The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shaped higher education and seen the distinct rise of e-learning as a compulsory element of the modern educational landscape. Accordingly, this study highlights the factors which have influenced how students perceive their academic performance during this emergency changeover to e-learning. The empirical analysis is performed on a sample of 10,092 higher education students from 10 countries across 4 continents during the pandemic's first wave through an online survey. A structural equation model revealed the quality of e-learning was mainly derived from service quality, the teacher's active role in the process of online education, and the overall system quality, while the students' digital competencies and online interactions with their colleagues and teachers were considered to be slightly less important factors. The impact of e-learning quality on the students' performance was strongly mediated by their satisfaction with e-learning. In general, the model gave quite consistent results across countries, gender, study fields, and levels of study. The findings provide a basis for policy recommendations to support decision-makers incorporate e-learning issues in the current and any new similar circumstances.

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Academic student satisfaction and perceived performance in the e-learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence across ten countries.

Higher education has been shifted toward blended learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in social media usage intensity and reduced face-to-face interaction due to the COVID-19 pandemic urged instructional communication researchers to revisit the dynamics of learners’ group development in terms of their socialization and academic performance during the COVID-19 crisis. This research aimed to determine the mediating role of social media sociability between face-to-face socialization and academic performance of higher education students in blended learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also the aim of the study to determine the moderating effect of social media usage intensity on social media sociability. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with the students (n = 340) enrolled in science teacher education departments of universities in Pakistan. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for multivariate analysis. Results revealed that face-to-face socialization gave an essential start to develop a learning group. However, when face-to-face socialization was reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was mediated by social media usage in blended learning environments to increase their socialization and academic performance during the crisis. The findings of the study are useful for higher education institutions to adopt social media strategies for students’ socialization during the crisis.

Breaching Learners' Social Distancing through Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

One hard fact of COVID-19 is the uncertainty of all things. Anchoring on the assumption that the religiosity of an individual has a profound impact on their emotions, resilience, and wellness, this study investigated the levels of the centrality of religiosity, emotions towards God, resilience, and wellness among 399 Taiwanese university students. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, group comparisons, multiple regression, and mediation analysis. Findings showed that most of the participants were religious. Furthermore, the 16 emotions towards God were successfully factored into three distinct sub-groups, namely: pleasant, unpleasant, and moral valence, which were later found to be quite related to Asian religions. More importantly, the results suggested that the resiliency of an individual can be attributed to their belief in the existence of God or the Divine, while the wellness indicators of security and satisfaction were related to one's religiosity. Lastly, structural equation modeling showed that resilience fully mediated the relationship between the ideology dimension of religiosity and the security and satisfaction component of wellness. In addition to discussing these significant results, this paper also included some implications of the study results, particularly the importance of religiosity and emotions toward God or the Divine in sustaining resilience and promoting wellness, especially in the context of crisis, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Religiosity, Emotions, Resilience, and Wellness during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Taiwanese University Students.

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Methods for Online Monitoring of Air Pollution Concentration

COVID-19 forced higher education institutions to reinvent themselves. The (usually) face-to-face education has swapped to distance contingency education. This change brought about numerous challenges that impose adjustments in several dimensions, such as pedagogical strategies and the dependence on teaching platforms and computer systems-and, above all, the new relationship between the various actors (students, teachers, and management staff). All the sudden changes, combined with uncertainty concerning what was happening, created several strategies and options. This paper has the main purpose of analyzing the scientific production on higher education of EU27 academic institutions during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in journals indexed in Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science and Elsevier's Scopus. The sample is composed of 22 articles in total. The results show that the articles were published in 19 journals; their main focuses are Higher Education, COVID-19, and distance learning. In our database, we find several types of concerns, which shows that HEIs have a wide range of dimensions. We intend this article to be an instrument, not only to identify what was done in 2020, but to point out clues for the future.

http://repositorio.uportu.pt:8080/bitstream/11328/3534/1/Ijerp.pdf

EU27 Higher Education Institutions and COVID-19, Year 2020.

