Virtual Innovation Research Articles

Case Study of Transforming and Scaling Entrepreneurial Internship Access in IHE

This case study explores innovative approaches to expand access to high-quality internships and improve equitable student outcomes. It focuses on Lehigh University’s virtual Innovation Internship program, partnered with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center and Epixego Inc. The program aims to address challenges in traditional internships, such as hidden curriculum, false narratives, and unequal social environments. By incorporating self-assessment of learning competencies and enhancing student agency, the program doubled its capacity to 40 students. The study measured student self-efficacy, occupational identity choice, and outcome expectations based on various factors. Results showed that students changed internship preferences across occupation categories and experienced increases in entrepreneurial self-efficacy (3%), occupational identity (7%), and perception of entrepreneurship education (4%). This multifaceted approach demonstrates the potential for innovative internship designs to improve accessibility and student development outcomes.

VIRTUAL REALITY IN EDUCATIONFundamentals, Devices, Applications and Innovation in Teaching

Virtual Reality (VR) has stood out as an innovative tool in education, transforming the waystudents learn and teachers teach. The integration of VR devices, such as glasses andsimulators, allows the creation of immersive environments, in which students can explorecomplex concepts in a practical and engaging way. Furthermore, VR offers opportunities fornew teaching paradigms, such as virtual visits to museums, simulations of scientificexperiments, and trips to historic places. This approach stimulates students' curiosity,creativity and engagement, making the learning process more dynamic and meaningful.Recent data indicates that schools and educational institutions are increasingly adopting VRas part of their pedagogical strategies, recognizing its potential for educational innovation.This work aims to demonstrate how Virtual Reality in Education is based on a promisingarea, capable of revolutionizing the way educators and students interact with knowledge.

Co-designing strategies to implement long-acting injectable PrEP for sexual minority men in Chicago: a study protocol for an innovation tournament and implementation mapping

BackgroundParticipatory design approaches can improve successful selection and tailoring of implementation strategies by centering the voices of key constituents. To reduce incidence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the USA, co-design of implementation strategies is needed for long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA), a new form of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, among the disproportionately impacted population of sexual minority men (SMM). This manuscript describes the protocol for participatory design approaches (i.e., innovation tournament and implementation mapping) to inform implementation of CAB-LA among SMM (≥ 12 years), particularly Black and Latino populations, in Chicago.MethodsThis research incorporates innovative methods to accomplish two objectives: (1) to crowdsource ideas for the design of implementation strategies for CAB-LA through a virtual innovation tournament and (2) to leverage the ideas from the innovation tournament to operationalize implementation strategies for CAB-LA thorough the systematic process of implementation mapping. A committee of constituents with diverse expertise and perspectives (e.g., SMM, implementation scientists, HIV clinicians, public health leadership, and community partners) will provide input throughout the design process.DiscussionThis research will produce a menu of co-designed implementation strategies, which can guide plans for CAB-LA integration in Chicago and provide insights for other EHE regions. Further, as the first innovation tournament focused on HIV prevention, this research can provide a framework for participatory approaches across the care continuum. Given that the co-design of implementation strategies often does not involve the participation of individuals with lived experiences, this work will center the voices of those who will benefit most.

Editorial: What is the Future of AIS Conferences in Our Community?

The future of AIS conferences, thrown into sharp relief by virtual innovations during the pandemic and the subsequent return to face-to-face conferences, is debated in this special issue. This editorial introduces the seven papers contained in the special issue and provides the context for the debate on the future of conferences in the AIS Community as well as pinpointing key contributions made by the papers in the special issue. The editors debate three questions: Are conferences still a viable means of academic exchange and community for the future? Given that both virtual and face-to-face options have opportunities and constraints, what can we do to have the best of both options? What consequences, intended and unintended, do new conference formats have for social inclusion and sustainability? We examine different types of hybrid formats and features and also consider the vexed question of how pricing may impact inclusion. We conclude with a call to consider that, for social inclusion, we have an obligation to make participation as rich as possible - some options should not offer a diminished experience. As outlined in this editorial and special issue, the challenges of making participation as rich as possible are manifold - but in doing so, we help both our community and the planet.

