Objective: The Spring 2020 UK COVID-19 lockdown required normally office-based workers to modify their work-related practices to work at home. This study explored workers' experiences of adapting to home working, health behaviors and well-being. Methods: Twenty-seven home working employees (19 women; aged 23-57 years), from various industry sectors, gave individual semi-structured interviews. Topics focused on home working experiences, routine adaptations, and changes in health behaviors and well-being. Results: Four themes were extracted: changes to the work interface; adaptations to a new workspace; changes to work-life balance; and adjustments to a new social context. Notably, participants reported greater reliance on computer-based interactions, which they felt discouraged physical activity and increased sitting. Working in a domestic environment reportedly challenged work-home boundaries. Conclusions: Work practices can incidentally detrimentally impact health-related behaviors and well-being. Organizations should develop policies and procedures to promote health-conducive home working.

Lecture capture is popular within Higher Education, but previous research suggests that students do not always optimally select content to review, nor do they make the most of specific functions. In the current study conducted in the 2019/20 academic year, we used a repeated-measures crossover design to establish the effects of transcripts with closed captioning, and email reminders, on use (self-reported and system analytics), perceptions of lecture capture and student performance, as measured by multiple-choice question (MCQ) tests designed to assess the module learning outcomes. System analytics (N = 129) and survey data (N = 42) were collected from students alongside qualitative data from semi-structured interviews (N = 8). We found that students value lecture capture highly, but do not access it extensively during the teaching period. The availability of transcripts and closed captions did not impact the amount of capture use or performance on MCQ tests, but did result in more positive perceptions of capture, including increased likelihood of recommending it to others. The use of email reminders referring students to specific segments of capture and reminding them of the functionality had no impact on any measure, although qualitative data suggested that the content of reminders may be used in revision rather than during the teaching period, which fell outside the period we investigated. Collectively, these data suggest that the use of captions and transcripts may be beneficial to students by allowing dual processing of visual and audio content, and a searchable resource to help consolidate their learning but there is little evidence to support reminders.

Background In the wake of Covid-19, the prevalence of working from home (‘home-working’) is expected to rise. Yet, working from home can have negative health and wellbeing impacts. Interventions are needed to promote effective ways of working that also protect workers’ health and wellbeing. This study explored the feasibility and acceptability of an intervention intended to promote home-working practices that would protect and promote health behaviour and wellbeing. Methods An uncontrolled, single-arm mixed-methods trial design was employed. Forty-two normally-office-based UK workers, working from home between January–February 2021 (during the Covid pandemic), consented to receive the intervention. The intervention: a digital document offering evidence-based recommendations for home-working in ways conducive to health behaviour and wellbeing. Feasibility and acceptability were quantitatively indexed by: expressions of interest within 1 week (target threshold ≥ 35); attrition across the one-week study period (threshold ≤ 20%); and the absence of any apparent detriments in self-reported physical activity, sedentary behaviour, snacking, and work-related wellbeing prior to and one week after receiving the intervention. Qualitative think-aloud data, obtained while participants read through the intervention, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, explored acceptability. Semi-structured interviews conducted one week after intervention exposure were content-analysed to identify whether and which behaviour changes were adopted. Results Two feasibility criteria were met: 85 expressions of interest indicated satisfactory intervention demand, and no detriments were observed in health behaviours or wellbeing. Forty-two participants (i.e., maximum capacity for the study; 26 females, 16 males, aged 22–63) consented to take part. 31% dropped out over the one-week study period leaving a final sample of 29 (18 females, 11 males, aged 22–63), exceeding identified attrition thresholds. Think-aloud data showed that participants concurred with intervention guidance, but felt it lacked novelty and practicality. Follow-up interviews produced 18 (62%) participant reports of intervention adherence, where nine recommendations reportedly prompted behaviour change in at least one participant. Conclusions Mixed evidence was found for intervention feasibility and acceptability. Whilst the information was deemed relevant and of value, further development is required to increase its novelty. It may also be more fruitful to provide this information via employers, to encourage and emphasise employer endorsement.