A literature review of questionnaires for the assessment of online learning with a specific focus on the factors and items employed

Studies measuring online learning have adopted different perspectives, resulting in different approaches to their assessment of online learning. However, when we consider the literature from a wider angle, there may be complimentary or contrasting relationships. This study performed content analysis on a total of 44 studies that used questionnaires with good reliability and validity from the database of the Social Science Citation Index. Through encoding the 241 factors and 1,171 items used in the questionnaires, we found relationships among them that could be supported by classical theoretical frameworks or our general knowledge of instruction. The content measured by these questionnaires can be divided into five categories according to Li’s (2001) theory of instructional elements: (1) learning environment, (2) learner, (3) teacher, (4) learning content, and (5) learning interaction. Following the initial analysis, this study used the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) (Oye et al., 2014) to classify 58 factors that reflect the learning environment. In addition, the combination of Marzano and Kendall’s (2007) new taxonomy of educational objectives and learning outcomes provides useful information for 111 factors used to assess learners. Implications for policy and practice: An online learning questionnaire database was established with a good structure based on the classification of the factors and items of these questionnaires. Based on the results, teachers can more accurately design online teaching without feeling lost or taking detours.

Blockchain and the Evolving Financial Market: A Literature Review

Blockchain technology has gained widespread utility, particularly in the field of finance due to the popularity of bitcoin. There are other areas such as energy trade and securities market, which have evolved due to blockchain. These fields are new and building regulations and architecture to enhance their functionality. There are studies on blockchain finance and this paper aims to summarize a few of the pathbreaking studies and guide future research in this field. This paper reviews 77 journal publications related to blockchain from 2018 to 2021 available in the Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) database. The selected papers have been grouped into 10 categories. This overview indicates that research in blockchain finance needs to focus on developing better privacy and security mechanism as well as better regulations regarding financial transactions not only to benefit from “Initial Coin Offerings”, but also to diversify investor’s risk.

Geographical inequalities in COVID-19 mortality: a scoping review protocol

Objective The objective of this scoping review is to understand what is known in relation to geographical inequalities in COVID-19 mortality. Introduction: COVID-19 has occurred against a backdrop of existing social and economic inequalities in health. The impact of the pandemic has been examined across various intersections of health inequalities such as age, gender, ethnicity, and occupation. However, spatial inequalities have been less explored. Therefore, this review aims to identify and synthesise what is known on geographical inequalities in COVID-19 mortality globally. Inclusion criteria: Following standard scoping review methodology the inclusion criteria will be guided by Population, Concept, Context (PCC). Population: children and adults (all ages); Concept: Area-level inequalities in COVID-19 mortality; Context: any country, at any level (neighbourhood, town, city, municipality, region). Any published, peer-reviewed study written in English that focuses on all three elements of the PCC inclusion criteria will be included. Methods Searches will be conducted in (host sites given in parentheses) Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Science Citation Index (Web of Science) and limited to dates ranging from 1st January 2020 to December 31st 2021. Reference lists of all relevant papers will be searched for additional studies. All titles and abstracts will be screened in Rayyan. Primary studies focusing on COVID-19 mortality rates disaggregated by any measure of area-level deprivation will be selected for full text review. Data relating to study design, population, location, outcomes, and results by deprivation will be extracted using standardised extraction forms. Identified papers meeting the inclusion criteria will be tabulated, synthesised thematically and a narrative constructed to describe the evidence base of geographical inequalities in COVID-19 mortality.

Systematic Review of Stress and Coping Strategies during Pandemic COVID-19 Among Students in Higher Learning Institutions

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that strike Malaysia and the rest of the world has given a huge variety of implications especially in the aspect of mental health. Students are no exception in dealing with it. It requires every student to adapt to the new norms that exist in teaching and learning (T&L) system. Thus, this study aims to examine the coping strategies and stress management that can be applied by students in dealing with stress during the pandemic. To achieve this goal a systematic search was conducted, and a simple thematic analysis approach was used to identify the coping strategies among students at higher learning institutions as discussed by previous researchers on similar topics from three search engines on (1) Scopus, (2) Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), and (3) Science Direct from 2015 to 2021 to determine the latest evidence and observations. A literature review of 10 relevant studies was rigorously analysed to get understanding of coping strategies and stress management amongst students at higher learning institutions. The findings show that there are four critical factors in stress management including (1) time management, (2) internet access issues, (2) academic workload and (4) adaptation to new norms. In addition, there are three types of coping strategies that students can do in coping with stress. Research pertaining to these issues are still lacking. This study is seen to be a new platform and guidelines especially for educational institutions to ensure that every student is equipped with stress management skills that can lead to personal well -being.

