Adult education and training policies have supported inclusive practices for universal access to opportunities for the development of important lifelong learning (LL) skills. The implementation of these policies is especially relevant for socially vulnerable groups, including individuals who are incarcerated. Taking this situation as a reference,…

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe risk their competitiveness if they fail to embrace digitalization. Indeed, SMEs are aware of the need to digitalize--more than one in two SMEs are concerned that they may lose competitiveness if they do not adopt new digital technologies. However, a key obstacle is related with decision-makers'…

The coronavirus crisis has exposed the many inadequacies and inequities in our education systems. This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the relation between the pandemic caused by COVID-19 (SARS-COV 2) and the changes experienced in Higher Education (HE), namely the shift to online teaching mode. The research used a survey…

School psychologists can support schools in implementing inclusive practices. In Portugal, the Decree-Law 54/2018 has set the country on the path to inclusive education based on whole-school approaches. This policy shift demands a change in school psychologists' practices to be agents for systems change versus traditional roles (such as assessing…

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed dramatic changes on educational practices worldwide. This study aims to evaluate the distance learning experience of students during the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing results obtained in two countries: Italy and Portugal. A cross-sectional survey was used to analyse a survey questionnaire focused on two domains:…

Smartphones and tablets have become essential tools in users' daily life, as they include a whole range of digital services, enlarging the connection to the virtual world. Nonetheless, the use of these tools in the educational context, known as mobile learning, is still a recent and scarcely embraced practice. A 1-day MOOC (massive open online…

This article presents a case-study of two distance learning courses, in order to address the question of universal adoption of mobile devices and applications by students, and the impact of these devices in personal learning environments (PLEs). First, a critical discussion of the value of these concepts in the current technological context was…

Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) outlines that 49% of EU citizens identified "job creation" and 33% identified "education and skills" as the top priorities for science and technology innovation over the next fifteen years. Both documents justify the needs in Europe for the ICT field especially for the NEET (not in…

COVID-19 highlighted higher education's resistance to implementing the student-centered and ICT (information and communication technology)-enabled learning practices as incentivized by the Bologna Declaration. ICTs were crucial to keep the students in educational programs during the outbreak; however, some students were left out, increasing…

The communication gap between deaf and non-deaf communities arises due to the use of distinct mother languages. A deaf student, who used to communicate in sign language, cannot read fluently materials written in spoken language. This fact causes serious difficulties to deaf students since most didactic materials in higher education are available…

Emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL) represent a critical and challenging time for teachers globally. To understand how Portuguese teachers interpreted their ERTL experiences of the first lockdown, we started by asking: What perspectives do teachers have about ERTL? Answering three open questions made available online between April and…

This study aims to present the extent to which online education influenced the level of empathy displayed by university students. The research relies on a self-evaluated applied survey in two European countries: Portugal and Romania. The participants in this research are 1,085 students enrolled in Communication Studies programs. The purpose of…

Aim/Purpose: From an idea of lifelong-learning-for-all to a phenomenon affecting higher education, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be the next step to a truly universal education. Indeed, MOOC enrolment rates can be astoundingly high; still, their completion rates are frequently disappointingly low. Nevertheless, as courses, the…

MOOCs are a recent phenomenon, although given their impact, they have been subject to a large debate. Several questions have been raised by researchers and educators alike regarding their sustainability, both economically and as an efficient mode of education provision. In this paper we contribute to this discussion by presenting a case study of…

These proceedings contain the papers and posters of the 22nd International Conference on e-Society (ES 2024) and 20th International Conference on Mobile Learning (ML 2024), organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) in Porto, Portugal, during March 9-11, 2024. The e-Society 2024 conference aims to…