Which Digital Tools dominate Secondary and Higher Education in Economics: Google, Microsoft or Zoom?

Background: Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, in many countries, higher, secondary and even primary education experienced the unannounced shift from traditional classroom lessons to distance teaching using different technologies. Objectives: The main objective of the research was to identify the most important digital tools applied by educators and students during the pandemic and evaluate their satisfaction with applying these tools in four countries; Croatia, Germany, Poland and Serbia. Methods/Approach: The questionnaires were sent via emails to educators and distributed through the classes to students using digital teaching platforms or emails. The answers were analysed by descriptive statistics. Results: Research showed that Google tools most commonly used by students and educators are; YouTube, Gmail, Google Translate, Google Maps and Google Drive. Microsoft digital tools most commonly used by educators and students in observed countries are; Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Other digital tools most commonly used by educators are Zoom and Moodle, while students mostly use Zoom and Kahoot. Moreover, this paper identifies the main reasons for educators\u27 insufficient use of digital tools. Conclusions: Google, Microsoft and Zoom dominate their specific domains: Google for networks, Microsoft for documents, and Zoom for online meetings

Can the Quality of Hospitality Services Play a Role in Sustainable Equestrian Tourism in Slovenia? Mediations, Effects, and Implications

This study investigates the relationship between the quality of hospitality services and sustainable equestrian tourism development in Slovenia. The focus will be on the relations between equestrian tourism motivations, hospitality services quality, overall service quality, equestrian tourists’ satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. The target population was equestrian tourists who stayed in one of 30 tourism farms in Slovenia and used both accommodation and food and beverage services. Face-to-face surveys with convenience sampling were used for the data collection. The results show that equestrian tourism motivations are positively associated with both hospitality services quality and the overall service quality in equestrian tourism. Moreover, the overall service quality in equestrian tourism is positively related to equestrian tourists’ satisfaction, while equestrian tourists’ satisfaction is positively related to behavioral intentions. In addition, accommodation service quality and food and beverage service quality both mediate the association between equestrian tourism motivation and overall satisfaction. The study provides both theoretical and practical implications. For one thing, it fills the research gaps present in the literature. In addition, it gives practical guidelines to farmers and tourism practitioners regarding equestrian tourism development as one of the popular areas of sustainable tourism development in rural settings