Current Pandemic Crisis Research Articles

Evaluation of the teachers’ digital competences in primary and secondary education in Portugal with DigCompEdu CheckIn in pandemic times

The current pandemic crisis the world is living in has brought new and emerging challenges to teachers, making it essential to acquire digital skills, especially in virtual learning environments and online technologies. In this sense, from the DigCompEdu CheckIn self-assessment questionnaire, validated for the Portuguese population by Dias-Trindade, Moreira, and Nunes (2019), the research presented in this paper aims to identify the most fragile and robust areas of digital skills of primary and secondary education (ISCED) perceived by teachers in Portugal. The quantitative methodological approach emphasizes teachers' perception of their digital skills in three dimensions: teachers’ professional competences, teachers’ pedagogical competences and students' competences and involved 434 teachers from mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions. The results allow us to conclude that teachers have an overall moderate level of digital proficiency – level B1 - Integrators – and the dimensions pedagogical competences and students’ competences are those where teachers have more weaknesses than in other levels. From a panorama observed before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is possible to understand their needs regarding work that involves digital technologies at different moments in the teaching activity. The results thus, show the need for teachers to increase their level of digital competence through specific training and the importance of developing public policies that prepare teachers for a more digital school.

Real-world data: how they can help to improve quality of care

The current COVID pandemic crisis made it even clearer that the solutions to several questions that public health must face require the access to good quality data. Several issues of the value and potential of health data and the current critical issues that hinder access are discussed in this paper. In particular, the paper (i) focuses on “real-world data” definition; (ii) proposes a review of the real-world data availability in our country; (iii) discusses its potential, with particular focus on the possibility of improving knowledge on the quality of care provided by the health system; (iv) emphasizes that the availability of data alone is not sufficient to increase our knowledge, underlining the need that innovative analysis methods (e.g., artificial intelligence techniques) must be framed in the paradigm of clinical research; and (v) addresses some ethical issues related to their use. The proposal is to realize an alliance between organizations interested in promoting research aimed at collecting scientifically solid evidence to support the clinical governance of public health.

Digitalization and Digital Transformation and Adoption in the Public Administration during the Covid19 Pandemic Crisis

The objective of the study is to find the key organizational factors that impact on digital transformation projects, creating thus a social value especially during the current pandemic crisis where many changes have been made in the ways that organizations operate. An interdisciplinary approach was used and comparison among selected European Union countries where digital governance has been applied to public-to-citizen transactions. A quantitative survey was also conducted by distributing online questionnaires to middle and senior executives of public organizations in Greece. A total of 151 questionnaires were answered and their analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical tool. The results showed that the internal factors that influence the adoption of digital governance and its successful implementation include the technological factors that compose the quality of services and mainly the organizational ones such as training and evaluation of human resources, leadership, organizational strategy, and the creation of digital culture.

