The importance of access to quality physical education (PE) among children is well-documented. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, resulted in significant shifts in PE curriculum delivery alongside a rapid uptake by PE teachers of new technologies. Although some research about integrating technology into teaching does exist, there is very little data about virtual learning in elementary school, particularly in the context of physical education. There are also clear gaps in the literature about teaching PE virtually during a pandemic. As such and in this study, I sought to fill a critical gap in the existing literature by identifying what specific factors shaped elementary physical education delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as barriers and facilitators to successful curriculum delivery, and I drew implications for future emergency response needs.This mixed-methods study examined elementary physical education teachers’ perceptions of teaching virtually during the spring of 2020 and/or 2020-2021 school year. The study’s sample drew on PE teachers from urban, rural, and suburban settings across the US, which included diverse experiences to explore teachers’ perceptions of virtual teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surveys and focus groups were utilized. Results from this study elucidated that physical education teachers were challenged by limited space, equipment, internet use, and distraction within the environment when teaching. However, teachers in this sample also discussed their tenacity to help their students stay active by delivering supplies to families, posting on social media, and teaching how to make alternative equipment. Teachers also reported that the more support they received (for example, via social emotional support and also specific technology support), the less stress they felt during remote teaching. At the same time, the higher the teacher perception on live lesson participation, the more efficacious the teachers felt. The expectations of PE teachers during COVID varied from region to region, and the ever-changing schedules made teaching PE that more difficult. Although there has been some research on teaching virtually, before the pandemic there was very little research about specifically teaching elementary PE virtually. The need to pivot to remote instruction is part of our future. The implication of this work helps support the need for further education of public health goals. The need for a platform that supports PE and elementary age children is needed to best support this work. Using technology as an enrichment and supplement for PE to help reach this goal could be a positive outcome of this pandemic. The use of virtual platforms will also help deliver PE content to families and allow for technology skill development through targeted practice for any future need to pivot to remote.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, customer shopping habits have changed. Some industries experienced an abrupt shift during the pandemic outbreak while others navigate in new normal states. For some merchants, the highly-uncertain new phenomena of COVID-19 expresses as outliers in time series of volume of sales. As forecasting models tend to replicate past behavior of a series, outliers complicates the procedure of forecasting; the abnormal events tend to unreliably replicate in forecasts of the subsequent year(s). In this thesis, we investigate how to forecast volume of sales during the abnormal time period of COVID-19, where the classical ARIMA family of models produce unreliable forecasts. The research revolved around three time series exhibiting three types of outliers: a level shift, a transient change and an additive outlier. Upon detecting the time period of the abnormal behavior in each series, two experiments were carried out as attempts for increasing the predictive accuracy for the three extreme cases. The first experiment was related to imputing the abnormal data in the series and the second was related to using a combined model of a pre-pandemic and a post-abnormal forecast. The results of the experiments pointed at significant improvement of the mean absolute percentage error at significance level alpha=0.05 for the level shift when using a combined model compared to the pre-pandemic best-fit SARIMA model. Also, at significant improvement for the additive outlier when using a linear impute. For the transient change, the results pointed at no significant improvement in the predictive accuracy of the experimental models compared to the pre-pandemic best-fit SARIMA model. For the purpose of generalizing to large-scale conclusions of methods' superiority or feasibility for particular abnormal behaviors, empirical evaluations are required. The proposed experimental models were discussed in terms of reliability, validity and quality. By residual diagnostics, it was argued that the models were valid; however, that further improvements can be made. Also, it was argued that the models fulfilled desired attributes of simplicity, scaleability and flexibility. Due to the uncertain phenomena of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was suggested not to take the outputs as long-term reliable solutions. Rather, as temporary solutions requiring more frequent updating of forecasts. / Under coronapandemin har kundbeteenden och köpvanor förändrats. I vissa branscher upplevdes ett plötsligt skifte vid pandemiutbrottet och i andra navigerar handlare i nya normaltillstånd. För vissa handlare är förändringarna så pass distinkta att de yttrar sig som avvikelser i tidsserier över försäljningsvolym. Dessa avvikelser komplicerar prognosering. Då prognosmodeller tenderar att replikera tidsseriers tidigare beteenden, tenderas det avvikande beteendet att replikeras i försäljningsprognoser för nästkommande år. I detta examensarbete ämnar vi att undersöka tillvägagångssätt för att estimera försäljningsprognoser under den abnorma tidsperioden av COVID-19, då klassiska tidsseriemodeller felprognoserar. Detta arbete kretsade kring tre tidsserier som uttryckte tre avvikelsertyper: en nivåförskjutning, en övergående förändring och en additiv avvikelse. Efter att ha definierat en specifik tidsperiod