Videoconferencing Tools Research Articles

Preface

The 2nd International Conference on Civil, Architecture and Pollution Control (ICCAPC 2021) was planned to be held on March 12-14 in Suzhou, China. Due to the impact of COVID-19, many communities from all over the world were under strict health measures and strict travel restrictions, and participants of 2nd International Conference on Civil, Architecture and Pollution Control (ICCAPC 2021) also meet with the difficulty of travel restrictions. For communities, if our conference was not held in a virtual form, it would add huge work on traffic system, Exit-Entry system, medical system, etc., which is quite a serious issue, to actively respond to the call of the government, to strengthen the protection work, to effectively reduce people gathering and prevent COVID-19, considering the situation that most of the authors would like to publish their articles and make academic communications as scheduled, ICCAPC 2021 was held on-line instead of postponing the conference. It was a challenge, not only to the organizers, but also to the participants who were delivering their speeches using videoconference tools, under different time zones.ICCAPC 2021 was hosted by Jilin Jianzhu University. ICCAPC 2021 is to bring together innovative academics and industrial experts in the field of civil, architecture engineering and pollution control to a common forum. The primary goal of the conference is to promote research and developmental activities in civil engineering, architecture and pollution control. And another goal is to promote scientific information interchange between researchers, developers, engineers, students, and practitioners working all around the world. An ideal platform for seeking global partners had been established.The conference brings together about 70 leading researchers, engineers and scientists in the domain of interest from different countries. The conference model was divided into two parts, including keynote presentations and online discussion. In the first part, each keynote speakers were allocated 30 minutes to present their talks via Zoom. After the keynote talks, all participants joined in a WeChat communication group to discuss more about the talks and presentations.

From the Imaginary to Theory of the Gaze in Lacan.

To understand Lacan’s thinking process on vision, the entirety of his teaching must be taken into consideration. Until the 60s, the visual field is the imaginary, the constitutive principle of reality in its phenomenal giving to the experience of a subject. This register is the opposite of the field of the word with the L schema and, subsequently, as subordinated to the symbolic system according to the model of the optical schema of the inverted flower vase of Bouasse. It is only with the 1964 seminar that Lacan makes a daring turnaround through which the visual becomes a sign of the emergence of a real that is irreducible to both reality and the mediation of the subject of knowledge. The split that separates reality and the real is reproduced in Lacan within the visual field, which is, on the one hand, the cardinal principle of the consistency of the experience of reality (as imaginary), and on the other, it is an element of irreducibility to reality (as object gaze). This produces a cascade of consequences: first of all, the modification of the presentation of the mirror stage. Unlike the voice, which through prosody, tone, and volume, finds some strips with which anchor itself imaginatively to reality, the gaze, invisible and elusive, escapes the imaginary grasp. Captured in myths, it reveals its power and ability to annihilate—as in the myth of Medusa’s gaze—or to make people fall in love but only with a narcissistic love that leads inexorably to death as in the myth of Narcissus. The gaze is elusive because the subject is dependent on it in the field of desire. Like the voice, it is about the desire on which the subject is supported; it is one of the objects on which the phantom depends. In our opinion, thanks to this characteristic, the gaze object can make remote psychoanalytic treatment possible through easily accessible videoconferencing tools and, at the same time, create new conditions within it that should be carefully evaluated to understand its implications in the session itself.

Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) Platforms Among Undergraduates in Private Universities in Nigeria During Covid-19 Era

The current pandemic of COVID-19 has affected every activities of the world with educational institutions not exempted. The lockdown has also halted instructional activities in the four walls of classroom around the world. Hence, many educational institutions have resulted to embracing technology-enhanced learning (TEL) platform to sustain academic session and continue to engage in teaching-learning activities through WhatsApp, Google Classroom, Schoology and Zoom Video Conferencing tool. This study examined the awareness, access and reaction toward TEL. It is descriptive research of the survey methods and the instrument is a researcher-designed questionnaire validated by four lecturers in Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin. The questionnaire was pilot tested and the data collected was subjected to a reliability test of Cronbach Alpha which yielded 0.89. Five research questions and two hypotheses guided the conduct of this study. All research questions were answered through frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation while hypotheses raised were test using chi-square. The findings revealed that the undergraduate student of private universities possess a high rate of awareness and can access leaning content in TEL platforms which justify the positive reaction. Hence, it is recommended that TEL should be embraced to bridge the gap created by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown across the world.

