In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, most of the higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe have replaced conventional teaching with online teaching. However, the technological preparedness of countries of varied nature differs significantly. In this context, the purpose of the study is to answer the following research question: how are the HEIs mitigating the difficulties that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate online teaching–learning process? The study is carried out based on a cross-sectional study from 281 academic professionals who are employed in HEIs in India and Ethiopia. The findings from this comparative study highlight that digital divide and lack of institutional preparedness are found to be major problems that constrained the effective implementation of online teaching/learning. Besides, this study also found that training programmes for the faculty members to utilize web resources and facilitate online teaching were found to be limited in both the countries. The article concludes by offering suggestions and policy advice to minimize the digital divide and for successful implementation of online teaching in HEIs.
The literature emphasizes that tourism social entrepreneurs play an important role in the adoption of sustainable strategies to achieve social, environmental, and community development. Yet, there is limited research that aims to understand the relationship between local communities and tourism social entrepreneurship empirically. Building around social exchange theory and Weber’s theory of substantive and formal rationality, this study addresses the following research question: how do local communities perceive the role of tourism social entrepreneurship (TSE) in the development of ecotourism destinations? A total of 362 community employees of two ecotourism organizations in India participated in the survey. Analytically, this study validated the measurement model and tested hypotheses using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings reveal that the economic benefits and environmental sustainability are the main influencing factors that are appreciated by the communities. However, we found variance in the community perceptions with regard to several factors being studied in the two TSEs we studied. This study recommends that in order to contribute to the development of ecotourism and local communities there is an urge to build strong ties among different stakeholders at the local level.
Background: The purpose of the paper is to assess organisational culture’s role on the performance of employees in the educational sector. Objectives: The paper seeks to address: what type of organisational culture is contributing to organisational performance, how organisational learning can be enhanced, how team orientation can be encouraged, and technical assistance and innovation can be promoted in developing economies. Methods/approaches: The data was collected from 350 respondents from different educational institutes’ employees of the Garage zone of SNNPR, Ethiopia. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed hypothesis. Results: The results showed that organisational dimensions such as organisational learning, team orientation and strategic direction and intent are supported, and it is proved that these dimensions can significantly influence the overall performance of the organisation in the study area, whereas the remaining two dimensions: creating change, and goals and objectives are not supported by their organisations. Conclusions: The study concludes that the culture of creating change can enable organisations to achieve their goals and objectives. Organisations must focus on improving the capability of human resources. Especially, it is compulsory for the employees of the educational institutions as they must adopt technological assistance and other types of knowledge of value to encourage innovative practices in the teaching-learning process.
Introduction: Prevalence rates of Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) in patients with schizophrenia are reported to be about twice of that of the general population. Co-morbid SUDs in these patients can affect the natural course of the illness, quality of life and treatment compliance. Increased rates of hospital admissions, longer duration of inpatient stay, more severe psychopathology, increased rates of criminal activity and violent behaviour have also been reported in this group of patients. Data from the region on substance use in patients with schizophrenia is sparse. Aim: To study the prevalence of SUD’s in patients with schizophrenia and the risk factors associated with SUD’s and patient Explanatory Models (EM) regarding the same. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in the Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic at Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India, from November 2016 to May 2017 in 103 consecutive patients with schizophrenia. Symptom severity was assessed using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS), substance use patterns with the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Fagerstrom’s Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and patient EMs for substance use with a semistructured questionnaire. Socio-demographic and clinical details were also recorded. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 16.0.1. Chi-square test and the student’s t-test were used to assess the significance of association for categorical and continuous variables respectively. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient was employed to assess the statistical significance of the association between two continuous variables. A p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the participants was 37.54 years. The majority of the participants were males (n=60, 58.3%), 62 (60.2%) were married, 97 (94.2%) were literates and 54 (52.4%) participants were employed. The prevalence of substance use was seen in 30 (29.1%) participants. Nicotine was the most common substance of abuse (n=21, 20.4%) followed by alcohol (n=19, 18.4%). Male gender, being employed and a family history of substance use were factors significantly associated with any substance use with p-values 0.001, 0.001 and 0.01, respectively. Patient’s explanations for the use of the nicotine included the feeling of relaxation it produced (n=13, 61.9%), and feeling more energetic and active (n=12, 57.1%). Making one more relaxed and social (n=14, 73.7%) was the most common patient explanation for alcohol use. Conclusion: Alcohol and nicotine were common substances of abuse among the participants in this study. It is useful to understand patient’s explanations for substance use in order to develop effective intervention programmes tailored to the individual patient’s beliefs.
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