First-year students undergo several transformations like the transition from high school to university schedules, teaching methods, and discipline specificities to social changes that come with meeting new colleagues or moving to other locations far from family and friends. The COVID-19 outbreak brought additional concerns and uncertainties once educational systems implemented distance learning schemes for public health management. Nevertheless, higher educational organizations preferred to implement hybrid approaches for student engagement motivation and high dropout rate avoidance. In Romania, such an educational system has been applied with caution. Since the pandemic needs to be understood as an opportunity for adaptation and education improvements, the purpose of the present paper is to uncover lessons learned and to develop a systematized model based on students' perception regarding face-to-face, online and hybrid systems. For this reason, a grounded theory approach has been preferred. Thus, 149 Romanian students enrolled in the first year in engineering specialities with ages between 18-26 years both male (50.3%) and female (49.7%) have answered the research questions in an online environment due to pandemic restrictions. Based on the online asynchronous student interviews, 220 codes and a further 13 categories have been developed. After a pertinent analysis of the relationships between categories and relevant literature sorting, a theoretical model for the Romanian higher educational current pandemic situation has been proposed. The main face-to-face and online education characteristics are outlined, the hybrid approach becoming a bridge between the two systems. Management implications are outlined together with further research directions.

Facing COVID-19 Challenges: 1st-Year Students' Experience with the Romanian Hybrid Higher Educational System.

It is known that cross roads are intensively polluting surface sources, first of all because of the high intensity of traffic, but also due to the very slow velocities of the motor driving cycles that occur, disadvantaged also by the old status of the fleet. As result, high momentum values of NOx and CO are recorded. The development of a modern city, the traffic refreshment and the limitation of heavy trucks in the central area of a city that is not benefiting of good advection, but of a bad infrastructure and ancient traffic fleet, are essential. Thus, after a long repeated series of on line measurements, the authors are recommending a statistical approach of determination of a specific emission factor, that might be used, in same or similar meteorological conditions and topography for limiting the traffic or characterising the by completing the emission inventory of a city also by superficial pollutant sources. (Received September 24, 2008; accepted November 27, 2008)

Method for determination of an emission factor for a surface source

Today's lifestyle puts an increasing accent on internet resources. In order to increase its efficiency, the educational process should also include internet resources. This work presents different internet resources (online courses and tutorials, social media, online games) and analyses their efficiency in training students.

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Re-shaping Education: Role of Internet Resources in Increasing the Efficiency of the Educational Process

The Analysis of the Romanian Global Competitiveness International Ranking. The impact of the IEC Program

Smart mobility represents the future for many of today’s cities and is part of the smart city concept. Besides all its characteristics, the smart city concept aims to use the IoT (Internet of Things) technology to improve the citizens quality of life through a secure and efficient administration of city resources. The exponential growth of population and urbanization creates many challenges, especially from a mobility perspective. The main challenge in this direction is to ensure a sustainable transportation system. The objective of this paper is to present a survey on the sustainability assurance for smart mobility systems by using the blockchain technology. Moreover, this study proposes a conceptual model for a sustainable smart mobility system that implies the usage of blockchain technology. Widely known through its connection with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, blockchain can serve the safety and security requirements that are specific to intelligent transportation systems (ITS). The main advantage of this technology is the capability to face against several security threats by storing securely the information. This approach will streamline and secure the sensors networks data handling by the TMCs (Traffic Monitoring Centers). The process of these data handling is challenging because of possible exposure to cyber-attacks that can lead for example to erroneous traffic lights phases and green-interval settings in crossroads. The conclusions will be issued based on a comparison with the current IoT approaches for ensuring the secure storage of traffic data retrieved from sensors networks.

Luisa Izabel Dungan

Papers

Facing COVID-19 Challenges: 1st-Year Students' Experience with the Romanian Hybrid Higher Educational System.

Method for determination of an emission factor for a surface source

Re-shaping Education: Role of Internet Resources in Increasing the Efficiency of the Educational Process

The Analysis of the Romanian Global Competitiveness International Ranking. The impact of the IEC Program

Blockchain-based solutions for smart mobility sustainability assurance