Video conference tools as an element of technogenic educational environment in the system of foreign language teaching

The article examines the tools of interaction and control between the teacher and students in the process of teaching a foreign language in a technogenic educational environment by means of Zoom, Skype, Webinar and Discord. The system of foreign language teaching, implemented by the authors of the article in practical classes, is characterized by integrity, and all its tools are aimed at implementing the competence-based approach dictated by the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education in modern realities. This system takes into account both the practical orientation of the “Foreign Language” discipline and the transformation of contact hours from offline to online environment. The relevance of the article is explained by new conditions and challenges faced by participants in the educational process in connection with the pandemic of the coronavirus infection COVID-19, which has reached a global scale. The new way of contact work and control of the educational environment revealed some problems. According to the authors’ point of view, electronic, mobile tools and applications, including Zoom, Skype, Webinar and Discord, are similar in such features as audio and visual contact, communication in chats, sharing screen and emoji symbols. Nevertheless, there are such differences as demand for downloading the apps to the user’s device, limit of the free access, functions of video recording, waiting hall, session halls, calendar integration, etc. In the process of teaching a foreign language, cooperation and control obtain a personality-oriented nature, which results in increasing the motivation of students for independent and distance learning.

Preface

2021 2nd International Conference on Geology, Resources Exploration and Development (ICGRED 2021) was planned to be held on January 15-17, 2021 in Zhuhai, China. Due to the impact of COVID-19, many communities from all over the world were under strict health measures and strict travel restrictions, and participants of 2021 2nd International Conference on Geology, Resources Exploration and Development (ICGRED 2021) also meet with the difficulty of travel restrictions. For communities, if our conference was not held in a virtual form, it would add huge work on traffic system, Exit-Entry system, medical system, etc., which is quite a serious issue, to actively respond to the call of the government, to strengthen the protection work, to effectively reduce people gathering and prevent COVID-19, considering the situation that most of the authors would like to publish their articles and make academic communications as scheduled, ICGRED 2021 was held on-line instead of postponing the conference. It was a challenge, not only to the organizers, but also to the participants who were delivering their speeches using videoconference tools, under different time zones.ICGRED 2021 is to bring together innovative academics and industrial experts in the field of geology, resources exploration and development to a common conference. The primary goal is to promote research and developmental activities in geology, resources exploration and development, and another goal is to promote scientific information interchange between researchers, developers, engineers, students, and practitioners working all around the world. An ideal platform for seeking global partners had been established. We sincerely invited you to attend the conference to share views and experiences ingeology, resources exploration and development and related areas.The conference brings together about 60 leading researchers, engineers and scientists in the domain of interest from different countries. The conference model was divided into two parts, including keynote presentations and online discussion. In the first part, each keynote speakers were allocated 30 minutes to present their talks via Zoom. After the keynote talks, all participants joined in a WeChat communication group to discuss more about the talks and presentations.We were greatly honor to have invited four distinguished experts as our keynote speakers. Prof. Hongfu Zhou, from Shandong University of Science and Technology, China, was the first one to perform a thought-provoking speech. His research interests include Engineering Geology and Geological Hazards. Prof. Dongfang Yang, from Guizhou Minzu University, China as our second keynote speakers. His research interests are Biogeochemistry, Environmental science, Ecology. Prof. Xiuxin Wang, from Southeast University, China. His research interests include Structural Disaster Design, Structure Inspection, Bridge Design, Seismic Isolation, Sustainable Building Development. The finale keynote speakers, A. Prof. Yang Wu, from Guangzhou University, China. His research interests include Marine Geotechnical Engineering, Constitutive Model of Geotechnical Materials, Multi-field Coupling Simulation, Pile Foundation Engineering. Their insightful speeches had triggered heated discussion in the second session of the conference. The WeChat discussion lasted for about 30 minutes. Every participant praised this conference for disseminating useful and insightful knowledge.The proceedings of ICGRED 2021 span over 2 topical tracks, that include: Geology, Resources and Energy and other related fields. All the papers have been through rigorous review and process to meet the requirements of International publication standard.We would like to express our gratitude to everyone involved. Without this dedicated cooperation, it would be impossible to hold the conference at such a high level and prepare the ICGRED 2021 proceedings.Committee of ICGRED 2021List of Committee members are available in this pdf.

