The Impact of Lecturer Profiles on Digital Learning Habits in Higher Education

Background: The use of digital technology in higher education is overwhelmingly positively assessed in most recent research literature. While some literature indicates certain challenges in this regard, in general, the emphasis is on an encouragement and promotion of digital technology in higher education. While we recognised the positive potential of the use of digital technology in higher education, we were cautious of an instrumentalist and disembodied understanding of (digital) technology and its potential impact on higher education – as a sector of education and as a body of students. Aim: To re-conceptualise the way in which technology is understood for its use in the higher education sector, as is argued, would be of benefit for transformation in higher education. Setting: South African Higher Education sector. Methods: Phenomenology of embodiment. Results: An embodied understanding of technology through the embodied phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty and an explication of its potential for transformation in higher education via the working concept of the Embodied Screen leads to a full understanding of the student as embodied and socially-embedded individual. Conclusion: A more holistic and embodied understanding of digital technology serves to supplement transformation in higher education, especially if transformation is itself understood in concrete social and bodily terms as is the case in the South African context.

Background: The use of digital technology in higher education is overwhelmingly positively assessed in most recent research literature. While some literature indicates certain challenges in this regard, in general, the emphasis is on an encouragement and promotion of digital technology in higher education. While we recognised the positive potential of the use of digital technology in higher education, we were cautious of an instrumentalist and disembodied understanding of (digital) technology and its potential impact on higher education – as a sector of education and as a body of students.Aim: To re-conceptualise the way in which technology is understood for its use in the higher education sector, as is argued, would be of benefit for transformation in higher education.Setting: South African Higher Education sector.Methods: Phenomenology of embodiment.Results: An embodied understanding of technology through the embodied phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty and an explication of its potential for transformation in higher education via the working concept of the Embodied Screen leads to a full understanding of the student as embodied and socially-embedded individual.Conclusion: A more holistic and embodied understanding of digital technology serves to supplement transformation in higher education, especially if transformation is itself understood in concrete social and bodily terms as is the case in the South African context.

The integration of digital technologies in mathematics is becoming increasingly significant, particularly in promoting conceptual understanding and student engagement. This study systematically reviews the literature on applications of Computer Algebra Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Visualisation Tools, augmented-reality technologies, Statistical Software, game-based learning and cloud-based learning in higher education mathematics. This meta-analysis synthesises findings from 88 empirical studies conducted between 1990 and 2025 to evaluate the impact of these technologies. The included studies encompass diverse geographical regions, providing a comprehensive global perspective on the integration of digital technologies in higher mathematics education. Using the PRISMA framework and quantitative effect size calculations, the results indicate that all interventions had a statistically significant impact on student performance. Among them, Visualisation Tools demonstrated the highest average percentage improvement in academic performance (39%), whereas cloud-based learning and game-based approaches, while beneficial, showed comparatively modest gains. The findings highlight the effectiveness of an interactive environment in fostering a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. This study provides insights for educators and policymakers seeking to improve the quality and equity of mathematics education in the digital era.

Digital technologies are becoming increasingly important in higher education as they not only reshape and digitize communication between faculty and students on campus but also – in the age of globalization – extend education to the world. It also makes it easier for individuals who would not otherwise have access to face-to-face education to participate in distance education programs. The application of digital technologies in higher education aims to improve the quality of teaching & learning, increase access to technology, enhance student engagement and learning experiences. Such capabilities of digital technologies present new opportunities for universities, and allow them to operate in a completely new market. In addition to all these benefits, the penetration of digital technologies into higher education also brings certain difficulties that higher education institutions face when adopting technology, including infrastructure issues, faculty training, and student acceptance. The aim of this article is to overview international experiences in the application of digital technology in some developed countries, thereby making recommendations for the application of digital technology in higher education in Vietnam, including: Some general recommendations for the state and higher education institutions; Dissemination of digitalization policies in universities; Government support for universities; Universities supporting lecturer training; Universities support students in learning and research in the digital environment.

In 2019, the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Ireland (previously known as GMIT, IT Sligo and LYIT) were awarded a HEA Innovation and Transformation award to build digital capabilities across 8 campuses. The project is called iNOTE and it provides opportunities to transform the higher education experience in the CUA institutes (2019-2022). The Teaching and Learning Centre (Galway-Mayo) is leading the development of DigitalEd.ie Knowledge Platform and digital teaching and learning development initiatives (i.e., Work Package 2 of the iNOTE project).
 
 DigitalEd.ie, is a digital teaching and learning knowledge platform, which provides access to professional development pathways and a suite of digital resources, to build digital capabilities and pedagogic expertise, so that educators can design, deliver and support flexible and online learning programmes effectively.
 
