The iBuddy experience: A digital simulation-based approach to enhance secondary school students' privacy awareness.

Privacy is a central issue in the digitalization of society and directly concerns all Internet users. Privacy education is part of the picture of a more just digital society: it aims at making users more aware of the importance of their data and of the technical and financial tools and processes that involve their personal data. Nonetheless, privacy education is confronted with a paradox: while people perceive the importance of privacy, they seldom take action to actually protect their personal data. iBuddy is a narrative simulation-based session inspired by research evidence about the privacy paradox and aims to (a) enhancing awareness and (b) promoting the uptake of privacy-safe behaviors for secondary and higher students (age range 11-20). The paper presents the design and development of the simulation and of the following modular debriefing, as a case study in evidence-based collaborative instructional design and in the instructional used of digital technology. The evaluation of iBuddy, which combined a post-session satisfaction and perceived learning survey (N = 978) and a follow-up survey (N = 124), provides insights in the novel domain of privacy education. Results suggests that iBuddy sessions are engaging, effective and conducive to medium-term behavioral change, thus indirectly confirming the design assumptions about how to tackle the privacy paradox through a simulation-based approach.

Crucial and fragile: a multi-methods and multi-disciplinary study of cooperation in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addressing global pandemics, robust cooperation across nations, institutions, and individuals is paramount. However, navigating the complexities of individual versus collective interests, diverse group objectives, and varying societal norms and cultures makes fostering such cooperation challenging. This research delves deep into the dynamics of interpersonal cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, using an integrative approach that combines qualitative and experimental methodologies. Through a series of retrospective interviews and a lab-in-the-field experiment, we gained insights into the cooperation patterns of healthcare and manufacturing workers. Within healthcare, professionals grappled with escalating emergencies and deteriorating work conditions, resisting the "new normalcy" ushered in by the pandemic. Meanwhile, manufacturing workers adapted to the altered landscape, leveraging smart working strategies to carve out a fresh professional paradigm amidst novel challenges and opportunities. Across these contrasting narratives, the centrality of individual, institutional, and interpersonal factors in galvanizing cooperation was evident. Key drivers like established relational dynamics, mutual dependencies, and proactive leadership were particularly salient. Our experimental findings further reinforced some of these qualitative insights, underscoring the pivotal role of recognition and the detrimental effects of uncertainty on cooperative behaviors. While contextual and sample-related constraints exist, this study illuminates vital facets of cooperation during crises and lays the groundwork for future explorations into cooperative decision-making.