Effectiveness of Interventions to Improve Medication Adherence in Adults With Depressive Disorders: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Non-adherence to medications is a major obstacle in the treatment of depressive disorders. We systematically reviewed the literature to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving adherence to medications among adults with depressive disorders.Methods: We searched Medline, EMBASE, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index and Science Citation Index for randomized or non-randomized controlled trials up to September 2019. Risk of bias was assessed using the criteria of the Cochrane Collaboration. Meta-analyses, cumulative and meta-regression analyses for adherence were conducted.Results: Forty-five trials (n= 24,413) were included. Pooled estimate indicates an increase in the probability of adherence to antidepressants at 6 months with the different types of interventions (OR 1.28; 95% CI: 1.07 to 1.54). The improvement in adherence is obtained from 3 months (OR 1.57, 95% CI: 1.22 to 2.01) but it is attenuated at 12 months (OR 1.25, 95% CI: 0.99 to 1.53). Selected articles show methodological differences, mainly the diversity of both the severity of the depressive disorder and intervention procedures. Patients with depression and anxiety seem to benefit most from intervention (OR 2.77, 95% CI: 1.74 to 4.42) and collaborative care is the most effective intervention to improve adherence (OR 1.67, 95% CI: 1.17 to 2.40).Conclusions: Our findings indicate that interventions aimed at improving short and medium-term adherence to medications among adults with depressive disorders are effective. However, the evidence on the effectiveness of long-term adherence is insufficient and supports the need for further research efforts.International Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) number: CRD42017065723

Academic Insights and Perspectives in 3D Printing: A Bibliometric Review

Research interest in three-dimensional (3D) printing has been greatly aroused since 1990 due to its outstanding merits, such as freedom of design, mass customization, waste minimization and fast prototyping complex structures. To formally elaborate the research status of the 3D printing field, a bibliometric analysis is applied to evaluate the related publications from 1990 to 2020 based on the Science Citation Index Expanded database and Social Science Citation Index database. The overview with detailed discussions is cataloged by keywords, citation, h-index, year, journal, institution, country, author, patent and review. The statistical results show that the United States plays a dominant role in this research field, followed by China and the UK. Singapore is the most productive country with the highest average citations per publication (ACPP), and the second most cooperative country. Among all the institutions, Chinese Academy of Sciences is most productive, and Harvard University has the highest ACPP and h-index. Among all the journals, Materials ranks first in the number of publications in this field. The most attractive research area is “Materials science, Multidisciplinary”, with 4053 publications. Moreover, the major hot topics derived from authors’ keywords are “3D printing”, “additive manufacturing” and “tissue engineering”. Commercial and medical applications appear to be the initial driving force and end goal for the development of the 3D printing technology.

Female Entrepreneurial Activity in Emerging Economies: A Systematic Literature Review

This study reviews systematically the existing literature on female entrepreneurial activity in emerging economies. The paper reviews articles included in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Based on the main findings, the literature considers three levels of analysis: micro-individual, meso-organizational, and macro-environmental. The results show that the macro-environmental level has perceived higher attention from scholars, while several studies have incorporated the other levels of analysis.

New venture entrepreneurship and context in East Asia: a systematic literature review

While research on new venture entrepreneurship has been predominantly conducted in Western countries, East Asian start-ups have gained global relevance in recent years. In this article, we systematically review studies on new venture entrepreneurship in East Asia published in Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)-listed journals between 2000 and 2020 and find that the number of papers annually published has been rapidly increasing. However, the research body is highly unbalanced, as most articles are single-country studies focused on China, apply a quantitative methodology, and concentrate on topics such as entrepreneurial strategies and new venture entrepreneurs’ personal attributes and networks. Moreover, a majority of studies provides no or only a weak consideration of the national or subnational context. More strongly contextualized research on countries such as Japan and South Korea and on less studied themes such as culture, entrepreneurial financing, entrepreneurial teams, new venture internationalization and new venture entrepreneurial intention is desirable.

Key themes in consumer financial services research from 2000 to 2020: a bibliometric and science mapping analysis

PurposeThe paper aims to identify the major research themes in consumer financial services between 2000 and 2020, their relative magnitude and interrelationship, to identify which themes have been most influential and to map the evolution of the field and identify emerging and under-researched themes that are promising for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe core methodology is bibliometric analysis based on keyword co-occurrences. A total of 1,227 articles extracted from the Social Science Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index and Scopus are used in the analysis. Key outputs of the SciMAT software are the research themes, and graphical outputs are called science mapping (evolution of the themes over time), strategic diagrams (visual representation of themes in a 2 × 2 grid) and cluster networks (themes and connected themes based on keyword co-occurrences).FindingsThe findings show that customer satisfaction, innovation, corporate social responsibility (CSR), Internet and consumer acceptance were the main so-called motor themes in the study period. Furthermore, five areas for further research are identified and discussed: Issues related to technology; marketing and consumer behavior; markets and industry; product and service development; and branding.Research limitations/implicationsBibliometric research allows the researcher to process large volumes of articles covering a broad scope, leading to rich and insightful results. However, for greater detail and nuance, the authors recommend supplementing the results of this study with a more focused and thorough qualitative literature review for each theme of interest.Originality/valueBibliometric analysis is under-used in management research. The authors are not aware of similar recent work in consumer financial services. The main value of this paper lies in knowledge dissemination to a wider audience (including practitioners and researchers in adjacent areas) and providing a rigorous platform for identifying future research opportunities.