scholarly journals Higher Education in the First Year of COVID-19: Thoughts and Perspectives for the Future

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 285
Author(s):  
Stefano Cesco ◽  
Vincenzo Zara ◽  
Alberto F. De Toni ◽  
Paolo Lugli ◽  
Giovanni Betta ◽  
...  

In the last year a new virus (SARS‑CoV‑2) and the disease caused by it (COVID-19) has quickly spread around the world, leading the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency and, then, a global pandemic status. The strategies adopted by many countries to reduce the impact of the pandemic were mainly based on social distancing rules and on stay-at-home measures or lockdowns. These strategies had severe disruptive consequences on many sectors, including all levels of education. While the “traditional” (face-to-face) Higher Education (HE) system was unprepared for the lockdown (e.g., no plans for a massive shift to online teaching were available/ready), it reacted in an extremely quick and effective way, replacing face-to-face teaching with online teaching. While COVID-19 has been extremely challenging for education, the experience has undoubtedly provided positive inputs for the digitalization of the HE system. The question is however, if whether after the COVID-19 emergency everything will go back to the previous situation or instead if the pandemic has irreversibly changed HE. While we are still in the middle of the crisis, it is in our view beneficial to start to reflect on the challenges and open issues that emerged during this period and the lessons learned for the “new normal” (as it is often referred to). In this conceptual paper we seek to start this discussion by focusing on the following relevant aspects that should be considered to succeed in the digital transformation: broadband network infrastructure and hardware devices; e-learning software; organization of teaching activities; pedagogical issues; diversity and inclusivity; and a number of other issues. We conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic will irreversibly change HE and probably for the better.

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-58
Author(s):  
Al Kusaeri Al Kusaeri

Since the enactment of the COVID-19 pandemic status by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. Massive joint efforts are needed by the world community to fight the spread of the COVID 19 virus so as not to cause more victims. The crisis due to the spread of Covid 19 is not only seen as a health crisis, but affects crises in various sectors of public life, because the impact affects all sectors of life. Facing this, in addition to medical efforts by finding anti-viruses, public awareness of a healthy lifestyle is also needed, namely getting used to behavior following health protocols in carrying out various life activities to inhibit and stop the rate of transmission of Covid 19. Paying attention to the movement of the spread of Covid 19 which runs very fast Therefore, fast public awareness is also needed to get used to following the covid 19 protocol. For this reason, all levels of society must take part in increasing public awareness to carry out various activities by following the Covid 19 protocol including Higher Education, as the efforts that have been carried out by UIN Mataram through Participatory Work Lecture (KKP) activities in 2020


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-92
Author(s):  
Franciscus Dwikotjo Sri Sumantyo

Beginning at the end of 2019 in various countries around the world and in Indonesia during the period of February 2020 has been shocked by a spectacular outbreak of a virus called Corona or Covid-19 (Corona Virus Diseases-19). This virus originally existed and developed in Wuhan China and its transmission spread very quickly throughout the world. So that the World Health Organization (WHO)(Jianxi Luo, 2020a), declared a world pandemic. Many victims fell and died, including in Indonesia and disrupt human life plus the unavailability of drugs or antidotes for this virus. All sectors in the world experience tremendous impact and ultimately jointly overcome in various ways so that transmission can be minimized, including in the field of education, especially higher education in Indonesia, many efforts have been made in the conditions and situations of teaching in the period and post-pandemic Covid-19. Government efforts in mobilizing and launching an independent campus and WFH-SFH (Nadiem Anwar Makarim, 2020a) are efforts to reduce and overcome Covid-19 servicing on campus and places of education whose potential is extraordinary, if contracting and other efforts undertaken to solve and explained in this study by each - higher education is an effort to minimize and reduce the impact caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Keywords: Covid-19, pandemic, e-learning, independent campus, Study From Home (SFH)   Abstrak Berawal akhir tahun 2019 di berbagai negara di belahan dunia dan di Indonesia dari bulan Pebruari 2020 telah dikejutkan oleh wabah spektakuler yaitu virus yang bernama Corona atau Covid-19 (Corona Virus Diseases-19). Virus ini awalnya ada dan berkembang di Wuhan China dan penularannya sangat cepat menyebar ke seluruh dunia. Sehingga oleh World Health Organization (WHO) (Jianxi Luo, 2020a), menyatakan pandemi dunia. Korban banyak berjatuhan dan meninggal dunia termasuk di Indonesia dan mengganggu kehidupan manusia ditambah belum tersedianya obat atau penangkal virus ini. Semua sektor di dunia mengalami dampak yang luar biasa dan pada akhirnya bersama-sama mengatasi dengan berbagai cara agar penularannya bisa diminimalisir, termasuk dalam bidang pendidikan, khususnya pendidikan tinggi di Indonesia telah banyak dilakukan upaya dalam kondisi dan situasi pengajaran di masa dan pasca pandemi Covid-19. Upaya pemerintah dalam menggerakkan dan mencanangkan kampus merdeka dan WFH-SFH (Nadiem Anwar Makarim, 2020a) adalah upaya untuk mengurangi dan mengatasi penyebaran Covid-19 di dalam kampus dan tempat pendidikan yang potensinya sangat luar biasa jika tertular dan upaya-upaya lain yang dilakukan untuk penanggulangannya dan dijelaskan dalam studi ini oleh masing-masing pendidikan tinggi adalah upaya dalam meminimalisir dan mengurangi dampak yang terjadi akibat pandemi Covid-19 ini. Kata Kunci: Covid-19, pandemi, pembelajaran online, kampus merdeka, belajar dari rumah


