Remote Context Research Articles

School culture and teaching practices for the effective student- centred learning during emergency remote teaching

ABSTRACT This paper explores teaching practices during emergency remote teaching, drawing on data from a nationwide online survey of Estonian high schools. The study was motivated by an attempt to understand effective teaching under conditions of emergency-related logistic, online teaching and economic constraints faced by the schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study design adopted a quantitative approach, employing exploratory factor analyses and structural equation modelling of self-report data from a sample of 1,788 teachers. The model brought out three teaching strategies employed during the emergency remote teaching period and their relationship to school-level factors, perceived workload and perceived effectiveness of student learning. Student-centred learning strategies were especially perceived as effective and influenced by stronger collaboration at the school level. Our findings illuminate the necessity of implementing a varied and flexible teaching methodology under emergency remote teaching contexts, backed by a proactive and dynamic collaboration among school members and parents.

Connecting work teams in a remote workplace: an identity leadership perspective

ABSTRACT Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a shift towards remote and hybrid working practices is currently taking place in organizations worldwide. This transition creates an important challenge for workplace management to ensure that remotely working employees feel connected to their team, and the organization at large, despite the loss of frequent in-person, face-to-face interactions. We propose that identity leadership behaviours from workplace supervisors are key to ensuring such feelings of connectedness among remotely working employees. We conducted two studies among working adults in the United Kingdom to demonstrate the importance of identity leadership in a remote working context. Our first study showed that employees preferred identity leadership behaviours from their supervisors more in a remote versus an on-site working context. Results of our second study showed that identity leadership behaviours mitigate against the detrimental consequences of remote working on team connectedness and on various work-related outcomes for employees, such as their work engagement, job satisfaction, work stress and absenteeism. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings as well as directions for future research.

Development and validity evidence on the scale of perceived social support for university students (EPSSEU) during the period of social restrictions

AimThis study aims to validate a Perceived Social Support Scale for University Students (EPSSEU) during periods of social restrictions, by focusing on family and university support.Subject and methodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted with undergraduate students from a public higher education institution. The college students who participated in the study—1353 at baseline and 378 after 6 months—answered a virtual questionnaire containing questions on: sociodemographic and lifestyle data, items proposed for the EPSSEU, Satisfaction with Social Support Scale (ESSS), and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis, as well as discriminant, convergent, and known-group validations were performed.ResultsThe results showed two factors support from: i) the university and ii) friends and family— which explained 61.82% of the variance in the data. The EPSSEU showed good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.796) as well as validity, with higher scores among individuals without depression, anxiety, or stress.ConclusionThe EPSSEU shows adequate psychometric qualities and may be a useful instrument for assessing university students’ social support in pandemics, social distancing, and remote teaching contexts.

How Informal Carers Support Video Consulting in Physiotherapy, Heart Failure, and Cancer: Qualitative Study Using Linguistic Ethnography.

Informal carers play an important role in the everyday care of patients and the delivery of health care services. They aid patients in transportation to and from appointments, and they provide assistance during the appointments (eg, answering questions on the patient's behalf). Video consultations are often seen as a way of providing patients with easier access to care. However, few studies have considered how this affects the role of informal carers and how they are needed to make video consultations safe and feasible. This study aims to identify how informal carers, usually friends or family who provide unpaid assistance, support patients and clinicians during video consultations. We conducted an in-depth analysis of the communication in a sample of video consultations drawn from 7 clinical settings across 4 National Health Service Trusts in the United Kingdom. The data set consisted of 52 video consultation recordings (of patients with diabetes, gestational diabetes, cancer, heart failure, orthopedic problems, long-term pain, and neuromuscular rehabilitation) and interviews with all participants involved in these consultations. Using Linguistic Ethnography, which embeds detailed analysis of verbal and nonverbal communication in the context of the interaction, we examined the interactional, technological, and clinical work carers did to facilitate video consultations and help patients and clinicians overcome challenges of the remote and video-mediated context. Most patients (40/52, 77%) participated in the video consultation without support from an informal carer. Only 23% (12/52) of the consultations involved an informal carer. In addition to facilitating the clinical interaction (eg, answering questions on behalf of the patient), we identified 3 types of work that informal carers did: facilitating the use of technology; addressing problems when the patient could not hear or understand the clinician; and assisting with physical examinations, acting as the eyes, ears, and hands of the clinician. Carers often stayed in the background, monitoring the consultation to identify situations where they might be needed. In doing so, copresent carers reassured patients and helped them conduct the activities that make up a consultation. However, carers did not necessarily help patients solve all the challenges of a video consultation (eg, aiming the camera while laying hands on the patient during an examination). We compared cases where an informal carer was copresent with cases where the patient was alone, which showed that carers provided an important safety net, particularly for patients who were frail and experienced mobility difficulties. Informal carers play a critical role in making video consultations safe and feasible, particularly for patients with limited technological experience or complex needs. Guidance and research on video consulting need to consider the availability and work done by informal carers and how they can be supported in providing patients access to digital health care services.