relaterat till det abnorma beteendet i varje tidsserie, utfördes två experiment med syftet att öka den prediktiva noggrannheten för de tre extremfallen. Det första experimentet handlade om att ersätta den abnorma datan i varje serie och det andra experimentet handlade om att använda en kombinerad pronosmodell av två estimerade prognoser, en pre-pandemisk och en post-abnorm. Resultaten av experimenten pekade på signifikant förbättring av ett absolut procentuellt genomsnittsfel för nivåförskjutningen vid användande av den kombinerade modellen, i jämförelse med den pre-pandemiskt bäst passande SARIMA-modellen. Även, signifikant förbättring för den additiva avvikelsen vid ersättning av abnorm data till ett motsvarande linjärt polynom. För den övergående förändringen pekade resultaten inte på en signifikant förbättring vid användande av de experimentella modellerna. För att generalisera till storskaliga slutsatser giltiga för specifika avvikande beteenden krävs empirisk utvärdering. De föreslagna modellerna diskuterades utifrån tillförlitlighet, validitet och kvalitet. Modellerna uppfyllde önskvärda kvalitativa attribut såsom enkelhet, skalbarhet och flexibilitet. På grund av hög osäkerhet i den nuvarande abnorma tidsperioden av coronapandemin, föreslogs det att inte se prognoserna som långsiktigt pålitliga lösningar, utan snarare som tillfälliga tillvägagångssätt som regelbundet kräver om-prognosering.

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This report was the result of a study conducted in Stockholm County in Sweden. This study aimed to gain further understanding of how social workers working with domestic violence issues perceived how the COVID-19 pandemic affected women who are victims of domestic violence in Sweden. Three social workers working with victims of domestic violence were interviewed using semi structured questions. The sample consisted of two respondents from social services and one respondent from a women'sshelter. Their clients are women from the age of 18 and above with different cultural backgrounds. The results generated from the interview were analysed using feminist theory and earlier research conducted on domestic violence. Though domestic violence against women has been a social problem before the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings revealed the different factors that led to more cases of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic such as economic dependency on the perpetrator, depression,alcohol abuse, and social isolation due to the partial lockdown. These factors cause the women (victims) to be more vulnerable to the crime perpetrated by their partners, and due to partial lockdown and the stay-at-home order by the government to combat the spread of COVID-19 virus in Sweden, the social workers believed that the women (the victims) were stuck with their perpetrators and unable to come out to seek the help needed and this made their situation more vulnerable resulting to long life effects like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD), suicidal thoughts and even death.

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The global tourism and hotel industry have been among the fastest-growing sectors for years. However, the global pandemic of COVID-19 caused extreme disruption and changed the situation all around the globe. The global COVID-19 pandemic did not only leave an imprint on economic sectors all over the world but also caused changes in the everyday lives of people. Implemented travel restrictions and self-isolation have resulted in workforce reductions in all economic sectors and job losses impacting individuals, organizations, and countries globally. With regard to the hotel industry, the crisis has led to an immense number of cancellations and a loss of foreign clientele. The situation has altered and the behavior of guests has changed accordingly. This research aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on guest behavior and its consequences. To achieve this aim, a mixed methods research approach consisting of 2 stages of empirical study is employed. The qualitative method in the form of email interviews was aimed at the hotel staff of 5 chosen health spa hotels in Slovakia where 9 employees were asked questions about the impact of COVID-19 on the hotel industry and guest behavior from a hotel employee’s perspective. The collected data were analyzed by using thematic analysis. The quantitative method was used to investigate the impact of the global pandemic from hotel guests’ points of view themselves. The second part of the research therefore involves 100 participants of an online survey about guest behavior during the pandemic, change in values and behavior patterns. The findings proved that there is a significant change in guest behavior induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. Furthermore, the aftermath of adopted behaviors has been identified, including the change in the booking process, difficulties in rules compliance, and main differences in hotel stays before and during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major transformations in education, workplaces, and work-life balance. Though most restrictions have been lifted in Sweden, some processes will likely remain online. This master thesis research collected quantitative data from a sample of university students at Halmstad University regarding the effects the pandemic had on their lives and their personal work preferences. Despite the pandemic leading to major changes both personally and professionally, the results of the study conclude that the pandemic primarily had both good and bad effects on education and did not have a major effect on university students’ outlook on their future in the labor market. Regarding preferences, this study found that there is no consensus. Several of the results are likely the effect of the culture and policies of the Nordic welfare states, which shape and surround this sample. This research contributes to the field of health and lifestyle as it identifies and analyzes potential factors which have strengthened and weakened the sample in focus.