Description of quality online programmes [11].
\\n\\n
Released this past November, the list is based on data collected from the Web of Science and highlights some of the world’s most influential scientific minds by naming the researchers whose publications over the previous decade have included a high number of Highly Cited Papers placing them among the top 1% most-cited.
\\n\\nWe wish to congratulate all of the researchers named and especially our authors on this amazing accomplishment! We are happy and proud to share in their success!
Note: Edited in March 2021
\\n"}]',published:!0,mainMedia:{caption:"Highly Cited",originalUrl:"/media/original/117"}},components:[{type:"htmlEditorComponent",content:'IntechOpen is proud to announce that 191 of our authors have made the Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers List for 2020, ranking them among the top 1% most-cited.
\n\nThroughout the years, the list has named a total of 261 IntechOpen authors as Highly Cited. Of those researchers, 69 have been featured on the list multiple times.
\n\n\n\nReleased this past November, the list is based on data collected from the Web of Science and highlights some of the world’s most influential scientific minds by naming the researchers whose publications over the previous decade have included a high number of Highly Cited Papers placing them among the top 1% most-cited.
\n\nWe wish to congratulate all of the researchers named and especially our authors on this amazing accomplishment! We are happy and proud to share in their success!
Note: Edited in March 2021
\n'}],latestNews:[{slug:"intechopen-supports-asapbio-s-new-initiative-publish-your-reviews-20220729",title:"IntechOpen Supports ASAPbio’s New Initiative Publish Your Reviews"},{slug:"webinar-introduction-to-open-science-wednesday-18-may-1-pm-cest-20220518",title:"Webinar: Introduction to Open Science | Wednesday 18 May, 1 PM CEST"},{slug:"step-in-the-right-direction-intechopen-launches-a-portfolio-of-open-science-journals-20220414",title:"Step in the Right Direction: IntechOpen Launches a Portfolio of Open Science Journals"},{slug:"let-s-meet-at-london-book-fair-5-7-april-2022-olympia-london-20220321",title:"Let’s meet at London Book Fair, 5-7 April 2022, Olympia London"},{slug:"50-books-published-as-part-of-intechopen-and-knowledge-unlatched-ku-collaboration-20220316",title:"50 Books published as part of IntechOpen and Knowledge Unlatched (KU) Collaboration"},{slug:"intechopen-joins-the-united-nations-sustainable-development-goals-publishers-compact-20221702",title:"IntechOpen joins the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Publishers Compact"},{slug:"intechopen-signs-exclusive-representation-agreement-with-lsr-libros-servicios-y-representaciones-s-a-de-c-v-20211123",title:"IntechOpen Signs Exclusive Representation Agreement with LSR Libros Servicios y Representaciones S.A. de C.V"},{slug:"intechopen-expands-partnership-with-research4life-20211110",title:"IntechOpen Expands Partnership with Research4Life"}]},book:{item:{type:"book",id:"6628",leadTitle:null,fullTitle:"Circadian Rhythm - Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms",title:"Circadian Rhythm",subtitle:"Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms",reviewType:"peer-reviewed",abstract:"Circadian clocks are endogenous and temperature-compensating timekeepers that provide temporal organization of biological processes in living organisms. Circadian rhythms allow living organisms to adapt to the daily light cycles associated with Earth's rotation and to anticipate and prepare for precise and regular environmental changes. This book discusses the fundamental advances of how the circadian clock regulates critical biological functions as well as the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm in living organisms. It also provides new insights into and sheds new light on the current research trends and future research directions related to circadian rhythm. This book provokes interest in many readers, researchers and scientists, who can find this information useful for the advancement of their research works towards a better understanding of circadian rhythm regulatory mechanisms.",isbn:"978-1-78923-339-1",printIsbn:"978-1-78923-338-4",pdfIsbn:"978-1-83881-601-8",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.71707",price:119,priceEur:129,priceUsd:155,slug:"circadian-rhythm-cellular-and-molecular-mechanisms",numberOfPages:166,isOpenForSubmission:!1,isInWos:null,isInBkci:!1,hash:"628bbcbfaf54a56710498540efe51b87",bookSignature:"Mohamed Ahmed El-Esawi",publishedDate:"July 4th 2018",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6628.jpg",numberOfDownloads:9345,numberOfWosCitations:6,numberOfCrossrefCitations:7,numberOfCrossrefCitationsByBook:0,numberOfDimensionsCitations:10,numberOfDimensionsCitationsByBook:0,hasAltmetrics:1,numberOfTotalCitations:23,isAvailableForWebshopOrdering:!0,dateEndFirstStepPublish:"October 23rd 2017",dateEndSecondStepPublish:"November 13th 2017",dateEndThirdStepPublish:"January 12th 2018",dateEndFourthStepPublish:"April 2nd 2018",dateEndFifthStepPublish:"June 1st 2018",currentStepOfPublishingProcess:5,indexedIn:"1,2,3,4,5,6",editedByType:"Edited by",kuFlag:!1,featuredMarkup:null,editors:[{id:"191770",title:"Dr.",name:"Mohamed A.",middleName:null,surname:"El-Esawi",slug:"mohamed-a.-el-esawi",fullName:"Mohamed A. El-Esawi",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/191770/images/system/191770.jpeg",biography:"Dr. Mohamed A. El-Esawi is a visiting research fellow at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics, Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Egypt. Dr. El-Esawi received his BSc and MSc from Tanta University, and his Ph.D. degree in Plant Genetics and Molecular Biology from Dublin Institute of Technology, Technological University Dublin, Ireland. After obtaining his Ph.D., Dr. El-Esawi joined the University of Warwick, United Kingdom; University of Sorbonne, France; and University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium as a visiting research fellow. His research focuses on plant genetics, genomics, molecular biology, molecular physiology, developmental biology, plant-microbe interaction, and bioinformatics. He has authored several international peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and books, and has participated in more than sixty conferences and workshops worldwide. Dr. El-Esawi is currently involved in several biological science research projects.",institutionString:null,position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"8",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"9",institution:{name:"Tanta University",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"Egypt"}}}],equalEditorOne:null,equalEditorTwo:null,equalEditorThree:null,coeditorOne:null,coeditorTwo:null,coeditorThree:null,coeditorFour:null,coeditorFive:null,topics:[{id:"18",title:"Neuroscience",slug:"life-sciences-neuroscience"}],chapters:[{id:"61842",title:"Introductory Chapter: Circadian Rhythms and Their Molecular Mechanisms",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.78756",slug:"introductory-chapter-circadian-rhythms-and-their-molecular-mechanisms",totalDownloads:1145,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,hasAltmetrics:0,abstract:null,signatures:"Mohamed A. El-Esawi",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/61842",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/61842",authors:[{id:"191770",title:"Dr.",name:"Mohamed A.",surname:"El-Esawi",slug:"mohamed-a.-el-esawi",fullName:"Mohamed A. El-Esawi"}],corrections:null},{id:"60408",title:"Circadian Rhythm and Chronobiology",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.75928",slug:"circadian-rhythm-and-chronobiology",totalDownloads:1448,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,hasAltmetrics:0,abstract:"All photosensitive organisms have a biological clock to cope with daily and seasonal circle of the earth. Biological clocks create circadian rhythms and regulate their processing according to cycle of the world. Circadian rhythm is an autoregulatory system and commands almost every physiological, biological, and biochemical functions of the mammalians. Therefore, biological clocks operate rhythmically with a period for a day, and this phenomenon is called as circadian rhythm. The process ongoing approximately 24 h rhythm in accordance with the meaning of the word (circa (approx.) dies (1 day). The essential purpose of biological clocks (in other word the organism’s innate timing device) is the adaptation of the living organism to environment. Circadian rhythms refer to changes in the organism’s approximately 1 day’s physiological, biochemical and biological processes. In a molecular level, there are thousands of biological clocks in the human body. The main clocks in the human brain coordinate all these cellular clocks. Thus, the rhythmical phenomenon works in a harmony with the master clock and solar cycle. However, the natural factors within the body produce circadian rhythms the environment cues also affect them. The light is the main cue that affects biological rhythm. These light–dark cycles can control of the molecular structure of biological clocks. Changing the light–dark cycles leads to lengthen, shorten or completely absent of circadian rhythms. Dysfunction of circadian cycle leads to many health problems. The studies in chronobiology provide better understanding of the rhythmic metabolism and disrupted circadian rhythms. In recent years, numerous spectacular researches have been conducted in the field of chronobiology. These researches were intended to understand metabolic process of human body. However, the molecular and genetic mechanisms of circadian clocks still not clearly known. In this study, we aimed to investigate and summarize the recent progress about circadian biological research and understand how biological clocks govern the human metabolism.",signatures:"Hülya Çakmur",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/60408",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/60408",authors:[{id:"190636",title:"Associate Prof.",name:"Hülya",surname:"Çakmur",slug:"hulya-cakmur",fullName:"Hülya Çakmur"}],corrections:null},{id:"59409",title:"Circadian Clock Gene Expression and Drug/Toxicant Interactions as Novel Targets of Chronopharmacology and Chronotoxicology",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.74597",slug:"circadian-clock-gene-expression-and-drug-toxicant-interactions-as-novel-targets-of-chronopharmacolog",totalDownloads:1464,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:2,hasAltmetrics:0,abstract:"Circadian rhythms are driven and maintained by circadian clock gene networks in both brain and peripheral organs. In the liver, circadian rhythms produce oscillation in drug Phase-I, Phase-II, and Phase-III (transporters) metabolism genes, which in turn would affect drug disposition and detoxication, resulting in diurnal variations of efficacy and toxicity when drugs are given at different times of the day. On the other hand, drugs and toxicants could affect circadian clock gene expression to produce biological effects leading to therapeutic or toxic outcomes. This chapter reviewed the relevant literature and a dozen of publications from our work, discussed the interactions of circadian clock genes with drugs and/or toxicants to better understand the importance of circadian clock gene expression as novel targets in Pharmacology and Toxicology.",signatures:"Jie Liu, Huan Li, Shangfu Xu, Yunyan Xu and Chang Liu",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/59409",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/59409",authors:[{id:"234383",title:"Dr.",name:"Jie",surname:"Liu",slug:"jie-liu",fullName:"Jie Liu"},{id:"234388",title:"Dr.",name:"Hua",surname:"Li",slug:"hua-li",fullName:"Hua Li"}],corrections:null},{id:"60261",title:"Quantification of Irregular Rhythms in Chronobiology: A Time- Series Perspective",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.74742",slug:"quantification-of-irregular-rhythms-in-chronobiology-a-time-series-perspective",totalDownloads:1229,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:2,hasAltmetrics:0,abstract:"In optimal conditions of youth and health, most—if not all—physiological systems obey regular circadian rhythms in response to the periodic day-night cycle and can be well described by standard techniques such as cosinor analysis. Adverse conditions can disturb the regularity and amplitude of circadian cycles, and, recently, there is interest in the field of chronobiology to quantify irregularities in the circadian rhythm as a means to track underlying pathologies. Alterations in physiological rhythms over a wide range of frequency scales may give additional information on health conditions but are often not considered in traditional analyses. Wavelets have been introduced to decompose physiological time series in components of different frequencies and can quantify irregular patterns, but the results may depend on the choice of the mother wavelet basis which is arbitrary. An alternative approach are recent data-adaptive time-series decomposition techniques, such as singular spectrum analysis (SSA), where the basis functions are generated by the data itself and are user-independent. In the present contribution, we compare wavelets and SSA analysis for the quantification of irregular rhythms at different frequency scales and discuss their respective advantages and disadvantages for application in chronobiology.",signatures:"Ruben Fossion, Ana Leonor Rivera, Juan C. Toledo-Roy and Maia\nAngelova",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/60261",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/60261",authors:[{id:"234339",title:"Dr.",name:"Ruben",surname:"Fossion",slug:"ruben-fossion",fullName:"Ruben Fossion"},{id:"241937",title:"Dr.",name:"Ana