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Purpose: The past decades have been marked by significant changes in the way we teach, learn, and work. Technological advancements, economic crises, unexpected events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and the increasing popularity of online education are only a few factors that led to the increasing preference for remote work and education. This generated the need for upskilling educators and remote workers and managers, as working and teaching in remote and hybrid contexts requires numerous skills from diverse fields, which significantly differ from the skills specific to the profession itself. In this context, development of a certification scheme for remote educators, workers, and managers represents a pertinent need. Study design/methodology/approach: This paper comprises the scientific process of identifying the skill gap of remote educators, workers, and managers, followed by the methodological aspects of developing the training programme. Furthermore, the article presents the result of the training programme, followed by consideration of the importance of certification as the final achievement of the training programme. Findings: The methodology proposed enabled conception of a comprehensive and well-adapted set of courses, each designed respecting the particularities of the trainees’ profile (learner persona). Originality/value: The programme is part of the EU co-founded project VirtualEDU (“Upskilling and certification scheme for virtual educators”, project number 2022-1-RO01-KA220-HED-000086331).

Purpose: The purpose of the research was to identify a feasible way to support the ethical use of AI in universities based on identifying how the AI software application ChatGPT is used in education at higher education institutions and with students in different majors. Study design/methodology/approach: The research methodology consisted of the following stages: (1) a survey based on a questionnaire designed considering the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework to collect students’ opinions on the use of AI ChatGPT; (2) The results of the survey were used to design the materials of the AI Transmedia Campaign, but also to identify the best distribution channels of them; (3) After implementing the AI Transmedia Campaign, a feedback survey was developed, ascertaining the effectiveness of the approach to create an ethical behaviour towards the AI software application in general, and on AI ChatGPT, in particular. Findings: Research shows a gap in regulating the ethical use of AI applications in higher education. Thus, the AI Transmedia Campaign has been well received and appreciated by all categories of students. Originality/value: The research is international and was carried out in higher education institutions in Romania, Greece, and Slovenia (the size of the research sample, 2942, proves the scope of the study). The research results have demonstrated and characterised the students’ behaviour (the cognitive response and the intention to use) towards the use of AI ChatGPT and the utility of the AI Transmedia Campaign realised in the context of the implementation of the RespectNET project (2021-1-IT02-KA220-HED-000027578, https://respectnet.eu/).

AbstractThis article examines the challenges and solutions associated with protecting railway workers from the negative effects of exposure to diesel emissions and dangerous dust emissions during tunnel maintenance works. A major difficulty in this matter is the increased risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases for railway workers due to exposure to diesel and gasoline-powered vehicles and dangerous dust emissions, which is further compounded in enclosed spaces such as tunnels. The article analyses the feasibility of renouncing the currently imposed use of ventilation systems during certain railway maintenance work in Germany while still ensuring occupational safety of the employees. The research methodology involves a comprehensive investigation of the applicable national legislation and limit values for dangerous carcinogenic chemicals. The hypothesis is then validated by interpreting the measured values for elementary carbon and for the gases CO, CO2, NO and NO2 during a pilot project conducted in 2022. The findings indicate that it is theoretically possible to forego the technical ventilation system in certain cases of railway maintenance, such as cleaning and flushing a railway drainage located in a tunnel, without jeopardising the occupational safety of employees if an alternative and less expensive fallback measure (face masks for employees) is implemented. The implications of these findings for railway workers and rail maintenance projects are discussed. In the conclusion of the article, recommendations for conducting additional research and improving the current understanding of the topic are provided.

Business firms and the public have encountered massive consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has become the most significant challenge and influenced all communities. This research study focuses on exploring the relationship between COVID-19 knowledge, social distancing, individuals' attitudes toward social media use, and practices of using social media amid the COVID-19 crisis. This study examines how attitudes toward social media use mediate the linkage between COVID-19 knowledge, social distancing, and practices for social media use. This survey uses a non-probability convenience sampling approach to collect samples and recruit willing respondents with their consent for data collection. This study recorded the feedback from 348 participants who encountered the indirect/direct effects of nationwide lockdowns, restrictions on social gatherings, and COVID-19 infection. The findings validate the proposed hypotheses for their direct effects and indicate significant β-values, t-statistics, and the p-values at p

The new identified virus COVID-19 has become one of the most contagious diseases in human history. The ongoing coronavirus has created severe threats to global mental health, which have resulted in crisis management challenges and international concerns related to health issues. As of September 9, 2021, there were over 223.4 million patients with COVID-19, including 4.6 million deaths and over 200 million recovered patients reported worldwide, which has made the COVID-19 outbreak one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. The aggressive public health implementations endorsed various precautionary safety and preventive strategies to suppress and minimize COVID-19 disease transmission. The second, third, and fourth waves of COVID-19 continue to pose global challenges to crisis management, as its evolution and implications are still unfolding. This study posits that examining the strategic ripostes and pandemic experiences sheds light on combatting this global emergency. This study recommends two model strategies that help reduce the adverse effects of the pandemic on the immune systems of the general population. This present paper recommends NPI interventions (non-pharmaceutical intervention) to combine various measures, such as the suppression strategy (lockdown and restrictions) and mitigation model to decrease the burden on health systems. The current COVID-19 health crisis has influenced all vital economic sectors and developed crisis management problems. The global supply of vaccines is still not sufficient to manage this global health emergency. In this crisis, NPIs are helpful to manage the spillover impacts of the pandemic. It articulates the prominence of resilience and economic and strategic agility to resume economic activities and resolve healthcare issues. This study primarily focuses on the role of social media to tackle challenges and crises posed by COVID-19 on economies, business activities, healthcare burdens, and government support for societies to resume businesses, and implications for global economic and healthcare provision disruptions. This study suggests that intervention strategies can control the rapid spread of COVID-19 with hands-on crisis management measures, and the healthcare system will resume normal conditions quickly. Global economies will revitalize scientific contributions and collaborations, including social science and business industries, through government support.

