videoconferencing

The purpose of this paper is to identify the strategies for developing and unlocking the professional capability and capacity of senior hospital managers in Nepal. This research is the first published study outlining the self-perspectives of Nepalese senior hospital managers on their capability and capacity development. The study utilised a qualitative descriptive design as the second phase of a larger sequential mixed methods research project. Data were collected from 11 senior hospital managers through semi-structured interviews conducted online via the Zoom online videoconferencing platform between August to October 2024. Four key themes identified were: Stability, continuity and coherence; Practical and logistical constraints; Interference, conflict and control; and managing the mismatch between ability and expectations. Findings highlight breakages in work roles and pervasiveness of political and opportunistic individual actions alongside complex and lengthy bureaucratic processes that stifled senior public hospital managers working roles. Along with well-organised administrative procedures, appropriate compliance training for senior hospital managers is sought essential. Findings from this study may be broadly applicable to other under resourced countries in the Asia Pacific region.

Synchronous video conferencing (VC) has become an established mode of higher education, but sustaining student engagement remains challenging, particularly in practice-oriented disciplines such as graphic design. This study examined the effects of three gamification mechanisms, including animated badges, experience points, and level upgrades, on behavioural, emotional, and cognitive engagement in synchronous VC learning. Guided by Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design was implemented with 124 first-year graphic design students from three public universities in China. Participants were distributed equally across a non-gamified control condition and three gamified conditions (n = 31 per group). Engagement was assessed before and after a four-week instructional intervention. Significant improvements were observed within the engagement components across all three gamified conditions, with no statistically significant change observed within the control condition. Participant-level total scores for each dimension of engagement were then used to estimate baseline-adjusted regression models. The models accounted for 97.4% of the variance in post-intervention behavioural engagement, 96.6% in emotional engagement, and 98.8% in cognitive engagement. Relative to the control condition and after controlling for baseline engagement, animated badges, experience points, and level upgrades were associated with increases of 40.35, 46.90, and 49.36 points in behavioural engagement; 48.82, 51.76, and 52.48 points in emotional engagement; and 95.86, 105.46, and 107.36 points in cognitive engagement, respectively. The results suggest that gamification mechanisms vary in the strength and direction of their relationship with engagement, with the strongest adjusted relationships being found between progression-based gamification and the cognitive dimension of engagement. The study extends the analysis beyond significance testing by introducing a quantitative, baseline-adjusted model to estimate post-intervention engagement given gamification condition and baseline engagement and offers a more precise basis for the design of gamified VC interfaces.

Introduction Hybrid teaching, in which students attend lectures either in the physical presence of a lecturer or synchronously via video link from another location, has become increasingly common at multi-campus institutions, yet research systematically comparing student satisfaction and perceived learning in this format remains limited. Methods This study examined synchronous hybrid teaching in an undergraduate Social Work programme delivered across two Swedish campuses, in which the defining difference between student groups was not physical attendance as such, since students at both sites were present in university classrooms, but whether the lecturer taught in person or via videoconference from the other campus. A total of 282 students completed a study-specific questionnaire across three consecutive semesters, assessing overall satisfaction, perceived learning under both lecturer conditions, ability to focus, sense of community, and technical problems. Results Perceived learning was consistently higher when the lecturer was physically present than when teaching remotely (d = 1.24), a pattern that held within students at both campuses, indicating that it was not attributable to campus affiliation alone. Students at the satellite campus reported significantly higher overall satisfaction than students at the main campus, but this campus-level difference was no longer statistically significant once pedagogical and technical factors were accounted for in a multiple regression model; instead, perceived learning during remote-lecturer sessions, ability to focus, sense of community, and technical problems emerged as the strongest independent predictors of satisfaction, together explaining 57.4% of its variance. Discussion These findings suggest that satisfaction and perceived learning represent partly distinct dimensions of the hybrid teaching experience and suggest that local pedagogical support and reliable technical delivery during remote-lecturer sessions may matter more for student satisfaction than physical co-location with the lecturer itself.

مقدمه: آموزش ترکیبی، که در آن دانشجویان یا به صورت حضوری در کنار مدرس یا به طور همزمان از طریق ارتباط تصویری از مکانی دیگر در کلاس‌ها شرکت می‌کنند، در مؤسسات چندپردی افزایش یافته است، اما پژوهش‌های نظام‌مند در خصوص مقایسه رضایت دانشجویان و یادگیری ادراک‌شده در این قالب همچنان محدود است. روش‌ها: این مطالعه به بررسی آموزش ترکیبی همزمان در برنامه کارشناسی مددکاری اجتماعی که در دو پردیس سوئدی ارائه می‌شود، پرداخت؛ تفاوت اصلی بین گروه‌های دانشجویی، حضور فیزیکی نبود، چرا که دانشجویان هر دو سایت در کلاس‌های دانشگاه حضور داشتند، بلکه این بود که آیا مدرس به صورت حضوری یا از طریق ویدئوکنفرانس از پردیس دیگر تدریس می‌کرد. مجموعاً ۲۸۲ دانشجو در سه نیم‌سال متوالی پرسشنامه‌ای ویژه مطالعه را تکمیل کردند که رضایت کلی، یادگیری ادراک‌شده در هر دو وضعیت مدرس، توانایی تمرکز، حس اجتماع و مشکلات فنی را ارزیابی می‌کرد. نتایج: یادگیری ادراک‌شده به طور پیوسته زمانی که مدرس به صورت حضوری حضور داشت بالاتر بود تا زمانی که به صورت از راه دور تدریس می‌کرد (d = 1.24)، و این الگو در هر دو پردیس مشاهده شد که نشان می‌دهد این امر صرفاً به وابستگی به پردیس مربوط نیست. دانشجویان پردیس فرعی رضایت کلی بالاتری نسبت به دانشجویان پردیس اصلی گزارش کردند، اما این تفاوت در سطح پردیس پس از لحاظ کردن عوامل آموزشی و فنی در مدل رگرسیون چندگانه دیگر از نظر آماری معنادار نبود؛ در عوض، یادگیری ادراک‌شده در جلسات مدرس از راه دور، توانایی تمرکز، حس اجتماع و مشکلات فنی به عنوان قوی‌ترین پیش‌بینی‌کننده‌های مستقل رضایت ظاهر شدند که در مجموع ۵۷.۴٪ از واریانس آن را تبیین کردند. بحث: این یافته‌ها نشان می‌دهد که رضایت و یادگیری ادراک‌شده ابعاد تا حدی متمایزی از تجربه آموزش ترکیبی را نمایندگی می‌کنند و حاکی از آن است که حمایت آموزشی محلی و ارائه فنی قابل اعتماد در جلسات مدرس از راه دور ممکن است برای رضایت دانشجویان مهم‌تر از هم‌مکانی فیزیکی با مدرس باشد.