Availability and use of technology for e-learning: to what extent do these impact Bangladeshi university students? A cross-sectional study

Background: E-learning is making education globally and conveniently attainable with the deliverance of advanced technology. However, this mode of academia is still not commonly practiced locally. Thus, the study aimed to investigate technological availability, usability, and association to university students' perceived stress due to e-learning curriculum. Methods: A cross-sectional study commenced among Bangladeshi university students enrolled in the e-learning curriculum. A total of 1162 university students were included. The main explanatory variables were related to the availability of technology and the use of technology. The outcome variable was perceived e-learning stress. In statistical analysis, p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant with a 95% confidence interval. Results: In this study, lack of technological availability and usability were associated with higher level of perceived e-learning stress. Being female, living in rural areas, and outside of Dhaka division were found the associated factors in the lack of technological availability and usability. Conclusions: A significant association between the availability and usability of technology with perceived e-learning stress was observed. Thus, measures should be taken to initialize e-learning adaptivity by increasing technological growth across the nation, considering educational preparedness for future catastrophes.

Penyuluhan Data Mining Dengan Ensemble Learning Dalam Strees Pembelajaran Sekolah Saat Covid19

This community service has a high school object in Karawang City. This condition and location was chosen because of the initial study that had been carried out in the city of Karawang. In this paper, the application of ensemble learning as a determinant of learning stress can be relevant to the concept of learning during the Covid19 pandemic. Of course, online learning with software has been implemented first at that location, so the goal is to apply the concept of data mining with ensemble learning techniques for data mining learning. This paper focuses more on the current conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic, the application of data mining is carried out to help determine the level of learning stress. The results of this study are to provide knowledge and socialization to the parties involved from the results that have been carried out. Pengabdian kepada masyarakat ini memiliki objek SMA di Kota Karawang. Kondisi dan lokasi ini dipilih karena kajian awal yang telah dilakukan di Kota Karawang. Pada makalah ini, penerapan pembelajaran ensambel sebagai penentu stres belajar dapat relevan dengan konsep pembelajaran selama pandemi Covid19. Tentunya pembelajaran daring dengan software telah diterapkan terlebih dahulu di lokasi tersebut, sehingga tujuannya adalah untuk menerapkan konsep penambangan data dengan teknik pembelajaran ensambel untuk pembelajaran data mining. Makalah ini lebih berfokus pada kondisi saat ini selama pandemi Covid-19, penerapan penambangan data dilakukan untuk membantu menentukan tingkat stres pembelajaran. Hasil penelitian ini adalah memberikan pengetahuan dan sosialisasi kepada pihak-pihak yang terlibat dari hasil yang telah dilakukan.

Factors Influencing Academic Self-Efficacy Among Nursing Students During COVID-19: A Path Analysis

Introduction: The shift to online learning owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is posing an additional challenge to academic success, particularly for students who speak English as a Second Language (ESL). This study aimed to examine the factors that contribute to academic self-efficacy among ESL nursing students. Method: This was a cross-sectional study using path analysis with 113 undergraduate ESL nursing students in New York City. Data were collected online using self-report measures of the study variables: academic self-efficacy, perfectionistic concerns, acculturative stress, and e-learning stress. A hypothetical path model was tested using AMOS 26.0. Results: Perfectionistic concerns and acculturative stress directly affected academic self-efficacy. Furthermore, perfectionistic concerns and e-learning stress indirectly affected academic self-efficacy via the acculturative stress path. Discussion: Results indicate the importance of developing a multifaceted intervention that considers diverse cultural and psychological factors to help ESL nursing students enhance their academic self-efficacy in e-learning environments.

Predictors of COVID-19 Related Stress Among Custodial Grandmothers

This paper examined predictors of COVID-19 stressors among 316 custodial grandmothers raising school-aged grandchildren using regression. Grandmothers, who were participants in two nationwide behavioral RCTs, completed an online questionnaire in Spring 2020. Predictors included grandmother demographics, depressive symptoms, perceived caregiving stress and reward, stress management strategies, and grandchild factors. Outcomes included grandmothers’ stress related to using bad coping habits (r2=.24), grandchildren’s remote learning(r2=.39), household conflict (r2=.29), COVID-19 fear and uncertainty (r2=.28), and finances(r2=.24). Regression results indicated that grandmothers’ pre-existing depressive symptoms predicted all outcomes except remote learning stress. Higher caregiving stress was associated with all outcomes, except concerns about using bad coping habits. Grandmothers with less perceived access to care reported greater concern about bad coping habits and remote learning stress, while minority grandmothers reported more financial stress and COVID-19 fear and uncertainty. Findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the stress experienced by already burdened custodial grandmothers.