Leonor",surname:"Rivera",slug:"ana-leonor-rivera",fullName:"Ana Leonor Rivera"},{id:"241938",title:"Dr.",name:"Juan Claudio",surname:"Toledo-Roy",slug:"juan-claudio-toledo-roy",fullName:"Juan Claudio Toledo-Roy"},{id:"241939",title:"Prof.",name:"Maia",surname:"Angelova",slug:"maia-angelova",fullName:"Maia Angelova"}],corrections:null},{id:"60485",title:"Jet Lag",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.75929",slug:"jet-lag",totalDownloads:928,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,hasAltmetrics:0,abstract:"This chapter describes the phenomenon of Jet Lag and the symptoms associated with it, which vary not only from person to person, but also according to how many times zones are crossed, and in which direction. Homeostatic and circadian influences on sleep and vigilance are explained on the basis of Borbély’s two-process model. Jet Lag is reasonably well explained scientifically today: rapid changes of time zones disturb the functioning of the body clock, which remains stubbornly set on departure times for a while. This can make sleep shallow or non-existent for substantial parts of the night while vigilance is less than optimal during parts of the day. Two main lines of research are described: one endeavors to accelerate the adaptation process; the other helps to fight insomnia and sleepiness between arrival and adjustment to the new time zone. Besides practical things that can be done to reduce the burden of Jet Lag, the adjustment process can be speeded up using bright light and melatonin. Sleeping pills and neurostimulants may be added to compensate for insomnia and sleepiness.",signatures:"Olivier Le Bon",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/60485",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/60485",authors:[{id:"231117",title:"Prof.",name:"Olivier",surname:"Le Bon",slug:"olivier-le-bon",fullName:"Olivier Le Bon"}],corrections:null},{id:"61140",title:"Features of Circadian Rhythms in Patients with Cerebrovascular Diseases",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.75963",slug:"features-of-circadian-rhythms-in-patients-with-cerebrovascular-diseases",totalDownloads:960,totalCrossrefCites:4,totalDimensionsCites:4,hasAltmetrics:0,abstract:"The chapter describes in detail the pathogenetic role of desynchronosis in the development of cerebrovascular diseases (CVD). The data of domestic and foreign literature on the study of desynchronosis are presented. The role of melatonin in the regulation of circadian rhythms (CR) is shown. Pathological changes in CR affect sleep disturbance, emotional and cognitive disorders. It is demonstrated the need of the further study of the prevalence and structure of desynchronosis in patients with CVD. The search of the most significant factors of desynchronosis development in patients with vascular diseases is of great scientific and practical significance. The importance of creating and introducing diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms for chronodiagnostics and chronotherapy of CVD into everyday practical activities. The effectiveness of melatonin for the normalization of sleep and CR in patients with insomnia, acute stroke, depressive disorders is shown. Complex therapy of the patients with CVD taking into account chronobiological disorders allows to eliminate the adverse effect of sleep disorders and CR on the regulation of the cardiovascular system and improve the efficiency of rehabilitation.",signatures:"Elena Kostenko and Liudmila Petrova",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/61140",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/61140",authors:[{id:"233858",title:"Mrs.",name:"Liudmila",surname:"Petrova",slug:"liudmila-petrova",fullName:"Liudmila Petrova"},{id:"233861",title:"Prof.",name:"Elena",surname:"Kostenko",slug:"elena-kostenko",fullName:"Elena Kostenko"}],corrections:null},{id:"60030",title:"Chronobiology of Acid-Base Balance under General Anesthesia in Rat Model",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.75174",slug:"chronobiology-of-acid-base-balance-under-general-anesthesia-in-rat-model",totalDownloads:1257,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:2,hasAltmetrics:0,abstract:"The design and development of experimental, in vivo, chronobiological animal models may help reveal some of the relationships between circadian rhythms and biological functions. In vivo experiments require the use of appropriate anesthesia, which should be selected according to their particular effect on the organism. The aim of study was to review the status of acid-base balance and ion concentration in arterial blood under common used general anesthesias in experiments in dependence on the light-dark (LD) cycle in spontaneously breathing rats. The experiments were performed using 3- to 4-month-old pentobarbital(P)-, ketamine/xylazine(K/X)-, and zoletil(Z)-anesthetized female Wistar rats after a 4-week adaptation to an LD cycle (12 h light and 12 h dark). We concluded that P anesthesia disturbs LD dependence of acid-base balance compared to K/X and Z anesthesia, but LD differences in plasma ion concentrations are disturbed under all type of general anesthesia. P anesthesia is not the most appropriate type of anesthesia in rat chronobiological experiments. It eliminated LD differences and also produces a more acidic environment, more pronounced hypercapnia and hypoxia than K/X and Z anesthesias. This should be taken into account because the altered internal environment may affect the activity of systems whose functions are primarily dependent on acid-base balance.",signatures:"Pavol Svorc",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/60030",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/60030",authors:[{id:"169212",title:"Prof.",name:"Pavol",surname:"Svorc",slug:"pavol-svorc",fullName:"Pavol Svorc"}],corrections:null},{id:"60742",title:"Sudden Death Circadian Rhythm in Chagasic Patients Compared to Non-Chagasic Patients",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.76212",slug:"sudden-death-circadian-rhythm-in-chagasic-patients-compared-to-non-chagasic-patients",totalDownloads:914,totalCrossrefCites:0,totalDimensionsCites:0,hasAltmetrics:0,abstract:"Chagas disease (Ch) affects 8–10 million people in Latin America. Sudden death is the major cause of death in patients with Ch. Objective: To compare the circadian rhythm of sudden death in Ch vs. non-Ch patients. Methods: Retrospective analysis of all the cases of sudden death (SD) is recorded in our department, including autopsied patients from 1963 until 2011. Pattern of death of 266 patients (116 Ch and 146 non-Ch), 56.7% men, average age 54, 6 years old, divided into four groups: Group A: Ch with SD (n = 38), Group B: non-Ch with SD (n = 58), Group C: Ch with non-SD (n = 81), and Group D: non-Ch with non-SD (n = 89). Results: 44.7% (17/38) of sudden deaths in Group A (Ch) occurred between 6 am and 5:59 pm, while for Group B (not Ch) 70.7% (41/58) died in that time (p < 0.005). Between 6 pm and 5:59 am occurred 55.3% (21/38) of the SD in Group A (Ch) compared with 29.3% (17/58) in Group B (p < 0.005). Conclusions: Circadian rhythm of SD in patient with Ch differs from those patients with non-CH. In CH patients, SD occurs predominantly during the night compared with non-Ch SD that occurs predominantly during the morning.",signatures:"Juan Marques, Iván Mendoza and Claudia Suarez",downloadPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-download/60742",previewPdfUrl:"/chapter/pdf-preview/60742",authors:[{id:"231833",title:"Dr.",name:"Juan",surname:"Marques",slug:"juan-marques",fullName:"Juan Marques"},{id:"240352",title:"Dr.",name:"Ivan",surname:"Mendoza",slug:"ivan-mendoza",fullName:"Ivan Mendoza"},{id:"240712",title:"Dr.",name:"Claudia",surname:"Suarez",slug:"claudia-suarez",fullName:"Claudia Suarez"}],corrections:null}],productType:{id:"1",title:"Edited Volume",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"},subseries:null,tags:null},relatedBooks:[{type:"book",id:"5781",title:"Phytohormones",subtitle:"Signaling Mechanisms and Crosstalk in Plant Development and Stress Responses",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"054eaa85c13ebe3d04fb8852005d2bad",slug:"phytohormones-signaling-mechanisms-and-crosstalk-in-plant-development-and-stress-responses",bookSignature:"Mohamed El-Esawi",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/5781.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"191770",title:"Dr.",name:"Mohamed A.",surname:"El-Esawi",slug:"mohamed-a.-el-esawi",fullName:"Mohamed A. 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The rise of Taylorism, standardisation, electrical systems, electronic systems and computing, and now, quantum computing, has given scheduling a whole World of importance.
\r\n\tFrom practice to a mathematical and technological application, scheduling has become another form of art: an algorithmic art, declined in as many OS and hardware constraints, from embedded systems onboard an aircraft or a spacecraft to databases in all financial and Internet servers.
\r\n\tThey have become ubiquitous so that a large part of our civilisational development is supported by their reliability, redundancy, and optimisation capacity. Like all of our civilisational assets, they are benefiting from scientific breakthrough in computational sciences such as evolutionary algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and quantum computing. If not by using it, by being in need of adapting to the next generation of computing. Space development is also bringing new challenges, especially in redundancy and reliability.
Lecturers especially in Africa’s Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are facing unprecedented change, with often larger classes, more diverse students, demands from government and employers who want more accountability and the development of graduates who are workforce ready, and above all, needing to cope with an ever-changing technological landscape [1, 2]. To handle changes of this nature, lecturers and instructors need a theoretical base and knowledge that provide a solid foundation for their teaching, no matter what changes or pressures they face. There is need, therefore, to study and understand the underlying principles that guide effective teaching in an age when everyone, and in particular the students, are using and understanding technology better than their teachers especially in the developing world. A framework and a set of guidelines need to be developed by a university with vast knowledge and practice in online learning to build an appropriate model, theoretically sound, which allows making decisions coherently about pedagogical foundations of teaching, low cost but versatile technologies that can be deployed for classroom use and hybrid ad online delivery based on their vast experience in handling classes in technology rich ecologies. This can be done while keeping in mind that every subject discipline is different, and every lecturer has something unique and special to bring to their teaching which needs exploiting and nurturing to its full potential.
The need for this kind of mentorship from Universities already practicing blended learning is dire with the developments witnessed in the recent past where the COVID-19 pandemic has rendered all institutions non-operational from basic to higher education institutions (HEIs) in a country like Kenya [3, 4]. The basic education institutions would have been seeking mentorship from the HEIs but as it is, the HEIs were all shut down and looking to institutions in the west for support and mentorship. This kind of scenario spelled the urgency for this book project so that in future, HEIs in developing countries, more specifically Kenya, could have Maseno University (MU) as a mentor within its borders that the government can turn to for guidance and leadership in a major shift from face to face (F2F) to online classroom delivery mode. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a major global experimentation with remote teaching. But most of the experts agree that remote teaching as applied was an emergency measure from which lessons learned must not be lost but documented for future. There are many indicators that this crisis has transformed the education sector and good practice when document, will provide useful lessons in the post-COVID-19 period. As this crisis-driven experiment was launched at MU, it is expected that the process must not be lost as it proves useful guidelines for other universities hoping to be part of this shift.
As MU eCampus team began to consider institutional shift from F2F to online and blended modes on behalf of the University Management, despair almost overwhelms the team. Several questions were raised: How to preserve what most lecturers consider as most essential — the regular student interaction, the freewheeling give-and-take as discussion on a particular source or topic take place — if the class cannot be together in the same physical space at the same time? How to take a course that seemed to depend on synchronous activity and make it work in a completely asynchronous environment? And even if acceptable answers to these questions are found, where would the university begin? Fortunately, the university did not try to reinvent the wheel. The university received assistance from colleagues from Open University of Catalonia (OUC), Association of Commonwealth Universities among others who were more familiar with the online world than the colleagues from MU. Faculties from MU were able to tap into their expertise and get introduced to a valuable collection of resources about online teaching and learning. That, in turn, helped MU to develop online or blended versions of its regular F2F courses that far surpass expectations, judging from how well their courses have performed, and get ready for any other unexpected circumstance equal or similar to which we have lived facing the pandemic.