Due to the growing pressures on the educational area to provide young people with the knowledge and skills needed to live and work in a constantly changing society and the technologies and trades that today do not exist, the model of learning organization has been extended to schools, as an attempt to re-conceptualize them from organizations that are traditionally linked to the learning and knowledge process to organizations that are capable of responding with efficiency to uncertain and dynamic environments. The purpose of this paper is to identify the state of affairs in the Romanian educational system (pre-university level) in order to provide a starting point for the implementation of the ‘school as a learning organization’ concept and model. The approach is theoretical, using desk research of regulations and data regarding the public expenditure in education, per capita funding, number of pupils enrolled, PISA results and correlations between the action-oriented dimensions (including their key characteristics/elements) of the model proposed by Kools & Stoll (2017) and the performance indicators (including descriptors) that are used at the Romanian national level. Results show that, between 2009 and 2018, school organizations were under increasing pressure and the implementation of this concept and model at system level could be an opportunity to focus on students from the organizational side, having the determined correlations as a foundation.

Intercultural education is specific to the multicultural environment in Europe. The European focus on intercultural education is reflected in the documents, reports and measures taken through various financially supported projects. This article presents a research on the characterization of entrepreneurial potential in the case of an intercultural group of Romanian and Serbian trainees who became the target of a cross-border project between Romania and Serbia. The project, of which the designed Creative Entrepreneurship Training Program is part of, is entitled ‘InclusiveArt – Access to Culture for Disadvantaged Children and Youth.’ It implies a dynamic partnership formed by two NGOs (the Intercultural Institute Timisoara and ‘Nevo Parudimos,’ from Resita), one local public authority (the city of Zrenjanin) and one public cultural institution (the Centre for Fine and Applied Arts Terra, Kikinda). The proposed Creative Entrepreneurship Training Program (created in English) plans to help young potential entrepreneurs from the Banat Area in order to develop disadvantaged communities, by establishing commercially viable (self-sustaining) projects/businesses, based on a creative idea, as well as through the provision of a six-day training course for a group of 40 people aged 18 to 35. The training is delivered by a team of academics and training professionals from the Politehnica University Timisoara and the Intercultural Institute Timisoara, both from Romania. The proposed intercultural education program associated with the project implementation aims to the development of entrepreneurship competencies of young people that will be active in creative industries. The potential entrepreneurship characterization considered entrepreneurial traits, such as concerns, motivations, aptitudes and attitudes, as a result of data processing from a self-assessment test. The research results and conclusions support the definition of the structure, content and the didactic strategy adopted for the intercultural education program implementation.

The paper aims to present a scientific approach to the creation, testing and validation of a model for performance measurement for university-industry collaboration (UIC). The main idea of the design process is to capitalize on existing success factors, facilitators and opportunities (motivation factors, knowledge transfer channels and identified benefits) and to diminish or avoid potential threats and barriers that might interfere with such collaborations. The main purpose of the applied methodology is to identify solutions and measures to overcome the disadvantages, conflicts or risk issues and to facilitate the open innovation of industrial companies and universities. The methodology adopted was differentiated by two perspectives: (1) a business model reflecting the university perspective along with an inventory of key performance indicators (KPIs); (2) a performance measurement model (including performance criteria and indicators) and an associated methodology (assimilated to an audit) that could help companies increase collaboration with universities in the context of open innovation. In addition, in order to operationalize the proposed model (facilitating practical implementation), an Excel tool has been created to help identifying potential sources of innovation. The main contributions of the research concern the expansion of UICs knowledge to enhance open innovation and to define an effective performance measurement model and instrument (tested and validated by a case study) for companies.

Today organizations are becoming increasingly more aware of the importance of knowledge, as a consequence due to the changing environment and the ongoing process of globalization. Knowledge is the most valuable asset that an organization can have, because it is through him that opens horizons and make your way. Companies using knowledge as a key resource (the raw material from which the financial results are obtained arises and develops) are considered successful companies. The aim of the paper is to to see the impact of relational capital on competitiveness of the organization of SMEs that operating in the field of constructions. Considering this, it was developed a case study that utilises a pragmatic and unique, holistic and exploratory approach.

During the last years, scientists and practitioners have attempted to define and implement the feasible models of building and nurturing e-learning communities in order to continuously activate group dynamics, gain highly interactive learning experiences, and significantly enhance their sense of community. The main objective of this paper is to identify a model for the sense of community behaviour attributes description. The article's sections are: (1) introduction, (2) description of the conceptual model, (3) brief presentation of ECQA, and (4) research on the sense of e-learning communities of ECQA. In the final sectioner, general conclusions and recommendations for future research are presented.

In order to comply with the principles of development set by the European Union (EU) within Europe 2020 Strategy, the European society, as well as the Romanian society must become sustainable. The sustainability should be the guideline of development for countries, regions, corporations, small and medium enterprises, and citizens. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the sustainable development of companies, and the decision making in view to socially responsible and sustainable investments. The aim of the study was achieved by conducting an analysis of the perceptions of 100 companies from Romania regarding sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and socio-responsible investments. The analysis resulted in a ranking of the domains toward which companies have directed the socio-responsible and sustainable investments. The following research methods were used in order to achieve the goal of the paper: quantitative and qualitative methods, including the monographic or descriptive method, the analysis and synthesis method, statistical research methods, including grouping, comparison, and the correlation analysis. Calculation and data processing were carried out by using Microsoft Excel.T