Implementation of the Randomized Embedded Multifactorial Adaptive Platform for COVID-19 (REMAP-COVID) trial in a US health system\u2014lessons learned and recommendations

BackgroundThe Randomized Embedded Multifactorial Adaptive Platform for COVID-19 (REMAP-COVID) trial is a global adaptive platform trial of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We describe implementation at the first US site, the UPMC health system, and offer recommendations for implementation at other sites.MethodsTo implement REMAP-COVID, we focused on six major areas: engaging leadership, trial embedment, remote consent and enrollment, regulatory compliance, modification of traditional trial management procedures, and alignment with other COVID-19 studies.ResultsWe recommend aligning institutional and trial goals and sharing a vision of REMAP-COVID implementation as groundwork for learning health system development. Embedment of trial procedures into routine care processes, existing institutional structures, and the electronic health record promotes efficiency and integration of clinical care and clinical research. Remote consent and enrollment can be facilitated by engaging bedside providers and leveraging institutional videoconferencing tools. Coordination with the central institutional review board will expedite the approval process. Protocol adherence, adverse event monitoring, and data collection and export can be facilitated by building electronic health record processes, though implementation can start using traditional clinical trial tools. Lastly, establishment of a centralized institutional process optimizes coordination of COVID-19 studies.ConclusionsImplementation of the REMAP-COVID trial within a large US healthcare system is feasible and facilitated by multidisciplinary collaboration. This investment establishes important groundwork for future learning health system endeavors.Trial registrationNCT02735707. Registered on 13 April 2016.

Preferred Functions of Personal Health Records in Rural Primary Health Clinics in Canada: Health Care Team Perspectives

Personal health records (PHR) provide opportunities for improved patient engagement, collection of patient-generated data, and overcome health-system inefficiencies. While PHR use is increasing, uptake in rural populations is lower than in urban areas. The study aimed to identify priorities for PHR functionality and gain insights into meaning, value, and use of patient-generated data for rural primary care providers. We performed PHR preimplementation focus groups with rural providers and their health care teams from five primary care clinics in a sparsely populated mountainous region of British Columbia, Canada to obtain their understanding of PHR functionality, needs, and perceived challenges. Eight general practitioners (GP), five medical office assistants, two nurse practitioners (NP), and two registered nurses (14 females and 3 males) participated in focus groups held at their respective clinics. Providers (GPs, NPs, and RNs) had been practicing for a median of 9.5 (range = 1-38) years and had used an electronic medical record for 7.0 (1-20) years. Participants expressed interest in incorporating functionality around two-way communication and appointment scheduling, previsit data gathering, patient and provider data sharing, virtual care including visits using videoconferencing tools, and postvisit sharing of educational materials. Three further themes emerged from the focus groups: (1) the context in which the providers' practice matters, (2) the need for providing patients and providers with choice (e.g., which data to share, who gets to initiate/respond in communications, and processes around virtual care visits), and (3) perceived risks of system use (e.g., increased complexity for older patients and workload barriers for the health care team). Rural primary care teams perceived PHR opportunities for increased patient engagement and access to patient-generated data, while worries about changes in workflow were the biggest perceived risk. Recommendations for PHR adoption in a rural primary health network include setting provider-patient expectations about response times, ability to share notes selectively, and automatically augmented note-taking from virtual-care visits.

