousal and pleasure were also found to be significant parameters for predicting behaviour intention. Respondent's in fast tempo music with cool colour environment showed more approach behaviour in comparison to slow tempo music with warm colours. An efficient online store environment is proposed, incorporating suitable music and colour attributes that will result in more time spent in-store, repurchasing, and revisiting. The outcomes of the study assist online retailers in Pakistan to make the shopping environment attractive and enjoyable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]