Effectiveness Of Digital Tools Research Articles

Engagement in the digital age: Understanding “what works” for participatory technologies in environmental decision-making

Effective engagement is crucial for enhancing environmental decision-making processes, fostering more sustainable and equitable outcomes. However, the success of engagement is highly variable and context-dependent. While theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain outcome variance in engagement in environmental decision-making, they have not yet been tested in digital contexts, leaving their applicability to digital engagement processes unclear. More broadly, there are unanswered questions about the effectiveness of digital tools in achieving the goals of engagement, which have become increasingly pertinent amidst growing concerns about the potential of digital technologies for exacerbating exclusions, ethical issues, and systematically undermining democratic progress. This paper addresses this evidence gap by presenting findings from interviews with practitioners in UK public, private, and third sector organisations. Our results provide empirical insights into the technical, ethical, and inclusivity debates surrounding digital tools and their effectiveness in promoting accessible engagement, high-quality social interaction, place-based decision-making, and more trustworthy and credible outcomes. Our findings indicate that while current engagement theories are applicable to digital environments, the key explanatory factors acquire new dimensions in digital compared to in-person contexts. Drawing on the findings, this study contributes novel insights to expand current theory for explaining “what works” in engagement in environmental decisions, enhancing its relevance and applicability in the digital age. The paper concludes with evidence-led recommendations for environmental practitioners to improve engagement processes in digital and remote settings.

DIGITAL GASTRONOMY AND THE TABLES OF FUTURE

Abstract
 Digital transformation has profoundly affected all industries and reshaped the way they do business. Tourism is one of the sectors affected by the digital technologies created by the new industrial revolution. Many sub-branches of accommodation, food and beverage, entertainment and tourism have tried to keep up with this transformation and brought a different and innovative dimension to tourism. Our tables have been affected by these technological tools and new forms of food have begun to rapidly enter our lives. The effects of digital tools are felt on many issues, from the production of food to the presentation and even waste management. In the food and beverage industry, which is named as digital gastronomy or Gastronomy 4.0, alternatives to replace food and engineering applications that come to our plate await us. The use of the digital world is very important for the development of culinary arts. In gastronomy, where food is perceived not only as a meal, but also as a form of art and culture, new food forms can be produced much easier, faster and adapted to the customer with 3D printers, augmented reality and virtual reality. 3D printers, which offer the most suitable solutions for personalized customer demands, have become one of the main actors of digital gastronomy. In this study, firstly the concept of gastronomy was mentioned, and then the concept of digital gastronomy was explained. In the context of digital gastronomy, the concepts of 3D printers, virtual reality and augmented reality are also explained, and the relationship of these technologies with food has been tried to be explained with examples and pictures. When the relevant literature was examined, a limited number of studies could be found in which Industry 4.0, the tourism sector and the food and beverage sector were discussed together. In addition, due to the difficulty of creating a data set for statistical research, this study consists of a literature review on digital gastronomy. In future research, customer satisfaction, purchase intention and tendencies to try new food forms in restaurants and cafes where digital technologies are applied can be investigated.
 Key Words: Gastronomy, Digital Gastronomy, Digitalization, Industry 4.0
 Jel Codes: L8, L83, L86

The effects of digital tools on English Foreign Learning learners’ face-to-face interactions

Presently, technological innovations have altered every facet of our everyday life, particularly those associated with the humanities. The development of new communication devices has transformed the nature of contact from interpersonal to computer-mediated. This study aims to contribute to the debate about the different effects of digital tools on in-person interaction. This study investigates the effects of modern digital communication technology outlets on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ face-to-face interaction. The researchers opted for a questionnaire and field observation to collect the necessary data to be analyzed. One hundred (100) participants answered the questionnaire. The study found that the abusive use of digital tools has a critical impact on face-to-face interactions and that it affected the human ties between EFL learners, and also their relationships with their families and friends. The outcomes of this investigation allow us to conclude that the constant use of digital outlets can negatively affect face-to-face interactions. Keywords: Digital tools; EFL learners; interactions; technology.

Interventions with Digital Tools for Mental Health Promotion among 11–18 Year Olds: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The availability of digital tools aiming to promote adolescent mental health is rapidly increasing. However, the field lacks an up-to-date and focused review of current evidence. This study thus looked into the characteristics and efficacy of digital, evidence-based mental health programs for youth (11–18 years). The selection procedure followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and resulted in 27 eligible studies. The high heterogeneity of the results calls for careful interpretation. Nevertheless, small, but promising, effects of digital tools were found with respect to promoting well-being, relieving anxiety, and enhancing protective factors. Some important factors influencing overall efficacy include the given setting, the level of guidance and support, and the adherence to the intervention.

Sara Alert: An automated symptom monitoring tool for COVID-19 in 11 jurisdictions in the United States, June - August, 2021.

Health department personnel conduct daily active symptom monitoring for persons potentially exposed to SARS-CoV-2. This can be resource-intensive. Automation and digital tools can improve efficiency. We describe use of a digital tool, Sara Alert, for automated daily symptom monitoring across multiple public health jurisdictions. Eleven of the 20 U.S. public health jurisdictions using Sara Alert provided average daily activity data during June 29 to August 30, 2021. Data elements included demographics, communication preferences, timeliness of symptom monitoring initiation, responsiveness to daily messages, and reports of symptoms. Participating jurisdictions served a U.S. population of over 22 million persons. Health department personnel used this digital tool to monitor more than 12,000 persons per day on average for COVID-19 symptoms. On average, monitoring began 3.9 days following last exposure and was conducted for an average of 5.7 days. Monitored persons were frequently < 18 years old (45%, 5,474/12,450) and preferred communication via text message (47%). Seventy-four percent of monitored persons responded to at least one daily automated symptom message. In our geographically diverse sample, we found that use of an automated digital tool might improve public health capacity for daily symptom monitoring, allowing staff to focus their time on interventions for persons most at risk or in need of support. Future work should include identifying jurisdictional successes and challenges implementing digital tools; the effectiveness of digital tools in identifying symptomatic individuals, ensuring appropriate isolation, and testing to disrupt transmission; and impact on public health staff efficiency and program costs.