The Challenges of Learning English Skills and the Integration of Social Media and Video Conferencing Tools to Help ESL Learners Coping with the Challenges during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Literature Review

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the abrupt closures of all learning institutions have caused English as second language (ESL) learners to have significant difficulties learning the English language especially for speaking skills. Speaking is one of the most important skills to learn because it is the primary mode of communication around the world. However, the majority of ESL learners are still trying to improve their English speaking abilities. Since the implementation of the COVID-19 lockdowns, e-learning has been a well-known solution all over the world. Learners and educators need more time to adjust to online teaching and learning because most of them are exploring new technical innovations and strategies to be used in the classroom. As a result, this study includes a literature review on the challenges ESL learners encounter in learning speaking skills, as well as the use of social media and video conferencing tools to teach speaking skills. Lack of motivation and self-confidence, fear, hesitation, and limited vocabulary are some of the challenges faced by ESL learners. Hence, it is vital to determine the technology intervention used in teaching and developing speaking skills among these learners based on previous study. During the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the interventions in teaching speaking skills included utilizing social media and video conferencing applications like Facebook, WhatsApp, and others for online teaching and learning. Educators of English as a Second Language (ESL) might then pick the ones that would work best in their particular classroom.

Medical faculty perception toward digital teaching methods during COVID-19 pandemic: Experience from India.

BACKGROUND:Videoconferencing has been used as a modality of online medical teaching by various institutes. There is a paucity of studies reporting the perception of medical teachers toward teaching using teleconferencing platforms. The objective of this survey was to evaluate the perception of medical teachers toward teaching using videoconferencing platforms such as Zoom meet, Google meet, and Google classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our hypothesis was teaching faculty would have a positive perception and experience toward web-based teaching modalities.MATERIALS AND METHODS:Medical teachers of a medical college were invited to participate in a prospective observational cross-sectional online survey. The faculty demographic information, perception, experience, and satisfaction were noted. Perception data were presented as proportion and percentage.RESULTS:104 out of 160 faculty members participated in the study (response rate = 65%). 61 male (58.7%) and 43 female (41.3%) faculty members participated in the study. The mean age of the faculty members was 39.3 years ± 13 (range: 27–69 years). Laptop (n = 73 [70.2%]) was the most commonly used electronic device by the faculty members for conducting e-teaching sessions followed by smartphone (n = 25 [24%]). Google meet was the most preferred videoconference tool for online teaching. Ninety-six faculties (92.2%) were satisfied with the e-teaching method adopted by the institute. Eighty-three faculty (79.8%) perceived the e-teaching method to be very useful and quite useful as a modality for teaching during the lockdown period.CONCLUSIONS:The teaching faculties had a positive perception toward digital education methods adopted for teaching of undergraduate medical students at our institute.

Bend It Like Beckham? Using Cognitive Science To Inform Online Legal Research and Writing Pedagogy During The Pandemic

This article will be published in a forthcoming volume of the Nova Law Review devoted to an online symposium it sponsored on February 26, 2021 entitled "Engaging LRW Students In The ‘New Normal’ – Teaching In The Time Of COVID." The article discusses strategies for adapting legal research and writing lessons developed for the classroom to online videoconferencing platforms like Zoom in response to the shift to online legal education in Spring 2020 as a result of the COVID crisis. Also addressed in this article is an oft overlooked topic in the literature about online legal education regarding issues to consider in selecting tech equipment for our desktop classrooms that may enhance our effectiveness as online teachers. With respect to online legal research and writing pedagogy, this article suggests an approach informed by principles of cognitive science to make use of online videoconferencing tools in ways that actively engage students, that strive to make our teaching as multimodal as possible given the constraints of these platforms, and that remind us of the importance of establishing a supportive classroom environment given the stress that students have faced as a result of the pandemic. This article also incorporates the results of several studies in a small but growing body of empirical research that has examined the effectiveness of remote online teaching during the pandemic in the context of undergraduate and non-law school graduate degree programs. As a result, this article provides a good snapshot of what researchers have concluded works, and doesn’t work, with respect to teaching via a videoconferencing platform like Zoom in a time of COVID.