Lab-on-a-Disc for Point-of-Care Infection Diagnostics

Reliable, inexpensive, and rapid diagnostic tools are essential to control and prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Many commercial kits for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) diagnostics have played a crucial role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Most current standard in vitro diagnostic (IVD) protocols for infectious diseases are sensitive but time-consuming and require sophisticated laboratory equipment and specially trained personnel. Recent advances in biosensor technology suggest the potential to deliver point-of-care (POC) diagnostics that are affordable and provide accurate results in a short time. The ideal "sample-in-answer-out" type fully integrated POC infection diagnostic platforms are expected to be autonomous or easy-to-operate, equipment-free or infrastructure-independent, and high-throughput or easy to upscale. In this Account, we detail the recent progress made by our group and others in the development of centrifugal microfluidic devices or lab-on-a-disc (LOAD) systems. Unlike conventional pump-based fluid actuation, the centrifugal force generated by spinning the disc induces liquid pumping and no external fluidic interconnects are required. This allows a total fluidic network required for multiple steps of biological assays to be integrated on a disc, enabling fully automated POC diagnostics. Various applications have been demonstrated, including liquid biopsy for personalized cancer management, food applications, and environmental monitoring; here, we focus on IVD for infectious disease. First, we introduce various on-disc unit operation technologies, including reagent storage, sedimentation, filtration, valving, decanting, aliquoting, mixing, separation, serial dilution, washing, and calibration. Such centrifugal microfluidic technologies have already proved promising for micro-total-analysis systems for automated IVD ranging from molecular detection of pathogens to multiplexed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) that use raw samples such as whole blood or saliva. Some recent examples of LOAD systems for molecular diagnostics in which some or all steps of the assays are integrated on a disc, including pathogen enrichment, nucleic acid extraction, amplification, and detection, are discussed in detail. We then introduce fully automated ELISA systems with enhanced sensitivity. Furthermore, we demonstrate a toy-inspired fidget spinner that enables electricity-free and rapid analysis of pathogens from undiluted urine samples of patients with urinary tract infection symptoms and a phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility test for an extreme POC diagnostics application. Considering the urgent need for cost-effective and reliable POC infection diagnostic tools, especially in the current pandemic crisis, the current limitations and future directions of fast and broad adaptation in real-world settings are also discussed. With proper attention to key challenges and leverage with recent advances in bio-sensing technologies, molecular biology, nanomaterials, analytical chemistry, miniaturization, system integration, and data management, LOAD systems hold the potential to deliver POC infection diagnostic tools with unprecedented performance regarding time, accuracy, and cost. We hope the new insight and promise of LOAD systems for POC infection diagnostics presented in this Account can spark new ideas and inspire further research and development to create better healthcare systems for current and future pandemics.

Burnout and the Psychological Impact among Physiatrists in Saudi Arabia during COVID-19.

Background: Burnout is an emerging critical issue facing specialists and trainees in all disciplines and not particularly studied among physiatry specialists and trainees in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: To assess physiatrist burnout, depression, anxiety, and stress during the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis in Saudi Arabia. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: By distributing an electronic survey, the researcher assessed burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) Human Services Survey (HSS) in the midst of the curfew that Saudi authorities imposed. Participants: One hundred one participating trainees, specialists, and consultants. Results: Of the 101 study participants, the majority (73.3%) were between the ages of 24 and 34 years old, with the rest distributed within the age group ranging from 35 to 65 years old. Junior residents represented 34.7%, senior residents 22.8%, physiatrist specialists 26.7%, and consultants 15.8%. The sample included 55.4% males and 44.6% females; 64.4% of the participants were married, 29.7% were still single, and 5.9% were divorced. Among the total group participating, 25.7% were handling COVID-19 patients. In the total participant sample, 80.2% reported experiencing burnout, 10.9% experienced stress, and 22.8% and 6.9% experienced anxiety and depression, respectively. Conclusion: Burnout in Saudi Arabia exists among more than two-thirds of practicing physiatrists in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R), and that did not appear to have a statistically significant influence on stress, anxiety, or depression (p > 0.05). The current COVID-19 global pandemic might escalate burnout and influence mental health outcomes. The healthcare authority and administration should take the lead in identifying the challenges, overcoming the obstacles, and optimizing clinician well-being, delivering up-to-date solutions, and promptly checking their effectiveness.

La ricerca del benessere attraverso la permanenza in ambienti naturali: uno studio di caso in epoca Covid-19

Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed lifestyles in relation with the external environment, in particular nature. The permanence in natural environments, the relationship with the outside and with the green that surrounds us reveal, in general, important elements of personal and collective well-being, both during the usual daily life but also and above all in the current pandemic crisis, that has dramatically changed everyone’s life habits and has disrupted interpersonal relationships and the relationship with the outdoor world, often observed from a window. As part of the CNR FOE-Nutrage project “Nutrizione, Alimentazione e Invecchiamento attivo”, subtask 3.6.4 “Well-being search in natural environments”, a case study was conducted with the aim of investigating, through desk analysis and field surveys, the relationship between the environment and well-being on a sample of people over 65 years of age - considered at high risk during the current COVID-19 pandemic - residing mainly in Calabria (southern Italy) and Lombardia (northern Italy). The overall vision integrated good lifestyles and permanence in natural environments with the perspective of disease prevention and maintenance of the psycho-physical health. Results showed that the sample interviewed, despite having changed during the lockdown of March-April 2020 the type of environment frequented and reduced the time spent outside, did not give up walking, attending outdoor spaces and taking care of the house greenery (plants and terraces) for their psycho-physical well-being. The study is part of a vision extensively investigated by the scientific literature on the influence of environmental factors on the psycho-physical well-being of people, and, in particular, on the importance of ecosystem services and of the “Green-care”.

