This study is based on an initiative within the framework of providing capacity for HE in Ukraine, aiming to investigate the challenges for online higher education in wartime Ukraine from the teachers’ perspective. Initially, four exploratory interviews were conducted at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv which provided the basis for a larger-scale survey reaching 10 universities. According to the survey (220 responses), teachers wanted more education and training in the following areas: 1) Online course design, 2) Improvements in students’ wellbeing and engagement, 3) Communication online and 4) Assessment online. Co-creation and community of practice were identified as potential areas contributing to higher quality of university education in Ukraine. The benefits of the program were significant. Participants reported enhanced competencies in practical task development, student communication, and collaborative opportunities. The project-based approach facilitated a structured exploration of these issues, leading to actionable insights and recommendations for improving online higher education in wartime Ukraine. Co-creation and the establishment of a community of practice were identified as potential strategies for further enhancing the quality of university education in Ukraine. The study underscores the necessity for continuous professional development and collaborative approaches to support educators in these challenging times.

In Nepal, Tribhuvan University (TU) introduced a blended e-learning approach by implementing MOODLE, a learning management system. There is a concern of acceptance of e-learning among the students as well as among teachers due to barriers on technological up-to-date, scarcity of resource and technology know-how. The study analysed the perceptions of teachers and students on this change using qualitative methodology, especially empirical phenomenology. The results showed that both teachers and students at sampled one of the TU affiliated colleges, are positive about the e-learning system, but students are more likely to accept it than teachers. Senior teachers from non-ICT backgrounds and part-time teachers were less supportive. The e-learning system was recognised for its benefits, including providing extended learning opportunities, reducing additional burdens, facilitating effective sharing of ideas and knowledge, and enabling new forms of interaction. However, challenges in Nepal, such as inconsistent electricity supply, limited user resources, slow internet connectivity, and insufficient technical support, may hinder its acceptance. Addressing these challenges is crucial for the successful implementation of e-learning in Nepal.

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has significantly affected Ukraine's higher education system. Students and faculty need to relocate and conduct teaching and learning online and remotely instead of meeting physically at campus. There is substantial infrastructure damage to universities, electricity and facilities in general in the country. Furthermore, the war impacts on students and teachers wellbeing and health. The Swedish Institute funded a capacity building program for university teachers in Ukraine to support: "U-Train - Training to Teach Online in Wartime and After", 2023-2024. Stockholm university and Ivan Franko National University of Lviv were the partners in this program which addressed the digital transformation from campus to online teaching to maintain education continuity in higher education. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a the capacity-building program.

The specific research questions are:

1. How did Ukrainian teachers perceive the ICT capacity-building program?

2. According to Ukrainian teachers, what were the most significant outcomes of the program?

A mixed method approach was used including an online survey, participant observations of online seminars, and document analysis of final reports written by teachers about their Online Course Improvement Activity (OCIA). The survey results demonstrated the program's overall positive adoption with participants acknowledging advancements in teaching practices and professional growth. Notably, the online seminars which covered topics from AI integration in higher education to digital examinations received excellent feedback confirming their usefulness and efficacy in enhancing teaching skills. Challenges such as unreliable Internet connectivity and frequent interruptions because of bomb alarms and adjusting to new teaching methods were identified. The OCIA initiatives included a variety of activities aimed at meeting specific educational needs identified by the teachers themselves in their own courses such as how to assess arabic writing skills on a distance, updating legal education, improving botany courses, ICT in mathematics courses, and so on. In conclusion, the ICT capacity-building program has been effective in improving the overall skills of teachers during the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian teachers appreciated the capacity program´s contribution in addressing disruptions and problems when conducting courses during challenging times. Despite facing obstacles like unreliable internet access and power cuts the educators valued the program for fostering resilience, professional development, and collaboration, highlighting its significance in enhancing teaching approaches in wartime conditions. The most significant outcomes of the capacity-building program according to the Ukrainian teachers were advancements in technological proficiency (100%), better student engagement (67%), and collaborative opportunities (67%). Furthermore, they learned new teaching methodologies and were inspired to explore topics such as AI integration in education, digital assessment methods, and student well-being concerns indicating a continued focus on technology integration and addressing significant educational obstacles. The participants expressed a strong interest in being being part of an extended and scaled-up version of this program which ends in June 2024.

The misalignment between information technology (IT) and institutions continues to be a major problem, more particularly in higher education institutions. This state leads to a lack of technology value addition and poor institutional performance. Prior studies proposed models and frameworks with various organizational practices of IT-Business alignment. However, similar research, considering higher education institutions, is scarce. Therefore, this study explores and identifies the dimensions and practices of IT-institutional alignment from a higher education context. An exploratory embedded multiple-case study strategy was used on the two largest universities in Rwanda and Mozambique. Document survey and interviews were used for data collection. The literature and 14 interviews were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach to identify patterns related to the alignment practices. This study identified 45 IT-alignment practices reflected from both institutions, and they were classified into six metrics as presented in the framework. Of these alignment practices, 27 reflect exceptionally the higher education context of teaching, learning, and research. The identified alignment practices can serve as a frame of reference for creating and assessing the alignment between technology and university activities in the case study of institutions or similar contexts. A statistical test and validation of these alignment practices are recommended.

