Evaluation of Flexible Strategies to Manage the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Education Sector

Mapping the research landscape: A bibliometric analysis of e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably affected e-learning, leading to a surge in research output from 2020 to 2022. This increase is attributed to the rapid transition to online education, presenting challenges and opportunities for teachers. The shift to online education has also prompted the exploration of innovative approaches and educators' as well as learners' perceptions and experiences in e-learning. In this study, the research output on e-learning from 2020 to 2022 has been analyzed to reveal the major research trends. The study employs bibliometric techniques to explore the data retrieved from Scopus. Particularly, an analysis of metadata such as the geographical distribution of publications, authorship, keywords, and the impact of works has been conducted. The results reveal the most influential authors and works, as well as the emerging topics in the field. The data has been processed by utilizing bibliometric tools such as VOSviewer, Citespace, and Harzing's Publish or Perish.

COVID-19 induced shocks and its implications for human capital development

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 has delivered an enormous shock to the global economy, triggering the deepest recession in eight decades, almost three times as deep as the 2009 global recession. Of all the nations in Africa, Nigeria remains one of the nations with a huge and significant impact on the human capital.

METHODS

Hence, here we employed the recent nationally representative data from Nigeria - the COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey 2020-World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study Integrated Agriculture Survey (LSMS-ISA), a harmonized dataset to explore how the COVID-19 induced shocks affected households' human capital development (using health and education outcomes).

RESULTS

The results indicate that the COVID-19 induced shocks impact on both health and education in Nigeria. Interestingly, access to social safety nets had a positive association with the health and education outcomes. The study concludes that households' access to social safety nets, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic aids in the development of the nation's human capital. Therefore, effectively enhancing household's resilience and strengthening human capital development require positive and considerable innovation, maybe over a period of years. Hence, just an access to the national social safety nets programs or social programs may not be as effective as expected. Therefore, it may not be as successful as intended to just have access to national social safety net programs or social programs that contribute or transfer negligible amounts to the vulnerable recipients over short time frames.

Self-directed learning skills and motivation during distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic (case study: The university of Jordan)

This study aimed to assess the effect of distance learning on students' self-directed learning skills and motivation during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study relies on a quantitative methodology. The data were collected using an administrative online survey distributed to 427 respondents with different majors (BBA) enrolled in the learning skills and scientific research skills course (obligatory course) in the second semester of the academic year 2020/2021 at The University of Jordan. Regression analysis was used to analyze the proposed hypotheses. The results showed that the independent variable (Distance Learning) positively influenced students' motivation and self-directed learning skills. The recommendations based on the outcomes of this research are useful for educational specialists to develop learning environments about the effects of distance learning on students' self-directed learning skills and motivation. In terms of limitations, the analysis was performed in one university only; therefore, attention must be paid when generalizing the results.

Prescriptive Analytics-Based SIRM Model for Predicting Covid-19 Outbreak

Predicting the outbreak of a pandemic is an important measure in order to help saving people lives threatened by Covid-19. Having information about the possible spread of the pandemic, authorities and people can make better decisions. For example, such analyses help developing better strategies for distributing vaccines and medicines. This paper has modified the original Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) model to Susceptible-Immune-Infected-Recovered (SIRM) which includes the Immunity ratio as a parameter to enhance the prediction of the pandemic. SIR is a widely used model to predict the spread of a pandemic. Many types of pandemics imply many variants of the SIR models which make it very difficult to find out the best model that matches the running pandemic. The simulation of this paper used the published data about the spread of the pandemic in order to examine our new SIRM. The results showed clearly that our new SIRM covering the aspects of vaccine and medicine is an appropriate model to predict the behavior of the pandemic.

Online learning experiences of secondary school students during COVID-19 - Dataset from Vietnam

This dataset provides an insight into the reality and experiences of online learning as perceived by secondary school students in Vietnam during COVID-related school closures. The dataset addresses four main aspects of online learning, namely (a) students’ access to learning devices, (b) their digital skill readiness, (c) their experience with online learning and assessment activities, and (d) their overall evaluation of the effectiveness of online learning. The survey was administered online via Google Form from September to December 2021 with responses received from 5,327 secondary school students in 5 provinces of Vietnam. The dataset is expected to benefit local educators, administrators, and teachers who are interested in COVID educational practices and pedagogical interventions. The dataset can also benefit international researchers who wish to conduct comparative studies on student online learning or who wish to seek further insight into the responsiveness of an educational system to pandemic situations.