Today, the outburst in developments in educational technology and the fact that the ed-tech arena is a crowded field may overwhelm. At any given time, there is at least one app or platform screaming about how it is the newest, best, easiest tool for online courses [5]. And that app or platform is just as likely to be gone within a year as it is to become and remain a valuable teaching tool. How does one make a decision on good digital tools that (a) afford students the means of interacting substantively with lecturer and with one another, (b) enable a deep engagement with course materials or applications, and (c) affordable in low-income institution like MU? Yet still, in the shift in learning modes, several variables need to be considered: The planning process, learner characteristics, design and delivery methods, learning contexts, workplace environment and the already existing barriers to this shift. A successful shift, however, needs to move beyond asking which method is most effective to the important role of pedagogy that actually takes into account a social element in online delivery which is important to student engagement and knowledge acquisition [6]. One important pedagogical theory that addresses this is constructivism. It offers a model that addresses the social needs of students as well as providing an opportunity for critical inquiry and subsequent knowledge acquisition. However, for attitudes to change and trust to be built there is need to co-develop online systems where university management teams are involved in decision making based on existing university delivery systems. However, knowing about pedagogy and practicing the pedagogy are two different things. In this project, it is hoped that mentorship by Open University of Catalonia (OUC) or any other informed user would inculcate correct attitudes and a shift in institutional culture at MU that would allow for development of the expected institutional culture that blends with constructivism as a classroom would take root. This would open the door for setting the correct environmental climate needed to introduce online and blended learning as modes of practice at MU.
Maseno University already had a robust and very interactive learning management system running on Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). However, the institution has not been able to adopt online and blended learning because of shortcomings that need to be addressed in this project. The chief of these being lack of policy to guide the uptake of fully online and blended learning for faculty and students; insufficient knowledge of pedagogical orientations needed to implement these new modes of instructional delivery; and a model for carrying out mass capacity building for lecturers to allow them to develop and teach online and blended courses.
The goal of this chapter is to document the processes the university had to go through in making the shift from a traditional face to face institution to a modern university having F2F, blended and online learning. The processes it had to consider were: carry out capacity building for lecturers in online pedagogy, content development and facilitation in a bid to build a new university community culture that is positive towards affordances of online and blended learning; and expand its technology infrastructure to support the twenty thousand plus students at the university.
The specific objectives of this chapter are to document how to:
Mainstream quality conceptual pedagogy for online and blended learning that would create a change process with a genuine paradigm shift in instructional strategies within the institutional;
Create a model for online and blended content development that allows seamless shift in learning modes within a traditional face to face university, especially set up for MU;
Prepare a set of mechanisms, and resources for training of staff to learn to teach online;
Design a policy to guide online and blended learning activities with the university; and
Choose low cost but effective technologies for classroom instruction in the light of existing economic constraints within the University.
The eCampus was established in the year 2007 to spearhead the development of institutional policies and strategies for promoting the innovative use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to benefit learning, teaching and research activities in Maseno University. Located in Kisumu City, the eCampus boasts of an open office work environment that models good office practice to the university community. As currently constituted, the eCampus operates on a different time, different place (home study, computer conferencing, tutorial support by e-mail and fax communication), recognized as Scenario 4 in the Commission of University Education (CUE) Open Distance and eLearning (ODeL) standards and guidelines as stated in the Universities Standards, 2014.
The eCampus of Maseno University is a pioneer workstation using modern technologies to offer quality higher education for learners within the region and globally. This involves use of the internet to support teaching and learning activities. Developed around a web-based learning management system (LMS), this approach has attracted a large number of undergraduate and postgraduate students who registered for differentcertificate, diploma and degree programmes spanning seven schools within the university. In addition, eCampus provides an ambient platform that mounts university common courses offered to all students registered for various undergraduate programmes in all the campuses of MU, irrespective of their mode of study i.e. full-time, part-time, weekend, sandwich or eLearning. These courses are mandatory and are currently offered online at the eCampus of Maseno University through the LMS, also known as the Maseno University eLearning Portal. To achieve quality eLearning standards on programmes offered at the eCampus, there is a robust quality and effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism in place.
The eCampus operations are domiciled in 4 key support areas: Content Development; Learner Support Services; Capacity Building; and Research, monitoring and Evaluation. The functions of each of these key areas are discussed in the sections that follow.
The content development follows internationally acceptable norms [7, 8, 9] and all content offered at the eCampus is developed by the content expert nominated by the department offering a specific programme at the eCampus. The programmes offered at eCampus are provided on a modular basis to give maximum flexibility to the participants as well as on a blended basis as part of regular full time face-to-face programmes. The programmes specify core materials to be covered and guidelines detailing total content required for completion. The eCampus technical team (Instructional designers, systems support specialists and graphic designers) and the host Departments are jointly responsible for capacity building for module development, evaluation and related quality assurance procedures.
Module development, delivery and assessment are undertaken by a course development team (course developer, editor and reviewer) in the host departments as appointed by the Dean, in line with the University Statutes. This team is assisted by a support team (instructional designer, graphic designer, multi-media specialist, eLearning System support specialist, eLibrary assistant and copyright officer) from eCampus so as to ensure that guidelines for content development, review, uploading, packaging and branding are adhered to. Each module provides clear learning outcomes, course content, instructional mode and assessment methods. The content development flow is represented in Figure 1 [10].
Didactical relationship model by Charlotte Lærke Weitze [
The eCampus uses an improved model of the didactic relationship in its content development by considering the target group for which content is intended; The content itself in terms level in the curriculum; The targeted learning outcomes; The pedagogical approach the content is hinged on; Organization of the content which in most cases is from simple to complex; The learning activities that enable the learner to achieve the outcomes in the shortest time possible; The assessment of student learning. To help further clarify issues in content development, the eCampus furnishes its content development experts with a content review rubric adapted from the Commonwealth of Learning. The rubric is used to focus the content development by considering the following key aspects: Navigation/Orientation (e.g., the course site is well organized and easy to navigate from the course home page to the course units, links, forums, etc.); Content (learners can engage with content together with peers as expectations are clear); Instructional Design (the content is pedagogically sound); Good flow in course structure; Student support structures are considered in the development; Technology or Media used is clear and available to learners; Assessment is ingrained in the developed material; and lastly quality assurance measures are considered in every part of the content development. It follows therefore that the eCampus endeavors to provide high quality online programmes that are supported by renown researchers [2] who believe that quality online programmes should beOpen: learning resources are accessible and available, including after the course; Navigable: well-planned interfaces allow students to find what they need; Learning: sites are designed to develop knowledge, skills, attributes and identity; Interactive: dialog is supported among and between teachers and learners; Networked: curriculum and activities foster broad-reaching connections; and Engaging: teachers invite, model and sustain enthusiastic presence for learning. These sentiments are summarized in the Table 1 below.
Open | Navigable | Learning | Interactive | Networked | Engaging |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Create links from and to key industry research & websites. | Develop, share & follow a consistent Program glossary of educational terms. | Identify the key digital tools that graduates are likely to use and include them in the course. | Create a marked Discussion Forum and post a clear marking guide. Model strong interaction. | Dedicate marks to students posting completed assessment on a digital portfolio | Create & post an auto-biographical video about you and what attracted you to the taught discipline. |
Description of quality online programmes [11].
The eCampus has invested significantly in an online based learning management system (LMS). The learning content is uploaded to the learning management system. The LMS supports upload of multimedia and well as text-based resources. Student and course lecturers communicate using both synchronous and asynchronous instructional tools. Learner support assistants headed by a coordinator ensure the learning processes are efficient and effective. This is achieved by promoting effective Learner-Learner and Learner-Lecturer interactions employed through online learner support services.
As confirmed by research [12, 13] some of the most important online teacher competencies drawn from the experience at the eCampus include: communication skills; technological competence; provision of informative feedback; administrative skills; responsiveness; monitoring learning; and providing student support. The problems of the distance learners are unique and require to be handled differently. The efficiency of the delivery system will greatly depend not only on efficient modes of providing services but also on the staff of the university. The Online Support Service System should be developed for the learner community, along with other electronic media services [14]. In fact, a well-designed learner support system for the distance learning is a system for fostering creative, critical and independent thinking skills which inculcates deep learning [15]. The practice at eCampus was designed to avoid obvious pitfalls in online learning such as high attrition and repetition rates normally associated with unfacilitated online instructional practices [16]. The eCampus further believes as affirmed by research that good learner support services provide online learners with coaching and mentorship programmes to help them discover their interests; develop self-motivation, innovativeness and excellence in performance. This prepares them with essential skills for life and the workplace such as leadership, communication, self-awareness into their own strengths and weaknesses, initiative, problem-solving, innovation and critical thinking [17]. The learner support practice at eCampus can best be summarized in Figure 2 that follows as described specialists [18, 19].
Interaction and learner support [
The eCampus continues to organize online training for course lecturers, editors, reviewers, supervisors and facilitators to enable them to develop modules, edit content, review online modules, teach and supervise learners and offer online support to eLearning students. A mandatory foundation course is offered to course lecturers, editors, reviewers, supervisors and facilitators before embarking on specialized blended training. These training sessions are developed to ensure adherence to MU good practice guidelines for online interaction which is in line with international best practice especially during the pandemic [20, 21, 22].
HEIs in Africa like Maseno eCampus face the challenge of responding to the expanding demand for tertiary education while maintaining or enhancing the quality of their course offerings. This demand has led to some HEIs introducing the use of interactive web technologies to support their distance teaching and learning practices [23]. However, academic staff at these institutions may struggle to provide sufficient support to online learners in part due to inadequate staff capacity in terms of familiarity with and use of online communication tools and virtual learning environments. It is therefore necessary to develop capacity building strategies that are self-sustaining in such an institution.
Two key considerations from research [24] drive capacity building initiatives at the Maseno University eCampus. These are that in designing effective distance education programmes, engagement with and feedback from the learner is critical, and open-source solutions may be effective in meeting teaching objectives. Second is that in training initiatives for staff capacity building in HEIs that are just starting out in online learning initiatives: it is imperative for trainees to understand the relevance of the technology for the existing ecosystem and build for sustainability through the development of demand-driven country-specific and institution affordable applications. Capacity building at the eCampus relies mainly on the blended mode because the staff come from geographically dispersed locations; have limited flexibility because of work schedules and would face challenges attending fully in-person training; have limited daily time to devote to capacity building and would benefit from courses being split into short modules; have reliable access to the necessary technology and basic computer and internet skills; and appreciates learning at their own pace.
The paper hypothesizes a four-part framework to define the e-learning capacity gaps that these circumstances appear to represent: the “instructional design capacity gap”, the “production capacity gap”, the “tutorial capacity gap” and the “community building gap” [25]. Capacity building must be at the heart of moving from theory to practice. Increasingly, individuals need to understand different perspectives in their endeavor to manage the complexities of real-world problems [26]. This is particularly true in the case of the Nexus Approach which has been extensively borrowed and applied by the eCampus, which examines the challenges related to interconnected resources and in this case, the needs of staff at the university. It is clear that for capacity building measures to be successful, innovative approaches are required. The Nexus approach advocates for an inclusive approach to capacity building by anchoring all capacity building approaches on institutional policy; allowing dialog among participants while using the free flow of information to share best practice from participants. The outcome can only be scientific if informed by research during the capacity building session, and this builds into institutional practice (Figure 3) [26].
The nexus approach to capacity building [
The other model used in all capacity sessions at the eCampus is mentorship. Mentoring can help staff overcome difficulties in mastering several subjects in higher education while reducing failure rates and lowering dropout rates. Mentees receive personalized direction to improve attitudes, values, and skills needed to master the new issues in the curriculum and develop self-confidence in teaching with technology [26]. Mentoring programmes as used at the eCampus provide the necessary guidance and support in content and/or pedagogy, to aid technology novice lecturers in their ongoing professional development. Mentors in this case are colleagues in more advanced specific technology knowledge within the university or other educational consultants providing outside, research-based perspectives on the subject [27]. The eCampus uses mentorship at two levels in its capacity building session: The school champions are academic staff that have grasped the concepts and as a result provides mentorship at school level; they also use learner support assistants who are mainly administrative staff but with good technology skills and are then mentored by the eCampus technical staff to provide the needed technical support at school level. The two groups of staff are core to all capacity building activities at the eCampus. In developing countries like Kenya, access to and quality of education are being addressed by e-learning strategies and especially mentorship of academic staff serving as a useful tool of capacity building [28] in eLearning methodologies and practices.
