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This paper aims to investigate technostress and information and communication technology (ICT) usage among librarians in Nigerian universities.

Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. Questionnaire was used for data collection. The data generated were analyzed using mean, frequency count and percentage.

A moderate extent of psychological, emotional and physical technostress was found among the librarians. The findings further revealed that technostress among the librarians could be reduced through organizational and technical support and the involvement of librarians in the ICT implementation process. The hypotheses tested revealed that there was a significant relationship between technostress and ICT usage among the librarians; female librarians exhibit a higher extent of technostress than male librarians, and there is no difference in the extent of ICT usage between male and female librarians in Nigerian universities.

Librarians cannot effectively use ICTs if they exhibit technostress.

The work is a creative attempt to know the difference in the extent of technostress and ICT usage among male and female librarians in Nigerian universities.

We examined the role of technology in employment and work for people with disabilities (PWD). We intended to identify publication trends, key terms, research areas and potential gaps in the topic.

We scrutinized relevant articles from two major databases through bibliometric and systematic review analyses. The bibliometric data involved 256 articles analysed through the VOSviewer software to produce publication trends and network maps. We then scanned article abstracts and selected 114 articles for thematic analysis using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline.

The findings revealed a dominance of authors from Western and European countries, particularly the United States of America. Three themes emerged as the crucial factors shaping technology utilization for PWD employment and workplace inclusion. These were identified as individual, environmental and societal, which shed light on the multifaceted influences surrounding PWD’s technology empowerment.

The hybrid review approach enables a thorough examination of the published work. Our study proposes a conceptual model for PWD employment and workplace inclusion. Founded on the theories of Work Adjustment, Human–Computer Interaction and the Social Model of Disability. The model provides a clear visualization to guide further research and relevant initiatives in this area.

The implementation of smart maintenance (SM) has greatly benefited facility managers, construction project managers and other stakeholders within the built environment. Unfortunately, its actualization for stakeholders in the built environment in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era remains a challenge. To reduce the challenge, this study aims at conducting a bibliometric analysis to unearth the critical success factors supporting SM implementation. The future direction and practice of SM in the construction industry were also explored.

A bibliometric approach was adopted for reviewing articles extracted from the Scopus database. Keywords such as (“smart maintenance“) OR (“intelligent maintenance”) OR (“technological maintenance”) OR (“automated maintenance”) OR (“computerized maintenance”) were used to extract articles from the Scopus database. The studies were restricted between 2006 and 2021 to capture the 4IR era. The initial extracted papers were 1,048; however, 288 papers were selected and analysed using VOSviewer software.

The findings revealed that the critical success factors supporting the implementation of SM in the 4IR era are collaboration, digital twin design, energy management system and decentralized data management system. Regarding the future practice of SM in the 4IR era, it was also revealed that SM is possible to evolve into maintenance 4.0. This will support the autonomous maintenance of infrastructures in the built environment.

The use of a single database contributed to the limitation of the findings from this study.

Despite the limitations, the findings of this study contributed to practice and research by providing stakeholders in the built environment with the direction of SM practice.

Stakeholders in the built environment have clamoured to implement SM in the 4IR era. This study provided the critical success factors for adopting SM, guaranteeing the 4IR era. It also provides the research trends and direction of SM practice.

Programming education is being rapidly transformed by generative AI tools and educators must determine how best to support students in this context. This study aims to explore the experiences of programming educators and students to inform future education provision.

Twelve students and six members of faculty in a small technology-focused university were interviewed. Thematic analysis of the interview data was combined with data collected from a survey of 44 students at the same university. Self-determination theory was applied as an analytical framework.

Three themes were identified – bespoke learning, affect and support – that significantly impact motivation and learning outcomes in programming education. It was also found that students are already making extensive use of large language models (LLMs). LLMs can significantly improve learner autonomy and sense of competence by improving the options for bespoke learning; fostering emotions that are conducive to engendering and maintaining motivation; and inhibiting the negative affective states that discourage learning. However, current LLMs cannot adequately provide or replace social support, which is still a key factor in learner motivation.

Integrating the use of LLMs into curricula can improve learning motivation and outcomes. It can also free educators from certain tasks, leaving them with more time and capacity to focus their attention on developing social learning opportunities to further enhance learner motivation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to explore the relationship between motivation and LLM use in programming education.

Drawing on work from home (WFH), job demand-control and street-level bureaucracy literature streams, this paper specifically focuses on the emerging trend of WFH for public sector employees in a developing country context of Egypt.