The conditions for higher education teachers operating in a technology-enhanced education setting and an open educational context – such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – are different when compared to traditional teaching methods (e.g. in a lecture hall). This study investigates the grounds for 20 teachers at Swedish Higher education institutions to be involved in MOOC development projects. Six categories are found and described; including curiosity, merits, teaching development, flexibility, as well as the possibility to disseminate their research and expand their professional networks. Interviewees believed that the work was a viable way to strengthen their research portfolio, while also making a limited effort for teaching, enhancing the dissemination possibilities and strengthening their research networks.

Det är stor skillnad för lärare inom högre utbildning att undervisa i öppna nätbaserade kurser jämfört med traditionella föreläsningar och klassrumsundervisning. Denna studie undersöker motiven för 20 lärare vid svenska universitet att engagera sig i projekt för att utveckla och undervisa i Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Sex kategorier identifierades: Nyfikenhet; meriterande; utvecklande för deras undervisning; Flexibilitet; möjlighet att sprida egna forskningsresultat; och utöka deras professionella nätverk. Lärarna motiverade sitt arbete med att det var ett sätt att stärka sina forskningsmeriter genom en begränsad undervisningsinsats och att kunna sprida sina forskningsresultat och stärka sina respektive nätverk.

Successful implementation of e-learning environments requires adequate teacher training. In this study, a solution is sought for how teacher training programmes on newly introduced Learning Management Systems (LMS) can be designed in such a way that they would be inclusive of different levels of digital competence, supportive of individual teacher development and flexible enough to be applied in different institutional environments. Following the soft design science research methodology, two co-creation and co-design sessions, as well as eight in-depth interviews, were used for designing and testing a model for the process of teacher training in using LMS. The outcome of the study indicated the need of an agile-based approach as well as two kinds of segmentation of the training process based on the level of competence and on the position of the training process on the timeline. Besides, the cascading of teacher training was found to be a key approach to make it cost- and time-efficient. Moreover, the introduction of agility to the recursive process of training was found to strengthen consistent knowledge building in teachers. This has been illustrated in the form of a spiral model of knowledge construction, with teachers beginning to learn the basics and incrementally progressing to acquire advanced skills. The proposed process model allows academic institutions to mobilize the teaching task force by equipping them with technological knowledge systematically. This way, the level of expertise in using LMS can be developed incrementally and in synergy with the Pyramid Model of Digital literacy. The level of knowledge acquisition by teachers would correspond to the levels in the pyramid, and thereby, it would be easy to see them “climb up” the pyramid as they progress. A more thorough evaluation of the model using different cases and a careful revision of its components are considered as further steps in this research.

This article focuses on how supervisors and students perceive their responsibilities at the beginning of the thesis writing process. Students in general do little research writing before beginning their Bachelor’s or Master’s programs and they often find academic writing to be a complicated task, which means that many do not complete their thesis writing within the stipulated time. A survey was conducted at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) and the Department of Child and Youth Studies (BUV) at Stockholm University, Sweden. In addition to the distribution of responsibility, participants ranked the importance of four issues: the student’s own collected data in the thesis; language, layout, and correct referencing; the thesis as an excellent product; and the student’s development of his or her competence. In general, students and supervisors agreed on the distribution of responsibilities between them and the importance of some of the issues. The opinions were coherent, considering the survey was conducted early in the thesis writing period. It is suggested that future research includes an in-depth investigation of cultural differences between departments.

Academics in higher education are used to having their research publications reviewed and openly scrutinized. Teaching in higher education has traditionally been an individual academic’s activity that has taken place in a closed classroom. However, the introduction of open education, particularly massive open online courses (MOOCs) has challenged this. In MOOCs, lectures are recorded and made public for thousands of course participants to view. This study investigates, via semi-structured interviews, how 20 lecturers of 10 MOOCs at six Swedish Universities have experienced this. All have joined the projects voluntarily, but a few have done so with some ambivalence. For them, standing in front of the camera, publishing material and, to some extent, losing control of the course content was scary at the beginning of the projects. Overall, the lecturers overcame this and thought that it was a good opportunity to reach many students, as well as a way to keep up with the changing requirements for teaching in higher education.

The aim of this study was to find answers to how self-regulated learning (SRL) and cooperation learning orientation correlate with study success. At DSV, a department of Stockholm University, a web based support system for students’ thesis writing referred to as SciPro was implemented. The system also allowed for statistics of thesis process. Through the SciPro system we were able to retrieve students and supervisors; data were retrieved from 45 supervisors and 47 students with regard to their respective responsibilities in the thesis writing process. Vermunt’s instrument, Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS), was employed to measure students’ SRL. Overall, the relation between SRL and completed thesis was not as strong as expected.

This study focuses on teachers’ awareness of quality issues in relation to Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 teachers at six Swedish HEIs while they developed open courses (MOOCs). The interviewees’ comments are divided into five categories, but the overall finding shows that the teachers were not part of any transparent quality assurance system. This was despite the fact that there were several examples of quality assurance work. The result relates to prevailing standards and guidelines for quality assurance ESG (2015) and Conole’s (2016) characteristics of good learning. The question of the adequacy of a quality system for innovative activities is raised.