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) are two distinct but complementary processes that mutually reinforce each other. In general, M&E is designed to monitor the impact of a policy, or progress of programme activities, against the overall goals, objectives and targets. M&E also assesses the outcome relevance of an activity, and the impact of a programme, or effectiveness of a policy, as well as its efficiency and sustainability [29]. OECD-DAC [30] defines monitoring as “the ongoing, systematic collection of information to assess progress towards the achievement of objectives, outcomes and impacts,” and it defines evaluation as “the systematic and objective assessment of an ongoing or completed project, programme or policy, its design, implementation and results, with the aim to determine the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, development efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. This unit at the eCampus of Maseno university does both monitoring and evaluation of the systems, programmes, learning outcomes and learning processes. It is this unit at the eCampus that ensures that quality procedures and processes are followed and adhered it. It also carries out periodic evaluations that inform policy and practice.
The Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (RM&E) Unit at the eCampus aims at improving the quality of its programmes operations and services. It further aims at maintaining high-quality outcomes in the physical and virtual spaces of the eCampus as per the approved quality assurance practices. This is achieved through on-going monitoring and evaluation of content development, learner support, capacity building and administrative processes at the eCampus. As such, the RM&E unit does not only conduct a review against the Commission for university Education ODEL Standards and Guidelines, but it also picks on the good practices and standards from international institutions with which the eCampus benchmarks, as well as quality improvement schemes like the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL) Quality Assurance rubric, ECBCheck and ACDE quality toolkit. Since student learning is the focal point of the eCampus, the RM&E unit examines all activities at the eCampus which contribute to quality learning outcomes.
The eLearning Postgraduate Research Support platform has been designed for the postgraduate student, and the aim is to support students at all levels of the postgraduate studies. As such, this area will link the student to fellow graduate students in all Schools and Departments within Maseno University eCampus. This allows students to share and discuss coursework and research experiences with other participants (peer researchers) and supervisors.
One key area of concern had been the postgraduate students’ research process. Due to the concerns raised on the process, the eCampus created a post-graduate students research support area to assist in continuous monitoring and evaluation of the research processes. Specifically, given the challenges students face at various levels of research phase of their studies, such as formulating research/study/project concepts, study/questionnaire designs, study methodologies, data collection strategies, data analyses and interpretations as well as write-ups, it was realized that mentorship through sharing of experiences and expertise is the only sure way to unlock students’ research potential, improve their research skills and accelerate the pace of post-graduate studies. The discussions are accessible to all online participants, facilitators, supervisors and lecturers as they are free to comment and assist.
The role of the Coordinator in charge of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (RM&E) at eCampus is to coordinate all monitoring and evaluation activities including the graduate students on the eLearning platform. It is hoped that students shall be able to access supervisors, research information and resources needed for post-graduate studies. Through this platform, the eCampus endeavor to offer real time monitoring and support to individualized challenges in the research phase of learning. This is an example of an open but innovative way of offering online monitoring and mentorship not only to students but also to the supervisors both in knowledge and use of online technological tools in research.
In order to make the institutional transition from possible, organizations and institutions interested in adopting blended learning models must have a clear vision and a strong support from the various stakeholders involved in the change process [31, 32, 33]. The eCampus identified three such change agents. The first is that adoption of the blended learning model must be part of the educational institution’s strategy. The second factor is related to the organizational support, understood as facilitating conditions. Facilitating conditions in this case was the degree to which individuals believed that sufficient resources existed to support learning in a blended setting. Facilitating conditions have been conceptualized in terms of training and provision of organizational support. The third factor was the organizational capabilities to effectively execute and deliver a blended learning program. Here organizational capabilities are understood as the organization’s ability to manage all the people involved in a learning process to gain advantage [34, 35, 36]. This means that low-budget institutions should focus first on helping instructors shift to student-centered styles of pedagogies before making large investments in IT infrastructure.
When we consider the culture of the HEI as a set of instructional values, traditions, and beliefs ingrained in the fabric of the educational community, the idea of cultural change offers both promise and pause for HEIs looking to implement a blended learning program. Cultural change does not happen overnight, and can create significant growing pains for those with longstanding ideas about educational practices. Proper implementation of this shift depends on a leadership team that sets clear goals and acts in support of those goals [1] and, in turn, ensures that teachers are prepared to successfully adopt new technologies and pedagogies [37, 38].
eCampus identifies with researchers who maintain that Innovation in education can be particularly challenging because change has the potential to affect student achievement [39]. Creating a culture of innovation also requires structure and process, capacity, resources, policy environments, and learning agendas [40].
Structure and process includes the formal systems in the institution, some of which may need to be altered during the transition to blended learning. It also includes the habits of stakeholders and how those habits are reinforced. Building a blended learning culture may require educators and students to build new habits.
Capacity, in terms of culture, is less about physical capacity and more about mindset and the ability to carry forward the blended plan. An institution that has capacity will exhibit a growth mindset and show diligence and patience in pursuit of blended learning.
Resources include the obvious financial considerations, but also include time and team resources. Successful institutions pay particular attention to balancing time and human considerations to keep the culture on track.
Policy environments include both the written and unwritten institutional policies that enable or prevent the changes needed to support blended learning. Maseno University as an institution had to look for ways to make blended learning easy and attractive to implement.
Learning agendas should include an emphasis on measuring progress and managing the change process. Progress should be measured against the SMART goals created by the institutional leadership team and by student achievement data.
Blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace. The methodology behind blended learning is to combine classroom learning with mobile learning and online learning. Maseno University already has a robust and very interactive learning management system running on Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). However, the institution had not been able to adopt online for its regular face to face students because of tradition. In the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the institution had to find a strategy that fitted closely with its already existing resources, facilities and a ready workforce. It was out of this analysis that the institution settled on a model that had originally suggested by Bhaskar [41] It compares well with other models [42, 43, 44, 45]. This model fits the practice at the university as it already has a digitally literate workforce; an operational and robust learning management system; already trained pool of lecturers able to develop and facilitate online courses and able to act as mentors to the rest; organizational objectives supportive of blended learning; a student pool that already has common IT skills because all their courses is taught with IT; and it has an existing library of printed instructional materials already in use in the traditional classroom. Tech teams have identified seven main modes of practicing blended learning: Lab rotation, station rotation, individual rotation, flipped classroom, a la carte, and enriched virtual. However, the model [41] below converges around 6 main modes which are all practiced at the Maseno University eCampus. These modes are: Face-to-face Driver – the teacher guides learning with technology as a supplementary resource; Rotation – the learner has a fixed schedule rotating between face to face and online schedules; Flex - the model where most of the learning is done online and the face-to-face model exists to provide on-site support; Online Lab - a model of blended learning that characterizes programs that rely on an online platform to deliver the entire course while teachers interact with students through pre-recorded videos, audio and video conferences or discussion forums and email; Self-Blend - a fully individualized approach that allows students to choose to take one or more courses online to supplement their traditional school curriculum; and Online Driver- involves online platform as well as teachers to deliver the curricula and students work from remote locations most of the time but come to school for required face-to-face classes (Figure 4) [41].
Model of blended learning [
The practice in MU was a blend of these six models from one extreme end to the other. For example, some lecturers had face to face classes but occasional sent work or instructions to students through short messaging services (SMS) or WhatsApp. Others had all the content on LMS and students only consulted where there was a need. Yet still a big majority gave all instructions fully in F2F classes only. It is these extremes that forced the university to come up with the blended approach as the university strategy for instructions.
MU already had a robust and very interactive learning management system running on Moodle platform. Moodle is free and open-source LMS which easily integrates to other systems like the University Management Information System (MIS) for seamless flow of information from the classroom to management. The current MU learning management system also allows for notes and assignment uploads by both lecturers and students. Besides content, the LMS has a web-conferencing facility that allows lecturers to capture what they are teaching to be uploaded online for students. This web-conferencing facility has also assisted with defense for post-graduate student, especially those that cannot attend the F2F defenses either because of geographical location or a tight work schedule or any other genuine reason.
MU had trained some of its lecturers in online content development and delivery. Specifically, the lecturers from the following schools had already been trained on several occasions and were able to develop online content and facilitate online teaching.
School of Art and Social Sciences – Mainly lecturers from the Department of Socially and Anthropology
School of Business and Economics – Almost all lecturers
School of Computing and Informatics – Almost all lecturers
School of Education – Only one quarter of the lecturers from the School have received some meaningful training
School of Mathematics Statistics and Actuarial Science – Three quarters of the lecturer
Planning and Architecture – Almost all lecturers
School of Public Health and Development – Only lecturers from Department of Public Health lecturers
The other 4 schools within the university had not been trained and had no capacity as at now to develop or teach on the online platform. It was therefore important to have capacity building of lecturers to be able to turn their face-to-face content into e-content. Currently, the University had a total of 102 courses each having at least 5 modules, making e-content development a capital investment that would require proper planning to finance.
For students and staff to have meaningful engagement in the online platform, a number of materials and equipment needed to be made available. These include:
Computers or other hand held devices
Internet bundles
Online library resources
It can be estimated that almost 80 percent of Maseno University students do not own basic computers. A big percentage of staff on the other hand had their personal Computers that they use in and out of the campus. It is important to note however that that there were still staff who did not own any personal computers. Therefore the university management made a big investment in computer resources within the computer labs for students where they get practical experience for the Information Technology courses it offers to all undergraduate students. But with the rise in undergraduate student numbers, the resources are still not enough. This means that in the current situation brought about by COVID-19 pandemic, it would be very difficult to engage student in online learning as most of them have been relying on University computer labs to get access. Staff offices are also fitted with computers that have internet access and this allows them to share the computers for work purposes. However, the University came up with a policy on “Bring your own device (BYOD)”, so that students would be in a position to own at least some basic computer for classroom use. Such a policy was easier to implement for new students by including it in their calling letters. For continuing students, it required a lot of sensitization to get them to acquire computers and also implementation of the online examinations mandated every student to have a laptop with internet and a webcam. The examinations therefore became catalysts for the BYOD policy and accelerated its implementation.
Maseno University students have always relied on the university Wi-Fi for their online engagement in academic work. Online learning requires dependable and constant internet for learning to succeed. The University through Kenya Education Network (KENET) engaged the local telecommunication companies through a government to private sector partnership programme on affordable internet provision to students. They offered the students an education bundle of 10GB at approximately 5 USD with unlimited access for one month. This allowed students to study from wherever they were and in future likely to ease the bandwidth demands within the University.
The offer from the telecommunication companies was very helpful for students who were at a place that had network connection. Even though most parts of Kenya are covered by these companies, it must be noted however that there are several regions in Kenya that still lack connectivity (National internet penetration stands at 43%, [46]). This makes it difficult to engage students equitably without bias on the online platform while they are at home because of diversity in locations and internet environment. The arrangement with private telecommunication providers has proved useful for students in the light of blended learning implementation as an institutional policy in future.