Effectiveness of the Administration of Justice in Nigeria Under the Development of Digital Technologies

Objective: the traditional Nigerian judicial system has long been associated with a conservative approach and traditional methodologies of justice administration. As a developing country, Nigeria has benefited immensely from the advancement of digital technology, especially in the legal field. This is due to the fact that modern digital technologies are being rapidly adopted in Nigeria's judicial processes for effective justice administration. However, despite the promise of digital technology, there are legal and socioeconomic challenges in Nigeria that may affect its successful utilization in legal proceedings. This justifies the focus of the study - to identify the legal and socio-economic challenges of digitalization of court proceedings in Nigeria.Methods: the study combines doctrinal and non-doctrinal approaches. The former ensures theoretical understanding of the conceptual issues and prospects of court proceedings virtualization. It also allows exploring, based on primary and secondary sources (laws, monographs, research articles and internet resources), the legal and socio-economic challenges of the use of digital technologies in court proceedings. The non-doctrinal approach consists in polling, describing and analyzing the results of a sociological survey. The survey was conducted among Nigeria residents to reveal their attitudes towards innovations in digitalization and virtualization of court proceedings as well as the challenges posed by these processes.Results: the study revealed that the use of digital technologies in court proceedings in Nigeria has several prospects of ensuring effective justice administration and accurate recording and storage of information. Along with the benefits, challenges are shown that may reduce the effectiveness of court proceedings digitalization.Scientific novelty: consists in investigating the use of digital technology in Nigerian court proceedings and identifying the prospects of improving the efficiency of justice administration in Nigeria under digitalization, as well as the challenges arising from this trend.Practical significance: the study will enable stakeholders in the Nigerian legal sector to identify legal and socio-economic challenges that may adversely affect and render ineffective the use of digital technologies in legal proceedings. In addition, the article offers practical recommendations to address these challenges.

Tic in Secondary School Teachers: A Systematic Review

The objective of this research is to analyze the scientific contributions of articles referring to the use of ICTs in public management secondary education teachers in various countries of the world, between the years 2017 and 2021. The method used was a systematic review with descriptive level, using the guide of the PRISMA statement, using the search in the online databases of Scopus, SciELO, EBSCO and ERIC applying the descriptors: "ICTS in pandemic", "ICTS in teachers", "ICTS in secondary schools" in turn combining between them the use of the booleans AND and finally OR, in English and Spanish. The review took into account online education, virtual innovations, technological resources and digital skills. The results were the analysis of 21 scientific articles, of which 4 were from Scopus, 12 were from SciELO, 594 from EBSCO and 160 from ERIC. It was concluded that the development of ICT is related to the positive predisposition of teachers to include digital tools and resources in the teaching-learning process of students, for online training, putting into practice digital skills, which are very important. scarce and achieve virtual innovations.

Remote Innovation: How Remote Work Enables Open Innovation in Times of COVID-19

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated infection control measures imposed by governments caused a major disruption to traditional workflows, leading to an immense increase in remote work. At the same time, innovation activities became more collaborative and digitalized than ever before, as firms worldwide were forced to shift from physical to virtual innovation spaces literally overnight and suddenly had to adapt and practice “remote innovation”. By means of a systematic literature review based on 80 selected articles, this paper contributes to the academic discussion in three ways: First, the paper explores the synthesis between open innovation and remote work and uncovers a set of necessary determinants that form the basis for practicing remote innovation. Second, the paper offers a conceptual framework based on Chesbrough’s open innovation model and extended by various determinants of open innovation in a remote work environment to provide initial advice to managers on how to innovate in times of social distancing. Third, the study concludes by identifying several promising areas for future research in the field of remote innovation management, a hitherto under-researched but highly topical field.

Xtreme design: a new approach for virtual innovation

Xtreme design: a new approach for virtual innovation

Xtreme Design A new approach for virtual innovation

Xtreme Design A new approach for virtual innovation

Improving Family Presence in Long-Term Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Family caregivers play a vital role in supporting the physical and mental health of long-term care (LTC) residents. Due to LTC visitor restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, residents (as well as family caregivers) showed significant adverse health outcomes due to a lack of family presence. To respond to these outcomes, eight implementation science teams led research projects in conjunction with Canadian LTC homes to promote the implementation of interventions to improve family presence. Overall, technological and virtual innovations, increased funding to the sector and partnerships with family caregivers were deemed effective methods to promote stronger family presence within LTC.

Nursing Handoff Education Using Experiential and Virtual Innovations.