Virtual Class Management

The COVID-19 outbreak locked down the university classrooms and transferred the teaching and learning activities to a virtual space. This paper discusses the challenges the teachers faced due to this dramatic transfer from habitual classrooms to virtual on-line classes. This small-scale empirical research focuses on two research questions: Which challenges and problems did the teachers face, which solutions did they find to overcome them? The study also investigates the techniques of synchronous on-line classes management employed by the teachers after the COVID-19 restrictions were imposed on traditional delivery modes in higher education. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 university teaching staff members who commenced giving online classes in March 2020. The research findings revealed that the main challenge for teachers was to find a learning platform providing videoconferencing tools, and the solutions were found basically through asking their colleagues for advice. The findings also identified one of the teachers’ concerns related to handling students’ misbehaviour during online classes, and a general need in developing teachers’ virtual class management skills.

Analysis of the Use of Videoconferencing in the Learning Process During the Pandemic at a University in Lima

Due to the health emergency situation, which forced universities to stop using their centers as a means of teaching, many of them opted for virtual education. Affecting the learning process of students, which has predisposed many of them to become familiar with this new learning process, making the use of virtual platforms more common. Many educational centers have come to rely on digital tools such as: Discord, Google Meet, Microsoft Team, Skype and Zoom. The objective of the research is to report on the impact of student learning through the use of the aforementioned videoconferencing tools. Surveys were conducted with teachers and students who stated that 66% were not affected in their educational development. Most of them became familiar with the platforms; however, less than 24% qualified that their academic performance has improved, some teachers still have difficulties at a psychological level due to this new teaching modality. In conclusion, teachers and students agree that these tools are a great help for virtual classes.

Telemedicine and current clinical practice trends in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Telemedicine is the medical practice of caring for and treating patients remotely. With the spread of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, telemedicine has become increasingly prevalent. Although telemedicine was already in practice before the 2020 pandemic, the internet, smartphones, computers, and video-conferencing tools have made telemedicine easily accessible and available to almost everyone. However, there are also new challenges that health care providers may not be prepared for, including treating and diagnosing patients without physical contact. Physician adoption also depends upon reimbursement and education to improve the telemedicine visits. We review current trends involving telemedicine, how pandemics such as COVID-19 affect the remote treatment of patients, and key concepts important to healthcare providers who practice telemedicine.

International cooperation group of emergency surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has changed working conditions for emergency surgical teams around the world. International surgical societies have issued clinical recommendations to optimize surgical management. This international study aimed to assess the degree of emergency surgical teams’ adoption of recommendations during the pandemic.MethodsEmergency surgical team members from over 30 countries were invited to answer an anonymous, prospective, online survey to assess team organization, PPE-related aspects, OR preparations, anesthesiologic considerations, and surgical management for emergency surgery during the pandemic.ResultsOne-hundred-and-thirty-four questionnaires were returned (N = 134) from 26 countries, of which 88% were surgeons, 7% surgical trainees, 4% anesthetists. 81% of the respondents got involved with COVID-19 crisis management. Social media were used by 91% of the respondents to access the recommendations, and 66% used videoconference tools for team communication. 51% had not received PPE training before the pandemic, 73% reported equipment shortage, and 55% informed about re-use of N95/FPP2/3 respirators. Dedicated COVID operating areas were cited by 77% of the respondents, 44% had performed emergency surgical procedures on COVID-19 patients, and over half (52%), favored performing laparoscopic over open surgical procedures.ConclusionSurgical team members have responded with leadership to the COVID-19 pandemic, with crisis management principles. Social media and videoconference have been used by the vast majority to access guidelines or to communicate during social distancing. The level of adoption of current recommendations is high for organizational aspects and surgical management, but not so for PPE training and availability, and anesthesiologic considerations.