Self-Leadership in a Remote Work Environment: Emerging Trends and Implications for Occupational Well-Being

When individuals are given the freedom to work remotely, self-discipline and self-motivation become more crucial. Remote work can present challenges to self-leadership as employees are required to independently prioritise their work, make decisions, and hold themselves accountable for meeting deadlines. In this study, structural equation modelling was used to analyse data from 206 employees with remote work experience. The study found that remote work characteristics have implications for occupational well-being and that they influence the effectiveness of leadership and the perception of work roles. It is important that managers ensure employees working remotely enjoy flexible work hours, autonomy, communication and collaboration for improved occupational well-being. This study contributes novel insights into self-leadership and psychological empowerment within the remote work context, emphasising their interconnectedness and implications for occupational well-being.

Exploring arts-health ecologies in the very remote Barkly Region of Australia.

This article explores links between arts, health, and wellbeing for diverse First Nations and non-Indigenous peoples living in the very remote Barkly Region of the Northern Territory in Australia. The article stems from a major 3-year study of the Barkly arts sector conducted in partnership with Barkly Regional Arts and Regional Development Australia Northern Territory. Key findings relate to an arts-health ecology evident in the region, the interdependence between artists' own health and their arts activity, the value of arts spaces as places of safety and refuge, and the potential of the arts to promote cultural and intercultural healing and development. We discuss these findings in the context of relevant literature and make suggestions for future arts-health and wellbeing related research, policy and practice in rural and remote contexts. This study employed an ecological mixed-methods research design, including quantitative and qualitative survey and interview data collection as well as collaborative, data-driven thematic analysis. The ecological approach was used to map a variety of creative practices through a broad range of art forms. Commercial, amateur and subsidised art and creative practices were included in this study and represented the multicultural population of the Barkly Region (both First Nations and non-Indigenous peoples). Arts and creativity in the region were recognized as a complex ecology that saw individuals, businesses, organisations and government working in different ways to sustain culture and contribute to social and economic development. Research participants from diverse cultural backgrounds recognised health and wellbeing benefits of arts and creative activity. Arts participation and engagement were reported to have intrinsic individual health and wellbeing effects such as mental health and mindfulness, emotional regulation, enjoyment, and relief of physical and emotional pain and stress alongside promoting spiritual connection to self, culture and community. The study indicates that the arts can also shape powerful determinants of health and wellbeing such as employment, poverty, racism, social inclusion, and natural and built environments. Barkly arts-health ecology featured extensive involvement from health and human service and arts organisations, which provided a strong foundation for inclusive, healing and holistic regional development. This study has outlined how arts and creative activity contribute to holistic regional development in the Barkly desert region, an area with a high percentage of First Nations peoples. Arts and creative activity were reported to have intrinsic health and wellbeing effects for individuals, which included mental health and mindfulness, emotional regulation, enjoyment, and relief of physical and emotional pain and stress as well as promoting spiritual connection to self, others and environment. Arts activities were also seen to shape powerful determinants of health and wellbeing such as employment, poverty, racism, social inclusion, and natural and built environments.

