Emergence and Rapid Popularization of Paid Web-Conferencing-Application-Based Tours in Japan: An Analysis of Their Business Potential

Following the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, people in Japan were asked to refrain from traveling, resulting in various companies coming up with new ways of experiencing tourism. Among them, the online tourism experience of H.I.S. Co., Ltd. (HIS) drew more than 100,000 participants as of August 29, 2021. In this study, we focused on an online tour where the host goes to the site and records real time communication using a web conference application. The destinations of online tours were analyzed through text mining, and the characteristics of online tours were analyzed using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) of topic models. The results show that the number of online tours is weakly negatively correlated with distance and time differences. From the topic model, it is evident that the guide is important in online tours. In addition, the sense of presence, communication environment, and images, which are considered to be unique topics in online tours, are also relevant to the evaluation.

Bridging the Digital Divide in the Changing Times: Application of A5 Solutions

Disasters, either natural and man-made, adversely affect humanity including human lives and, the knowledge creation, as a standard of the progress of civilization. The development of education of a country depends upon the present economics, academic structure, research facilities, health issues and involvement of government ministry. The outbreak of present pandemic Coronavirus (official designation COVID-19 or 2019-nCov) has a clear negative impact on academic and research activities. It creates a global threat and people keep themselves at home to maintain social distancing for reducing the outbreak of community transmission. This COVID-19 epidemic is neither the first and confidently nor the last epidemic that will pose a threat to the conventional education system. Both the effects of education i.e. direct and indirect effects are a subject risk to such pandemic and other disaster vulnerability. Instead, efforts should be made to find measures which can ensure the continuation of the education system for posterity. This requirement of an alternate way of learning proves us for the transformation of the learning process from conventional to digital. The primary requirement of this transformation is the availability of a sophisticated and multitasking platform for online learning, which conforms A5 solutions. This A5 implies the 5A’s of access, i.e. Availability, Adequacy, Accessibility, Affordability and Appropriateness; which bridges the digital divide by ensuring the equal access of web for all. In this paper, the authors have discussed the tool FCC (Free Conference Call), after evaluation and comparison which can use by learners and educators as an alternative solution of the physical classroom. This is a dissemination or sharing platform and most versatile and comprehensive free web-conferencing solution which can be used by academic institutions and educators for online classes. In addition, this paper also go through the comparative study of FCC and other known web conferencing tools to clarify the judgement of its acceptance.

Moderator and observer experiences and decision-making: Remote usability testing of a web-based empathy training portal (Preprint)

BACKGROUND COVID 2019 restrictions severely curtailed empirical endeavors that involved in-person human interaction. The pandemic also stimulated our team to embrace technology in a two-fold manner. First, we created novel technology to help us to overcome pandemic restrictions in teaching empathic communication in the traditional classroom. A web-based training portal was created for users to learn empathy in an accessible, compelling, self-directed, and interactive online environment. Second, we harnessed technology to engage in remote usability testing and data collection with prospective users of our training portal. In developing our protocol, we discovered gaps in the literature on moderator and silent observer roles and experiences in conducting remote usability testing. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper is to share our remote moderator and silent observer experiences and their use of certain tools to capture user feedback and experiences with the app. METHODS The larger-scale project employed a quantitative and think-aloud qualitative problem-discovery usability study design. Three trained research assistants collected and utilized user feedback from eight users who were asked to complete tasks in three sessions. Each research assistant had assigned roles and were asked to qualitatively describe their roles, experiences and reactions to the usability testing protocol, and suggestions for improved techniques and strategies for conducting remote usability testing. RESULTS Major results are described in relation to the research assistant experiences with the study protocol followed by recommendations for the design of future remote testing activities as well as evidence-informed training materials for usability project personnel. CONCLUSIONS Our findings highlighted that as we move towards greater remote usability testing, we also need more comprehensive understanding of human-computer interaction and its impact on usability testing outcomes. Our team realized that accessible comprehensive web-conferencing platform to conduct remote sessions is not sufficient. Lead moderator and silent observers offered their insights and recommendations for the ongoing creation and testing of training materials for their respective roles with a focus on: online interpersonal communication skills, conducting user testing protocols, troubleshooting technology and test user issues, proficiency in web-conferencing plus behavior analysis and feedback technologies, and time management. CLINICALTRIAL None.

