To make sense of the changes provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic and its immediate aftermath, this paper critically examines digital education policy responses in the context of the 'new realities' faced by schooling. Based on seven case studies contributed by authors from Australia, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Canada, Sri Lanka, two key questions…

In the Spring of 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic impacted all aspects of life throughout the world, including education. Teachers who had never taught online before, all of a sudden had one week to get ready to engage with their students in a virtual setting. On top of these changes, our small post-degree Canadian teacher education program had…

Since most schools and learners had no choice but to learn online during the pandemic, online learning became the mainstream learning mode rather than a substitute for traditional face-to-face learning. Given this enormous change in online learning, we conducted a systematic review of 191 of the most recent online learning studies published during…

This article conceptualises how disruptions to conventional teaching models may lead to innovative practice. We have identified a gap in current knowledge around how innovations in higher education teaching and learning are initiated in times of crises. Disruptive Innovation Theory and Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Theory are used as lenses to…

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital shift in higher education and forced university faculty to transform their courses into a blended or online modality to comply with current public health measures. Many instructors have implemented blended online courses, which combine synchronous and asynchronous online teaching and learning…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, which began to affect Canadian universities and colleges in March 2020, educators were asked to make a sudden transition, or swerve, to teaching remotely. Subsequently, these same teachers made the shift to teaching remotely longer term, through the fall and winter of 2020-21; the pandemic continued to affect higher…

This project undertook an analysis of the evolving nature of online, hybrid, and multi-access learning within the British Columbia (BC) post-secondary education system. The project objectives included assessing potential changes in the scope and nature of online learning in BC, understanding stakeholder insights on learner preferences towards…

Learning management systems (LMSs) have long been adopted by tertiary education providers to be the conduit through which courses are delivered. However, debates about the capacity of the LMS to meet all the required current and future needs of both students and educators have become more pronounced over the past few years, particularly given the…

Despite the rapid growth in online and distance learning in Canada, there does not appear to be much interest on the part of teacher education programs to evolve to meet the needs of future generations of teacher candidates. While understanding the notion that systemic change in tertiary education takes time, the steady growth of online and…

COVID-19 containment measures brought many changes in our lives and forced teachers all around the world to adopt various new practices. Given its specific education requirements and numerous school boards, the province of Quebec, Canada, was chosen to study the effects of the pandemic on music teaching in schools in the spring and fall of 2020.…

This paper aims to establish if any of the following characteristics are associated with a difference in student performance during the COVID-19 pandemic: online lecture attendance, study time and performance; gender, class standing "(freshman (1st year), sophomore (2nd year), junior (3rd year)and senior (4th year))" and having one's own…

The sudden move from traditional face-to-face teaching and learning to unfamiliar virtual spaces during the early weeks and months of the COVID-19 pandemic demanded many members of educational communities around the world to be flexible and teach and learn outside of their comfort zones. The abruptness of this transition contributed to…

Significant barriers to training have been introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic, limiting in-person professional activities resulting in the development of the novel remote training. We developed and evaluated a remote training approach for master trainers of the Caregiver Skills Training Program. Master trainers support community practitioners,…

Amid the growing body of research on disability and neurodiversity, disabled and neurodiverse Ph.D. students are not often in the focus, despite the fact that Ph.D. students occupy a unique position of a learner-scholar-teacher in academia. A particular gap is felt in the field of Library & Information Science (LIS). This study stands to…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning became the predominant mode of learning for 33 to 54% of students in Canada's three largest school boards. As inclusive practices continue to grow and online learning is now part of the Ontario curriculum, educators need guidance on how to support K-12 students with diverse learning needs in online and…