Author(s):  
Pooja Sharma ◽  
Karan Veer

: It was 11 March 2020 when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the name COVID-19 for coronavirus disease and also described it as a pandemic. Till that day 118,000 cases were confirmed of pneumonia with breathing problem throughout the world. At the start of New Year when COVID-19 came into knowledge a few days later, the gene sequencing of the virus was revealed. Today the number of confirmed cases is scary, i.e. 9,472,473 in the whole world and 484,236 deaths have been recorded by WHO till 26 June 2020. WHO's global risk assessment is very high [1]. The report is enlightening the lessons learned by India from the highly affected countries.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukman Olagoke ◽  
Ahmet E. Topcu

BACKGROUND COVID-19 represents a serious threat to both national health and economic systems. To curb this pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a series of COVID-19 public safety guidelines. Different countries around the world initiated different measures in line with the WHO guidelines to mitigate and investigate the spread of COVID-19 in their territories. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of these control measures using a data-centric approach. METHODS We begin with a simple text analysis of coronavirus-related articles and show that reports on similar outbreaks in the past strongly proposed similar control measures. This reaffirms the fact that these control measures are in order. Subsequently, we propose a simple performance statistic that quantifies general performance and performance under the different measures that were initiated. A density based clustering of based on performance statistic was carried out to group countries based on performance. RESULTS The performance statistic helps evaluate quantitatively the impact of COVID-19 control measures. Countries tend show variability in performance under different control measures. The performance statistic has negative correlation with cases of death which is a useful characteristics for COVID-19 control measure performance analysis. A web-based time-line visualization that enables comparison of performances and cases across continents and subregions is presented. CONCLUSIONS The performance metric is relevant for the analysis of the impact of COVID-19 control measures. This can help caregivers and policymakers identify effective control measures and reduce cases of death due to COVID-19. The interactive web visualizer provides easily digested and quick feedback to augment decision-making processes in the COVID-19 response measures evaluation. CLINICALTRIAL Not Applicable


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 003685042110198
Author(s):  
Helen Onyeaka ◽  
Christian K Anumudu ◽  
Zainab T Al-Sharify ◽  
Esther Egele-Godswill ◽  
Paul Mbaegbu