 This paper will discuss: the development journey of DigitalEd.ie; building a digital education community; designing digital learning pathways; creating a digital resources directory; insights and impact of building digital teaching and learning capabilities during the pandemic; and the creation of a suite of digital education services and resources, that is transforming the higher education learning experience.
 
 The development journey of DigitalEd.ie knowledge platform uncovered several resources and learnings, including a discovery tool, digital tools to support online student engagement, meaningful and robust assessment strategies, digital badges and learning pathways, and teaching and learning techniques moving from online to hybrid delivery. In addition, 20 digital teaching and learning impact case studies were developed across eight themes (https://DigitalEd.ie/book), outlining how and why educators transformed their teaching and learning practice and the impact on student engagement. 
 
 This paper will conclude with feedback from participants who undertook digital learning opportunities through the DigitalEd.ie monthly training programme, the Discovery Tool, Digital Badge pathways, and an accredited postgraduate Certificate in Digital Teaching and Learning. The feedback gathered through the action research study provides insights on the value of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and considerations for the digital learning environment in higher education, post Covid-19.

This article discloses the technology acceptance model (TAM - Technology acceptance model) in the aspect of digital technologies in higher education. The authors present a study of the motivational sphere of technology application by the educators of the higher institutions. The article presents the intermediate and final results of the participation of teachers in the motivational courses of the Coursera platform. The main results obtained in the course of the study indicate an insufficient level of motivation for the use of digital educational technologies in higher education. The application of technology is fragmented. Active participation in international courses increases certain aspects of the motivation for using digital educational technologies due to direct participation in them. The key findings of the research included the following aspects: Coursera platform could serve as a catalyst for transitioning from traditional education to a blended teaching format in higher education institutions; modifying syllabi to incorporate new digital topics has yielded tangible outcomes in the research; the technology acceptance model (TAM) effectively evaluates the level of motivation among higher education educators to utilize digital tools.

This article presents the use of digital technology and visual arts in higher education during the second corona virus lockdown in Greece. The continuous effort to identify creative ways to renew the interest and commitment of students to ongoing distance education led to the engagement of alternative teaching methods via digital means for the course: Mental Health Social Work (7th-semester course of the Department of Social Work at Democritus University). Students were asked to actively participate in an art-based pedagogical activity and successively reflect on thoughts and feelings concerning mental health. They were invited to take a virtual tour of the exhibition entitled “Life on the line”, organized by an NGO producing public multi-faceted art, fundraising, and initiating educational campaigns that focus on mental health, homelessness, and addiction in Canada. It was a campaign aiming to raise awareness of mental health issues through art. Following the virtual tour, students were asked to select a poster (painting or photograph), reflect on it, and note emerging feelings and thoughts concerning mental health. The objectives were to acquire insight to mental health issues through an experiential method utilizing arts. To present a comprehensive study many aspects need to be considered. The light here shines on the theoretical approaches and methods of social work being integrated with visual arts. Qualitative evaluation of a practice that uses arts in the field of mental health in social work took place. The focus is on the connection of data analyzed with theoretical concepts of mental health, as it relates to the pandemic’s influence on conditions and personal experiences. All of this is thoroughly presented, indicating educational benefits for students along with implications for social work education. At the same time, the major contribution of digital technology in Higher Education is highlighted.

We propose a model of contextual facilitators for learning activities involving technology (in short: C♭-model) for both on-site and distance learning environments in higher education. The C♭-model aims at systematizing research on digital teaching and learning and offers a roadmap for future research to understand the complex dynamic of factors that lead to successful digital teaching and learning in higher education via suitable learning activities. First, we introduce students' learning outcomes as central benchmarks of teaching and learning with digital technologies in higher education. Second, we want to focus on a major proximal factor for students' learning outcomes and thus apply a learning activities perspective. Learning activities involving digital technologies reflect cognitive processes of students when using digital technologies and are causally connected with students' learning outcomes. Third, we highlight several contextual facilitators for learning activities involving technology in the C♭-model: learning opportunities that result from higher education teachers' instructional use of technology and students' self-arranged learning opportunities involving digital technologies. Apart from these proximal facilitators, we include more distal factors, namely, higher education teachers' knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward digital technology; higher education teachers' qualification; students' and teachers’ digital technology equipment; and institutional, organizational, and administrative factors.