The empirical sample comprises focus group discussions with a total of 40 public sector employees in Egypt. Thematic analysis was subsequently used on focus group discussion transcripts to bring out main themes linked to this topic.

Our findings show that employee (marginal discretion power, pharaonism, corruption), citizen (unfamiliarity with digital services) and country (lack of proper info-structure, overstaffing in the public sector)- level challenges hinder and/or slow down the potential for WFH in Egyptian public sector.

A major implication of our paper relates to highlighting the criticality of e-governance and WFH for public sector employees, as well as highlighting multilevel challenges associated with those. At the same time, socio-economic and political consequences of offering such options need to be considered in a country like Egypt where most public organisations are overstaffed, and those employees lack modern day employability skills. Hence, there needs to be an open debate in countries such as Egypt on the consequences of e-governance and WFH and whether it may facilitate delivering citizen services digitally. Also, high power distance culture plays a role in this context, and any change cannot be successful unless that specific aspect is confronted.

This study contributes to the emerging WFH literature by being one of the pioneering studies to offer a multilevel (micro, meso and macro) assessment of this phenomenon in the under-researched fragile developing country’s context.

Navigating the banking world may be overwhelming and intimidating for autistic people due to the generally poor accessibility of banks. Banks around the world are starting to improve the accessibility of their services and products to meet the needs of autistic customers better. However, no empirical research has explored autistic adults’ banking experiences and needs. This study aims to determine what banks can do to make banking more inclusive and accessible for autistic people through understanding the banking experiences of autistic adults living in Australia and identifying the factors that shape these experiences.

In total, 57 autistic adults aged 18–67 years (M_age = 33.00, SD_age = 11.03) and 29 caregivers of autistic adults aged 32–70 years (M_age = 52.24, SD_age = 7.88) completed an online survey about the banking experiences of the autistic adults. In addition, 14 of the 57 autistic adults were interviewed.

Almost all autistic participants had a bank account, and online banking was the preferred way of banking for most autistic adults. The factor most often raised by participants that influenced the banking experiences of autistic adults was supportive and helpful bank staff. Other identified factors included autistic adults’ lack of financial and banking knowledge and banks’ poor understanding of autism. The majority of autistic adults felt that banks could become more autism-friendly and provided suggestions.

Given that most autistic adults are likely to access financial products and services, banks must become more autism-friendly to cater to the diverse needs of autistic customers. Recommendations for how financial institutions can become more inclusive were provided.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first detailed examination of the banking experiences of autistic adults. Practical implications of the research were also provided.

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the cognitive aspects of spatial experiences of paediatric inpatients who receive long-term treatment in a healthcare setting in relation to the syntactic parameters of healthcare environment. It is aimed to investigate how the change in the child’s cognition caused by the environmental stress experienced by the child during his/her stay in the hospital is related to the physical parameters of the treatment space.

The methodology of the study is based on a correlational analysis to identify the cognitive and syntactic factors of the healthcare environment that contribute to changes in the perceptual processes of a sample group of thirty children. The study examined the relationships between the graph and isovist variables, and the cognitive parameters of paediatric inpatients. The two datasets were subjected to regression analyses in order to identify any significant findings, which allowed for a discussion of how the patients’ changing perceptual processes are influenced by the syntactic measures of the healthcare setting.

The study showed that a syntactically intelligible floor plan contributes significantly to reducing environmental stress among paediatric inpatients. The presence of shared spaces within the healthcare environment, where social interaction with peers is possible, emerges as a crucial factor influencing children’s spatial perception. Additionally, the visibility characteristics of shared spaces may also play a key role in enhancing children’s perceptions of safety.

The limitations of the study include the fact that the study was conducted in an oncology and haematology inpatient unit with challenging conditions in terms of the mobility potentials of the children, which might have affected their perceptual processes. A further limitation is that the sample size comprised only 30 children, and the spatial configuration of the healthcare environment was linear and not particularly complex.

By identifying the impact of spatial design on children’s well-being, the study informs the creation and improvement of healthcare environments. Enhanced understanding of factors like intelligible floor plans, shared spaces and isovist values can lead to more child-friendly facilities, potentially alleviating stress for young patients. Consequently, this research may contribute to improved healthcare outcomes, increased comfort for paediatric inpatients, and a more supportive environment for their families, fostering a holistic approach to paediatric care and positively influencing the overall quality of life for children undergoing long-term treatment.