Within the university Learning Management System, Maseno University has an e-library with an e-librarian deployed to assist students with access to virtual library resources. Access to e-resources is through the Maseno University website and online public access catalog (OPAC). The only missing link was for the e-library to install an EZ-proxy to allow students to access all electronic resources the University subscribes to from the comfort of their homes. Due to improved practice in blended learning at the university, the librarian developed innovative ways to make immense contribution in the knowledge era by supporting knowledge gathering, creation and dissemination using new technology-based tools. With these new developments, it is still instructive to note that most of the traditional professional knowledge that defines librarianship will remain essential; the profession will also need a new set of skills to adapt to the evolving environment of higher education [47]. He goes on to assert that responsive and scalable organization needed today and even more in the future will rely on a culture that embraces user awareness and engagement. It is also important to note that user populations will continue to evolve and libraries need robust user assessment programs that can scale what they learn about changing populations to revise and extend services with limited growth in resources. They also need to develop learning cultures that harvest trends, skills and local institutional dynamics delivering service and value to users and institutional decision makers. Scaling what they learn and what they do will better position the libraries for tomorrow’s educational environment.
Blended learning at Maseno University drew a lot of its lessons on online assessment from its common courses that were already available on the online platform. These courses already attracted large student populations of up to six thousand students in one single offer. They included HIV/AIDS Course, Communication Skills, Common IT courses for School of Medicine and Nursing, and Common mathematics courses. For these courses to run successfully, all Continuous assessment Tests (CATs) were done on the online platform that allows for computer-based assessment. The Moodle platform used in the LMS was customized for computer-based assessment and an in-built grade book allows the students to view their results immediately. In the current situation where the University closed before summative assessment was undertaken, it became an urgent need to explore and identify software that could be used to offer the examinations online for students. This also meant that the policy examinations had to be reviewed to embed the online examination component in the existing policy. This is because the examination policy had no provision for online examinations. With the reviewed policy, the University embarked on extensive planning for its first ever summative examinations covering all undergraduate students. This required the upgrade of the existing LMS from a concurrency of 1000 to 3000 and in a mode that was compatible with the safe exams browser; purchase of other software for examination like the script conversion software from word to Moodle compatible XML file. The team then embarked on a search for an online proctoring examination system existing currently in the market and yet affordable for use with the large number of students at the university. The experience and challenges experienced in these first online exams is presented in Figure 5 [48].
Distribution of student queries from the helpdesk [
All Maseno University courses presented to Commission for University Education (Kenya) for approval to ensure they meet the requisite internal and external quality assurance mechanisms and standards. All the courses are approved for three different modes of offer: Face to Face offer, Blended Learning offer, and Online learning offer. This allows the university to be ready for any of these modes of offer by using the same content, but variation brought about by the classroom activity used.
Furthermore, the eCampus has developed a series of tools that are used internally to measure and monitor quality both at the point of development and offer. Samples of these tools are appended below (Figures 6 and 7) [49].
Internal Maseno university eCampus QA tools for content development [
eCampus Online Content Review Tools [
In considering effectiveness, researchers contend that BL coalesces around access, success, and students’ perception of their learning environments. Success and withdrawal rates for F2F and online courses are compared to those for BL as they interact [50] and outcomes show that BL students are more successful than either face to face or fully online learners. Blended learning is an innovative concept that embraces the advantages of both traditional teaching in the classroom and ICT supported learning including both offline learning and online learning. It has scope for collaborative learning; constructive learning and computer assisted learning (CAI). Blended learning needs rigorous efforts, right attitude, handsome budget and highly motivated teachers and students for its successful implementation because it incorporates diverse modes so it is complex and organizing it is a difficult task. The cost-effectiveness therefore of a BL technology is based on learner perception of the specific technology. According to the UNESCO Handbook [51] on flexible learning, affordable technologies largely available for institutions in Africa are categorized as in Figure 8 [52] that follows.
Affordable technologies [
The type of technologies for BL are based on six dimensions resources serve in a BL environment, namely infrastructure, learning tools, learning resources, teaching and learning methods, services for teachers and students, and cooperation between enterprise, government, and schools/institutions. These technologies were costed and presented to the university in terms of priority and summarized in the Table 2 [53] that follows.
One Time Cost | Periodic Cost | Recurring Costs |
---|---|---|
|
|
|
Priority on Technology for Blended Learning adapted from blended learning toolkit [53].
The main infrastructure at the eCampus for BL is the learning management system which runs on Moodle and supported by the Moodle community through continuous development and improvement. There are about 20 different types of activities available to Moodle users (forums, glossaries, wikis, assignments, quizzes, polls, scorm players, databases etc) and each can be customized to suit the user organization. This activity-based model permits combining of activities into sequences and groups, which can help a teacher guide participant through learning paths [54]. This LMS has been customized in such a way that it supports all the operations of the university listed above including student communities, administrative centres and teacher support areas. This becomes clear when we examine a representation of the eCampus at a glance presented as a Figure 9 [55] below.
Maseno university eCampus at a glance [
The use of technologies to enhance teaching and learning and help instructors and departments to process administrative work in Maseno University is flexible. A variety of simple web 4.0 tools are used to help learners generate content and interact with peers, such as blogs, wikis, and social networks [56]. Additionally, several technology-based communication mediums, such as emails, WhatsApp and instant messaging applications are used. This makes the instructors and administrative staffs’ work much more convenient.Originally online learning in Maseno was limited to a few digital tools such as multimedia courseware, learning objects and on-line forum discussions, it has since expanded to include video conferencing in addition to audio and video streaming.
The university set up a committee to assess the prevailing gaps in its provision of resources for blended learning and the following were duly identified.
Additional technical staff for required at the eCampus included a Coordinator for Research Monitoring and Evaluation to be responsible for quality assurance and standards, Copywrite Editor, Multi-Media resource Specialist, Web programmer, Graphic Designer, Data base administrator, and a Systems Specialist.
The transition in MU from F2F to ODTL became a learning laboratory for the university in various aspects of online and blended learning. The lessons learned can broadly be categorized into the following six areas: Attitude of Lecturers and Students; Online Assessment; Technologies; The Digital Divide; Change management; Capacity Building Best practice.
The forced shift from F2F to online and blended learning exposed the fact that a majority of lecturers and students had a strong negative attitude towards online learning activities. This came out mainly through the various social media platforms used by lecturers and students. The best lesson however was that with continued use, the attitude continued to improve. Secondly, the prevalent attitude made the university go back to the drawing board of having to deal with the negative attitude to improve future engagement as supported by other researchers [57, 58, 59].
The online assessment undertaken at MU during this period realized that the proportion of students who were eligible to do exams was 70.4%, meaning that 29.6% of the entire student population had not paid fees and/or registered in MIS hence were ineligible to take the examinations. It was further realized that only 32.4% of the total student population potentially qualified to progress to the next academic level. Nationally, this was the best performing university in online examinations both numerically and qualitatively, which was a good report for the university. But considering the low output from students, pertinent issues were raised on online assessment and by extension online learning. The barriers to assessment were more technological in nature as opposed to pedagogical. Most students had laptops that could not support the proctoring software; a large population had no laptops, network connectivity, and network coverage in their localities. A few students however cited lack of lecturer support during the online examinations as well as challenges with the proctoring software. These challenges became learning points in preparing students for the subsequent examinations. The best outcome from this experience though was the fact that the university integrated online examinations in its examination policy which opened the door for online examinations as a practice in the university. It further exposed the technical staff at the eCampus to a variety of proctoring soft-wares which allowed the team to identify a cost-effective proctoring system.
One of the key benefits from the shift to online and blended learning in MU is the new technological investments the university management had to make in new learning technologies which will make immense contribution to improvement of the quality and equity towards course content and facilitation of online learning [60]. Continued use of these technologies (Zoom, BigBlueButton, LMS, examination proctoring system, video creation software etc.) is naturally killing technophobia and ushering the university into a new dawn.
The shift exposed the deep digital divide among government sponsored students in public universities. This was possibly the greatest hindrance to students realizing the full potential of e-learning, yet lecturers still expected students to submit assessment tasks and engage with course activities on the LMS. This confirms the sentiment that due to high level of digital divide between Africa countries and other nations of the world the global information society benefits are but mirage to the larger Africa society vis-à-vis higher educational institutions (HEIs) in Africa [61]. This digital divide among government sponsored students at MU is caused by social exclusion, digital exclusion and access factors [62, 63, 64] which has further led to digital exclusion. The digital exclusion was even direr among learners with special needs in MU as was the case for this learners in other institutions [65]. But hope is not lost as this exposure has led to Higher Education Loans Board in Kenya creating a fund for provision of laptops for government sponsored students in public universities in Kenya.
Implementing online education, the MU team discovered that it requires a comprehensive strategic approach to change management [66, 67]. The MU experience further exposed the fact that student attitudinal issues were as a result of challenges with access to technological tools needed. On the other hand, the lecturer attitudinal issues were mainly as a means of resisting change [68]. It is from this experience that the MU team learned that the most suitable way for change management in eLearning environment is capacity building and the negotiatory process of persuading the lecturers with a view to enhancing their digital literacy and thus gradually changing their attitude in a positive direction.
Through the concluded experiences the following principles were realized through capacity building sessions: High relevance between online instructional design and student learning; Effective delivery of online instructional information impacts online learning; Adequate support provided by faculty and learner support assistants to students improves learning; High-quality and participatory and activity oriented content improves the breadth and depth of student’s learning [69].
This chapter gives a detailed account on the need for Maseno University to adapt a flexible and blended learning approach which was as a result of the disruption caused by COVID-19. It gives details of the planning, the training and resource mobilization that was undertaken to make the move to blended learning possible. Throughout, the chapter refers to mentorship, training and studies of best practice that assisted in the transition from F2F to ODTL. It is hoped that other low budget universities can learn from this experience and have the courage to use low-cost technologies available in the market to give its students quality learning and collaborative experiences HEI students benefit from in blended learning.
Coronavirus Disease 19 (Covid-19) marked the years 2020 and 2021 with its very fast diffusion rates and severity. With the quick development of vaccines against the disease, the pandemic right now seems to come to an end. Yet, living the last 2 years with a contagious disease has left some serious questions: What is the role of socio–economic determinants in the transmission of an airborne contagious disease like Covid–19? What factors are most influential and make countries more vulnerable to such diseases? What is the role of spatiality in the spread? In this study, we aim to investigate the answers to these questions for Turkey. More specifically, we try to point out the most influential socio–economic factors in the spread of Covid-19 in Turkey in a spatial setting.
The first Covid-19 case is confirmed in Turkey on 11th March 2020 in İstanbul. It spread quickly all over the country. To limit its transmission among the Turkish provinces, similar strategies to other countries, such as travel restrictions and partial curfews, were applied in the initial days. Yet, in time, it has become clear that every country has its own dynamics that limit the effectiveness of precautions against the Covid-19. For example, [1] find that the extreme poverty level is an important determinant in the national performance of low– and middle–income countries, since it determines the ability of social distancing. They also note that the disadvantaged share of the population in terms of socio–economic status is more vulnerable to contagious diseases. Therefore, each country must be assessed individually to understand its needs and to be prepared for future diseases. Analyzing the spread of the Covid-19 and the socio–economic determinants behind is important to be ready for any country as well as Turkey.
The ties between the socio–economic status in the spread of Covid-19 were discussed previously in the literature. These studies mainly focus on mainland China [2, 3] and the USA [4, 5]. Some of them compare the national performances of many countries based on the socio–economic variables, (e.g., [6, 7, 8]). Yet, as [4] clearly state, “
Ref. [11] emphasize the role of spatiality in the analysis of contagious diseases by stating that “
Although the importance of location in the transmission process of such diseases besides the other risk factors is mentioned heavily in the literature, studies considering geography in the Covid-19 incidence rates are scarce and they mostly make a choice between the spatial autoregressive model (SAR) and spatial error model (SEM). [15], for example, attempts to determine the socio-economic and region-specific in the Covid-19 transmission in German counties with a choice between SAR and SEM specifications. [16] examine the local transmission of Covid-19 cases in the USA. Again, they made a selection between SAR and SEM based on the Lagrange Multiplier (LM) tests. [17] employ SAR, SEM, and SAC models to detect the Covid-19 period prevalence in the US counties. [4] consider several demographic factors and income as well as air pollution and health-related variables in order to explain the spread of Covid-19 in the US states. They also employ a SAR model. [18] use the number of confirmed new cases in mainland China as the dependent variable where the recovered cases and the rate of deaths are the explanatory variables in a spatial panel setting. He compares SEM and SAR models, but cannot show spatiality in the explanation of the rate of new cases. He concludes that the spatial lag of X (SLX) model fits the nature of local spillovers in this association for China.