This study aims to systematically analyze the evolution, research trends, and scientific impact of digital teaching and learning scaffolding through the application of bibliometric analysis. By employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 methodology, a total of 396 relevant journal articles published between 2013 and 2023 were identified from Google Scholar using Publish or Perish (PoP). The dataset was then analyzed using VOSviewer, with a specific focus on citation patterns, keyword co-occurrence, co-authorship networks, and thematic clusters. The bibliometric mapping revealed five dominant research clusters: (1) integration of digital technology in higher education, (2) learning strategies and their impact on students’ outcomes, (3) digital games and scaffolding approaches in children’s education, (4) teacher education development and practice, and (5) contextual influences in educational research. In addition, the study identifies prominent authors, highly influential publications, and major institutional as well as international collaborations, offering a comprehensive overview of the intellectual structure of the field. The findings highlight an increasing global interest in digital scaffolding in education, demonstrating its significant contributions to improving student engagement, cognitive development, problem-solving, and personalized learning experiences. Nevertheless, several challenges remain evident, particularly in terms of accessibility across diverse contexts, teacher readiness to adopt innovative pedagogies, and technological limitations within resource-constrained environments. This research contributes to the academic discourse by providing evidence-based insights and practical recommendations to optimize the implementation of digital scaffolding in contemporary educational settings. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of continuous exploration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and adaptive learning systems to further strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of digital scaffolding practices in the future.

Introduction.Globalisation, openness to innovation, implementation of digital content, realisation of competency-based approach in modern education generate a consistent tendency towards strengthening of the role of educational technologies (ET) in different types of professional pedagogical activity, reinforcing pertinence of their application at all levels of education. Mastery and efficient use of a wide range of educational technologies have expanded the opportunities for educators to use productively traditional pedagogical and digital information technologies in order to obtain the guaranteed intended (expected) educational outcome. The interest of researchers and practitioners in selection, design, implementation and evaluation of effectiveness of educational technologies in higher educational institutions is evidenced by the increase in the number of publications suggesting various points of view on the use of such technologies within the educational process, in educational communications and in professional and personal development of students. The search for the most effective means of training of the new generation of specialists to achieve academic and technological breakthrough in Russia has increased the significance of systematic scientific information on modern educational technologies used in higher education institutions.Theaimof the current research is to present the results of review and systematisation of research information on theoretical foundations of development and application of educational technologies in Russian and foreign higher educational institutions.Methodology and research methods.Analytical review has been prepared based on systematisation and generalisation of foreign and Russian scientific publications dedicated to the issues of design and use of educational technologies in the higher educational practice. 319 sources published since 2010 and included in Web of Science and Scopus research and citation databases as well as in the Russian Science Citation Index have been analysed. In order to achieve the set objective, authors have used such methods as content analysis, systems analysis, comparative analysis and benchmarking, terminological analysis, context analysis, generalisation and systematisation, analytical grouping, as well as methods of mathematical statistics.Results and scientific novelty.The article contains the results of analysis of Russian and foreign publications based on the following: 1) levels of presentation of research information (theoretical, theoretical and experimental, empirical); 2) attributes and properties of educational technologies; 3) approaches to selection of classification principles of educational technologies; 4) capabilities of educational technologies to shape academic, communicative and professional competency of a specialist; 5) criteria for evaluation of effectiveness of application of ET in the higher educational practice; 6) preparedness of teacher of higher educational institutions to develop and apply educational technologies. It has been established that Russian authors are still more oriented towards describing the characteristics and algorithms of predominantly traditional educational technologies and their applicability, evaluating their effectiveness through influencing students’ professional and personal development and competent communication. Foreign authors prefer to assess how widely applicable digital educational technologies are (within the boundaries of the educational organisation and beyond), measure students’ acceptance of educational technologies and their effectiveness through the impact on improvement of educational quality. Statistically significant differences were identified for all considered functional characteristics of educational technology in Russian and foreign publications, with the exception of “Student Attitude to Educational Technology”. Both Russian and foreign authors in the last 5 years have increased their interest in mixed educational technologies and in the problems of integrating traditional and digital technologies in higher education. In Russian journals there is an increase of the number of publications about the digital technologies, and in foreign publications there is an increase in the number of publications on traditional technologies, resources and conditions for improvement of effectiveness of educational technologies.Practical significance.The materials of the article can be used in the higher educational practice and in further research on development and application of educational technologies in Russian and foreign higher education.

In the current period of development of higher education in Ukraine, there is active integration of digital technologies, which radically change the usual pedagogical approaches and methods of teaching. Digitalization of education opens paths to autonomy in learning and individualization of the educational process, simultaneously generating challenges associated with the need to adapt to a rapidly changing educational environment. The main goal of this article is to analyze the new opportunities and challenges arising from the implementation of digital technologies in the sphere of higher education. Particular attention is paid to the educator’s image and the legislation regulating this process, including legislative norms that establish criteria for quality and directions for the development of education in the digital era. An important aspect of the article is the study of the psychological and cultural challenges of digitalization, including the adaptive barriers faced by educators and students. Recent research results indicate a complex balance between the positive and negative aspects of digital learning, which is of strategic importance for the development of online education in Ukraine. The conclusion of the article offers recommendations for the effective implementation of digital technologies in higher education, emphasizing the importance of developing digital competencies among all participants in the educational process and improving the infrastructure necessary to support continuous education. The subject of the study is the impact of digital technologies on the educational process in higher education, analyzing changes in pedagogical methods and the adaptation of educators to new teaching conditions. The object of the study is the formation of elite and burlesque meta-linguistic personalities (mMP) of educators in the digital environment. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the introduction into scientific circulation of the concept of "burlesque meta-linguistic personality" (burlesque mMP), which until now had no clear definition in linguistics and cultural studies. The concept of burlesque mMP allows for a deeper understanding of the dynamics of language transformations in the digital environment, where ironic and parodic use of language becomes a significant communication tool. The article details the main characteristics and features of the burlesque mMP, including its impact on the stylistic and ideological diversity of contemporary linguistic practice, which is conditioned by unconventional ways of using language that traditionally were not considered "literary". Such research opens new possibilities for analyzing digital communication and the interaction of linguistic identities in the virtual space.

