The effectiveness of covid-19 signs on a college campus

Warfield, Stacey Renee

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120403 Copy

Description

Title

The effectiveness of covid-19 signs on a college campus

Author(s)

Warfield, Stacey Renee

Issue Date

2023-04-24

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Kalantzis, Mary

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Cope, William

Committee Member(s)

• Dhillon, Pradeep
• You, Yu-ling

Department of Study

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ed.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Covid-19
• Sign
• Signage
• Higher Education
• Effectiveness

Language

eng

Abstract

COVID-19 is a virus that typically spreads between individuals through close contact and fluid from sneezing, coughing, and speaking. As COVID-19 continued to spread within the United States, higher education institutions were tasked with promoting the practice of nonpharmaceutical interventions using signs. The Health Belief Model was selected for this study to explore COVID-19 preventative health-related behaviors resulting from the COVID-19 signs. This study focused on COVID-19 signs at a large urban and suburban community college located in a major United States city in Pennsylvania. The purpose of this study was to understand how this institution's COVID-19 signs influenced and promoted the practice of nonpharmaceutical interventions among the employee population. A mixed method explanatory sequential study was conducted using surveys, focus groups, and multimodal social semiotic analysis. The results found that certain COVID-19 signs were more effective than others and there were connections between one's health belief about this virus and sign adherence. The qualitative results found that COVID-19 signs were not only effective reminders but were also identified as effective for corrective actions for non-compliant behaviors. The overall conclusions found that the visual design of the signs impacted the sign's effectiveness; signs were effective in correcting non-compliant behaviors through non-verbal cues; one's health beliefs about COVID-19 affected the practice of nonpharmaceutical interventions, and it was found that static and digital signs are effective based on their use case and for supplementing one another.

Graduation Semester

2023-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120403

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Stacey Renee Warfield

Owning Collections