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have faced unprecedented challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. This dissertation draws on the comparative case study design to examine the institutional response to the Covid-19 pandemic across seventeen HEIs in three urban contexts: Hong Kong, Johannesburg, and New York. Due to the limited knowledge base about the novel coronavirus and its rapid spread, the institutional response to the Covid-19 pandemic was premised on uncertainty and presented a unique challenge to decision-makers. This study is informed by the systems approach in the three strands of literature I draw from – disaster studies, sociology of risk, and higher education governance. The evidence from this study supports the conceptualization of the Covid-19 response as a by-product of social design and socially constructed events. I take a qualitative approach to study the institutional response through semi-structured interviews, documents, and recruitment survey responses. Guided by organized risk sensemaking, I put forth the following research questions: (1) What policies, if any, have been adopted to mitigate the risk of Covid-19? (2) What decision-making structures, if any, have been mobilized to mitigate the risk of Covid-19? (3) How, if at all, institutional managers have rationalized the decisions adopted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic? and (4) How, if at all, has the external environment impacted the institutional response to Covid-19? In the first findings chapter, I examine the Covid-19 policies adopted during the pandemic and conclude that the measures taken to mitigate risks associated with the pandemic have counter-intuitive consequences. The Covid-19 response has strengthened HEIs’ place-based identity and underscored the role universities and colleges play in their immediate communities as anchor institutions. The second analytical chapter shows how decision-making structures were established and mobilized during the Covid-19 pandemic within different HEIs. It typifies decision making structures by their focus (general vs. specific) and temporality (permanent vs. temporary). This chapter discusses the challenges and benefits of different decision-making approaches, including the involvement of faculty and staff, the elimination of organizational silos, and the funneling of decisions to higher levels of authority. Furthermore, I interrogate the institutional managers’ rationalizations of challenges and ethical dilemmas brought on by the pandemic. In this chapter, I present the four emerging attitudes toward the Covid-19 pandemic as a sensemaking framework, illuminating the institutional response as a temporally dynamic phenomenon. Lastly, I focus on the external environment and specifically, the non-state sectoral actors that have played a crucial role in informing and shaping HEIs' responses. The relationships with these actors serve advisory, brokerage, coordination, data collection, material support, lobbying, and translation functions for HEIs. The study contributes to the literature on comparative education by providing empirical evidence on the role of non-state sectoral actors, the decision-making processes of HEIs, and the impact of Covid-19 on higher education. It also highlights the importance of universities and colleges as anchor institutions within their communities.

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of student affairs administrators, working in both public and private higher education institutions, regarding how they learned to use technology and gain insight into how their work would evolve in the future. While the COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone in the higher education landscape—academic faculty, students, and student administrative professionals—this research focused specifically on a segment of administrative professionals within higher education institutions: student affairs professionals. The results of the study provide recommendations to higher education institutions and student affair professionals and how to work in a technologically evolving workplace. The researcher based the study on the three assumptions: (1) informal and incidental learning are key factors in growing the skills to learn the evolving technologies in the workplace; (2) higher-order thinking skills exist in student affairs professionals who went beyond transferring the in-person modality to online; (3) organizational competencies or ethical competencies in digital leadership skills existed in student affairs professionals who went beyond demonstrating technological competencies skills The study population were student affairs professionals who worked during COVID-19. Data sources were primarily through 12 individual interviews, all conducted via Zoom, critical incident reports, and documents. Key findings of the study revealed: (1) A strong majority of participants described the use of technology as having a significant communication platform; (2) A majority of participants indicated that the lack of user engagement was a challenge while using technology; (3) An overwhelming majority learn to overcome the challenge of using technology through peer conversation; and (4) A majority of participants stated that having a supportive leader influenced the use of technology. The main recommendations of the study were the following: (1) Higher education institutions should think of creating the space and opportunities for student affairs professionals to engage in conversation with one another to overcome the challenges of using technology. To develop the space, higher education climate and organizational culture around the perception of technology must be considered. Additionally, higher education institutions should invest in developing supportive leaders who have a positive perception of technology in the workplace; and (2) Student affairs professionals should not only learn to be open about using technology in the workplace, but also develop the inter-personal skills that is critical to overcoming the use of technology. For seasoned student affairs professionals who hope to become a leader within the institution, developing the leadership skills to become a supportive leader who has the technological and inter-personal skills is critical to better manage and lead their team.