The situation for the scarce studies that consider the spread of Covid-19 in Turkey from a spatial perspective is parallel to the world literature. [8] provides an exploratory spatial analysis with different weight matrices for Turkish Covid-19 cases and deaths in which high spatial autocorrelation is detected particularly for major Turkish provinces. Similarly, [19] use Moran I and Local Indicator Spatial Association (LISA) statistics to determine the hot and cold spots among Turkish provinces. [20] examine the effects of a group of socio–economic determinants as well as climate–based variables on the number of Covid-19 cases with SEM and SAR specifications. [21] looks at the relationship between centrality in terms of trade, transportation, and health and the number of cases in a Turkish province while considering other socioeconomic factors as control variables. For this aim, he employs SAR and SAC models. [22] use the impact of population density, elderly dependency ratio, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, literacy rate, and health capacity variables to explain the diffusion of Covid-19 in Turkey with a SAR model. They find global spillovers and significant coefficients for population density and elderly dependency ratio while explaining the increase in the Covid-19 cases.
With this study, we also contribute to the scarce literature on Covid-19 studies in Turkey with a spatial perspective. One of the novelties of this paper comes from the spatial model it adopts. Unlike the previous spatial studies on Covid-19 diffusion, we argue that a spatial Durbin model (SDM) must be the first model to adopt for the analysis. The SDM approach is well known for containing both the global and local spillovers at the same time, which is a feature of the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, when the best describing model is unknown, [23] suggests using SDM as a starting point as well. As a result, we start our analysis with an SDM setting to detect the local and global spillovers in the diffusion of Covid-19 cases across 81 Turkish provinces. Different from the existing studies, we use the vaccination rates and sub–indicators of Life Index in Provinces by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TSI) as the explanatory variables. Life Index in Provinces report includes 41 sub–indicators about income, work life, safety, housing, environment, social life, access to infrastructure services, education, life satisfaction, and civic engagement. By using these sub–indicators, we believe that every aspect of socioeconomic status in Turkish provinces, from per km2 green area to health capacity, can be taken into account. Hence, an exhaustive list of variables that have the potential to impact the spread of Covid-19 is considered. Controlling the vaccination rates also allows us to detect its role among other variables and its impact on the spread of the disease. By doing so, we are able to contribute to the very limited literature on Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy.
To the extent of our knowledge, a similar study to our setting that examines the spread of Covid-19 in Turkey belongs to [24]. He employs 11 leading indicators of the Life Index in Provinces report, not the sub–indicators as well as other socioeconomic and environmental variables such as GDP, household size, age, air quality, humidity, and average temperature. Although this study also mentions the spatial distribution of Covid-19 cases in Turkey and benefits from some spatial maps, the main analysis method is Ordinary Least–Squares (OLS), not spatial models. By using spatial analysis methods with an exhaustive set of socioeconomic indicators, we believe that our study closes an important gap in the literature.
Our results indicate no significant global impacts in the spread of Covid-19 cases across Turkey, but significant local interactions. We show that vaccination in a given province decreases the total number of cases per hundred thousand people in the same province, but increases the Covid-19 cases in the neighboring province. This seemingly puzzling finding is a result of vaccine hesitancy toward Covid-19 vaccines. The “
Based on the findings of this study, we can suggest that the usage of clear communication channels with society has vital importance in fighting against infectious diseases. In this way, it is possible to correct the misperceptions both about the nature of the disease and the vaccinations. Overconfidence about the health status and vaccine hesitancy might increase the overall number of cases, so the burden on the health care system.
The rest of the study continues with an explanation of the data and methodology utilized. The next section presents our findings. The last section concludes with the policy suggestions to the Turkish authorities for the next pandemics.
This study uses the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population from 81 Turkish provinces as the dependent variable. This data is publicly available and reported as weekly averages by the Turkish Ministry of Health.
To be able to determine which explanatory variables might be important in the spread of Covid-19, we examine thoroughly the previous literature that applies both a spatial and non-spatial analysis. [25] argue economic variables like wealth or income are the main drivers of the person-to-person spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. [26] demonstrate that low literacy has been influential in the spread of the disease. [17, 27] find that age is effective on the spread of COVID-19 cases. Population and population density were also noted as significant variables by [15, 25, 28, 29]. The number of doctors and the number of hospital beds are considered important factors by [3, 25, 26] because their availability has the potential to draw more COVID-19 patients to the area. Living in an urban vs. rural area might be another determinant in the spread of cases as noted by [25, 29]. [15] also considers household size as a factor. Social life indicators and average space available per household are used by [25].
We proxy the socioeconomic and health status of each province that is noted in the literature by using the Life Index in Provinces provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute in 2016. This index is produced based on the approach of the OECD Better Life Index. The aim of the Life Index in Provinces is to compare the well–being and living quality of Turkish provinces as well as their economic status. To do so, 11 leading indicators and 41 sub–indicators that include both objective and subjective aspects of life are created. These indicators include income, work life, safety, housing, environment, social life, access to infrastructure services, education, life satisfaction, and civic engagement dimensions. Based on the previous literature, we select explanatory variables among the 41 sub–indicators. The dimensions that can affect the spread of Covid-19 but are not captured by the Life Index in Provinces, such as median age, percentage of individuals 65 years old and above, or population density are also added to the analysis.
Besides the socio–economic factors, the vaccine uptake decision of societies is a crucial weapon against the spread of Covid-19. Therefore, we use the vaccination rates for individuals 18 years old and above for each province as a control variable in the models.
A summary of explanatory variables that are employed in this analysis and the data sources are reported in Table 1.
Variable | Proxy | Source |
---|---|---|
COVID-19 variables | Total number of cases per 100,000 population by Turkish provinces | Turkish Ministry of Health (weekly) |
Percentage of 18+ population vaccinated against COVID-19 at least once by Turkish provinces | Turkish Ministry of Health (daily) | |
Housing Conditions | Number of rooms per person | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) |
The household size in Turkish provinces | Turkish Statistical Institute (2020) | |
Work Life | Employment Rate | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) |
Unemployment Rate | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
Average Daily Earnings | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
Income and Wealth | Percentage of Households in middle and higher Income Groups | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) |
Percentage of Households declaring to fail on meeting basic needs | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
GDP per capita by Turkish provinces | Turkish Statistical Institute (2013) | |
Health | Infant Mortality Rate | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) |
Life Expectancy at Birth | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
Satisfaction Rate with Health Status | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
Health Capacity Index | Turkish Ministry of Health, Health Statistics (2018) | |
Education | Percentage of higher education graduates | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) |
Safety | Murder Rate | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) |
Percentage of people feeling safe when walking alone at night | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
Civic engagement | Voter turnout at local administrations | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) |
Rate of membership to political parties | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
Percentage of persons interested in union/association activities | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
Access to Infrastructure Services | Number of internet subscriptions (per hundred persons) | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) |
Social life | Number of cinema and theater audiences (per hundred persons) | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) |
Shopping mall area per thousand people (m2) | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
Satisfaction rate with social relations | Life Index in Provinces by Turkish Statistical Institute (2016) | |
Median Age | Median of individuals’ age in Turkish provinces | Turkish Statistical Institute (2020) |
Age 65+ | Percentage of population over 65 + by Turkish provinces | Turkish Statistical Institute (2020) |
Population | Population density of Turkish provinces | Turkish Statistical Institute (2019) |
Socioeconomic and Covid–19 related variables and the data sources.
The data period is determined by the announcement periods of the Turkish Ministry of Health. Vaccination rates started to be announced at the province level on 04.07.2021 on a daily basis. The total number of cases per 100,000 population is announced weekly. Therefore, we consider the average total number of cases and vaccination rates for July 2021 in this analysis.
A standard OLS model is often estimated as a reference for the following spatial models. This study employs the same starting point. To understand the effect of location on the Covid-19 cases, many studies employ SAR and SEM specifications. [2] note that the SAR model will show how the infection burden in a location is affected by the infection burden in the neighboring locations. SEM is used to understand whether the OLS residuals are correlated to residuals of the neighboring locations. In the lines of [2, 3] also consider a SAC model. They argue that since the SAC model contains a spatial lag and a spatial error term, it can be seen as a combination of these two.
In fact, the spatial model family has a large set of approaches1, and model selection is a crucial part of its applications. [4] argues that this selection must be based on the spillover type that the economic theory points out. Unlike [2]‘s suggestion, [4] stresses that the SAC model is not the linear combination of SAR and SEM approaches. Not considering the spillover types in the selection of appropriate spatial models leads us to the identification problem noted in [5].
[6] state that the locations that are closer to the center of the pandemic are affected more quickly than the distant ones. However, besides geographical proximity, Covid-19 can spread easily when the locations are connected on a network, such as traveling. It means that both global and local spillovers exist in the diffusion of infectious diseases. We argue in this paper that this nature of Covid-19 can be best captured with an SDM approach. [7] also recommends using SDM as a departure point, when the true data generating process, as in the case of Covid-19, is unknown. SDM will also give the linear combination of SAR and SEM specifications [4], as intended by [2, 3].
The OLS model that is used as a benchmark is presented in Eq. (1).
where
The SDM specification that is used in this paper is shown in Eq. (2).
In Eq. (2), the dependent and the explanatory variables are the same as the OLS model defined in Eq. (1). However, here, we scale both the dependent and explanatory variables with a spatial weight matrix (W). The coefficient
Our model selection process follows [7] and we also compare our results with SAR and SLX specifications. The SAR and SLX models are shown in Eq. (3) and Eq. (4) respectively.
The spatial weight matrix used throughout all these models is the same. The elements of W take the value of 1 if two Turkish provinces are neighbors, and zero otherwise.
First, we examine the spatial variation of the total number of cases in Turkey. The spread of Covid-19 cases across Turkish provinces is shown in Figure 1.
The variation of Covid-19 cases across provinces in Turkey in July 2021.
The map in Figure 1 demonstrates that there are regional variations in the diffusion of Covid-19 cases. The total number of confirmed cases increases from west to east of Turkey. We also consider the four main regions of Turkey and statistically compare the average cases in these regions. These regions are defined as follows:
We begin our analysis with the classical OLS model. By excluding the insignificant variables at the 10% level, we refine the model and obtain the ultimate model. We check the OLS assumptions. We find heteroskedasticity in our main model which might be a result of spatial dependency.
As explained before, since the association between the total number of cases and the various socioeconomic variables is not well discussed in the previous literature, we start with an SDM specification to avoid the omitted variable problem [23], which is also the linear combination of SAR and SEM specifications [30]. However, the SDM specification does not show significant results. The LR tests comparing SDM vs. OLS and SAR vs. OLS cannot reject the null hypothesis of no significant global interactions. The lack of significant global spillovers indicates that the burden of the disease at one location is not affected by the burden of the disease in the neighboring locations. Yet, the LR test for the coefficients of local interactions in the SDM specification is significant at the 1% level (LR test is 52.5983, and the p–value is 0.0015). That is to say, although no global impacts can be detected in the transmission process of Covid-19 cases in Turkey, geography still matters in the form of local interactions. The socioeconomic features of neighboring provinces are influential on the spread of Covid-19 in a given province. This finding is in line with the study by [18] in which an SLX model is found appropriate to model the new cases in mainland China. Therefore, following [23], we continue our analysis with an SLX model. The final SLX model and the OLS model as a benchmark are shown in Table 2.