This study contributes to the theoretical discourse on how the constrained physical conditions of a paediatric healthcare environment may influence the perceptual processes of paediatric inpatients. The results of this evidence-based study have the potential to inform the evaluation of design guidelines for healthcare settings, with the ultimate aim of enhancing therapeutic environments.

Technological disruption has transformed the traditional ways of doing business in the real estate sectors. As a result of the new business realities, technology has become an integral part of the real estate business. However, due to the significant barrier to the incorporation of the technology among modern real estate start-ups, there is a need to assess the adoption and willingness to use property management software.

The study employed an exploratory research design. The study adopts a total enumeration of real estate start-up firms in Lagos, Nigeria, to ensure true representations among the respondents and reduce sampling errors. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The study revealed that the majority of the respondents are aware of the identified property management software but tenant verification software recorded the highest level of awareness and usage. The finding also revealed that the association between the availability of staff competence, practicality of the software, ease of use, data ownership and copyright, financial resources, future-proof technology track, Internet connection, perceived benefits and productivity and branding are statistically significant in influencing the level of adoption among the respondents.

The researchers had initial challenges with the attitude of respondents to willingness and timely disbursement of information which was later resolved by explaining the significance for the study. The findings of the research will be useful and serve as an eye opener to practitioners, the conventional real estate surveying and valuation firms, to relevance of software technology in enhancing their operations and efficiency, while it can also boost the academic curriculum.

The knowledge about the adoption of property management software will equip real estate tech start-ups with the right information.

The paper is significant because the ultimate goal of this study is to document the empirical investigation on the level of adoption and application of emerging software among real estate tech start-ups in the Nigerian property market to facilitate the efficiency and delivery of property management services.

The purpose of this study is to examine the state of the literature on knowledge sharing in open source software (OSS) development communities by examining the existing research and identifying the knowledge gaps and opportunities that can inform areas for future research.

A systematic literature review was conducted of literature published between January 2011 and February 2023. A total of 24 papers were identified and reviewed.

The findings reveal that the literature on knowledge sharing in OSS development communities from developing countries are limited. Additionally, there exists a limited focus on the development of frameworks to support knowledge sharing in OSS communities. The transient nature of OSS development contributors’ results in knowledge loss; thus, knowledge retention needs further investigation.

This study only included papers whose titles, keywords or abstracts included the search keywords “knowledge sharing” and “Open Source Software”. While the keywords were carefully applied, when applying the search, it cannot be ruled that some relevant studies might have been missed. The study was also limited to conferences and journal papers published in English. Despite the limitations, the study provides a systematic review of knowledge sharing in OSS communities and presents findings that can be useful to researchers and practitioners interested in this area.

The study provides a systematic literature review of published papers and identifies themes and future research areas on knowledge sharing in OSS communities. Additionally, this review offers insights into future research avenues for theory, content and context on knowledge sharing in OSS development communities.

This study aims to explore computer-assisted language learning (CALL) activities to improve the English essay writing of Pakistani university students. It highlights the role of CALL in the language proficiency model cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), which can enable second language learners to engage in more critical thinking skills effectively. Furthermore, it aims to explore English language teachers’ experience about the use of CALL-based activities in English language classrooms or labs.

This study followed a pre-post study design to examine whether the structure of an essay and computer-based activities helped to improve English language proficiency among non-native speakers. This design is adopted to investigate the effects of CALL activities on students’ English essays. This study used data from 198 students and after this, four English teachers were interviewed to know their opinions and observations about these CALL-based activities and students’ essay writings. Pre- and post-test data was analysed in percentages and further examined through a t-test. The findings of teachers’ interviews were further analysed through Nvivo software to develop an understanding of research questions through significant themes.

The pre-test results confirmed that students’ language proficiency is underdeveloped and informal. Students needed help constructing introductory paragraphs with the reader’s hook, background information, three-point thesis statement and transitional hook. Whereas, post-test results showed that students’ English language proficiency in essay writing was found improved with the use of technological tools and CALL-based activities. Furthermore, it was observed that structure and teacher feedback in essay writing are vital for English proficiency.

This study benefits English language teachers, administrators, language policymakers and syllabus designers at colleges and universities. The debate over how to improve English language proficiency and academic achievement presents diverse challenges across several countries. Non-native speakers, at an undergraduate level, can significantly improve academically and become proficient in English essay writing with the help of structural guidelines and the use of educational technology. This article demonstrates a two-way process to improve an objective definition of English language development, which is conceivable if the technology is adopted.