Lean Entrepreneurship and SME Practice in a Post COVID-19 Pandemic Era: A Conceptual Discourse from Nigeria

This study investigates lean principles among Nigerian entrepreneurs and SME managers in the operational process in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. It offers the panacea to the challenge of social-economic shocks and their adverse effects on SMEs' business activities in Nigeria. The study adopts a conceptual approach to investigate lean entrepreneurship practice by SMEs in Nigeria. It relies on data from extant literature, using a conceptual approach to examine the social-economic effects of COVID-19 pandemic and critical environmental factors on the lean entrepreneurship practice in Nigeria. Furthermore, the study explores the influence of lean practice among SMEs and entrepreneurs in Nigeria and suggests a broad model for lean entrepreneurial practice in post-COVID-19 pandemic Nigeria. Findings highlight the broad social-economic effects of COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges such as theft, host community pressure, weak legal system, and inadequate government policy support affect lean entrepreneurship practice. These factors constitute complex operational issues that would require the adoption of a more comprehensive approach to address. It also highlights crucial factors for post-COVID-19 pandemic SMEs' operational success in Nigeria due to deficits in infrastructure and regulatory efficiency for SMEs' operations to address the various challenges of business failures in Nigeria. The study suggests a lean SME and Entrepreneurial Practice model in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. It emphasises the need to refocus the active interest of the lean entrepreneur on critical business sustainability. The study recommends a critical review of the internal operational process among practicing entrepreneurial businesses and a re-modification of public policies system that governs the operational functions of entrepreneurial practices for reasonable and resilient post-COVID-19 pandemic entrepreneurship practices that can support the SMEs and economic growth in Nigeria.

The Mechanisms of Collective Resilience in a Crisis Context: The Case of The ‘COVID-19’ Crisis

In this research, we claim to join the efforts of practitioners and researchers to provide managerial responses to an unprecedented health crisis such as COVID-19. To do this, we study the concept of 'collective resilience' as a mechanism for responding to crisis in the Tunisian context. The aim of this research is to explain the impact of collective resilience processes on the ability of organizations to withstand crisis. We conducted sixteen semi-structured interviews with Tunisian companies that had experienced the COVID-19 crisis. Continuous analysis of these interviews was carried out with the Nvivo12 software. Our results showed a positive effect of collective resilience on the capacity of organizations to resist the COVID-19 crisis by developing protective factors. These are manifested by new intersubjective interactions (massive exchanges, shared representation, collective consciousness, collaboration, solidarity, mutual aid, etc.), generic interactions (actions and assembly rules not used before: less formalized rules and procedures, more flexible and decentralized structure, new organizational diagrams based on trust, accountability, etc.) and finally the improvisation and tinkering of the organization which made it possible to bring about a change affecting all levels of the organization: strategic and organizational.

Connections of Transformative Education with Bhutan’s Pedagogical Ideas for Promoting Sustainability Education

The study aims to clarify how transformative education teaching and learning ideas have been incorporated into sustainable development-focused education in Bhutan. Sustainable development is included in various ways in the Educating for Gross National Happiness Training Manual (GNH TM) developed by the Ministry of Education of Bhutan in 2013. GNH-focused education aims at developing students’ respect and critical thinking for the well-being of human beings and the environment. The article provides an overview of 26 selected articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals from 1991–2021. Altogether, 12 sustainable development-focused transformative education articles were analyzed in detail using qualitative content analysis. The results of the study show that transformative education is reflected in many ways in the teaching goals, objectives, contents, and methods introduced in the GNH TM units. Consequently, transformative education and teaching have become part of teaching in Bhutan’s schools, with an emphasis on sustainable development and protection of the environment. However, for a sustainable future, active student-centered teaching and learning methods should be used in a more diverse way.

Addressing critical success factors for improving concurrent emergency management: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

The world is witnessing a difficult time trying to circumscribe the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The situation has become even more challenging as several natural disasters and emergencies coincided with this pandemic and created a situation of concurrent emergency. Effectively managing concurrent emergencies are extremely challenging. Only by utilizing and applying the knowledge gathered while combating a real-life concurrent emergency, one can further be prepared to face such emergencies. Hence, this study intends to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) having a major role in effective management of concurrent emergencies and evaluate the indispensable links among the factors. Twelve CSFs are identified from Pareto analysis, for which feedback from 46 experts involved in the management of emergencies is utilized. In addition, the revised rough-decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (rough-DEMATEL) approach is suggested to analyze the indispensable links among the CSFs and further, these factors are ranked based on the average vector length. The recent case of concurrent emergency in Bangladesh- floods amid a pandemic is considered to establish the applicability of this method. The findings of this research reveal that to handle concurrent emergencies 'Incremental improvement of proactive measures', 'Resilient supply chain and logistics network', and 'Government leadership and military cooperation' are the most critical factors to concurrent emergency management (CEM). These CSFs play a major role in ensuring the effectiveness of CEM. Thus, this study can be a building block in developing an effective CEM plan for the policymakers, managers, and practitioners.