Higher Education Students’ Learning in COVID-19 Pandemic Period: The Ethiopian Context

This article analyzes the stand taken by Ethiopia’s higher education institutions when providing students’ learning during the COVID-19 period while institutions are closed in order to contain the virus. These institutions have a recent history of low research and technological advancement globally. The effects of the COVID-19are wide ranging and endangering students’ learning. The study investigates how public universities are attempting to deliver learning remotely in order to support students as well as exploring challenges and opportunities following the institutions’ efforts to minimize the risks of the pandemic. The result shows that, when compared with universities in other countries, neither the government nor the universities took concerted measures to sustain undergraduate students learning. Undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. learning in universities was interrupted until May 2020 and many questioned the quality, graduate and PhD students’ learning as continued online. The inequality between undergraduate students will be sustained and widened if this situation continues, universities must develop and apply concerted efforts to better use remote learning. In Ethiopia, the current pandemic challenges higher education institutions’ response to the crisis. Large sections of students have the least technology support, without government and universities support we may create a lost generation in the COVID-19 pandemic period. Therefore, the pandemic must be use as a turning point for Ethiopian universities to bring long-lasting changes.

Efficient Two Stage Identification for Face mask detection using Multiclass Deep Learning Approach

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the COVID-19 Coronavirus to be a global pandemic. The most effective form of protection is to wear a face mask in public places. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted all the countries to set up a lockdown to prevent viral transmission. According to a survey study, the use of facemasks at work decreases the chances of fast transmission. If the facemasks are not used or are worn incorrectly, it contributes to the third and fourth waves of the corona virus spreading throughout the world. This motivates us to conduct an efficient investigation of the face mask identification system and monitor people, who use suitable face mask in public places. Deep learning is the most effective approach for detecting whether or not a person is wearing a face mask in a crowded area. Using a multiclass deep learning technique, this research study proposes an efficient two stage identification (ETSI) for face mask detection. Whereas, the binary classification does not offer information about face mask detection and error. The proposed approach employs CNN's "ReLU" activation function to detect the face mask. Furthermore, in the current pandemic crisis, this research article offers a very efficient and precise approach for identifying COVID-19. Precision has increased as a result of the employment of a multi-class abbreviation in the final output.

An Overview of Micro- and Macroprudential Policy Tools in the EU in the Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic Economic Shock

The fi nancial crisis from 2008 and the following Eurozone crisis from 2012 created an incentive to establish a system of fi nancial supervision at the European Union (“EU”) level, due to the fact that the policy tool commonly used turned out to be ineffective. With regards to banking supervision, the package of legislations: “CRR/CRD” and “BRRD” has been adopted as a response to fi nancial system shortcomings, in order to make it more resilient and harmonised. One of the challenges was to take control of the so-called: “too big to fail” fi nancial institutions, therefore next to macroprudential supervision, microprudential policy pools were introduced. This constituted the phenomena of the shift from regulationbased supervision to risk-based supervision with the aim of reducing the systemic risk in each and every EU Member State and, in turn, prevent possible future crises. In this paper, those methods will be gathered, presented, and discussed in the light of the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Early Prediction of COVID-19 Ventilation Requirement and Mortality from Routinely Collected Baseline Chest Radiographs, Laboratory, and Clinical Data with Machine Learning.

BackgroundCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and created a global pandemic that overwhelmed healthcare systems. COVID-19, as of July 3, 2021, yielded 182 million confirmed cases and 3.9 million deaths globally according to the World Health Organization. Several patients who were initially diagnosed with mild or moderate COVID-19 later deteriorated and were reclassified to severe disease type.ObjectiveThe aim is to create a predictive model for COVID-19 ventilatory support and mortality early on from baseline (at the time of diagnosis) and routinely collected data of each patient (CXR, CBC, demographics, and patient history).MethodsFour common machine learning algorithms, three data balancing techniques, and feature selection are used to build and validate predictive models for COVID-19 mechanical requirement and mortality. Baseline CXR, CBC, demographic, and clinical data were retrospectively collected from April 2, 2020, till June 18, 2020, for 5739 patients with confirmed PCR COVID-19 at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. However, of those patients, only 1508 and 1513 have met the inclusion criteria for ventilatory support and mortalilty endpoints, respectively.ResultsIn an independent test set, ventilation requirement predictive model with top 20 features selected with reliefF algorithm from baseline radiological, laboratory, and clinical data using support vector machines and random undersampling technique attained an AUC of 0.87 and a balanced accuracy of 0.81. For mortality endpoint, the top model yielded an AUC of 0.83 and a balanced accuracy of 0.80 using all features with balanced random forest. This indicates that with only routinely collected data our models can predict the outcome with good performance. The predictive ability of combined data consistently outperformed each data set individually for intubation and mortality. For the ventilator support, chest X-ray severity annotations alone performed better than comorbidity, complete blood count, age, or gender with an AUC of 0.85 and balanced accuracy of 0.79. For mortality, comorbidity alone achieved an AUC of 0.80 and a balanced accuracy of 0.72, which is higher than models that use either chest radiograph, laboratory, or demographic features only.ConclusionThe experimental results demonstrate the practicality of the proposed COVID-19 predictive tool for hospital resource planning and patients’ prioritization in the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Design and Fabrication of UVC based Sanitizing System

Washing our hands regularly is extremely important to keep up with sanitation and to prevent ourselves from sickness, and we follow this standard consistently in this period because of the current pandemic crisis. Accordingly, People all around the world have normalized the significance of sanitation and disinfecting surfaces and objects in the area. Sanitation does not usually erase microbes, but instead lessens their presence by removing them. The number of microbes lessened from a surface is quite dependent on type of material and product used to sanitize the area. Hence, we have come up with an object that is not only capable of wiping out the microbes completely but also it is cost effective. The corona virus is transmitted by people coming in contact with each other. This virus lives on variety of surfaces, but we can cleanse it by using various disinfecting and sterilizing products. It is therefore very important that people realize the necessity of sanitizing almost all the surfaces and objects in the environment around us. For example, people working in various sectors including dispensaries, hotels, shopping complexes, salons etc. to maintain hygienic environment. Keeping in mind, several devices have been designed for sanitizing hands and objects and increasing the need creating more such systems in affordable manner. Taking these areas into consideration, we planned to construct a sensor-based product which will play an essential role. Hence, we thought of a unique concept and worked on this latest technology using UV lamps for disinfecting the germs, viruses etc. This solution will not only be innovative but also conveyable so that it is ready to carry.

Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Economic Ability of a Government as a Factor of Production

The article examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy. The features of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic have been studied. The features of how this crisis differs from the economic crisis caused by the Spanish flu are presented. The main function of the economic ability of a government, as a factor of production, during the current pandemic economic crisis is analyzed.

The impact of the covid-19 crisis on higher education

Abstract The current pandemic crisis is unique in its kind, becoming a global cataclysm with a multilateral impact and an extended spread over time. Affecting all aspects of human activity, this crisis has inevitably affected the higher education system, and its consequences are manifesting both locally and internationally. The purpose of this paper was to establish the influence of crisis on the economic situation of higher education institutions. After studying of different institutions reports, analytical presentations of authors from different countries, as well as the author's communication with colleagues from different educational institutions during online academic meetings, it became possible to compile a complex picture of economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on higher education system. The research results showed an extremely uneven spread of the economic effects of the pandemic crisis. Thus, the least COVID-19 crisis has affected universities in industrially developed countries and the disastrous impact will manifested in developing countries. In addition, a dependence of evolution of economic situation of educational institutions of a complex of important factors was detected. It is about of change in living standard of the population, the capacity of the local authorities to manage the consequences of the pandemic, the changes in higher education policies, presiding students to do higher education, managerial ability to manage the economic and financial status of higher education institutions and others. Likewise, certain ways of solving economic problems have been outlined.