(1) | (2) | |
---|---|---|
Final OLS Model | Final SLX Model | |
Vaccine Rate | −1.5737*** | −1.3693** |
(0.5605) | (0.5926) | |
Membership to Political Parties | 2.0558 | 3.2805** |
(1.5622) | (1.5043) | |
satisfaction rate with social relations | −2.1859 | −2.2772*** |
(1.6857) | (0.7206) | |
satisfaction rate with health status | 3.4398 | 3.3891** |
(2.6869) | (1.6631) | |
Constant | −21.0895 | −26.1843 |
(117.8685) | (105.4470) | |
W*Vaccine Rate | 4.9654*** | |
(1.7096) | ||
W* Median Age | −10.2514*** | |
(3.4318) | ||
AIC | 870.386 | 874.219 |
Adjusted R2 | 0.2341 | |
Number of Observations | 81 | 81 |
The impact of socioeconomic variables on the total cases of Covid-19: OLS and SLX models.
Vaccination is clearly the strongest weapon in the fight against Covid-19. The findings from Table 2 also confirm this situation and reveal that the vaccination rate and the total number of cases are significantly and negatively related. Interestingly, it is found that the effect of vaccination rates in the neighboring provinces is positive and significant. That is, the increased rates of vaccination in the neighboring locations cause a growth in the total number of cases in a given province. This result seems puzzling at first, but it can be explained by the vaccine hesitancy concept. Vaccine hesitancy is defined as the “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite the availability of vaccination services” [31]. [32] state that the vaccine uptake decision of an individual can be dependent on the actions of the neighbors. They call this concept
We also show that as the satisfaction rate with health status increases, the number of total cases also rises in a particular province. This finding can be attributed to the fact that Covid-19 is mostly perceived as an older people’s disease or only dangerous for people with co–morbidities. To fight this perception, World Health Organization (WHO) made many announcements, including the one that the Chief of WHO explained that “
The rate of membership to political parties is an indicator of civic engagement. As this variable has a higher rate, the social relations, and connections increase as well. This would make it difficult to keep the social distance and adapt to “stay at home” calls. Our findings in Table 2 confirm this result and demonstrate a positive effect of this variable on the total number of cases.
Median age, itself, is not a determinant of the spread of Covid-19 cases across Turkish provinces. However, the median age of the neighbors negatively impacts the number of cases in a given province. This finding is in line with [15]. He notes that the increase in the median age of neighbors reduces the social interactions with the given state and traveling, so less spread has occurred.
The satisfaction rate with social relations is a proxy for social life. Our results indicate that the higher values of this variable are related to a lower level of total cases. It seems that people who are more satisfied with their social life are most likely to keep their social distance and less engaged with many people. This finding might be explained by the existence of video–calls and other telecommunication methods. Individuals may meet their social needs via the internet and stay at home at the same time.
We cannot show any significant effect of housing conditions, work life, income and wealth, or health indicators other than health status, education, safety, and access to infrastructure services, however.
The results of this paper once more emphasize the importance of vaccinations in order to control the number of cases. In the case of such infectious diseases, governments must use clear communication channels with society to avoid misperceptions about the nature of the disease or the precautions to avoid further spread. Our findings show that over–confidence about the individual health status and vaccine hesitancy increase the number of total cases, so the burden on the health care system.
This study employs an exhaustive set of socioeconomic variables and vaccination rates to detect their roles in the spread of Covid-19 in Turkey in a spatial setting. Province-level data allows us to detect the existence of spatiality as well. We cannot detect any global interactions in the diffusion process, so the number of infected people at one location does not bring an extra infection burden to the neighboring locations. Yet, our findings show that local interactions in terms of vaccination rates and median age play an important role in the increase in the total number of cases. Increased vaccination rates in the neighboring provinces also increase the total number of cases in a given province. This result can be explained by the vaccine hesitancy toward the Covid-19 vaccine. We also find evidence that people that are more satisfied with their health status are more likely to catch the disease and increase the total number of cases. To fight the misperceptions about the nature of the disease and the vaccination procedure, the Turkish government must adopt a clear–communication policy and actively work for individuals to access reliable information.
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These reactions occur through a regular radical chain causing growth of polymer by three steps, namely, initiation, propagation, and termination. To understand ionizing radiation-induced polymerization, the water radiolysis must be taken into consideration. This chapter explores the mechanism of water molecules radiolysis paying especial attention to the basic regularities of solvent radicals’ interaction with the polymer molecules for forming the crosslinked polymer. Water radiolysis is the main engine of the polymerization processes, especially the “free-radical polymerization.” The mechanisms of the free-radical polymerization and crosslinking will be discussed in detail later. Since different polymers respond differently to radiation, it is useful to quantify the response, namely in terms of crosslinking and chain scission. A parameter called the G-value is frequently used for this purpose. It represents the chemical yield of crosslinks, scissions and double bonds, etc. For the crosslinked polymer, the crosslinking density increases with increasing the radiation dose, this is reflected by the swelling degree of the polymer while being immersed in a compatible solvent. If crosslinking predominates, the crosslinking density increases and the extent of swelling decreases. If chain scission predominates, the opposite occurs. A further detailed discussion of these aspects is presented throughout this chapter.",book:{id:"6149",slug:"ionizing-radiation-effects-and-applications",title:"Ionizing Radiation Effects and Applications",fullTitle:"Ionizing Radiation Effects and Applications"},signatures:"Mohamed Mohamady Ghobashy",authors:[{id:"212371",title:"Dr.",name:"Mohamed",middleName:null,surname:"Mohamady Ghobashy",slug:"mohamed-mohamady-ghobashy",fullName:"Mohamed Mohamady Ghobashy"}]},{id:"53504",doi:"10.5772/66925",title:"Applications of Ionizing Radiation in Mutation Breeding",slug:"applications-of-ionizing-radiation-in-mutation-breeding",totalDownloads:3509,totalCrossrefCites:9,totalDimensionsCites:13,abstract:"As a predicted result of increasing population worldwide, improvements in the breeding strategies in agriculture are valued as mandatory. The natural resources are limited, and due to the natural disasters like sudden and severe abiotic stress factors, excessive floods, etc., the production capacities are changed per year. In contrast, the yield potential should be significantly increased to cope with this problem. Despite rich genetic diversity, manipulation of the cultivars through alternative techniques such as mutation breeding becomes important. Radiation is proven as an effective method as a unique method to increase the genetic variability of the species. Gamma radiation is the most preferred physical mutagen by plant breeders. Several mutant varieties have been successfully introduced into commercial production by this method. Combinational use of in vitro tissue culture and mutation breeding methods makes a significant contribution to improve new crops. Large populations and the target mutations can be easily screened and identified by new methods. Marker assisted selection and advanced techniques such as microarray, next generation sequencing methods to detect a specific mutant in a large population will help to the plant breeders to use ionizing radiation efficiently in breeding programs.",book:{id:"5451",slug:"new-insights-on-gamma-rays",title:"New Insights on Gamma Rays",fullTitle:"New Insights on Gamma Rays"},signatures:"Özge Çelik and Çimen Atak",authors:[{id:"147362",title:"Dr.",name:"Özge",middleName:null,surname:"Çelik",slug:"ozge-celik",fullName:"Özge Çelik"},{id:"147364",title:"Prof.",name:"Çimen",middleName:null,surname:"Atak",slug:"cimen-atak",fullName:"Çimen Atak"}]},{id:"32846",doi:"10.5772/36950",title:"Current Importance and Potential Use of Low Doses of Gamma Radiation in Forest Species",slug:"current-importance-and-potential-use-of-low-doses-of-gamma-radiation-in-forest-species",totalDownloads:5301,totalCrossrefCites:2,totalDimensionsCites:13,abstract:null,book:{id:"1590",slug:"gamma-radiation",title:"Gamma Radiation",fullTitle:"Gamma Radiation"},signatures:"L. G. Iglesias-Andreu, P. Octavio-Aguilar and J. Bello-Bello",authors:[{id:"110581",title:"Dr.",name:"Lourdes",middleName:null,surname:"Iglesias-Andreu",slug:"lourdes-iglesias-andreu",fullName:"Lourdes Iglesias-Andreu"}]},{id:"58410",doi:"10.5772/intechopen.72074",title:"Radiation-Induced Degradation of Organic Compounds and Radiation Technologies for Purification of Aqueous Systems",slug:"radiation-induced-degradation-of-organic-compounds-and-radiation-technologies-for-purification-of-aq",totalDownloads:1437,totalCrossrefCites:8,totalDimensionsCites:13,abstract:"Environmental application of radiation technologies is an important part of radiation processing. Radiation treatment of aqueous systems contaminated with organic compounds is a promising method of water and wastewater purification and corresponding technologies are being developed. In this chapter, the following aspects of radiation treatment process are considered: sources of contamination and major contaminants of water and wastewater; primary processes in aqueous systems initiated by ionizing radiation; principal ways of contaminant conversion as consequences of primary processes (complete mineralization of organic compounds, partial decomposition of organic molecules resulted in detoxification, decolorization, disinfection of polluted water, and improvement in biological degradation of contaminant, polymerization of monomers’ contaminants, oxidation-reduction processes, and coagulation of colloids); sources of ionizing radiation; and main equipment applied in radiation technologies of aqueous system purification.",book:{id:"6149",slug:"ionizing-radiation-effects-and-applications",title:"Ionizing Radiation Effects and Applications",fullTitle:"Ionizing Radiation Effects and Applications"},signatures:"Igor E. Makarov and Alexander V. Ponomarev",authors:[{id:"213652",title:"Dr.",name:"Igor",middleName:null,surname:"Makarov",slug:"igor-makarov",fullName:"Igor Makarov"},{id:"213657",title:"Dr.",name:"Alexander",middleName:null,surname:"Ponomarev",slug:"alexander-ponomarev",fullName:"Alexander Ponomarev"}]}],mostDownloadedChaptersLast30Days:[{id:"32842",title:"Sterilization by Gamma Irradiation",slug:"sterilization-by-gamma-irradiation",totalDownloads:74818,totalCrossrefCites:37,totalDimensionsCites:85,abstract:null,book:{id:"1590",slug:"gamma-radiation",title:"Gamma Radiation",fullTitle:"Gamma Radiation"},signatures:"Kátia Aparecida da Silva Aquino",authors:[{id:"102109",title:"Dr.",name:"Katia",middleName:"Aparecida Da S.",surname:"Aquino",slug:"katia-aquino",fullName:"Katia Aquino"}]},{id:"32837",title:"Environmental Gamma-Ray Observation in Deep Sea",slug:"environmental-gamma-ray-observation-in-deep-sea-",totalDownloads:2931,totalCrossrefCites:4,totalDimensionsCites:6,abstract:null,book:{id:"1590",slug:"gamma-radiation",title:"Gamma Radiation",fullTitle:"Gamma Radiation"},signatures:"Hidenori Kumagai, Ryoichi Iwase, Masataka Kinoshita, Hideaki Machiyama, Mutsuo Hattori and Masaharu Okano",authors:[{id:"108174",title:"Dr.",name:"Hidenori",middleName:null,surname:"Kumagai",slug:"hidenori-kumagai",fullName:"Hidenori Kumagai"},{id:"108237",title:"Dr.",name:"Masa",middleName:null,surname:"Kinoshita",slug:"masa-kinoshita",fullName:"Masa Kinoshita"},{id:"137650",title:"Dr.",name:"Ryoichi",middleName:null,surname:"Iwase",slug:"ryoichi-iwase",fullName:"Ryoichi Iwase"},{id:"137656",title:"Dr.",name:"Hideaki",middleName:null,surname:"Machiyama",slug:"hideaki-machiyama",fullName:"Hideaki Machiyama"},{id:"146918",title:"Dr.",name:"Mutsuo",middleName:null,surname:"Hattori",slug:"mutsuo-hattori",fullName:"Mutsuo Hattori"},{id:"146919",title:"Dr.",name:"Masaharu",middleName:null,surname:"Okano",slug:"masaharu-okano",fullName:"Masaharu Okano"}]},{id:"58998",title:"Ionizing Radiation-Induced Polymerization",slug:"ionizing-radiation-induced-polymerization",totalDownloads:1820,totalCrossrefCites:8,totalDimensionsCites:17,abstract:"Ionizing