scholarly journals eLearning for Tourism During COVID-19 - Learning from Students’ Perspectives. A Pilot Study

Author(s):  
Lea Hasenzahl ◽  
Soha Ghezili ◽  
Lorenzo Cantoni

AbstractThis paper shows a first analysis of the experiences and challenges of studying tourism during the times of the COVID-19 pandemic. 14 tourism students from two higher education institutions in Europe participated in three focus group discussions. One generation of these students started their education in presence and had to shift online with the start of the pandemic, while the other generation started their education knowing that lessons would be mainly online. Authors used qualitative content analysis to analyze the participants’ statements. As a result of the analysis, several themes emerged, and students contextualized eLearning as an education method for a future without COVID-19.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Rücker ◽  
Maria Hårdstedt ◽  
Sekai Chenai Mathabire Rücker ◽  
Emma Aspelin ◽  
Alexander Smirnoff ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused overwhelming challenges to healthcare systems worldwide. Healthcare workers (HCWs) have faced particular challenges: being exposed to the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and caring for patients having a new and potentially life-threatening disease. The aim of this study was to explore how HCWs in the Swedish healthcare system perceived their work situation during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Methods Focus group discussions and interviews with HCWs were performed from June to October 2020 in one Swedish healthcare region. A purposeful sampling approach was used to select a variety of professions (physicians, nurses, nurse aides and cleaners) and workplaces (hospital inpatient wards, emergency department, nursing home and home care service). Qualitative content analysis was used for data analysis. Results In total, 51 HCWs participated in eight focus group discussions and one HCW participated in an individual interview. The content analysis identified two main categories: ‘Concerns about the risk of infection and transmission of infection to others’, and ‘Transition from chaos to managing in a new and challenging work situation’. The findings revealed how HCWs perceived working conditions, including experiences of fear for personal health, confusion and uncertainty regarding personal protective equipment and infection prevention and control (PPE/IPC), and fear of infecting others. Both fearful and appreciating attitudes were achieved from the surrounding community. Helpful strategies for transition from chaos to control were lifted i.e. present and supportive leadership, and finding comfort and strength in the working team. Both helplessness and meaningfulness were described when caring for COVID-19 patients. Conclusions This study provides unique insights into HCWs experiences of an extremely challenging work situation during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, including feelings of stress and insecurity in a chaotic and hazardous working environment. But there is also mitigation of these challenges and even positive experiences including feelings of safety and meaningfulness. To enhance safety among HCWs in healthcare crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings highlight the importance of avoiding confusion about PPE/IPC, having a supportive healthcare leadership and ensuring accurate information provision about virus transmission to the public.


Author(s):  
Rosa Repo ◽  
Juho Pesonen

AbstractVirtual tourism allows people to see and experience the world without physically travelling to the destination. The objective of this study is to identify service elements critical to the development of customer-oriented live guided virtual tours. A total of three focus group discussions were conducted, with 4–5 participants in each group. All the participants were Japanese who had previously participated in live guided virtual tours. The data was analysed with qualitative content analysis, where an inductive approach was used. The findings reveal that the main expectations of the participants are related to experiencing the local culture and way of life, feeling of actually being in the destination (sense of connection), social interaction and active participation. These factors make the virtual tour feel realistic and attractive and the tourism businesses need especially to focus on these when designing virtual tours for example by providing ample opportunities for the virtual tour participants to discuss with each other and learn from each other. This study brings valuable insights into the virtual tours research from the customer perspective, especially in a non-Western context.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menti Lastone Ndile ◽  
Britt-Inger Saveman ◽  
Gift G. Lukumay ◽  
Dickson A. Mkoka ◽  
Anne H. Outwater ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends involving lay people in prehospital care. Several training programmes have been implemented to build lay responder first aid skills. Findings show that most programmes significantly improved participants’ first aid skills. However, there is a gap in knowledge of what factors influence the use of these skills in real situations. The current study aimed to describe police officers’ views on and experiences of factors that facilitate or hinder their use of trained first aid skills at work. Methods Thirty-four police officers participated in five focus group discussions. A structured interview guide was used to collect data. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: We identified five categories of facilitators or hindrances. Training exposure was considered a facilitator; work situation and hospital atmosphere were considered hindrances; and the physical and social environments and the resources available for providing first aid could be either facilitators or hindrances.Conclusion: Practical exposure during training is perceived to improve police officers’ confidence in applying their first aid skills at work. However, contextual factors related to the working environment need to be addressed to promote this transfer of skills.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Menti L. Ndile ◽  
Britt-Inger Saveman ◽  
Gift G. Lukumay ◽  
Dickson A. Mkoka ◽  
Anne H. Outwater ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends involving lay people in prehospital care. Several training programmes have been implemented to build lay responder first aid skills. Findings show that most programmes significantly improved participants’ first aid skills. However, there is a gap in knowledge of what factors influence the use of these skills in real situations. The current study aimed to describe police officers’ views on and experiences of factors that facilitate or hinder their use of trained first aid skills at work. Methods Thirty-four police officers participated in five focus group discussions. A structured interview guide was used to collect data. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results We identified five categories of facilitators or hindrances. Training exposure was considered a facilitator; work situation and hospital atmosphere were considered hindrances; and the physical and social environments and the resources available for providing first aid could be either facilitators or hindrances. Conclusion Practical exposure during training is perceived to improve police officers’ confidence in applying their first aid skills at work. However, contextual factors related to the working environment need to be addressed to promote this transfer of skills.