Social Sustainability Challenges Towards Flexible Supply Chain Management: Post-COVID-19 Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the global social sustainability of the supply chains, pushing them towards a more flexible management approach. However, there is a paucity of literature that focuses on social sustainability issues for emerging economies. In the post-COVID-19 period, firms around the world will face several critical challenges to social sustainability, which will hinder achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). Against this backdrop, this study identifies the pressing challenges to social sustainability in the post-COVID-19 context by a literature review and opinions from an expert panel, focusing on the footwear supply chain. In this paper, the best–worst method is applied to compute the criticality of social sustainability challenges towards the flexibility of the supply chains. The study findings reveal that among the nine identified critical challenges, “high level of lay off”, “health protocol development”, “complexity in ensuring workplace safety”, “facing trouble in mental health”, and “lack of government enforcement and regulations for social issues” are reported as the top five challenges, respectively. Furthermore, this study suggests several flexible managerial guidelines, which will help practitioners and policymakers to achieve SDGs considering the COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing the Challenges to Sustainable Initiatives in Value Chain Flexibility: Implications for Sustainable Development Goals

The value chain refers to the source of competition to facilitate organizations to maximize and sustain value for their consumers. Value chain flexibility is necessary to build sustainable initiatives in addressing ambiguity. In the literature, there is a lack of framework to highlight the challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility. This study fills this research gap by suggesting a framework for challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility. In this study, thirteen potential challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility are identified and an integrated model is developed. It adopts the modified Total Interpretive Structure Model and the Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification methodology. The mixed approach is used as the modified Total Interpretive Structure Model organizes the binary interactions among the challenges, while Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification analysis organizes specific precise assessments of the driving power and dependence of the challenges. The results of the study reflect that (i) lack of supplier commitment to sustainable products and (ii) lack of knowledge toward sustainability in value chains are the challenges that achieved the highest driving power. The challenge ‘inadequate communication among the suppliers in the value chain’ is at the highest level in the analysis. The proposed framework could help government and non-government bodies to formulate policies to efficiently address challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility.

Market Mechanisms for Reducing Emissions and the Introduction of a Flexible Consumption Tax

Since its founding institutions the European Economic Community and Eratom, the European Union has paid great attention to energy issues. However, its powers have been updated in relatively recent times. Similarly, the EU has promoted in the post-Kyoto Protocol environmental issues with a leading by example approach and implementing an ambitious plan to decarbonize the economy with the energy transition and emission limitation through a market instrument, the emission trading system. The European emissions trading system has been the most ambitious management of negative externalities related to GHG set-up at the international level. The EU now considers that the costs of ecological industrial transition could limit the ability of European industries to compete in the globalized market with industries not subject to similar limits and costs. The EU intends to adopt a carbon adjustment tax at the border, to limit the phenomenon of reallocation and compensate for environmental costs. This paper analyses the various proposals and their advantages and disadvantages. The focus is on the charge on emissions mechanism, which is one of the three proposals the European Economic and Social Committee suggested to the European Commission for further investigation in view of the current competitive asymmetry now recognized by the EU Commission itself. The charge on emissions would value industrial emissions directly within the VAT and use the blockchain to track the emissive supply chain of products.

Flexible Fuzzy Goal Programming Approach in Optimal Mix of Power Generation for Socio-Economic Sustainability: A Case Study

The demand for cost-efficient and clean power energy cannot be overemphasised, especially in a developing nation like India. COVID-19 has adversely affected many nations, power sector inclusive, and resiliency is imperative via flexible and sustainable power generation sources. Renewable energy sources are the primary focus of electricity production in the world. This study examined and assessed the optimal cost system of electricity generation for the socio-economic sustainability of India. A sustainable and flexible electricity generation model is developed using the concept of flexible fuzzy goal programming. This study is carried out with the aim of achieving the government’s intended nationally determined contribution goals of reducing emission levels, increasing the capacity of renewable sources and the must-run status of hydro and nuclear, and technical and financial parameters. The result shows an optimal cost solution and flexibility in how increased electricity demand would be achieved and sustained via shifting to renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydro.

Individual Resilience in the Organization in the Face of Crisis: Study of the Concept in the Context of COVID-19

In the context of a health crisis of unprecedented magnitude that we have experienced such as COVID-19 we join the efforts of practitioners and researchers to answer the question: 'What is the organizational context that promotes individual adaptation in a context of adversity?'. Specifically, our research aims to explore organizational practices that promote individual resilience in a COVID-19 crisis situation and in a Tunisian context. Therefore, we believe that the paradigm (resilience in the face of the COVID-19 crisis) and the context (Tunisian) both constitute the originality of our article. Our research contribution consists in demonstrating that the company has a managerial need to strengthen the psychological protective factors of its employees, which will promote their individual resilience in the organization. This necessarily leads it to develop the individual's defense mechanisms against trauma, psychological reconstruction and post-resilience learning. This modeling of resilience allowed us to observe and recognize it in sixteen Tunisian companies by using a qualitative study based on sixteen semi-structured interviews analyzed by the 'Nvivo 12' software in order to explore the functioning of individual resilience in a real organizational context.