Assessing Student Perceptions of a Norwegian University's COVID-19 Response Strategy: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Aim: This study aims to investigate Norwegian students' perceptions toward a higher education institution (HEI)'s COVID-19 response strategy, differentiating between three behavioral techniques: informing (i. e., email updates about COVID-19), nudging (i.e., visual cues as reminders), and creating novel opportunities (i.e., provision of antibacterial dispensers). In addition, the study assesses to what extent these perceptions are influenced by COVID-19 related psychological factors: risk perception; attitudes toward infection prevention and control (IPC) behaviors; perceived behavior control; institutional trust.Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among a student population. The survey was developed to evaluate the HEI's response strategy, and distinct perceptions of COVID-19 and related practices. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to estimate the effect of the psychological factors on the attitude toward different behavioral techniques.Results: Creating novel opportunities was perceived most positively from the students, secondly, informing the students through email updates about COVID-19, finally, reminders through visual cues. Institutional trust presented the largest positive effect on informing the students through email updates, while no effect was measured for reminders. Attitudes toward IPC behaviors showed the strongest effect on students' perceptions of new opportunities and reminders, whereas providing email updates about COVID-19 is less affected by pre-existing perceptions.Conclusions: A host of factors such as institutional trust, and perceptions concerning IPC measures and risk severity, influence students' perceptions of different behavior change techniques. This type of knowledge can contribute to understanding how perceptions can impact acceptance and adoption of specific preventive measures within a pandemic response. An assessment as such may result in more ethical and relevant future efforts.

Innovative Thinking Approach in Designing Teaching Materials for Ilm Badi Course: A Comprehensive Framework for Enhancing Students' Writing Skills

“…This analysis was conducted to elucidate existing issues by collecting empirical data (Durak & Ataizi, 2016;Jundi, 2023b;Pribadi, 2009). Students were analyzed to obtain their perceptions and responses (Chory et al, 2014;Jundi, 2020;Velde et al, 2021). The results show that while most students understand the learning objectives, some still need additional explanation.…”

Perceptions of teachers towards COVID appropriate behaviors for school children in coastal South India

“…Earlier studies among university students (Vande Velde et al, 2021 ; Mant et al, 2021 ) and respondents at different workplaces in China (Tan et al, 2020) showed willingness to adopt preventive behaviors. Among adults in Australia, 84.9% of respondents reported undertaking≥1 of the three hygiene-related behaviors, the most common being washing hands with soap and water.…”

“…The high implementation rate of Taiwanese teachers’ disease prevention measures came from their higher risk perceptions (Tang et al, 2021 ). Preventive behavior and risk perceptions have been studied in various populations, namely in Turkish health care workers (Arslanca et al, 2021 ), university students (Vande Velde et al, 2021 ; Mant et al, 2021 ), and Australian adults (Seale et al, 2020 ). The COVID 19 snapshot monitoring (COSMO) study demonstrated differences in the risk perception, knowledge, and protective behavior regarding COVID 19 based on the education levels of German men and women (Rattay et al, 2021 ).…”