Language teacher education in emergency remote teaching context

Language teacher education in emergency remote teaching context

Out of sight, out of mind

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This paper identified that employee well-being plays an important role in influencing productivity within a remote working context. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Challenges and Opportunities in Integrating Artificial Intelligence in Distance Education

This study, inspired by the research of Cardoso et al. (2023), who investigated the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, focuses on the insertion of AI in distance education as a promising front for educational innovation. The main objective is to identify and analyze the advantages, disadvantages and challenges faced in adopting AI in remote educational contexts. Through a comprehensive literature review and case study analysis, it is observed that AI has the potential to increase student engagement and provide more personalized and accessible learning experiences. The results highlight that AI can adapt teaching to the individual needs of students, offering personalization and adaptation capabilities that can significantly improve the effectiveness of distance learning. However, challenges persist, including the need to invest in robust technological infrastructure, adequately train faculty to effectively use AI-based tools, and consider ethical and privacy issues related to the use of student data. The findings highlight the importance of a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to maximizing the benefits of AI in distance education. Furthermore, the need to overcome technological and ethical barriers to ensure effective and ethical integration of AI in the educational environment is emphasized. Therefore, this study significantly contributes to the understanding of how AI can be effectively applied in distance education, providing valuable insights for educators, researchers and professionals interested in promoting educational innovation through technology.

“We Need to Run Our Own Communities”

Australian Indigenous student participation rates in higher education are consistently lower than non-Indigenous students, especially in remote contexts. This has manifested in the usurpation of remote Aboriginal community control by ‘more qualified’ external staff. Here we present a reflexive assessment of the development, delivery, outcomes and challenges of the Wuyagiba Bush Uni that was designed to address the paucity of university education in remote Aboriginal communities of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. From 2018 to 2022, 66 Indigenous students graduated with Wuyagiba Micro-credentials (accredited by Macquarie University), and 28 students proceeded to enrol in Bachelor level degrees at Macquarie University in Sydney, with the first graduate in 2023. Furthermore, the Wuyagiba model has created a successful remote Indigenous business that employs about 50 local Indigenous people annually and is working towards empowering endogenous community development in remote Arnhem Land. Nevertheless, many challenges remain including sustainable funding, remote service delivery, university and bureaucratic structural barriers, and lateral violence in remote communities. Several enabling factors of success are identified, such as the cross-cultural curriculum, strong Indigenous control and leadership, wrap-around support, and longstanding relationships between University staff and community leaders. Such reflections can be used by other remote Aboriginal communities who wish to replicate this model or create their own on-Country higher education programs to empower locally trained leaders of the future.

Perspectives on the ongoing impact of compulsory income management in the Northern Territory

AbstractSince 2007, income support recipients in the Northern Territory (NT) have been subjected to compulsory income management (CIM), a form of welfare conditionality which continues, despite the withdrawal of CIM from other locations in Australia and research that identifies negligible benefits. Implemented with the goal of improving social well‐being and health outcomes, CIM quarantines a proportion of income support payments which cannot be used to purchase alcohol, gambling, pornography and in some cases tobacco, to direct payments to priority needs of recipients and encourage socially responsible behaviour. This article presents the perspectives of welfare sector stakeholders in the NT on the ongoing impact of CIM on income support recipients and their communities. It draws on semi‐structured interviews with 26 participants with expertise across non‐government service delivery, government, legal and advocacy sectors. The findings detail that CIM is considered ineffective in reducing social harms such as substance misuse, can contribute to situations of family violence, and exacerbates challenges for recipients living in regional and remote areas. It also highlights the poor compatibility of community income management in regional and remote contexts, its top‐down design, and views that CIM is a form of social control and disempowerment.

Art, Ethics, and the Relativism of Distance

Abstract To what extent, and on what grounds, can we ethically evaluate art from a generative context that is at some significant distance from our present reception context—at enough distance, at least, so that the two contexts differ, in important ways, in aspects of their moral outlooks? This paper has four aims. The modest task of the paper is to show that this question is much more difficult than has been recognised. The somewhat more ambitious goal is a methodological intervention: it is to highlight the need for interdisciplinary research that illuminates the socio-historical specificities of remote generative contexts in a way that allows us to see the relevant ways in which the moral outlooks overlap with ours (or do not). In relation, the third aim of the paper is to argue, with reference to Bernard Williams’s ‘relativism of distance’, that there are some cases in which the moral outlooks of a work’s generative and reception contexts differ so significantly that the warrant for our moral judgments of remote artworks is attenuated—if it exists at all. Finally, we try to demonstrate how the sort of interdisciplinary collaboration we’re advocating might inform our moral judgments of art—more specifically, in a way that invites a degree of quietude or uncertainty about remote artworks that are deeply morally troubling in our present reception context. We do this with reference to the paintings of Titian.