Preface

The 2020 International Conference on Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things (UPIOT 2020) & 4th International Symposium on Green Energy and Smart Grid (SGESG 2020) were planned to be held in Xi’an, China from 20 to 22 August, 2020. UPIOT 2020 & SGESG 2020 is organized by Asia Pacific Institute of Science and Engineering(APISE). sponsored by IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Shanghai Chapter, Member Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Chinese Society For Electrical Engineering. CSEE. IEEE PES Chongqing Chapter. Hong Kong Society of Mechanical Engineerings(HKSME) and Sichuan Nuo Yi Convention & Exhibition Service Co., Ltd. Media supported by Journals Center. China Electric Power Research Institute. Due to the impact of C’OVID-19, many communities from all over the world were under strict health measures and strict travel restrictions, and participants of UPIOT 2020 & SGESG 2020 also meet with the difficulty of travel restrictions. For communities, if our conference was not held in a virtual form, it would add huge work on traffic system, Exit-Entry system, medical system, etc., which is quite a serious issue, to actively respond to the call of the government, to strengthen the protection work, to effectively reduce people gathering and prevent C’OVID-19. considering the situation that most of the authors would like to publish their articles and make academic communications as scheduled. UPIOT 2020 & SGESG 2020 were held on-line instead of postponing the conference. It was a challenge, not only to the organizers, but also to the participants who were delivering their speeches using video conference tools, under different time zones.The conference provided a use fill fonun for both offering the latest research and exchanging recent findings in Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things. Green Energy. Smart Grid and related areas. The participants of the conference were from almost every part of the world, coming from academia, industry, and well-known enterprises. The success of the conference is reflected in the high quality papers that were accepted following a peer review process.The proceedings, being a compilation of technically sound papers, covers 3 chapters, namely UPIOT: Smart Grid: Equipment and Status Monitoring.The conference featured 6 Keynote Speakers (40 minutes each, including Q&A) and 4 Invited Speakers (30 minutes including Q&A). In addition, the program included 2 oral sessions and 1 poster session. The papers in the oral sessions were allotted 15 minutes each for presentation. Following the end of each session, the audience engaged in technical dialogues and discussed possible ways for future collaboration. A group photo was taken at the conference. There were a total of 87 participants, including Keynote Speakers, Invited Speaker, Committee Members, Session Chairs, Authors, Presenters and Listeners. The participants delivered and discussed technologies and research work on Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things, Green Energy, Smart Grid and related topicsWe would like to express our gratitude to everyone involved. Without this dedicated cooperation, it would be impossible to hold the conference at such a high level and prepare the UPIOT 2020 & SGESG 2020 proceedings.Prof. Guojie Li, Shanghai Jiaotong Univeristy, ChinaConference Chairman

S0658 Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients Perceptions of Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic

INTRODUCTION: Telemedicine visits (TVs) are a modality for delivering health care services remotely through phone and videoconferencing tools. Data about Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients' characteristics and experience using TVs are limited. Recently, the use of telemedicine has reportedly increased in accordance with the social distancing measures practiced during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of use, characteristics and experience with TVs of IBD patients. METHODS: We performed a prospective survey of IBD patients on a popular social media platform www.Reddit.com during the month of May 2020. Members of sub-forums that provide support for IBD patients including r/IBD, r/CrohnsDisease and r/UlcertiveColitis were surveyed. Responses were collected using with a 15-question survey. RESULTS: 612 respondents completed the survey. 271 (44.3%) respondents reported using TVs to see their gastroenterologist during the COVID-19 pandemic. 201 (74.2%) respondents were living in North America, 59 (21.8%) were in Europe, 8 (3%) were in Oceania and 3 (1.1%) were in Asia. 144 (53.1%) respondents used the phone while 127 (46.9%) used a videoconferencing tool. The average rating for TVs was 3.68/5. 148 (54.6%) respondents did not experience any technical problems, 88 (32.5%) felt that the TV was less personable, 28 (10.3%) experienced poor video or sound quality, 25 (9.2%) needed multiple attempts to establish a connection, 4 (1.5%) had difficulty using the TV application and 11 (4.1%) had other problems. 235 (86.7%) respondents reported that they would use TVs for follow-up visits, 50 (18.5%) would use it for emergency visits, 44 (16.2%) would use it to establish care with a new gastroenterologist and 22 (8.1%) would never use TVs. 65 (24%) respondents prefer using TVs for their future visits, 113 (41.2%) will consider it while 95 (35%) preferred an in-office visit. Among the 341 (65.7%) respondents who did not use TVs, 82 (24.0%) reported that they would prefer to use a TV option in the future while 125 (36.7%) will consider it and 134 (39.3%) still preferred an in-office visit. CONCLUSION: In our study population, the majority of patients showed a favorable reaction towards the use of telemedicine in the delivery of their IBD care despite experiencing technical difficulties. Most patients preferred to use TVs primarily for follow-up visits. Future technical improvements are needed to increase patients' adoption of telemedicine use.Figure 1.: Technical Difficulties Experienced by Respondents During Telemedicine VisitsFigure 2.: Types of Preferred Telemedicine Visits.Figure 3.: Future Trends of Telemedicine Use among Current and Never Telemedicine users.

Managing User-Centered Design Activities in Distributed Agile Development

Abstract The integration of user-centered design (UCD) activities into agile information systems development has become more popular recently. Despite the fact that there are many ways the merging of UCD activities into agile development can be carried out, it has been widely recognized that coordinating design activities with development activities is one of the most common problems, especially in distributed environments where designers, developers and users are spread over several sites. The main approach to coordinate UCD activities with distributed agile development is the use of informal methods (e.g. communication through using video conference tools). In addition to the temporal, geographical and socio-cultural barriers associated with this type of methods, a major limitation is a lack of awareness of how UCD activities and development activities affect each other. Furthermore, some agile project management tools are integrated with design platforms but fail to provide the necessary coordination that helps team members understand how the design and development activities affect their daily work. This research aims to support the effective management of integrating UCD activities into distributed agile development by (i) identifying the key activity dependencies between UX design teams and development teams during distributed UCD/agile development and (ii) designing a computer-based system to provide coordination support through managing these activity dependencies. In order to achieve these objectives, two case studies are carried out. Our findings revealed 10 main dependencies between UCD design teams and development teams as shown by six types of activity. In addition, the participatory design approach shows that developing a computer-based system to manage seven of these selected dependencies is achievable.

Influence of Learning by Using Video Conferencing Tools on Perceptions and Attitude of Vietnamese Female Students in COVID-19 Pandemic

Tools for learning, named video conferencing tools (VCTs, e.g. Zoom, Skype), were in urgent need of learning for the higher education students in Vietnam, for the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic was in the first days of February 2019. This study focused on female students to examine their experience in this way of learning. The data were referred from the dataset of (Dinh Hai Luong & Xuan An Nguyen, 2020) which was on Vietnamese students' technology acceptance model in learning in COVID-19 pandemic. Data for descriptive statistics, reliability analyses and correlation analysis consisted of 254 records. Perceptions of Vietnamese female students related three factors: Perceived usefulness (PU), Perceived ease of use (PEU), and Attitudes (ATT). Results revealed that the easier in using VCTs, the more effectiveness in learning and the perceived usefulness can impact their attitude and inverse. Additionally, it is clear that the attitude of students in using VCTs has been strongly impacted by the perceived usefulness, and the perceived ease of use. The VCTs have proved its considerable effectiveness in the ways of learning for female students of higher education whilst Vietnam had been influenced by COVID-19 outbreak. These applications, therefore, should be further considered that its positive distributions can much more be made beyond any short-term crises.

