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The technology era has caused many changes in the reading habits of students, starting in 2011. However, the universities were not prepared for the enormous challenges they faced with the Pandemic, in late 2019 and early 2020. The pandemic has accelerated the habits of students toward digital resources and the use of more and more electronic materials. Facing this phenomenon, accelerated by the effects of Covid-19, the universities have to face the necessity of the adaptation of teaching methods which meant the use of digital materials. The article analyses the change in reading habits and the teaching methods in the Albanian and Kosovan context, showing how the universities in the Republic of Albania and Kosovo have been affected by these changes, embracing approaches to information technology. For this purpose, we have analyzed the changes in reading habits in different public and private universities in Albania and Kosovo. A tested questionnaire has been spread to 672 students in both countries, in different programs and different years of studies. The article shows that under the influence of globalization processes and the development of information technology, reading habits are changing at a frenetic speed, weakening hard copy reading and increasing electronic and that under the Pandemic Covid-19 universities changed the ways of offering teaching methods, accelerating the change of the reading habits of students and weakening the use of printed books as a tool for learning, as well as decreasing the time of reading for pleasure. A more dynamic world caused more focused universities and more rapid changes in the reading habits of the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Giving and receiving information about employee performance is something that happens every day within an organization. This process of assessment has a clear goal: to clarify the level of performance the employees have to achieve and the steps they have to undertake to achieve the performance standards. In a normal business environment and a positive organizational culture, they both share their views and perceptions without any barriers and try to do that positively, not threatening, irritating, or judging each on their views. Our article analyses the use of the sandwich feedback technique in public administration as one of the sectors where organizational culture and climate differ from those of the business environment and where the spread of messages is more complicated. Connected to this, we analysed if this technique is the most appropriate technique for communicators who want to transform the business environment and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this research is education during the coronavirus pandemic in Southeastern European countries (Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia). It encompasses elementary education, high schools and higher education. The aim of the research is multiple. With it, we want to present methods of distance learning during the pandemics in the above mentioned countries, challenges and advantages that have emerged, as well as potential solutions for removing faults. This is primarily qualitative research relying on several methods. We conducted interviews to understand the experiences of different stakeholders participating in the education process. This research also relies on quantitative data, i.e. researches doing by The University of Prishtina, Pedagogical Institute of Kosovo, as well as results of opinion polls and research conducted by Student Parliament and Senate of the University of Sarajevo. Their research was conducted throughout the academic year 2020/2021. Also, we compiled different texts from media, as well as statements from different stakeholders. Our method is primarily inductive - because in some cases general ideas and conclusions about distance learning in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina are based on different individual examples. Information in this research in relation to the section on North Macedonia is mainly based on three sources: Data from the website of Ministry for Education and Science of the Republic of North Macedonia; Morphosis Foundation Survey from September 2020 entitled Status and Challenges for Managing Online Teaching in Primary School; and Findings from the research with directors, teachers, and parents: Experience and Attitudes about Distance Learning, a document prepared by Reactor. Our key conclusion is that Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia were not an exception regarding to the problems that arose during the pandemic in terms of education, such as online teaching, adapting students to new learning conditions, training of teachers for teaching in extraordinary and new circumstances, assessment criteria, etc. However, the situation has also brought opportunities to re-think existing education models and to find new solutions at schools and universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of this article presents communication challenges and the role of the media in constructing an image of migrants and refugees as "the others" in our societies today. The article analyses the migrant situation in South-Eastern Europe, specifically in migration crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina that has been going on since 2018. The aim is to present the basic aspects of this issue and offer answers to key questions - who are migrants and refugees, what's their own identity, from which countries do they come, how do they cross the border, where do they go, what is the state's attitude towards them, what forms and channels of communication the state and other stakeholders use toward them, who cares for them, what do they preserve from their national, cultural and/or language identities and how do they construct self-identity and confront with the "hosting identities", who donates funds for migration management and how they are managed? Also, a special focus of the research will be on the human rights of migrants and refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is the subject of various discussions - both within the country itself and among various humanitarian, governmental and non-governmental international organizations in the EU and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. Based on similar studies, this research work aims to investigate the perception