This thesis has increased our knowledge of the needs of homeless people using shelter facilities in the Netherlands and of the needs and wishes of people living in persistent poverty. It provides guidance for policy and further professionalization and quality improvements to the services and support provided to homeless people and people living in persistent poverty. The results underscore the importance of broad and integrated policy measures to strengthen socioeconomic security, and emphasize the need for including the views of clients and experts by experience in the development of policy. Our research also stresses the need for services to employ peer workers to support homeless people and people living in persistent poverty and to apply a more human-to-human approach.
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In the Southern part of Norway, many secondary school pupils drop out due to lack of motivation. Our project aims to enhance pupils’ desire to learn and to complete their education. Here, we investigate possible change in motivation after implementation of an intervention. We specifically focus on pupils’ motivation for their subject, in this study: Norwegian. Meta-cognitive abilities and self-regulated learning have a positive effect on motivation. Therefore, we developed a five-step intervention to strengthen pupils’ self-regulated learning and meta-cognitive abilities. In the intervention, pupils define a) what prevents them from being motivated for learning and b) how they can overcome possible obstacles hindering their learning. Additionally, they discuss this with their peers and formulate their own learning approach to the subject at hand, thus strengthening their sense of autonomy and relatedness. Pupils’ motivation was measured at three time points across the school year (N=101, T1; N=76, T2; N=105, T3). MANOVA revealed that, over the course of the year, pupils became less intrinsically and more extrinsically motivated towards their subject, thus contradicting our expectations and previous findings. Although we aimed to target pupils’ intrinsic motivation, the implementation of our study may also have reduced pupils’ sense of autonomy, thus strengthening their external motivation and moving away from more student-centered learning.
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Feelings of disconnectedness and social isolation among older adults are increasingly recognised as important challenges of our times. Interestingly, nature interaction can stimulate social connectedness and enhance perceived social support, indicating that nature can contribute to social wellbeing. However, nature may not always be around or accessible for older adults. In such cases, digital nature could provide an alternative means for enjoying nature's benefits. To identify limitations and restrictions that older adults experience with respect to nature interaction, and to explore preferences with respect to digital nature and their potential for influencing social wellbeing, two studies are reported: a qualitative study comprising focus groups with Dutch care centre residents (N = 26) and a subsequent quantitative study (N = 200) testing effects of digital landscapes on social wellbeing measures. Findings from the focus groups indicate that opportunities for nature interaction and preferences for digital nature vary with mobility restrictions, whereas findings from the quantitative study testify to the potential of digital nature for enhancing social wellbeing and related emotions. These findings extend research on how (digital) nature interventions can contribute to the social wellbeing of older adults and pinpoint essential nature characteristics important for doing so.
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this thesis was simply a research done to see how the manor amsterdam can use technologies to enhance its guest eperience. Surveys and intervews were conducted to see what the guest preferences were after which an implementation process was also drawn up.
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Loneliness and social isolation are increasingly recognized as important challenges of our times. Inspired by research hinting at beneficial effects of interacting with nature on social connectedness and opportunities provided by ambient technology to simulate nature in a rich and engaging manner, this study explored to what extent digital nature projections can stimulate social aspirations and related emotions. To this end, participants (N = 96) were asked to watch, individually or in pairs, digital nature projections consisting of animated scenes which were either dense or spacious and depicting either wild or tended nature. Subsequently, they filled out a questionnaire comprising measures for social aspirations, awe and fascination. Results show that spacious scenes elicited significantly higher social aspiration and awe scores, especially when watching alone. Design implications are discussed for making digital nature accessible for people with limited access to real nature.
