Blogged into the System: A Systematic Review of the Gamification in e-Learning before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gamification is becoming more relevant, especially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. The purpose of our paper is to analyse the changes which occurred in the effects of gamification on e-learning as a result of the COVID-19 quarantine emergence in the spring of 2020. This paper describes the scientific contributions about the game elements most frequently implemented and their effects on those that use e-learning platforms, as well as the factors that contribute to the development of effective gamification in e-learning before and during the pandemic. Drawing upon the PRISMA framework, a number of 103 articles were identified in two databases: the Web of Science and Scopus. This paper discusses the previous works associated with the corpus of knowledge built around gamification in the past decade. This research shows that before the COVID-19 pandemic, even though many papers were written on gamification in education prior to 2019, there is a trend regarding the multiple mentions of using storylines, challenges, or badges in order to create and maintain competition among users, which in turn may influence and increase the level of social interactions and the coalescence of communities.

Misinformation about medication during the COVID- 19 pandemic: A perspective of medical staff.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare professionals had to face numerous challenges during the pandemic, their professional activity being influenced not only by the virus, but also by the spread of medical misinformation. In this regard, we aimed to analyze, from the perspective of medical staff, the way medical and non-medical information about the virus was communicated during the pandemic to encourage the development of future research or interventions in order to raise awareness about the way misinformation affected medical staff. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The study was conducted on Romanian healthcare professionals. They were asked to answer to a questionnaire and the sample of the research includes 536 respondents. The findings revealed that most respondents stated that information about alternative treatments against the virus affected the credibility of health professionals, and that younger professionals believed to a greater extent that trust in doctors was affected. The research also showed that respondents were well informed about the drugs used in clinical trials in order to treat the virus. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare professionals declared that the spread of misinformation regarding alternative treatments, affected their credibility and the relationship with their patients. Healthcare professionals had knowledge about the drugs used in clinical trials, and they acknowledged the role of social media in spreading medical misinformation. However, younger professionals also believed that social media could be used to share official information about the virus.

Does Sustainable Consumption Matter? The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medication Use in Brasov, Romania

Sustainable consumption refers to the choice, purchase, use, and disposal of goods so as to enable all people to meet their present and future objective needs. However, panic caused by the gradual onset of the pandemic had a considerable impact on the behavior of consumption and purchase of medication, and the question remains whether sustainable consumption still matters during a crisis or not. The present study aims to analyze whether the pandemic has influenced the behavior of medication use among residents of Brasov County amid panic caused by the virus and to determine the primary sources of information on methods of the prevention and treatment of health conditions. The study focusses on the differences between the two target groups, young people, and adults, considering three socio-demographic factors, such as age, gender, and background. The present research uses two methods of data collection: an interview with 5 doctors and a questionnaire with 543 respondents. This research draws attention to the fact that the behaviors of purchasing and consuming medication during the COVID-19 pandemic has changed due to the spreading of the new virus and the state of emergency, as well as with medication use becoming less sustainable. The results showed that adults were more engaged in the panic buying of medication compared to young people during the pandemic;however, in normal times, young people use more medication. Our study shows that females tend to consume more medicines than males. Moreover, they are more susceptible for seeking media guidance and following advice from the digital realm, because they avoid going to the doctor, especially during the COVID-19 period. Depending on the environment of residence, it was found that people in rural areas generally tend to consume more medication than those in urban areas. However, during the pandemic, the drug use of this category of population has decreased because they do not tend to self-medicate and avoid visiting the doctor because of the fear of becoming contaminated. The results of the research could help to establish measures in order to prevent the panic buying of self-medication and pharmaceuticals, both during pandemics and in normal times, because such behaviors can have negative effects on both health and the environment.

THE ROLE OF ONLINE MEDIA CHANNELS IN PORTRAYING THE EFFECTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON VULNERABLE GROUPS

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed people's way of life and severely affected the lifestyles and daily rotuines of vulnerable groups. In this context, mass - media channels have an essential role in portraying the way certain groups of people managed to cope with the pandemic. In this regard, the purpose of our paper was to analyze the way online media channels present how the life of vulnerable groups was affected by the pandemic, in order to raise awareness about the challenges such groups had to face in this time of crisis. In order to conduct the research we used content analysis as method, while having as a research instrument a content analysis grid which comprises several categories refering to the context and the topics of the news: difficulties of the elderly, pisho-social effects of the pandemic on the elderly. Thus, we conducted a comprartive and thematic analysis and we assesed the news presented online during the period March 2020- September 2021, by Romanian and foreign media channels, such as: Digi 24, Antena 3, Realitatea TV, BBC, CNN, ABC. The main findings of our research revelead that both groups of media channels focused more on describing the experiences of the eldelry during the pandemic. Hence, the online media presented the elderly as the main vulnerable and at risk group, highlighting the negative effects of the pandemic on their psycho - social and physical health. Moreover, the results of our research also revealed that the online media reported on sensational, special situations of older people contracting the virus and healing from the dissease. Therefore, our research provides relevant information on the difficulties encountered by the elderly in the context of the pandemic, and such information could be further taken into account in the process of improving the life of vulnerable groups.

Dear student, what should I write on my wall? A case study on academic uses of Facebook and Instagram during the pandemic.

Prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, discussions about online learning referred to the use of e-learning platforms and social networks as auxiliary tools in the educational process. Due to the pandemic, universities were forced to adopt an exclusive online teaching process and most universities today use platforms dedicated to online learning such as Moodle platforms. In this context, we were interested in analyzing the attitude of students regarding the way social networks could be integrated into the educational process, and if the positive attitude of students towards social networks and their use for academic purposes, proven in previous studies, remains positive under the conditions generated by the pandemic. In this regard, the present study aimed at identifying the attitude of Romanian students towards the use of Facebook and Instagram as educational tools and the circumstances in which students believe these platforms could be used by them and their teachers. An online survey was conducted on 872 students from public higher education institutions in Romania. Based on the exploratory factor analysis and the parametric test, the empirical results show that students have a slightly positive attitude towards using Facebook in the educational process, but they have a more reticent, less positive attitude towards using Instagram. Thus, the most appropriate contexts in which these platforms could be used are represented by extracurricular activities. A higher preference for the use of Facebook rather than Instagram, was identified among master and PhD students. No major differences were revealed in student subgroups sorted by gender or study domain.

Patient Satisfaction with Private Recovery Services and Importance of Physician Behavior during COVID Time.

INTRODUCTION: Patient satisfaction represents an essential indicator of the quality of care in the medical recuperation sector. This study aimed to identify the degree of satisfaction in patients who benefit from medical recuperation services in one private clinic from Romania and the factors that played a part in this respect. METHOD: An online questionnaire was completed by 105 patients of a private clinic in the period immediately following the opening of the clinic after the quarantine period due to COVID-19. The following concepts were measured: general satisfaction with clinical recuperation services (SG), physician's behavior (PB), the impact of interventions on the state of health (IHI), modern equipment (ME), and the intention to return to the clinic (IRC). Based on a linear regression model, the impact of PB, IHI, ME, and IRC variables on general satisfaction (SG) was established. RESULTS: The study results confirm the data from studies carried out in different sociocultural contexts in ordinary time, where physician behavior is the most crucial factor in patients' satisfaction. Therefore, we can say that the physiotherapist's behavior has an essential role in determining the patients' satisfaction both in ordinary time and in COVID-19 time. The data in this study reflect the fact that satisfaction with the services offered by a medical recuperation clinic is a predictor for using the services in the future. Still, our study reflects a moderate relationship in intensity.

Using Mixed Methods to Understand Teaching and Learning in COVID 19 Times

This research focuses on teaching–learning behavior in the online environment under crisis conditions, such as those caused by COVID-19. Data were collected from 427 participants from Central and Eastern Europe and North and Central Asia. An integrative mixed method design was used, combining components of both qualitative and quantitative research. The research method used was the inquiry based on a semi-structured questionnaire, which combined closed items with open-ended and semi-structured interviews. The quantitative results revealed significant differences between professors and students regarding the self-reported adaptability level, creativity, need for help in online teaching–learning, and collaboration with colleagues for solving problems in the online teaching–learning medium. The opinions of professors do not differ from those of students regarding the advantages, disadvantages, vulnerable areas, and aspects of online education. Thematic analysis, used to analyze the qualitative data, emphasized the participants’ perceptions of online teaching–learning efficiency in crises. Based on the results, it was concluded that the aspects that need to become a priority in online education concern mainly the didactic quality of the learning experience.

Who's Getting Shots First? Dealing With the Ethical Responsibility for Prioritizing Population Groups in Vaccination.

BACKGROUND: The current pandemic has raised several ethical dilemmas, related to conducting real-time trials for new treatments or vaccines or with decisions such as accessibility to vaccines. STUDY QUESTION: Should there be a prioritization of access to the vaccine based on ethical and objective criteria or should the access be done at random? STUDY DESIGN: To determine the ethics and reality of rationing the accessibility to anti-COVID vaccine according to the official strategies. DATA SOURCES: The study is based on the consultation of (1) scientific articles from international databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, ProQuest, and Clarivate), (2) public health documents, and (3) official information of various governments. RESULTS: The analyzed documents revealed that a few similarities can be observed in European countries when it comes to the first categories of people who have received the vaccine: people living in care facilities and medical staff; it can also be seen that the vaccination plan was adopted by each country for the needs and characteristics of its population, the prioritization being done in 2-14 stages; some of them divided, in their turn, into subsequent substages. Most of the states subject to the analysis assigned the medical staff in the first stage, followed by those in the sectors ensuring the maintenance of essential services, afterward by the elderly or people with comorbidities, only later to expand to other social categories. CONCLUSIONS: Prioritization of vaccine administration is not only necessary, unavoidable, but also problematic both ethically and logistically, which should involve leaders in the field of public health, but also medical staff, regardless of their specialization. Prioritization of vaccination can not only have an impact on individual health (physical and emotional) but also on society from public health, economic, and sociocultural point of view.

Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education during the Coronavirus Pandemic: Students’ Perspective

The research focuses on identifying the way in which Romanian universities managed to provide knowledge during the Coronavirus pandemic, when, in a very short time, universities had to adapt the educational process for exclusively online teaching and learning. In this regard, we analyzed students’perception regarding online learning, their capacity to assimilate information, and the use of E-learning platforms. An online survey based on a semi-structured questionnaire was conducted. Data was collected from 762 students from two of the largest Romanian universities. The results of the research revealed that higher education institutions in Romania were not prepared for exclusively online learning. Thus, the advantages of online learning identified in other studies seem to diminish in value, while disadvantages become more prominent. The hierarchy of problems that arise in online learning changes in the context of the crisis caused by the pandemic. Technical issues are the most important, followed by teachers’lack of technical skills and their teaching style improperly adapted to the online environment. However, the last place was assigned by students to the lack of interaction with teachers or poor communication with them. Based on these findings, research implications for universities and researchers are discussed.