Final Year Undergraduate Students’ Representation of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Lockdown: Adaptability and Responsibility

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a new reality worldwide and reconfigured identities, behaviors and interests. It has called for heroic representations and highlighted the role of social media in efficient communication. All of the above considered, the current article focuses on the representation of the COVID-19 pandemic generated by the undergraduate students enrolled in the Social Work study program in Transilvania University of Brașov (Romania) by indicating the main connotations of the pandemic and drawing a comparison between students’ representation and the early representations of the same pandemic produced by specialized literature on the topic. The thematic analysis of the essays produced by students highlights their frustration with the havoc brought about by the pandemic to their graduation plans and with the lack of interaction with colleagues and academic staff, as well as their gratitude for the efforts undertaken by their professors to make online education functional, their availability to adapt and support the restrictive measures imposed by authorities, and their optimism about the evolution of the pandemic. The content analysis of 60 bibliographic sources on the topic of COVID-19, indicated by the Anelis+ network as the most relevant in the spring of 2020, highlights a thematic convergence between the aforementioned sources and students’ representation of COVID-19, and thus their responsible attitude toward meeting the challenges of the pandemic.

Hybrid Events as a Sustainable Educational Approach for Higher Education

“…Hybrid events can meet the requirements of different fields of study, from socio-human to engineering. Hybrid events satisfy both the appetite of contemporary students to use the Internet [52][53][54] and their need for direct interaction with colleagues and teachers [55]. As shown by the results of a previous research we carried out, this need for interaction was intensely felt by students, in this case by students from Social Work in Bras , ov during the COVID-19 lockdown period [55].…”

Psychological and Emotional Effects of Digital Technology on Digitods (14–18 Years): A Systematic Review

“…Further studies are encouraged to assess the inconsistencies among these results. As the evidence in this review is compelling, it is important to emphasize the detrimental outcomes that amplified technology use has on the development of adolescents during this vulnerable phase of life (Borcoman and Sorea, 2022 ; Sokugawa, 2022 ). Therefore, it is important that further research on a larger scale, continues to assess any present synergistic relationships among these variables, in order to better advice public health initiatives dealing with technology use by children.…”

The Potential for Sustainable Local Development through Digital Communication and Digitization of Intangible Cultural Heritage Resources in Făgăraș Land, Romania

“…Also, in analyzing the visual data (photographs with ICH-related content) we considered the same categories. The COVID-19 pandemic occurred between 2019 and 2023, and it reshaped identities, behaviors, identities and interests [15] all over the world. Furthermore, the pandemic highlighted the importance of digital communication in general, and of social media in particular.…”

“…The Internet is a fundamental tool for such an approach that includes a significant cultural branding component. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the role of the Internet and digital communication in strengthening community belonging [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”