Seventy percent of serious medical errors are the result of ineffective communication, including handoff errors. Nursing students have cited a need for more experience on how to give handoff; yet, handoff education remains variable. Two innovative curricular approaches were implemented on the basis of Bloom's taxonomy to teach handoff education: experiential and virtual. The outcomes of the 2 curricular innovations were evaluated for handoff completion, handoff accuracy, and handoff quality, based on context. During the experiential approach, students demonstrated average handoff completion rates of 84%. During the virtual approach, students' handoff completion rates rose from 25% to 63% and accuracy handoff rates rose from 13% to 31%. Evaluations support that varying educational methods successfully teach nursing students how to give handoffs. Complementary innovations grant educators flexibility to tailor innovations to curriculum and course context, as supported by Bloom's taxonomy.

A virtual innovation bootcamp to remotely connect and empower students to solve COVID-19-related medical problems

A virtual innovation bootcamp to remotely connect and empower students to solve COVID-19-related medical problems

Covid-19 Induced Virtual Courts Sessions in Nigeria: Practicalities and Impracticalities

The Presidential Declaration of Corona Virus Disease 19 as a ‘dangerous contagious disease’ occasioned the emergence of several regulations imposing restrictions on movements and social distancing measures. The Chief Justice of Nigeria and other heads of court also approved the Guidelines and Practice Directions containing modalities for virtual court sessions. This paper aims to examine the legal implications of virtual court session. The traditional requirement that court sessions should be held in places open to the public signifies a constitutional disapproval of virtual court sessions. It is contended that Practice Directions and Guidelines are weak mechanisms for entrenching virtual court sessions in Nigeria since they are within the lowest rung of the hierarchy of laws. Hence, the reform needs to be holistic. It should entail amendment of certain provisions of the constitution, laws, and rules of courts to enable a virtual innovation without legal hiccups. In alternative to constitutional amendment which usually takes long, this work, in addition to predicting the decision of the apex court on six grounds, suggests the immediate need for a judicial intervention in interpreting the constitutionality of virtual court session. This is to put to rest the fear harboured by some individuals that the serious judicial efforts put in by judges and counsel via virtual court sessions would end up becoming a nullity on appeal to the apex court.

From Challenge to Opportunity: Virtual Qualitative Research During COVID-19 and Beyond.

COVID-19 has required researchers to adapt methodologies for remote data collection. While virtual interviewing has traditionally received limited attention in the qualitative literature, recent adaptations to the pandemic have prompted increased discussion and adoption. Yet, current discussion has focussed on practical and ethical concerns and retained a tone of compromise, of coping in a crisis. This paper extends the nascent conversations begun prior to the pandemic to consider the wider methodological implications of video-call interviews. Beyond the short-term, practical challenges of the pandemic, these adaptations demonstrate scope for longer-term, beneficial digitalisation of both traditional and emergent interview methods. Updating traditional interview methods digitally has demonstrated how conversion to video interviewing proves beneficial in its own right. Virtual focus-group-based research during COVID-19, for example, accessed marginalised populations and elicited notable rapport and rich data, uniting people in synchronous conversation across many environments. Moreover, emergent interview methods such as the Grid Elaboration Method (a specialised free-associative method) demonstrated further digitalised enhancements, including effective online recruitment with flexible scheduling, virtual interactions with significant rapport, and valuable recording and transcription functions. This paper looks beyond the pandemic to future research contexts where such forms of virtual interviewing may confer unique advantages: supporting researcher and participant populations with mobility challenges; enhancing international research where researcher presence or travel may be problematic. When opportunities for traditional face-to-face methods return, the opportunity for virtual innovation should not be overlooked.

Innovation in pandemics: a netnographic approach to the sharing economy contributions

PurposePandemics are a serious challenge for humanity, as their social and economic impacts can be tremendous. This study aims to understand how innovation based in the sharing economy (SE) business models can contribute to overcoming the challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a netnographic approach, the authors studied the computer-mediated social interactions of internet-based virtual innovation communities.FindingsThis study found that the SE business models contribute to overcome the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic by redistributing idle resources to lessen the impacts of confinement. This was achieved through process innovations and an innovative use of the network, which enabled fast-open and decentralized innovation processes, and quick implementation of innovations. This innovation process is based on a decentralized decision-making approach, clear rules, informal relationship among community members and open communication channels, as well as in evasive strategies to avoid facing challenges, institutional restrictions and barriers in the adoption of innovations.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was limited to a virtual innovation community of highly specialized and educated experts and nine community projects focused on institutional contexts of a developed country. Future research should focus on the institutional contexts of less specialized communities and developing countries and study other community innovation projects in pandemics to understand the processes of fast-open, decentralized and evasive innovation and the importance of relational capabilities for innovation in digital contexts.Practical implicationsThe findings can guide innovation managers and public policymakers in implementing effective strategies and policies to overcome pandemic challenges using SE business models. This research also provides important insights into the types and processes of innovation in organizations that create solutions to overcome social and business challenges during pandemics. In addition, this study highlights the contributions of netnographic approaches to conducting research on innovation and in pandemic periods when measures of confinement are in place.Originality/valueThis study uses an innovative framework to map the types of innovation and highlights two different types of innovation processes.