Remote memory in a Bayesian model of context fear conditioning (BaconREM).

Here, we propose a model of remote memory (BaconREM), which is an extension of a previously published Bayesian model of context fear learning (BACON) that accounts for many aspects of recently learned context fear. BaconREM simulates most known phenomenology of remote context fear as studied in rodents and makes new predictions. In particular, it predicts the well-known observation that fear that was conditioned to a recently encoded context becomes hippocampus-independent and shows much-enhanced generalization ("hyper-generalization") when systems consolidation occurs (i.e., when memory becomes remote). However, the model also predicts that there should be circumstances under which the generalizability of remote fear may not increase or even decrease. It also predicts the established finding that a "reminder" exposure to a feared context can abolish hyper-generalization while at the same time making remote fear again hippocampus-dependent. This observation has in the past been taken to suggest that reminders facilitate access to detail memory that remains permanently in the hippocampus even after systems consolidation is complete. However, the present model simulates this result even though it totally moves all the contextual memory that it retains to the neo-cortex when context fear becomes remote.

In-hospital stroke protocol outcomes before and after the implementation of neurological assessments by telemedicine: an observational case-control study.

Stroke is the second leading cause of global adult mortality and the primary cause of disability. A rapid assessment by a neurologist for general and reperfusion treatments in ischemic strokes is linked to decreased mortality and disability. Telestroke assessment is a strategy that allows for neurological consultations with experienced professionals, even in remote emergency contexts. No randomized studies have compared face-to-face neurological care outcomes with telestroke care. Whether neurologists in an institution achieve better results remotely than in person is also unknown. This study aimed to compare mortality and other outcomes commonly measured in stroke protocols for stroke patients assessed by a neurologist via face-to-face evaluations and telestroke assessment. Observational single-center retrospective study from August/2009 to February/2022, enrolling 2,689 patients with ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and intracerebral hemorrhage. Group 1 (G1) comprised 2,437 patients with in-person neurological assessments, and Telemedicine Group 2 (G2) included 252 patients. The in-person group had higher admission NIHSS scores (G1, 3 (0; 36) vs. G2, 2 (0; 26), p < 0.001). The door-to-groin puncture time was lower in the in-person group than in the telestroke group (G1, 103 (42; 310) vs. G2, 151 (109; 340), p < 0.001). The telestroke group showed superior metrics for door-to-imaging time, symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation rate in ischemic stroke patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis, hospital stay duration, higher rates of intravenous thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy, and lower mortality. Symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation rate was smaller in the group evaluated via telestroke (G1, 5.1% vs. G2, 1.1%, p = 0.016). Intravenous thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy rates were significantly higher in telestroke group: (G1, 8.6% vs. G2, 18.2%, p < 0.001 and G1, 5.1% vs. G2, 10.4%, p = 0.002, respectively). Mortality was lower in the telestroke group than in the in-person group (G1, 11.1% vs. G2, 6.7%, p = 0.001). The percentage of patients with an mRS score of 0-2 at discharge was similar in both groups when adjusting for NIHSS score and age. The same neurological emergency team may assess stroke patients in-person or by telemedicine, with excellent outcome metrics. This study reaffirms telestroke as a safe tool in acute stroke care.

Facilitating learning and interaction in K-12 remote teaching contexts

AbstractThe use of a facilitator is a growing phenomenon in K-12 remote teaching contexts. The aim of this study is to analyse aspects of facilitating students’ learning and interaction, with a special focus on the role of the facilitator. Frame factor theory was used as an analytical framework, including different educational conditions. The following research questions were posed: (1) How do different frame factors condition remote teaching? (2) How do these frame factors influence the role of the facilitator in remote teaching? Data were generated from observations (12 h) and interviews with remote teachers and facilitators (N = 18). Results show that frame factors seem to create two types of classroom context that condition the role, task, and responsibility of the facilitator. In the larger classroom context, the facilitator was a threefold resource - practical, pedagogical, and social in an ongoing collaboration with the teacher, whereas in the small classroom context, the facilitator mainly was a practical resource when needed.