of students and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of learning about the importance of soft skills for their education and employment since these skills are increasingly sought-after by potential employers. Methods. The Kendall Tau b test and Mann Whitney U test have been applied to show the relationship between soft skills and job preparedness for students. This study investigates a selection of 100 students from a private HEI (UBT College) and 100 students from a public HEI (University "Haxhi Zeka"), both in Kosovo. A total of 200 valid responses were collected from July to September 2020. Goldsmith inventory for 15 soft skills has been distributed as a questionnaire has been distributed to the students of these universities. Results and conclusion. The research results indicate that in soft skills development of the UBT College students is significantly higher than the soft skills developed of the University "Haxhi Zeka" students. The findings also show that most of the students believe that their actual soft skills were at a less than the desired level. Practical application. This research implicates the Higher Education Institutions to consider the soft skills as an important tool for enhancing graduates' employability. The results indicate the need to reconsider the curriculum by embedding soft skills on it. The students' perception on soft skills is a contribution not only for the universities considered in this research but also for all graduates in HEIs in Kosovo, since the curriculum does not change much among universities. According to Eurostat the unemployment youth rate in Kosovo is about 55.4% and for this reason the results will help the HEIs to rethink about their students' future employment opportunities. Originality. This is the only study done in Kosovo about graduates' soft skills and employment and it provides information about a concerning problem in the country. This paper suggests initiatives to upgrade students' soft skills and to improve their perspective on their future employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hero of the Albanian Frontier Warriors' Songs is a hero of the great deeds such as the one in the French Chansons de geste, which is a source of inspiration for the notion of deeds / gestures. However, the heroic effect of the deeds differs from the cultural and identity extent, from the genre, the legendary and historical context. Muji and Halili are epic heroes of Albanian Frontier Warriors songs. They act independently or in accordance with other epic heroes, which usually are thirty. Their heroic acts vary from the French epic heroes. They differ even from Roland, because they are primarily motivated by the protection of individuals' possessions and lives and as heroic, epic and erotic adventures, fights of honour, pride, and local identity. Contrary to them, Roland gets more of the size of the community hero, distinguished by protecting cultural and identity norms of a broader character as well as doctrinal. This paper intends to develop a comparative analysis of Albanian Frontier Warriors' Songs and French Chansons de geste, above all between the songs of the legendary discourse in Albanian early epic literature and the Roland's song. The aim is to create a perspective between these two heroisms of Albanian and French oral epic, without denying the influence of the song and its hero on creating identity lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neither the romantic identity nor its spirit belongs to the romanticism itself. They aroused in earlier movements of cultural, religious, and political character. At the cultural level, the birth of romanticism was preceded by great intellectual movements: Humanism and Renaissance; at the social and political level, the powerful repercussions of the French and American revolution preceded the "awakening and growing of the idea of solidarity between individuals of one race, one language and one nation". At the ecclesiastical level, however, such were reformation and counter-reformation. These premises represent the forerunner identities of romanticism. They provoke its birth and determine its character. Only above them, romanticism revived the myth of common culture, paved the way for the formation of national languages, and institutionalized the awareness of the national state. This paper deals with this everlasting relationship between the romanticism and forerunner identities. The paper analyses the presence of the aesthetical premises in writing history in humanism and the transformation of this archetype in Romanticism. We also analyse the way how the Renaissance futures were transformed into a principle for history recognition and recreation of the myth in Romanticism. Closely, we will analyse the "identities" from which the romantic myth was born. The paper also discusses the idea how pre-existing ideologies of Humanism, Medieval Period, and how philobiblistic or pre-romantic authors influenced the creation of a romantic awareness and influenced the birth of the romantic myth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the role of the leaders of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) in a Developing Countries' Business Environment (DCBE). The research aims to underline the rapid transformation of this environment in transitional countries like Kosovo and other Balkan countries and the readiness of SME's to adapt themselves in a new market economy. Again, the research aims to analyze whether the changing Business Environment has determined the transformation of the leadership skills and strategies of doing business and whether they have accepted the new role inside the SME's and in a market. The SME leadership is facing with two challenging situations: the transition of the economy from state controlled system to open market economy, and the transformation of the organizational communication structure to a more active one. The research aims to identify the leaders' forms and methods of communication in medium enterprises in transitional countries and to identify transformational leaders. The research objective is to have an overlook on leaders' profile in medium enterprises in Kosovo. The research shows a clear picture about fundamental communication characteristics of leaders in SME's and the possibilities of the transformation of the leaders from leading managers to transformational leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]