In this pilot study, eight faculty members participated in at least one online Open Space Technology participatory meeting and provided feedback. Each meeting had a predetermined central theme. Participants chose one or more sub-topics to discuss in a small group followed by a whole group recap. Results indicated that faculty members reported the…

Despite the high expectation of virtual learning environments (VLEs) to accelerate meaningful educational innovations for more interactive learning and teaching, resistance to changes exists, and innovations are fading over time. How to promote widespread and steady adoption of VLE enabled innovations remains an open question. This study uses…

During attempts to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic in China, higher education programs shifted their traditional educational models to online models. This paper aimed to explore how Chinese universities organized online teaching and learning during the pandemic. It investigated the factors affecting the implementation of online teaching…

Field teaching is an essential component of botany and ecology; however, field classes were among the most likely to be cancelled during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual alternatives that could be used to meet learning outcomes for botany (e.g. plant identification, surveying skills development) were largely unavailable at this…

In response to the rapidly changing realities of higher education, educators need to reconceptualise how they think about learning spaces. This paper examines how the concept of connected learning space may better represent the learning experiences of postgraduate students than paradigms of physical and/or virtual space. Eleven focus groups,…

The sudden shift during the COVID-19 lockdown from face-to-face to online teaching clearly impacted degree programmes in Geology characterized by a substantial practical teaching methodology. This study analyses the suitability of online teaching in the degree at Geology of the University of Barcelona by: (a) describing the strengths, weaknesses,…

Virtual exchange programs represent a relatively novel approach designed to foster a more global perspective and promote discipline-specific learning; however, this approach has not been widely adopted in sociology. This article reports findings on student experiences and learning in a virtual exchange program involving two large introductory…

Speaking English in a face-to-face classroom versus an online classroom may make EFL students feel uneasy in different ways, depending on a variety of factors. To help students reduce anxiety, teachers must understand the different levels of anxiety they experience in different situations. This study investigated the differences in…

In this phenomenographic study, we contribute with a critical view on teachers' understanding of the use of digital technology in education is at the core. By analysing engineering teachers in Sweden's qualitative different ways of experiencing teaching-learning in virtual learning environments (VLEs) pre-COVID-19 pandemic, we found three…

Stress can affect teachers' mental and physical health, student-teacher relationships, and energy levels. During the COVID-19 pandemic, educators around the world experienced stress in terms of worry for their students and for their own well-being in terms of energy levels, sleep and anxiety. The purpose of this study was to examine female music…

Global competence has become a popular concept for engineering institutions around the world. Despite its recent emergence and still vague characteristics, it has been widely adopted by institutions aiming to prepare globally minded graduates. However, the concept's elusive and complex nature requires careful consideration in order to lead to…

Purpose: This research paper aimed to investigate the affordances of using virtual reality (VR) in teaching culture among in-service teachers of teaching Persian to speakers of other languages (TPSOL) in Iran. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative case study, conducted at two Iranian universities, used purposeful sampling to select 34…

Research indicates that students frequently struggle to apply their knowledge of organic compounds' structural theory to understand the concepts related to resonance and learn to use curved arrows to write resonance structures. Educators have developed educational tools and methodologies to aid students in overcoming their learning difficulties.…