[pt] O estudo em tela integra o campo temático da gestão escolar tendo como foco de sua investigação a atuação da liderança escolar, representada na maioria das vezes, pelo(a) diretor(a), no contexto da pandemia do Covid-19. Buscou-se inicialmente identificar na literatura o conceito e as tipologias da liderança escolar e como estão associadas com a autonomia e com os resultados educacionais, tendo como referência principal os conceitos de Liderança instrucional e liderança distribuída (Leithwood e Sun, 2012; Spillane, 2005). Complementarmente foi feito um levantamento da produção nacional e internacional recente sobre a gestão escolar no contexto da pandemia. Por meio de um estudo de caso, de natureza qualitativa, foram investigadas as experiências da gestão de duas escolas públicas municipais de São José de Ribamar (MA) a fim de compreender como os gestores escolares mobilizaram diferentes recursos e desenvolveram ações para responder aos desafios gerados e intensificados pela pandemia no que diz respeito a garantia do direito à aprendizagem dos estudantes. Integra-se à pesquisa, a análise documental, entrevistas com supervisores da secretaria municipal de educação, diretoras e professoras, além de dados do Censo Escolar (2020) e dos questionários contextuais do professor e do diretor da Prova Brasil (2019). A análise foi construída a partir de três categorias: o contexto sociocultural, estrutura e organização de cada escola, percepções dos diretores e dos professores das escolas sobre o perfil e as ações desenvolvidas pela gestão escola e pela rede durante esse período. Os achados deste trabalho indicaram, inicialmente, uma considerável centralização das ações da secretaria com pouco espaço de orientação pedagógica para as escolas e diretores em contraste com a relevância do papel dos diretores para a reorganização da rotina escolar. Neste último aspecto, observou-se que o processo requereu a colaboração dos professores e apontou para uma liderança mais autônoma, distribuída e instrucional em um dos casos. No outro, indica uma escola dependente das orientações da secretaria e uma liderança focada nas questões mais administrativas. Pode-se perceber que, se de um lado os diretores desenvolvem diferentes ações e mobilizam recursos diversos conforme sua experiência, formação e conhecimento, de outro, a falta de formação e de apoio do órgão central se constitui em um dos maiores obstáculos para o desenvolvimento de sua autonomia e liderança. / [en] The study on screen integrates the thematic field of school management focusing its investigation on the performance of school leadership, represented in most cases by the principal, in the context of Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, we sought to identify in the literature the concept and typologies of school leadership and how they are associated with autonomy and educational outcomes, having as main reference the concepts of instructional leadership and distributed leadership (Leithwood e Sun, 2012; Spillane, 2005). In addition, a survey of recent national and international production on school management in the context of the pandemic was carried out. Through a case study of a qualitative nature, the experiences of managing two municipal public schools in São José de Ribamar (MA) were investigated to understand how school managers mobilized different resources and developed actions to respond to the challenges generated. and intensified by the pandemic regarding guaranteeing the right to learn for students. The research includes documentary analysis, interviews with supervisors of the municipal education department, principals, and teachers, as well as data from the School Census (2020) and the contextual questionnaires of the teacher and the director of Prova Brasil (2019). The analysis was built from three categories: the sociocultural context, structure and organization of each school, perceptions of school directors and teachers about the profile and actions developed by the school management and the network during this period. The findings of this work initially indicated a considerable centralization of actions in the secretariat with little space for pedagogical guidance for schools and principals, in contrast to the relevance of the role of principals for the reorganization of the school routine. In this last aspect, it was observed that the process required the collaboration of teachers and pointed to a more autonomous, distributed, and instructional leadership in one of the cases. In the other, it indicates a school dependent on the guidelines of the secretariat and a leadership focused on more administrative issues. If, on the one hand, directors develop different actions and mobilize different resources according to their experience, training, and knowledge, on the other hand, the lack of training and support from the central body constitutes one of the biggest obstacles to development of their autonomy and leadership.