Author(s):  
Liāna Supe ◽  
Ingūna Jurgelāne-Kaldava

Aim – to identify criterions and parameters for classification of higher education institutions, using research method – qualitative content analysis. The following tasks are defined for reaching the aim: to conduct qualitative content analysis and define categories and their frequency; to describe and analyse defined categories; to compare different classifications of higher education institutions; to summarize the analysis results and draw conclusions. Research methodology – overview of literature and qualitative content analysis. Findings – qualitative content analysis helps to structure the information gathered, to select the relevant and applicable, and leads to the development of new categories; higher education institutions are classified in many ways, using different criterions and parameters; classifications made by individual researchers are available, as well as universally known and applied classifications of higher education institutions such as Carnegie Classification and European classification of higher education institutions. Research limitations – the classification of higher education institutions is analysed only from Europe and the United States of America.


2011 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Moretti ◽  
Liesbeth van Vliet ◽  
Jozien Bensing ◽  
Giuseppe Deledda ◽  
Mariangela Mazzi ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menti Lastone Ndile ◽  
Britt-Inger Saveman ◽  
Gift G. Lukumay ◽  
Dickson A. Mkoka ◽  
Anne H. Outwater ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends involving lay people in prehospital care. Several training programmes have been implemented to build lay responder first aid skills. Findings show that most programmes significantly improved participants’ first aid skills. However, there is a gap in knowledge of what factors influence the use of these skills in real situations. The current study aimed to describe police officers’ views on and experiences of factors that facilitate or hinder their use of trained first aid skills at work. Methods Thirty-four police officers participated in five focus group discussions. A structured interview guide was used to collect data. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: We identified five categories of facilitators or hindrances. Training exposure was considered a facilitator; work situation and hospital atmosphere were considered hindrances; and the physical and social environments and the resources available for providing first aid could be either facilitators or hindrances. Conclusion: Practical exposure during training is perceived to improve police officers’ confidence in applying their first aid skills at work. However, contextual factors related to the working environment need to be addressed to promote this transfer of skills.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menti Lastone Ndile ◽  
Britt-Inger Saveman ◽  
Gift G. Lukumay ◽  
Dickson A. Mkoka ◽  
Anne H. Outwater ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends involving lay people in prehospital care. Several training programmes have been implemented to build lay responder first aid skills. Findings show that most programmes significantly improved participants’ first aid skills. However, there is a gap in knowledge of what factors influence the use of these skills in real situations. The current study aimed to describe police officers’ views on and experiences of factors that facilitate or hinder their use of trained first aid skills at work. Methods Thirty-four police officers participated in five focus group discussions. A structured interview guide was used to collect data. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: We identified five categories of facilitators or hindrances. Training exposure was considered a facilitator; work situation and hospital atmosphere were considered hindrances; and the physical and social environments and the resources available for providing first aid could be either facilitators or hindrances. Conclusion: Practical exposure during training is perceived to improve police officers’ confidence in applying their first aid skills at work. However, contextual factors related to the working environment need to be addressed to promote this transfer of skills.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 72-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Greenberger ◽  
Rick Holbeck ◽  
John Steele ◽  
Thomas Dyer

Plagiarism is an ongoing problem in higher education. This problem exists in both online and face-to-face modalities. The literature indicates that there are three ways higher education institutions define plagiarism, which includes theft, deception, and misunderstanding. Plagiarism due to misunderstanding has received less attention in the literature. In addition, research has shown that there are at least three different categories of misunderstanding, which include cultural, generational, and academic enculturation factors. In this study, a focus group of 14 online full-time instructors participated in discussing perceptions of plagiarism due to misunderstanding. The results show that instructors identified two primary causes of this kind of plagiarism, which were poor paraphrasing and incorrect citing of academic sources. In addition, the results showed that there were three primary approaches taken to address such cases, which were coaching, simply allowing the student to rewrite the assignment with limited feedback, and referring the student to a plagiarism tutorial. The findings indicate that online instructors may focus more on academic enculturation issues such as poor paraphrasing and incorrect citation and less on cultural and generational factors that may lead to unintentional plagiarism. Lastly, as part of a reflective critique, and in preparation for a pilot study, the authors constructed two vignettes as examples of cultural and generational factors that may contribute to such plagiarism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.M. Wong

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the teaching innovations that have been implemented in higher education institutions in Asia and the perspectives of educators on them. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 educators who were affiliated with 23 higher education institutions in ten Asian countries/regions. The interviews covered information about the teaching innovations of the participants’ institutions, the characteristics of the innovative practices and the participants’ views on them. The relationships between the characteristics of institutions and their teaching innovations were also examined. Findings The results showed that the teaching innovations included two main categories, namely, those which involved the use of advanced technologies and those which did not. The innovations that involved the use of advanced technologies were mainly from larger institutions, while the other category was mainly from smaller ones and had been practised for less than 1.5 years. Differences were also identified between the two categories in terms of the aims and importance of innovations, innovative features, the evaluation of innovations and improvements needed for them. Originality/value The results highlighted that technology is only one of the many aspects of teaching innovations, which is different from the view prevailing in the literature. They also suggested that differences in the scale of institutions (in terms of number of students) possibly influences the kind of teaching innovations adopted.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document