COVID-19, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the 11th of March 2020, leading to some form of lockdown across almost all countries of the world. The extent of the global pandemic due to COVID-19 has a significant impact on our lives that must be studied carefully to combat it. This study highlights the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on crucial aspects of daily life globally, including; Food security, Global economy, Education, Tourism, hospitality, sports and leisure, Gender Relation, Domestic Violence/Abuse, Mental Health and Environmental air pollution through a systematic search of the literature. The COVID-19 global lockdown was initiated to stem the spread of the virus and ‘flatten the curve’ of the pandemic. However, the impact of the lockdown has had far-reaching effects in different strata of life, including; changes in the accessibility and structure of education delivery to students, food insecurity as a result of unavailability and fluctuation in prices, the depression of the global economy, increase in mental health challenges, wellbeing and quality of life amongst others. This review article highlights the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown across the globe. As the global lockdown is being lifted in a phased manner in various countries of the world, it is necessary to explore its impacts to understand its consequences comprehensively. This will guide future decisions that will be made in a possible future wave of the COVID-19 pandemic or other global disease outbreak.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Mahmoud ◽  
Anna TOKAR ◽  
Melissa ARRIAS ◽  
Christos MYLONAS ◽  
Heini UTUNEN ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED As part of its transformation process to meet the health challenges of the 21st century by creating a motivated and fit-for-purpose global workforce, the World Health Organization (WHO) is developing the first-ever global Learning Strategy for health personnel around the world. Focus group discussions (FGDs) were organized as part of in-depth qualitative research on staff views, visions, and suggestions. Due to the pandemic, a flexible, multi-linguistic, participatory, iterative methodology for digitization of face-to-face FDGs to engage a globally dispersed workforce was implemented.


2020 ◽  
pp. 07-19
Author(s):  
Hiba Takieddine ◽  
Samaa AL Tabbah

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease that has rapidly swept across the world, inducing a considerable degree of fear, worry and concern in the population at large and among certain groups in particular, such as older adults, healthcare providers and people with underlying health conditions. Authorities around the world tried to prevent the virus spread by imposing social distancing measures, quarantining citizens and isolating infected persons. Apart from its physical impact, COVID-19 pandemic has brought numerous changes to people’s lives. It changed daily routines, caused worldwide economic crisis, increased unemployment, and placed people under emotional and financial pressures. It affected people psychologically and mentally especially in terms of emotions and cognition. During the acute crisis, everyone to varying degrees experienced fear of infection, somatic concerns, worries about the pandemic’s consequences, loneliness, depression, stress, as well as increased alcohol and drug use. As part of its public health response, the World Health Organization (WHO) has worked with partners to develop a set of new guidelines and messages that can be used to prevent, manage, and support mental and psychological well-being in different vulnerable target groups during the outbreak. Whether people like it or not, the psychological sequela of this pandemic will emerge and persist for months and years to come leading to long-term consequences. New lifestyles and “New Normals” will surely emerge. The main purpose of this review is to summarize the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the psychological and mental health of people around the world especially vulnerable groups. It also presents the relevant intervention actions and recommendations to cope efficiently and effectively with the psychological short-term and long-term outcomes, mental changes, and the “New Normal” during and after COVID-19. Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus, Psychological; Mental; New Normal


2020 ◽  

In the past 100 years, the world has faced four distinctly different pandemics: the Spanish flu of 1918-1919, the SARS pandemic of 2003, the H1N1 or “swine flu” pandemic of 2012, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Each public health crisis exposed specific systemic shortfalls and provided public health lessons for future events. The Spanish flu revealed a nursing shortage and led to a great appreciation of nursing as a profession. SARS showed the importance of having frontline clinicians be able to work with regulators and those producing guidelines. H1N1 raised questions about the nature of a global organization such as the World Health Organization in terms of the benefits and potential disadvantages of leading the fight against a long-term global public health threat. In the era of COVID-19, it seems apparent that we are learning about both the blessing and curse of social media.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIKKI PANG

“I want my leadership to be judged by the impact of our work on the health of two populations: women and the people of Africa.” This is how Dr. Margaret Chan, the current Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), described her leadership mission. The reason behind this mission is evident. Women and girls constitute 70% of the world’s poor and 80% of the world’s refugees. Gender violence against women aged 15–44 is responsible for more deaths and disability than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war. An estimated 350,000 to 500,000 women still die in childbirth every year. The negative health implications of absolute poverty are worst in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Hence, Chan aims to have the biggest impact on the world’s poorest people.


Author(s):  
Catherine Berry

This chapter describes the worrisome trend of resistance development in antibacterial agents with exponential increases in resistance to the most effective classes of antibiotics. Described by the World Health Organization as a major global health security threat, the annual deaths from drug-resistant infection are projected to increase from 700,000 to 10 million by 2050. This chapter outlines the impact of antimicrobial resistance in humanitarian settings and provides practical approaches which can be used by organizations and health providers.


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