The article "The use of online platforms and digital technologies in the system of higher education of the Republic of Kazakhstan" considers the topical issue of using online platforms and digital technologies in the educational process in Kazakhstan. This paper provides an overview of existing national and international projects aimed at developing online education in Kazakhstan. Also shown are the results of a study on students' perception of the possibilities of online education and the level of their readiness to use digital technologies in the educational process, the advantages and disadvantages of online education and digital technologies are considered, recommendations for improving the quality of education when using these technologies in higher education of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The purpose of this article is to study the use of online platforms and digital technologies in the higher education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan. To achieve the purpose, an analysis of scientific publications was carried out, a review of world research, also conducted a survey and interviews among students, teachers and ICT experts of Baishev University and Aktobe Regional University named after K. Zhubanov. The results of the study show that the use of online platforms and digital technologies in higher education of the Republic of Kazakhstan has great potential to improve the quality of education and expand the accessibility of education. However, to use these technologies effectively, barriers must be removed and problems that may limit their effectiveness must be addressed. In general, the article presents scientific findings that can help improve the use of online platforms and digital technologies in higher education in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The integration of digital technologies in Higher Education (HE) has dramatically changed the way students learn, however it has also raised critical concerns about the sustainability aspects of digital learning. Although a considerable amount of literature has been published on digital learning and Sustainable Development (SD) in HE, further research is needed to establish a comprehensive research framework which synthesises and organises the knowledge in this area. This paper draws on a critical review of the literature to develop a conceptual research framework on sustainable digital learning in HE from an Information Systems’ lens. The proposed framework is the outcome of a thorough integrative review, followed by a thematic analysis of relevant sources which outlines common research themes in the literature and identifies major areas for future research. The proposed framework provides researchers and educators with valuable insights on the use of digital technologies to promote SD in HE and highlights the importance of sustainability awareness. It further defines focus areas and future research directions which can guide their research, thereby assisting in building a coherent body of knowledge in this research area.

Evaluate and identify the competencies of the future workforce for digital technologies implementation in higher education

The author has nearly 50 years of an academic career within the University of Bucharest. Over time, the author's academic activity has been heavily influenced by remarkable personalities from the university (especially the former Rector Ioan Mihailescu) or by world-class personalities (mainly Ken Robinson, John Naisbitt and Steve Jobs). Even if this career includes a valuable teaching and learning experience... it is approaching the "end of life". This article might be considered as a retrospective of the author's teaching activity and a chance to summarize the lessons he learned. These lessons could be seen as recommendations for the academic staff and the decision makers in higher education. The article contains two important chapters. Over time, the author's academic activity has been heavily influenced by remarkable personalities from the university (especially the former Rector Ioan Mihailescu) or by world-class personalities (mainly Ken Robinson, John Naisbitt and Steve Jobs). Even if this career includes a valuable teaching and learning experience... it is approaching the "end of life". This article might be considered as a retrospective of the author's teaching activity and a chance to summarize the lessons he learned. These lessons could be seen as recommendations for the academic staff and the decision makers in higher education. The article contains two important chapters. Chapter 1 has the title "Innovative teaching in higher education". Innovation is essential for the permanent and sustainable success of any person /organization. This chapter presents some general aspects related to education worldwide and some specific aspects related to the author's academic initiatives. As soon as these initiatives have been implemented for the first time in the University of Bucharest, they can be characterized as being innovative for the education system of this institution. Many of these achievements were reported during international and national conferences. Chapter 2 has the title "Disruptive technologies with a strong impact on higher education". The author has taken into account the potential of digital technologies for higher education since 1990. The essential moment was the reading of the book "Megatrends," published by John Naisbitt in 1982, having as the main message the movement from the industrial society to the information society. Chapter 2 summarizes some of the best practices on the use of digital technologies in higher education, including cloud computing, learning management system, eLearning, game-based learning. Finally, the article includes conclusions and references itself.