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A key concept within 21st-century skills is knowing how to acquire new knowledge and skills. Metacognition is the knowledge a person has of their own learning combined with the skills to apply that knowledge to enable more efficient and effective learning. Game-based learning can stimulate motivation as well as learning, but while various reviews have pointed out the opportunity for digital games to promote metacognition, little is known about how games can be designed to accomplish this. If we want learners to become better at learning with games, we need to investigate how metacognition can be supported and trained through game-based learning.Previous research has identified generic principles for designing metacognitive training, while only a few principles specific to game-based learning have been suggested. We designed the mobile game MeCo based on these design principles. MeCo was inspired by the mobile game Reigns and replicates its mechanic of exploring a dynamically branching story through choice-making by swiping cards left or right. However, in MeCo the objective is to learn as much as possible about different planets and their inhabitants, by planning, performing, and evaluating space exploration missions. Two metacognitive interventions were added to promote the transfer of metacognition to real-world learning situations: metacognitive question prompts and metacognitive feedback.A preliminary evaluation of the game was conducted using questionnaires and focus groups. Players found the game motivating enough to engage with the story and to be willing to play the game in their free time. Furthermore, they found that their in-game choices mattered, although more linear parts were preferred over more dynamically branching parts of the game. However, the humour in the narrative interfered with the more serious nature of metacognitive questions, resulting in players not taking the questions seriously enough to have an impact on metacognitive awareness. The implications for designing motivating digital games to enhance metacognition are discussed.
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Primary anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention programs effectively reduce ACL injury risk in the short term. Despite these programs, ACL injury incidence is still high, making it imperative to continue to improve cur- rent prevention strategies. A potential limitation of current ACL injury prevention training may be a deficit in the transfer of conscious, optimal movement strategies rehearsed during training sessions to automatic movements required for athletic activities and unanticipated events on the field. Instructional strategies with an internal focus of attention have traditionally been utilized, but may not be optimal for the acquisition of the control of complex motor skills required for sports. Conversely, external-focus instructional strategies may enhance skill acquisition more efficiently and increase the transfer of improved motor skills to sports activities. The current article will present in- sights gained from the motor-learning domain that may enhance neuromuscular training programs via improved skill development and increased reten- tion and transfer to sports activities, which may reduce ACL injury incidence in the long term.
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The importance of leadership is increasingly recognized in relation to digital transformation. Therefore, middle management and top management must have the competencies required to lead such a transformation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the digital leader competencies as set out by the European e-competence framework (e-CF) and the digital transformation of organizations. Also, the relationship between digital leadership competency (DLC) and IT capability is examined. An empirical investigation is presented based on a sample of 433 respondents, analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results strongly support our hypotheses. DLC has a strong impact on organizational digital transformation. A post-hoc analysis showed this is predominantly the case for the e-CF competencies of business plan development, architecture design, and innovating while business change management and governance do not seem to affect organizational digital transformation. This is the first empirical study to conceptualize, operationalize and validate the concept of DLC, based on the e-competence framework, and its impact on digital transformation. These findings have significant implications for researchers and practitioners working on the transformation toward a digital organization.
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Background: Adequate self-management skills are of great importance for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to reduce the impact of COPD exacerbations. Using mobile health (mHealth) to support exacerbation-related self-management could be promising in engaging patients in their own health and changing health behaviors. However, there is limited knowledge on how to design mHealth interventions that are effective, meet the needs of end users, and are perceived as useful. By following an iterative user-centered design (UCD) process, an evidence-driven and usable mHealth intervention was developed to enhance exacerbation-related self-management in patients with COPD. Objective: This study aimed to describe in detail the full UCD and development process of an evidence-driven and usable mHealth intervention to enhance exacerbation-related self-management in patients with COPD. Methods: The UCD process consisted of four iterative phases: (1) background analysis and design conceptualization, (2) alpha usability testing, (3) iterative software development, and (4) field usability testing. Patients with COPD, health care providers, COPD experts, designers, software developers, and a behavioral scientist were involved throughout the design and development process. The intervention was developed using the behavior change wheel (BCW), a theoretically based approach for designing behavior change interventions, and logic modeling was used to map out the potential working mechanism of the intervention. Furthermore, the principles of design thinking were used for the creative design of the intervention. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used throughout the design and development process. Results: The background analysis and design conceptualization phase resulted in final guiding principles for the intervention, a logic model to underpin the working mechanism of the intervention, and design requirements. Usability requirements were obtained from the usability testing phases. The iterative software development resulted in an evidence-driven and usable mHealth intervention—Copilot, a mobile app consisting of a symptom-monitoring module, and a personalized COPD action plan. Conclusions: By following a UCD process, an mHealth intervention was developed that meets the needs and preferences of patients with COPD, is likely to be used by patients with COPD, and has a high potential to be effective in reducing exacerbation impact. This extensive report of the intervention development process contributes to more transparency in the development of complex interventions in health care and can be used by researchers and designers as guidance for the development of future mHealth interventions.
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