Sustaining Inclusive, Quality Education during COVID-19 Lockdowns

With the sudden emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing countries to close schools, the education of students worldwide had become a major challenge. Schools were forced to switch to online education, as that proved to be the only feasible option considering the adverse circumstances. The purpose of this research is to facilitate a quick transition to distance education should another lockdown be implemented. This is achieved by performing a literature review to determine how online education is regarded by students, along with what its advantages and challenges are. A survey has also been administered, with the purpose of assessing the usability of certain web conferencing platforms used in online education. The findings and results indicate an improving attitude towards degrees and courses acquired by online education, whilst also including the pitfalls and challenges teachers currently face during online education. The results of the survey suggest that certain web conferencing platforms appeal to the students more, with Big Blue Button being the platform most respondents rated favourably in the survey. Student feedback indicates that the transition to online education was successful, albeit somewhat challenging.

THE FORMS AND METHODS OF ART DISCIPLINES' TEACHING UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF DISTANCE LEARNING

This article describes the development of forms and methods of art disciplines’ teaching under the conditions of distance learning. The main aim of the research is to develop recommendations for the artistic disciplines' teaching by educational institutions under the conditions of distance learning. To achieve this goal during the research, the following tasks will be carried out: - substantiation of the relevance of the study under the conditions of quarantine restrictions; - critical analysis of the literature on the development of the form and methods of teaching art disciplines; - the features of online work, and the features of work under the conditions of distance learning in higher education institutions. To conduct empirical research aimed at confirming the effectiveness of the developed teaching forms, we surveyed a group of students. It allowed proving the hypothesis that distance learning can be effective. The article contains recommendations for lecture classes, the organization of independent and group work, and other types of distance learning. The main direction of the development of teaching artistic disciplines is the development of educational technologies within the virtual environment. The developed forms and methods of distance learning are expedient to use both in the work with full-time students and the work with extramural students, attracting the possibilities of web-conferencing and communication using Skype, which forms the practical significance of the research.

Speaking Assessments by Japanese English Teachers Pre and Post Implementation of CEFR in the Midst of a Global Pandemic

Amid a global pandemic, while schools in many parts of the world were closed to adhere to quarantine orders, schools in Japan resumed face-to-face classes after only a month of closure with strict adherence to COVID-19 guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOP). This study examined how speaking assessments were administered face-to-face for Grade 5 and 6 elementary school students prior to and after introducing the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and amid a global pandemic between April to October 2020. The paper also reports the challenges and strategies employed in carrying out the speaking assessments following the CEFR while adhering to the SOP. The study employed a qualitative research method that utilised semi-structured interviews to elicit information from four teachers who taught in eight schools within Niigata City, Japan. Findings suggest that prior to the implementation of CEFR, not all teachers carried out speaking assessments. However, the implementation of CEFR emphasised the need to teach speaking and carry out speaking assessments. The CEFR also served as guidance for the teachers in preparing the assessment scoring rubrics. The results also showed that the speaking assessments were implemented individually instead of in groups before the pandemic and the presence of the masks, which increased the student’s anxiety and affected their performance. However, the teachers employed various strategies to overcome the challenges by modifying the assessment tasks and utilising web conferencing technology.

Requirements Elicitation for an Assistance System for Complexity Management in Product Development of SMEs during COVID-19: A Case Study

Technological progress, upcoming cyber-physical systems, and limited resources confront small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the challenge of complexity management in product development projects spanning over the entire product lifecycle. SMEs require a solution for documenting and analyzing the functional relationships between multiple domains such as products, software, and processes. The German research project FuPEP “Funktionsorientiertes Komplexitätsmanagement in allen Phasen der Produktentstehung” aims to address this issue by developing an assistance system that supports product developers by visualizing functional relationships. This paper presents the methodology and results of the assistance system’s requirements elicitation with two SMEs. Conducting the elicitation during a global pandemic, we discuss its application using specific techniques in light of COVID-19. We model problems and their effects regarding complexity management in product development in a system dynamics model. The most important requirements and use cases elicited are presented, and the requirements elicitation methodology and results are discussed. Additionally, we present a multilayer software architecture design of the assistance system. Our case study suggests a relationship between fear of a missing project focus among project participants and the restriction of requirements elicitation techniques to those possible via web conferencing tools.