• COVID-19
• Closed Access close
• DK close
• English close

Objective: In March-April 2020, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown in Denmark, the Danish Health Authorities recommended that, where possible, face-to-face patient-physician consultations be replaced by telephone consultations. The aim of this study was to obtain patients’ evaluation of their telemedicine experience. Methods: Patients who were candidates for telemedicine consultations were recruited based on their urological ailment, necessity for follow-up and comorbidity. New referrals including patients with suspicion of cancer were not candidates for telemedicine. In total, 548 patients had their appointment altered during the period from 13 March to 30 April 2020. Postal questionnaires were sent to 548 patients and 300 (54.7%) replied. Results: In total, 280 patient answered, 224 (80%) men and 56 (20%) women, mean age 69 years (range 18–91) of whom 180 (64.3%) had a benign and 100 (35.7%) a malignant diagnosis. Twenty (6.7%) respondents did not remember their telephone consultation and were therefore excluded. Telephone consultation satisfaction was reported by 230 (85.0%) patients, but they would not prefer video consultations over telephone consultations, and only 102 (36.4%) would prefer telephone consultations in the future. Patients’ age, sex and distance to the hospital did not seem to be associated with telephone consultation satisfaction (age p = 0.17; sex p = 0.99; distance p = 0.27, respectively). In total, 226 (80.7%) were medically assessed as being at risk for COVID, but 74 (26.4%) subjectively evaluated themselves as being at risk. Conclusions: In general (85.0%), urological patients were satisfied with telephone consultations.

The communication from leaders during a time of crisis significantly impacts how the crisis unfolds. Leaders also play a decisive role in fostering either virtuous or vicious dynamics when organizations are torn between competing demands(Pradies et al., 2020; Smith, 2014). But never has it been morepressing for organizational leaders to be mindful of what andhow they communicate than in the COVID-19 crisis. In manycases, the current pandemic has surfaced the “invisible currents of paradox” (Quinn & Nujella, 2017, p. vii) operating within organizations, making it vital for leaders to craft messages that align people’s beliefs and actions and mobilize them towards a common goal.

The approach of this chapter is polemical in nature, reflecting the very fluid situation that lies ahead for orchestras post COVID-19. The chapter has three main academic research objectives. First, to put the current debate in context, it looks at the key challenges that orchestras have faced since the turn of the last century and in what way COVID-19 posed new problems that impacted orchestral music. The second objective is to outline some special short-term measures introduced to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, namely: (i) the income-support measures needed to sustain orchestras; and (ii) the extent to which orchestras could come together and practice, and in fact perform, even if only in front of no or very limited live audiences. The third objective is to discuss what possibly lies ahead for live orchestral music, post-COVID-19, and in a rapidly changing world regarding technological advances in the production and consumption of orchestral music. To inform this discussion, some broad trends in the ‘consumption’ of orchestral music over time, particularly in terms of numbers attending live concerts and revenues from streamed concerts, are examined.

The purpose of this article is to present the key findings from a survey performed across the faculties at Aalborg University (AAU) on students’ transition to online education, during the Danish quarantine in spring 2020. We highlight important takeaways that are deemed relevant to the ongoing digital transition process at AAU and the evaluation thereof, discuss students’ experiences in the locally anchored settings and compare findings in a broader context. For our analysis, we utilize NLP transformers and topic modelling to present an overview of themes discussed by the students. Further, we perform bibliometric analyses to gain insights on similar studies published during COVID-19. The study highlights central themes, challenges, and opportunities from a student perspective, and evaluates these within the scope of the PBL model. The study highlights the complex structure of student bodies, showing diverse preferences and effects of moving education online. Social aspects of learning suffered for most, posing challenges for both teaching and group work. Students generally reported positively on the use of recorded lectures, providing opportunities for future blended/flipped learning environments. We discuss the implications for creating hybrid/blended approaches that integrate online and physical learning spaces.

Increasing use of digital tools in university teaching has attracted scholarly attention on the interaction between pedagogic design and digital technologies. The accelerated transition to online learning following the crisis of COVID-19 has raised a number of questions regarding the tie between technological affordances and learning strategies, especially with regard to the role of dialogue in learning. Based on a questionnaire with 51 postgraduate students in a PBL-university, where collaborative interaction and dialogic processes are regarded as integral to the PBL-method, this study investigates how students navigated the altered learning environment. We found that students’ experiences with online teaching denote reduced affordances for learning. They experienced decreased co-involvement in decision-making, decreased dialogic collaboration and a changed pedagogic setup that did not support learning through discursive meaning negotiations. Thus, whilst dialogues can be transformed by digital technology, these changes are not necessarily productive when taking into account the ideal of democratic discourse. Arguably, the digital transformation will continue to evolve and to influence the quality of university teaching. The paper concludes by discussing the potential of democratic dialogic teaching to stimulate learning ecologies in online and hybrid learning environments. Increasing use of digital tools in university teaching has drawn scholarly attention to the interaction between pedagogical design and digital technologies. The accelerated transition to online learning following the COVID-19 crisis has raised several questions regarding the links between technological affordances and learning strategies, especially with regard to the role of dialogue in learning. Based on a survey of 51 postgraduate students in a Danish university with Problem Based Learning as explicit teaching strategy, where collaborative interaction and dialogue are regarded as integral to learning, this study investigates how students navigated the altered learning environment. We found that students’ experiences with online teaching demonstrate reduced affordances for learning. They experienced decreased co-involvement in decision-making, decreased collaboration and a changed pedagogical setup that did not support learning through discursive meaning negotiations. Thus, whilst dialogues can be transformed by digital technology, these changes are not necessarily productive within an environment which emphasises democratic discourse. Arguably, the digital transformation will continue to evolve and influence the quality of university teaching. Our paper concludes by discussing the potential of democratic dialogic teaching to stimulate learning ecologies in online and hybrid learning environments.