radiation can induce some kinds of reactions, other than polymerization, such as dimerization, oligomerization, curing, and grafting. These reactions occur through a regular radical chain causing growth of polymer by three steps, namely, initiation, propagation, and termination. To understand ionizing radiation-induced polymerization, the water radiolysis must be taken into consideration. This chapter explores the mechanism of water molecules radiolysis paying especial attention to the basic regularities of solvent radicals’ interaction with the polymer molecules for forming the crosslinked polymer. Water radiolysis is the main engine of the polymerization processes, especially the “free-radical polymerization.” The mechanisms of the free-radical polymerization and crosslinking will be discussed in detail later. Since different polymers respond differently to radiation, it is useful to quantify the response, namely in terms of crosslinking and chain scission. A parameter called the G-value is frequently used for this purpose. It represents the chemical yield of crosslinks, scissions and double bonds, etc. For the crosslinked polymer, the crosslinking density increases with increasing the radiation dose, this is reflected by the swelling degree of the polymer while being immersed in a compatible solvent. If crosslinking predominates, the crosslinking density increases and the extent of swelling decreases. If chain scission predominates, the opposite occurs. A further detailed discussion of these aspects is presented throughout this chapter.",book:{id:"6149",slug:"ionizing-radiation-effects-and-applications",title:"Ionizing Radiation Effects and Applications",fullTitle:"Ionizing Radiation Effects and Applications"},signatures:"Mohamed Mohamady Ghobashy",authors:[{id:"212371",title:"Dr.",name:"Mohamed",middleName:null,surname:"Mohamady Ghobashy",slug:"mohamed-mohamady-ghobashy",fullName:"Mohamed Mohamady Ghobashy"}]},{id:"53780",title:"Gamma-Ray Spectrometry and the Investigation of Environmental and Food Samples",slug:"gamma-ray-spectrometry-and-the-investigation-of-environmental-and-food-samples",totalDownloads:2529,totalCrossrefCites:1,totalDimensionsCites:1,abstract:"Gamma radiation consists of high‐energy photons and penetrates matter. This is an advantage for the detection of gamma rays, as gamma spectrometry does not need the elimination of the matrix. The disadvantage is the need of shielding to protect against this radiation. Gamma rays are everywhere: in the atmosphere; gamma nuclides are produced by radiation of the sun; in the Earth, the primordial radioactive nuclides thorium and uranium are sources for gamma and other radiation. The technical enrichment and use of radioisotopes led to the unscrupulously use of radioactive material and to the Cold War, with over 900 bomb tests from 1945 to 1990, combined with global fallout over the northern hemisphere. The friendly use of radiation in medicine and for the production of energy at nuclear power plants (NPPs) has caused further expositions with ionising radiation. This chapter describes in a practical manner the instrumentation for the detection of gamma radiation and some results of the use of these techniques in environmental and food investigations.",book:{id:"5451",slug:"new-insights-on-gamma-rays",title:"New Insights on Gamma Rays",fullTitle:"New Insights on Gamma Rays"},signatures:"Markus R. Zehringer",authors:[{id:"311750",title:"Dr.",name:"Markus R.",middleName:null,surname:"Zehringer",slug:"markus-r.-zehringer",fullName:"Markus R. Zehringer"}]},{id:"54118",title:"Gamma Rays from Space",slug:"gamma-rays-from-space",totalDownloads:2089,totalCrossrefCites:2,totalDimensionsCites:2,abstract:"An overview of gamma rays from space is presented. We highlight the most powerful astrophysical explosions, known as gamma-ray bursts. The main features observed in detectors onboard satellites are indicated. In addition, we also highlight a chronological description of the efforts made to observe their high energy counterpart at ground level. Some candidates of the GeV counterpart of gamma-ray bursts, observed by Tupi telescopes, are also presented.",book:{id:"5451",slug:"new-insights-on-gamma-rays",title:"New Insights on Gamma Rays",fullTitle:"New Insights on Gamma Rays"},signatures:"Carlos Navia and Marcel Nogueira de Oliveira",authors:[{id:"189908",title:"Dr.",name:"Carlos",middleName:null,surname:"Navia",slug:"carlos-navia",fullName:"Carlos Navia"},{id:"243084",title:"MSc.",name:"Marcel",middleName:null,surname:"De Oliveira",slug:"marcel-de-oliveira",fullName:"Marcel De Oliveira"}]}],onlineFirstChaptersFilter:{topicId:"227",limit:6,offset:0},onlineFirstChaptersCollection:[{id:"82739",title:"Experimental Breeder Reactor II",slug:"experimental-breeder-reactor-ii",totalDownloads:12,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.105800",abstract:"The Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) operated from 1964 to 1994. EBR-II was a sodium-cooled fast reactor operating at 69 MWth producing 19 MWe. Rather than using a loop approach for the coolant, EBR-II used a pool arrangement where the reactor core, primary coolant piping, and primary reactor coolant pumps were contained within the pool of sodium. Also contained within the pool was a heat exchanger where primary coolant, which is radioactive, transferred heat to secondary, nonradioactive, sodium. The nuclear power plant included a sodium boiler building where heat from the secondary sodium generated superheated steam, which was delivered to a turbine/generator for electricity production. EBR-II fuel was metallic uranium alloyed with various metals providing significant performance and safety enhancements over oxide fuel. The most significant EBR-II experiments occurred in April 1986. Relying on inherent physical properties of the reactor, two experiments were performed subjecting the reactor to loss of primary coolant flow without reactor SCRAM and loss of the secondary system heat removal without reactor SCRAM. In both experiments, the reactor experienced no damage. This chapter provides a description of the most important design features of EBR-II along with a summary of the landmark reactor safety experiments.",book:{id:"10982",title:"Nuclear Reactors - Spacecraft Propulsion, Research Reactors, and Reactor Analysis Topics",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10982.jpg"},signatures:"Chad L. Pope, Ryan Stewart and Edward Lum"},{id:"82712",title:"Idaho State University AGN-201 Low Power Teaching Reactor: An Overlooked Gem",slug:"idaho-state-university-agn-201-low-power-teaching-reactor-an-overlooked-gem",totalDownloads:10,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.105799",abstract:"A category of reactors called university research and teaching reactors, includes relatively high-power pool-type and low-power solid-core reactors. Many high-power university reactors are largely used for irradiations and isotope production. Their almost constant operation tends to impede student access. A university reactor can be particularly relevant to the university’s mission of preparing well-rounded students who have theoretical knowledge, reinforced by focused laboratory reactor experience. The solid-core Idaho State University Aerojet General Nucleonics (AGN) model 201 reactor operates at such a low power (5 W maximum) that it is not useful for isotope production activities. However, the AGN-201 reactor is well suited for teaching and research activities. The solid-core AGN-201 reactor requires no active cooling system, uses a simple shielding arrangement, and the very low operating power results in trivial burnup providing an operating lifetime exceeding many decades. It is thus worthwhile to examine the Idaho State University AGN-201 nuclear reactor more closely because it offers a wide range of research and teaching capabilities while being widely available to students.",book:{id:"10982",title:"Nuclear Reactors - Spacecraft Propulsion, Research Reactors, and Reactor Analysis Topics",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10982.jpg"},signatures:"Chad L. Pope and William Phoenix"},{id:"81424",title:"Core Reload Analysis Techniques in the Advanced Test Reactor",slug:"core-reload-analysis-techniques-in-the-advanced-test-reactor",totalDownloads:13,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.103896",abstract:"Since becoming a national user facility in 2007, the type of irradiation campaigns the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) supports has become much more diverse and complex. In prior years, test complexity was limited by the computational ability to analyze the tests’ influence on the fuel. Large volume tests are irradiated in flux traps which are designed to receive excess neutrons from the surrounding fuel elements. Typically, fuel elements drive the test conditions, not vice versa. The computational tool, PDQ, was used for core physics analysis for decades. The PDQ code was adequate so long as the diffusion approximation between test and fuel element remained valid. This paradigm changed with the introduction of the Ki-Jang Research Reactor—Fuel Assembly Irradiation (KJRR-FAI) in 2015. The KJRR-FAI was a prototypic fuel element for the KJRR research reactor project in the Republic of Korea. The KJRR-FAI irradiation presented multiple modeling and simulation challenges for which PDQ was ill suited. To demonstrate that the KJRR-FAI could be irradiated and meet safety requirements, the modern neutron transport codes, HELIOS and MCNP, were extensively verified and validated to replace PDQ. The hybrid 3D/2D methodology devised with these codes made analysis of the ATR with KJRR-FAI possible. The KJRR-FAI was irradiated in 2015-2016.",book:{id:"10982",title:"Nuclear Reactors - Spacecraft Propulsion, Research Reactors, and Reactor Analysis Topics",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10982.jpg"},signatures:"Samuel E. Bays and Joseph W. Nielsen"},{id:"81555",title:"Nuclear Thermal Propulsion",slug:"nuclear-thermal-propulsion",totalDownloads:118,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.103895",abstract:"This chapter will cover the fundamentals of nuclear thermal propulsion systems, covering basic principles of operation and why nuclear is a superior option to chemical rockets for interplanetary travel. It will begin with a historical overview from early efforts in the early 1950s up to current interests, with respect to fuel types, core materials, and ongoing testing efforts. An overview will be provided of reactor types and design elements for reactor concepts or testing systems for nuclear thermal propulsion, followed by a discussion of nuclear thermal design concepts. A section on system design and modeling will be presented to discuss modeling and simulation of driving phenomena: neutronics, materials performance, heat transfer, and structural mechanics, solved in a tightly coupled multiphysics system. Finally, it will show the results of a coupled physics model for a conceptual design with simulation of rapid startup transients needed to maximize hydrogen efficiency.",book:{id:"10982",title:"Nuclear Reactors - Spacecraft Propulsion, Research Reactors, and Reactor Analysis Topics",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10982.jpg"},signatures:"Mark D. DeHart, Sebastian Schunert and Vincent M. Labouré"},{id:"81013",title:"Cyber-Informed Engineering for Nuclear Reactor Digital Instrumentation and Control",slug:"cyber-informed-engineering-for-nuclear-reactor-digital-instrumentation-and-control",totalDownloads:33,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.101807",abstract:"As nuclear reactors transition from analog to digital technology, the benefits of enhanced operational capabilities and improved efficiencies are potentially offset by cyber risks. Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) is an approach that can be used by engineers and staff to characterize and reduce new cyber risks in digital instrumentation and control systems. CIE provides guidance that can be applied throughout the entire systems engineering lifecycle, from conceptual design to decommissioning. In addition to outlining the use of CIE in nuclear reactor applications, this chapter provides a brief primer on nuclear reactor instrumentation and control and the associated cyber risks in existing light water reactors as well as the digital technology that will likely be used in future reactor designs and applications.",book:{id:"10982",title:"Nuclear Reactors - Spacecraft Propulsion, Research Reactors, and Reactor Analysis Topics",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10982.jpg"},signatures:"Shannon Eggers and Robert Anderson"},{id:"79671",title:"Fault Detection by Signal Reconstruction in Nuclear Power Plants",slug:"fault-detection-by-signal-reconstruction-in-nuclear-power-plants",totalDownloads:107,totalDimensionsCites:0,doi:"10.5772/intechopen.101276",abstract:"In this work, the recently developed auto associative bilateral kernel regression (AABKR) method for on-line condition monitoring of systems, structures, and components (SSCs) during transient process operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP) is improved. 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