How Does User Social Network Improve Innovation Outcomes on a Virtual Innovation Platform?

Previous studies demonstrate that online interactive relations can help improve users' innovation outcomes, yet few studies have investigated how they influence user innovation. This paper builds a social network based on users' online interactive relations in one virtual innovation platform (LEGO Ideas). It characterizes the online social network relations from both quantity and quality dimensions and examines their influencing paths on users' innovation outcomes (i.e., emotional support and information flow). The empirical results show that both the quantity and quality of online relations impose positive effects on innovation, yet in different ways. The quantity of online relations could bring users more positive emotions, whereas the quality of online relations could bring them with more useful information and knowledge. By examining the influencing paths, this paper contributes to the literature on how online relations influence innovation outcomes as well as provides practical suggestions for innovation platforms.

Learnings and Implications of Virtual Hackathon

ABSTRACT This article introduces a large-scale virtual hackathon where we observed the way participants found collaborators and undertook innovation processes entirely in the virtual world. As an emerging social-technical practice, the virtual hackathon leverages the power of familiar strangers, the improvisation of low-cost digital services, and the crowdsourcing mechanism to enable open innovation under the constraint of physical distancing. This study contributes to the research by introducing and conceptualizing a modified artifact – virtual hackathon. The implication of and the lessons learnt from the virtual hackathon are applicable and generalizable to organizations when managing virtual collaborations, digital infrastructure, and open innovation.

RETRACTED: Research and development of fitness equipment embedded system based on distributed virtual environment

Embedded system based virtualization, which appreciates massive prominence in the venture and individualized computing spaces, is as of late increasing critical interest in the inserted area—beginning from a correlation of crucial qualities of big business fitness equipment and fitness action monitoring. So in the proposed method difficult that current wellness gear has a solitary capacity, the absence of diversion and intuitive highlights, the smart wellness hardware installed virtually with wellness, and double amusement capacity is explored and created by appropriated virtual innovation. The design, equipment, and programming structure for the wellness hardware and distinction in inspiration for the utilization of embedded system machines and the subsequent contrasts in the innovation's necessities. The differences are very considerable, and that virtualization can't meet the unique prerequisites of implanted frameworks. All things being equal, broader working virtual innovations are required, which uphold virtualization as an extraordinary case.

Virtual Mentoring: Two Adaptive Models for Supporting Early-career Simulation Investigators in the Era of Social Distancing.

Early-career simulation investigators identify limited mentorship as a common barrier to disseminating scholarship and launching a successful academic career in emergency medicine (EM). Conferences often bridge this gap, but the COVID-19 pandemic has forced their indefinite delay. Virtual solutions are needed to capitalize on the breadth of national simulation research experts and grow mentorship in a postpandemic world. We developed two complementary innovations to facilitate scholarship development and minimize COVID-associated career challenges resulting from social distancing requirements. The e-fellows forum (FF) provides a capstone experience for works-in-progress and the e-consultation service (CS) supports simulation research during the earlier project stages of design and development. In conjunction with the Society for Academic Medicine's Simulation Academy, we applied videoconferencing technology for both of these novel, virtual innovations. We analyzed corresponding chat transcripts and detailed field notes for emerging themes. In addition, we collected quantitative data via participant surveys regarding their experiences and impact on their projects. Nine simulation fellows presented at the FF and seven junior simulation investigators participated in the CS sessions. Most preferred the virtual format (56% FF, 66% CS) and found the sessions to be helpful in project advancement (66% FF, 100% CS). COVID-19 affected most projects (89% FF, 67% CS). We identified three themes via qualitative analysis: design concerns and inquiries, validation or support shown by mentors and peers, and professional cohesion. Participants felt that both virtual mentorship innovations advanced their simulation research projects and fostered a sense of professional cohesion within a greater community of practice. These benefits can be powerful at a time where simulation researchers in EM feel disconnected in an era of social distancing. Our future work will include adaptations to a hybrid model with both virtual and in-person modalities as well as creation of more e-mentorship opportunities, thus broadening the early-career simulation research community of practice.

2019 Pathway Award® winner.

Pathway to Excellence standards promote virtual reality innovation at the Charles George VA Medical Center.