Exploring workplace learning experience in work transition among K-12 teachers during COVID-19

PurposeWhen the emergency transition started in the spring of 2020 in the USA, teachers had to quickly switch from traditional in-person teaching to distance and remote teaching, regardless of their level of preparation. The distance and remote learning environments and contexts were different from traditional classrooms, which significantly changed the way teachers communicated and engaged with students in learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the workplace learning experience of K-12 educators during their work transition due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 30 qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with K-12 educators in Arkansas in the USA and synthesized their experiences.FindingsThis study identified four major themes in the workplace learning experiences of K-12 teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges in workplace learning, including limited time, information overload, lack of relevance and customization and balancing priorities; challenges specific to different subgroups, such as age differences, prior experience and access to technology; strategies of workplace learning, notably collaborative learning, on-the-job training and professional development; and support for workplace learning, encompassing both formal support from schools and districts and informal support from family, friends and peers.Originality/valueThe paper provides original insights into K-12 teachers’ workplace learning during the COVID-19 pandemic by understanding their adaptation strategies. It fills a research gap by highlighting both the challenges and support mechanisms in educational transitions during a crisis.

Alternative Forms of Mobility in an Emergency Remote Teaching Context: A Study of Greek Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes

Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of talk about alternative ways of student mobility. Higher Education Institutions are adopting new forms of mobility to provide flexibility. Among them, hybrid mobility and internationalisation activities at home are offered to university students. Within this framework, a preliminary study has been conducted to investigate Greek undergraduate students’ attitudes towards alternative solutions devised by Higher Education Institutions in an emergency remote teaching context in a time of global crisis due to the coronavirus. In essence, the present study addresses the following research question: How do undergraduate university students in Greece view hybrid mobility or internationalisation activities at home compared to physical mobility? More specifically, 57 students from two public universities in Greece completed an online questionnaire and five students were interviewed. Both the questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews were designed to measure students’ attitudes towards physical mobility, hybrid mobility and home-based internationalisation. The findings demonstrate that although the pandemic has not notably affected students’ attitudes towards Erasmus+ mobility, most of them prefer physical mobility to alternative forms of mobility as it provides a more complete and unique experience. The findings obtained herein are used to make suggestions on alternative ways of making home-based, online and blended internationalisation activities more effective, inclusive and engaging in the years to come.

Hypergraph Neural Network for Emotion Recognition in Conversations

Modeling conversational context is an essential step for emotion recognition in conversations. Existing works still suffer from insufficient utilization of local context information and remote context information. This article designs a hypergraph neural network, namely HNN-ERC, to better utilize local and remote contextual information. HNN-ERC combines the recurrent neural network with the conventional hypergraph neural network to strengthen connections between utterances and make each utterance receive information from other utterances better. The proposed model has empirically achieved state-of-the-art results on three benchmark datasets, demonstrating the effectiveness and superiority of the new model.

Balancing teachers’ needs in times of crisis: investigating how computer science instructional coaches and teachers navigated remote professional development during COVID-19

ABSTRACT This study investigated how Chicago Public Schools (CPS) computer science (CS) teachers and instructional coaches navigated remote professional development (PD) during the pandemic. Analyzing multiple sources of qualitative data, we explored how coaches adapted PD to address teachers’ unique needs and how teachers experienced remote PD. We found that the coaching team designed PD to help teachers translate key instructional strategies into the remote learning environment and increasingly centered their PD design efforts on improving teacher engagement and wellbeing. Teachers primarily valued the relational aspects of PD, including opportunities for collaboration and personalized support from instructional coaches. Leveraging an ecological framework, we found that the pandemic and remote learning contexts amplified preexisting PD challenges experienced by teachers and coaches. Findings suggest that PD researchers and designers should focus on teacher wellbeing and that districts should invest in flexible and adaptable PD structures to meet CS teachers’ varied needs.

Can Answers to the Health Workforce Crisis Be Found in Equity-Informed Digital Health?

In this paper, we describe current pressures on health human resources (HHRs) in the Canadian context and related factors that impact equity-deserving communities/populations. We explore issues of HHR challenges in rural, remote and urban underserved contexts and explore the associated benefits and challenges of incorporating digital health (DH). We present examples and evidence of integrating hybrid models of care as a means of supporting HHRs via DH in the publicly funded health system.