Natural Language Processing to Identify Digital Learning Tools in Postgraduate Family Medicine: Protocol for a Scoping Review

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the growing need for digital learning tools in postgraduate family medicine training. Family medicine departments must understand and recognize the use and effectiveness of digital tools in order to integrate them into curricula and develop effective learning tools that fill gaps and meet the learning needs of trainees.ObjectiveThis scoping review will aim to explore and organize the breadth of knowledge regarding digital learning tools in family medicine training.MethodsThis scoping review follows the 6 stages of the methodological framework outlined first by Arksey and O’Malley, then refined by Levac et al, including a search of published academic literature in 6 databases (MEDLINE, ERIC, Education Source, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science) and gray literature. Following title and abstract and full text screening, characteristics and main findings of the included studies and resources will be tabulated and summarized. Thematic analysis and natural language processing (NLP) will be conducted in parallel using a 9-step approach to identify common themes and synthesize the literature. Additionally, NLP will be employed for bibliometric and scientometric analysis of the identified literature.ResultsThe search strategy has been developed and launched. As of October 2021, we have completed stages 1, 2, and 3 of the scoping review. We identified 132 studies for inclusion through the academic literature search and 127 relevant studies in the gray literature search. Further refinement of the eligibility criteria and data extraction has been ongoing since September 2021.ConclusionsIn this scoping review, we will identify and consolidate information and evidence related to the use and effectiveness of existing digital learning tools in postgraduate family medicine training. Our findings will improve the understanding of the current landscape of digital learning tools, which will be of great value to educators and trainees interested in using existing tools, innovators looking to design digital learning tools that meet current needs, and researchers involved in the study of digital tools.Trial RegistrationOSF Registries osf.io/wju4k; https://osf.io/wju4kInternational Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/34575

Systematic Review: The Effectiveness of Digital Tools to Improve Writing Skill of ESL Students

Systematic Review: The Effectiveness of Digital Tools to Improve Writing Skill of ESL Students

Information technologies in corporate training: trends and approaches

Problem and goal. Within the framework of the study, based on the data of the Workplace Learning Report study, specialists from the USA, Canada and other countries, the transformation of corporate training over the past decades was analyzed, the main problems and challenges of companies/enterprises in the process of additional professional training of employees and ways to solve them were identified. The main problems of corporate training at the present time, as in the past, include budget deficit and search for free intervals in the schedules of employees for educational sessions. And the solution was the growth of online training, the use of online platforms, which made it easier to find time in the sche- dule of employees for training, create opportunities for flexible editing of educational content, and for managers it was easier to evaluate additional professional training thanks to the control tools built into online platforms. Methodology. However, it turned out that not all age categories of employees are ready to expand online training: older age workers prefer traditional or mixed training, as opposed to young people. Results. The study found that the degree of digitalization correlates with the size of the company: the comparative effectiveness of digital tools for additional professional education increases with the scale of the system in which they are applied: a deployed digital educational platform requires very few resources to expand to new branches and employees, rather than classical educational formats that require personal participation of teaching staff. Conclusion. The main trends in the development of corporate training in the coming years are described.

Digital health technologies: a systematic review of their cost-effectiveness

Abstract Background Digital health interventions have a potential to improve safety, efficacy and quality of care, reducing waste in healthcare costs. Despite premises, the evidence regarding cost and effectiveness of digital tools in health is scarce and limited. Objectives: The aim of this systematic review is to summarize the evidence on cost-effectiveness of digital health interventions and to assess whether the studies meet the established quality criteria. Methods We queried PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases for articles in English published from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020 that performed economic evaluations of digital health technologies. The methodological rigorousness of studies was assessed with a well-established checklist (CHEERS). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER)was calculated when the reviewed study reported related data but did not express the ICER. Results Searches identified 1476 results, 552 of which were selected for abstract and 35 were included in this review. The studies were heterogeneous by country, type of eHealth intervention, method of implementation, and reporting perspectives. The qualitative analysis identified the economic and effectiveness evaluation of seven different types of interventions: fourteen studies on a new telemedicine service; five on telecounseling; five on teletherapy; two on telemonitoring; five on new mobile applications; two on m-health programs; one on digital platforms and one on electronic health records. Conclusions Findings on cost-effectiveness of digital interventions showed a growing body of evidence and suggested a generally favorable effect in terms of costs and health outcomes. However, due to the heterogeneity across study methods, the comparison between interventions still remains difficult. Further research based on a standardized approach is needed in order to methodically analyze incremental cost-effectiveness ratios, costs, and health benefits. Key messages Digital interventions suggested a favorable effect in terms of costs and health outcomes. Digital health interventions have a potential to improve safety, efficacy and quality of care.

From an uncomfortable conversation to a productive strategic dialogue

From an uncomfortable conversation to a productive strategic dialogue

CITASA: intellectual past and future

This article reviews the history of the Communication and Information Technologies section of the American Sociological Association (CITASA), and discusses its current research emphases and future trajectory. Critically, the article argues that CITASA has become the preeminent point of reconnection between sociology and communication, allowing cross-pollination of ideas in the study of digital media, and increasingly in the study of media more broadly. The article also discusses contemporary research emphases involving computational and programming-intensive research, research on the use and effects of digital tools, and research on communication and media broadly understood.