E-learning readiness and perceived stress among the university students of Bangladesh during COVID-19: a countrywide cross-sectional study

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled all educational institutions from the conventional campus-based education system to e-learning worldwide. However, adapting to this new platform, e-learning readiness may cause perceived stress among students. This study aimed to examine the association between e-learning readiness and perceived e-learning stress as well as the relationship with socio-demographic and e-learning related factors. Results: This cross-sectional study was employed, where 1145 e-learning enrolled university students were surveyed. The result indicated that nearly 91% of students reported moderate (76.07%) to the higher level (14.85%) of perceived e-learning stress whereas more than half of them (58.17%) were at sub-optimum level of readiness. Furthermore, it was found that students with the sub-optimum level of readiness compare to optimum had a significantly higher chance of reporting a moderate and high level of perceived e-learning stress. Besides, parents’ highest education, residence, students’ preference, and having any eye problems were associated with perceived e-learning stress. Conclusion: A sudden introduction of e-learning during the COVID-19 catastrophe has brought about challenges including the readiness of the students that might exacerbate the perceived level of stress in different ways. This study reported that most of the students were at sub-optimal levels of readiness and suffered from moderate to high levels of perceived e-learning stress. The study findings should integrate into the education monitoring system to enhance students' coping strategies, incite readiness, straighten, and nourishing existing policies.

The Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Stress Learning

Learning stress or academic stress is a category of distress in which students perceive academic demands as disturbing. It can also be interpreted as pressure related to the ability to master a science. Symptoms of learning stress include physical reactions, behaviour, thought processes, and emotions. Based on various research results, the level of learning stress increases during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is considered related to the change in the face-to-face learning system to online (in the network), which raises new factors as triggers for learning stress. This research was conducted to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic affects stress in learning and find solutions to overcome feelings of stress in learning, especially solutions from an Islamic perspective. The method used by the author in this study is a qualitative method with a literature study approach with analysis of the theory of Robert J. Van Amberg about the stages of stress. The results of the study revealed that learning stress factors during the covid-19 pandemic were in the form of lack of understanding of the material, a lot of assignments, declining grades, a tiring and boring learning system, quota constraints and internet networks, individual internal factors, and social factors other. Islam views stress as a trial that every Muslim must face. Islam also provides solutions for stress, namely patience, tawakkal, and the discipline of worship. Other solutions for learning stress during the COVID-19 pandemic can also be in the form of problem-focused coping and emotional focused coping, web-based Solution-Focused Brief Counseling (SFBC), and spiritual, emotional freedom technique (SEFT).

Expert System to Diagnose the Level of Learning Stress in High School Students Using the Forward Chaining Method

The research objective is to design an expert system to diagnose the stress level of learning in high school students using the web-based Forward Chaining method. It is hoped that it can be used as an initial alternative to determine the level of stress experienced by students in learning. The research method fully uses a system development model consisting of the need for stages, making prototypes, evaluation stages, and system maintenance. The results of this study succeeded in making an expert system design to diagnose the stress level of learning in high school students using the Forward Chaining method and analyzing the results of the IF THEN ELSE calculations using Forward Chaining.

Attenuated dopamine signaling after aversive learning is restored by ketamine to rescue escape actions

Escaping aversive stimuli is essential for complex organisms, but prolonged exposure to stress leads to maladaptive learning. Stress alters neuronal activity and neuromodulatory signaling in distributed networks, modifying behavior. Here we describe changes in dopaminergic neuron activity and signaling following aversive learning in a learned helplessness paradigm in mice. A single dose of ketamine suffices to restore escape behavior after aversive learning. Dopaminergic neuron activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) systematically varies across learning, correlating with future sensitivity to ketamine treatment. Ketamine's effects are blocked by chemogenetic inhibition of dopamine signaling. Rather than directly altering the activity of dopaminergic neurons, ketamine appears to rescue dopamine dynamics through actions in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Chemogenetic activation of Drd1 receptor positive mPFC neurons mimics ketamine's effects on behavior. Together, our data link neuromodulatory dynamics in mPFC-VTA circuits, aversive learning, and the effects of ketamine.