Post-COVID 19 Tourism: Will Digital Tourism Replace Mass Tourism?

Recently, nations are struggling to mitigate the impact of the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak on their economy. Many countries have imposed traveling restrictions to reduce people’s movement in order to avoid infection transmission. Traveling restrictions have jeopardized the tourism industry around the globe. If the situation persists, it will become challenging for the nations to open tourism. For this reason, the digitalization of tourism is a viable solution for this situation. However, it is essential to map whether digital technologies can provide alternative solutions to the situation and whether digital tourism can replace conventional tourism? With that backdrop, this study has two objectives: (a) to find the future of digital tourism development beyond the COVID-19 pandemic situation, and (b) to find collaborative research work among nations to develop digital tourism after the current pandemic crisis. To achieve these objectives, we conducted a systematic literature review of past research on the development of digital tourism from 2016–2020. The study applies the PRISMA-2015 statement to select and synthesize 60 articles from Scopus and ‘Web of Science’ databases. Content analysis was performed to analyze the underlying clusters of research on digital tourism and, later, bibliometric analysis was conducted to examine collaborative research between different countries. The findings highlighted three major research clusters namely; virtual reality tourism, virtual tourism, and augmented reality. In addition, the research finding shows that virtual tourism is a practical and valuable option for mass tourism during the COVID-19 outbreak and can replace mass tourism after the pandemic. Although virtual tourism does not feel like a visit to a natural destination, it is still getting attention from tourists. Virtual spaces must develop more features and value additions to achieve tourist satisfaction in the future.

Optimized, Automated, and Protective: An Operator’s View on Future Networks

The current pandemic crisis has highlighted the utmost importance of communication networks. The dramatic development of teleworking imposed by strict confinement measures, the need to access educational materials from home, the likely degradation of social relationships are among the impacts of the pandemic that inevitably affect the operation and the performance of networks. The design and the operation of tomorrow’s networks will have to learn from the outbreak that exacerbates the critical need for massive digital inclusion, robust and resilient infrastructures, as well as dynamically adaptive networking to better cope with various, possibly degraded, network access conditions. Of course, the virus is not the only reason to rethink network design: current 5G deployments are among the networking technologies that encourage the emergence of new services, such as immersive services based upon Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality techniques that are pretty demanding in terms of QoS. This industry vision paper provides a network operator’s perspective on some of the forthcoming networking challenges. It explores a few technical options that are likely to be instrumental in the conception and the delivery of optimized, automated and protective networks, for the benefits of the end-user, regardless of his/her connectivity capabilities, whether he/she is in motion or not, and regardless of the nature of the service or contents he/she needs to access.

Smart Solutions in Cities during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly swept across the world on an unprecedented scale, having a global and destructive impact on numerous areas of both social and economic life. For the most part, the effects of the current pandemic crisis have been evaluated negatively, although they may also bring about positive future trends, such as accelerated technological advancement or increased financial support for and development of areas such as smart cities. Given the above, the focal point of our deliberations is the concept of smart cities and the exemplification of smart solutions implemented in cities in the context of new environmental challenges triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the article is, on one hand, to identify the key theoretical and research problems that define the framework for smart city development, and on the other, to present selected practical smart projects implemented in different city areas in Poland and around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. As far as the methodology, systematic literature analysis and case study have been opted for. To explain the essence of the smart city concept, Polish and foreign peer-reviewed scientific publications were analysed. To characterize smart solutions that are being implemented in different cities, findings from reports and materials retrieved from websites dedicated to smart initiatives were used. A search was carried out for scientific papers that contain the terms "smart city" and "COVID-19" in the title, abstract or among the keywords. Bibliometric analysis was the research method used to evaluate publications in terms of the smart city concept and the COVID-19 pandemic. To that end, research techniques such as trend analysis, citation analysis and word coexistence analysis were applied. In the article, selected issues of the smart cities functioning during a pandemic crisis are analysed. The findings show that cities have been keen on developing and implementing smart solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the latter obviously causing the accelerated development of smart-city systems. The pandemic-driven changes adopted so far by cities in the area of smart solutions are not only futureproof in terms of epidemic safety but also make other goals, such as limiting the use natural resources or increasing the quality of life for residents, more attainable.