Preface

After successfully held for two consecutive years, 2020 3rd International Conference on Computer Information Science and Application Technology (CISAT 2020) was planned to be held on July 17, 2020. Due to the unexpected COVID 19 pandemic, that closed the world to national and international travel, the organization decided to hold the CISAT 2020 totally online. It was a challenge, not only to the organizers, but also to the participants who were delivering their speeches using videoconference tools, under different time zones.CISAT 2020 is to bring together innovative academics and industrial experts in the field of computer information science and application technology to a common forum. The conference will bring together about 180 leading researchers, engineers and scientists in the domain of interest from China, United States, Malaysia, India, Czech Republic. The primary goal of the conference is to promote research and developmental activities in computer information science and application technology and another goal is to promote scientific information interchange between researchers, developers, engineers, students, and practitioners working all around the world.List of General Conference Chairmen, Local Co-chairmen, International Technical Committee, Technology Program Committee, and Conference secretary are available in this pdf.

Preface

The 2020 4th International Conference on Water Conservancy, Hydropower and Building Engineering (WCHBE 2020) was planned to be held in Lanzhou, China during July 3-5, 2020. WCHBE 2020 was hosted by AEIC Academic Exchange Information Center. Due to the impact of COVID-19, many communities from all over the world were under strict health measures and strict travel restrictions, and participants of 2020 4th International Conference on Water Conservancy, Hydropower and Building Engineering (WCHBE 2020) also meet with the difficulty of travel restrictions. For communities, if our conference was not held in a virtual form, it would add huge work on traffic system, Exit-Entry system, medical system, etc., which is quite a serious issue, to actively respond to the call of the government, to strengthen the protection work, to effectively reduce people gathering and prevent COVID-19, considering the situation that most of the authors would like to publish their articles and make academic communications as scheduled, WCHBE 2020 was held on-line instead of postponing the conference. It was a challenge, not only to the organizers, but also to the participants who were delivering their speeches using videoconference tools, under different time zones.The conference is an international conference for the presentation of technological advances and research results in the fields of water conservancy, hydropower and building engineering. The conference will bring together about 97 leading researchers, engineers and scientists in the domain of interest from China, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand. The conference model was divided into two parts, including keynote presentations and online discussion. In the first part, each keynote speakers were allocated 30 minutes to present their talks via Zoom. After the keynote talks, all participants joined in a WeChat communication group to discuss more about the talks and presentations. We are honored to have invited three distinguished experts as our keynote speakers. Prof. Hengjia Zhang, Gansu Agricultural University, China, was the first one to perform a thought-provoking speech on Optimization of Limited Irrigation Schedules for Spring Maize (Zea mays) in a Desert Oasis Region. He also was the Conference Chair who mainly devoted to the teaching and research work of the efficient use of agricultural water and soil resources. Secondly, Prof. Shaohua Marko Hsu from Feng Chia University held his speech on Using Porous Material for Riverbank and Riverbed Protection. Thirdly, Prof. Ahmad Safuan Bin A. Rashid from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia talked about Application of UAV-TLS Photogrammetry in Determination of Rock Slope Stability. Their insightful speeches had triggered heated discussion in the second session of the conference. The WeChat discussion lasted for about 30 minutes. Every participant praised this conference for disseminating useful and insightful knowledge.We are glad to share with you that we still received lots of submissions from the conference during this special period. Hence, we selected a bunch of high-quality papers and compiled them into the proceedings after rigorously reviewed them. These papers feature following two categories but are not limited to: Civil, Architectural Engineering, Water conservancy and hydropower, and other related fields. All the papers have been through rigorous review and process to meet the requirements of International publication standard.We would like to express our gratitude to everyone involved. Without this dedicated cooperation, it would be impossible to hold the conference at such a high level and prepare the WCHBE 2020 proceedings.Committee of WCHBE 2020The Committee member is available in this pdf.