Parliamentary scrutiny of the quality of legislation in Canada

ABSTRACT This paper looks at how legislative quality is addressed in Canada by private (non-Executive) members of the two legislative chambers forming part of the federal Parliament (the Senate and the House of Commons). It considers legislative quality from three perspectives (1. Policy and Politics, 2. Legality, 3. Accessibility / Intelligibility) and reviews the resources and mechanisms parliamentarians have at their disposal to assess and improve the quality of legislation. The paper concludes that, while there is some potential for considerable parliamentary contribution to legislative quality, it is in fact relatively limited. This largely results from the dominant role the Executive plays in the development and enactment of legislation. The paper suggests the current pandemic crisis might provide an opportunity to re-evaluate this dominance and approaches to addressing legislative quality in Canada.

Going Virtual: The Impact of COVID-19 on Internships in Tourism, Events, and Hospitality Education

ABSTRACT This study explored virtual internship practices and the adaptation to changes brought by the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis by interviewing a small group of interns and site supervisors to understand how virtual internships were practiced in the wake of COVID-19. The findings of the study provided several insights into virtual internships. Overall, just like the conventional fieldwork, well-planned and designed virtual internships could be an empowering learning experience that allows students to capitalize on the practical strengths while applying classroom learning experiences to actual management situations. The study also discussed the advantages and challenges of virtual internships perceived by the student interns. The implications of the study and suggestions for future research were addressed.

Legal Aspects of the Single Monetary Policy in the Euro Area: From the Establishment of the Eurosystem to the Current Pandemic Crisis

The present University notes contain a brief presentation and analysis of the legal framework governing the single monetary policy in the euro area, as this developed from the establishment of the Eurosystem until today. It is structured in four Sections: Section A deals with the definition of the single monetary policy in the Eurosystem after a brief presentation of the notions of monetary system and (conventional and unconventional) monetary policy. Particular emphasis is given to the definition of price stability in the euro area. The legal framework governing the implementation of the single monetary policy is discussed in Section B. In this respect, the instruments for the implementation of monetary policy (i.e., open market operations, standing facilities and minimum reserves), the eligible counterparties and the assets eligible as collateral in the Eurosystem are discussed in turn. The focus in Section C is on the implementation of the single monetary policy following the recent (2007-2009) global financial crisis (GFC) and the subsequent fiscal crisis in the euro area, discussing in detail the ECB asset purchase programmes (APPs) and the programme for targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTROs). Section D reviews then the developments relating to the implementation of the single monetary policy since the outbreak of the current pandemic crisis, discussing, inter alia, the pandemic emergency longer-term refinancing operations (PELTROs), the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) and the amendments introduced to other APPs. Finally, the Excursus at the end of the notes briefly presents the newly introduced euro short-term rate (€STR). It is noted that Tables 5 and 6 present (respectively) the evolution of the Eurosystem’s consolidated balance sheet during the period 2007-2017, to highlight the impact of the measures taken after the 2007-2009 GFC and the subsequent euro area fiscal crisis, as well as during the period December 2019 – March 2021 to show the impact of the measures taken amidst the pandemic crisis.

A Machine Learning Resource Allocation Solution to Improve Video Quality in Remote Education

The current global pandemic crisis has unquestionably disrupted the higher education sector, forcing educational institutions to rapidly embrace technology-enhanced learning. However, the COVID-19 containment measures that forced people to work or stay at home, have determined a significant increase in the Internet traffic that puts tremendous pressure on the underlying network infrastructure. This affects negatively content delivery and consequently user perceived quality, especially for video-based services. Focusing on this problem, this paper proposes a machine learning-based resource allocation solution that improves the quality of video services for increased number of viewers. The solution is deployed and tested in an educational context, demonstrating its benefit in terms of major quality of service parameters for various video content, in comparison with existing state of the art. Moreover, a discussion on how the technology is helping to mitigate the effects of massively increasing Internet traffic on the video quality in an educational context is also presented.