The paper reports on an empirical case study that explores innovative teaching practices in higher education, including digital, physical, and blended learning activities. The study followed the Master’s course ‘Experts in Teamwork’, where the students worked with practical assignments based on real-life challenges formulated by an external collaboration partner, which included actors from the health care department, the school management, and the ICT management in the local municipality. The students also gained experience with creative media production and worked with various digital tools and software.
 The findings show that the students experienced the project as motivating, highly educational and relevant to working life. It seems that digital tools contributed to flexibility, particularly for interactivity with the external partners and for group work. Both for students and the teachers the use of screens and software like Zoom and Teams opened for new ways of thinking about collaboration and provided an extended learning space and increased learning potential. However, screens also imply limitations, for example in terms of communication noise, possible passive forms of participation or even withdrawal from some of the students. Moreover, practices that include digital, physical and hybrid learning activities are highly complex, which require that the activities are particularly well planned and thoughtfully organized. The learning situation is therefore characterized by increased demands and expectations - for both students, teachers, and the institutions.

This study investigates the relationships between students’ psychosocial needs and their preferences for online vs. offline learning in a post-pandemic environment. A mixed-methods study was conducted at a higher education institution in Norway with 240 Bachelor students. Students in a post-covid learning environment value pedagogical forms of student-centered learning, through exploration and group reflection work. Second, students report a preference for limited amounts of online learning. Third, students express a significant need for social support, in the form of non-digital interaction with peers and teachers, and campus-based activities. Finally, while students prefer receiving feedback from peers in physical form, they are also positive toward receiving feedback in a digital form. These findings indicate that higher education institutions should carefully evaluate the amount of digital teaching offered to students, as such choices influence how and to what degree students are able to socially interact with peers and teachers, and their sense of belonging. More research is needed to understand the challenges associated with psychosocial health and well-being among students, and how this relates to online/offline forms of learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic actualized teaching in digital learning environments and brought a steep learning curve for teachers in higher education. Several studies focusing on students’ experiences of this period have gradually emerged, but there has been less on how teachers experience digital learning environments. Hence, the purpose of this empirical study was to gain knowledge about how teachers experienced online teaching of large groups during the pandemic. Two group interviews were conducted with experienced teachers. The main finding was that teaching in digital environments leads to a type of digital apathy. The teachers experienced black screens and a lack of response from students, having a negative effect on them. They become tired, demotivated, and drained of energy. They experienced losing their qualities as lecturers, becoming boring, and being less free in what they could say. Breakout groups were easy to manage, but many students would leave when these were introduced. Teaching in digital learning environments seemed to lead to a comfortable distance, which posed a risk for both students and teachers to become resigned. Therefore, this teaching format may be more demanding than teaching in physical environments. The interviews were conducted at a time when teaching in digital learning environments was novel, and the informants’ expectations may have been characterized by traditional teaching. Their experiences may be different in the long run.

This study contributes to research on Quality in Education and examines what possibilities now exist for schools to reinvent and transform using technology-based systems as part of the equation. It is speculated that the pandemic has changed the future of work emphasizing hybrid solutions and networking. The purpose of this article is to present findings from phase two of the qualitative case study to examine what happened to a private school when it went “hybrid on a dime” to maintain attractive quality education.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused significant changes to teachers’ work, including a rapid switch to remote teaching. This increased the role of ICT in teachers’ work and made teachers susceptible to technostress. In this study, we aimed to identify ICT-related stressors (i.e., technostressors) in comprehensive school teachers’ work in Finland during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data, consisting of answers to two open-ended questions, were gathered as part of a questionnaire (n=361), and qualitative content analysis was applied. Based on the analysis, technostressors were divided into five categories: rapid ICT adoption, technological inadequacies, ICT-related pedagogical challenges, limitations in social interaction, and multichannel communication and availability pressure. The findings indicate that schools were not prepared for the pandemic-induced online teaching, which showed in inadequate resources and support for teachers. Moving forward, schools could reduce technostressors by, for example, organizing technical and pedagogical support, developing shared practices to decrease the digital communication load and availability pressure, and fostering interaction and collaboration in online environments.

Social media provide numerous platforms to build relationships with food. In this research, we focus on Finnish food bloggers with the purpose to analyze how the relationship with food appears in food blogs. To answer this question, we conducted a netnographic research by visiting food blogs. The analysis followed qualitative content analysis. The main categories of findings were food- and eating-related values, innovativeness and experimental approach, positive eating-related multi-sensory experiences and memories, and social elements of eating. The role of social media, for example in the form of food blogs, can have a meaningful role in the socialization into the modern eating culture.

In recent years, ordinary individuals with diverse health conditions have increasingly turned to social media platforms to share their experiences with illness. This trend has raised concerns regarding the informational value of these expressions, as well as the motivations behind them and their impact on viewers. This article is a critical examination of the textual characteristics and potential appeal of YouTube videos about depression uploaded by young Norwegian women who have personally experienced the disease. The discussion is grounded in a multimodal analysis of six videos. Utilizing Norman Fairclough’s concept of media discourse, the article explores three dimensions of these video blogs (vlogs): the representation of depression, their interaction with viewers and the identities of the vloggers. The analysis reveals that the vloggers do not disseminate misinformation about the symptoms of depression. Their statements align with clinical discourse. However, they remain vague about the disease’s underlying causes and do not reflect upon how social structures might influence their mental life. The relationship between the vloggers and their audience is characterized by intimacy and mutual support. Regarding their identities, the vloggers present themselves as nurturing women who aim to combat stigma and assist viewers in overcoming their mental challenges. However, their personas are not strictly maternal; rather, they exude a more glamorous appearance with makeup and long eyelashes. As potential role models for their audience, they inadvertently contribute to the societal pressure of maintaining a flawless image, a pressure that has intensified in the era of social media. Notably, research consistently indicates that young women often grapple with negative body image, which frequently intersects with depression. In other words, the depression vlogs are potentially part of the problem they try to solve.

The pandemic had a considerable impact on youth work in Flanders, as many face-to-face activities had to shift online out of necessity. For many youth organizations, this was their first encounter with digital youth work, either online or in a blended format. Despite this recent boom in digital youth work practices, the concept is not new. It was first mentioned in the 2017 conclusions on smart youth work[1] by the Council of the European Union. Digital youth work is defined as using and discussing digital media/technology in different types of youth work situations, whilst still adhering to the goals, values, and principles of general youth work (Council of the European Union, 2019). While some Flemish youth work organizations focused specifically on digital media before COVID-19, the pandemic has accelerated the uptake of digital youth work. This paper examines the effects of COVID-19 on youth work in Flanders. It explores the challenges and opportunities, using the quick-scan-method to map relevant organizations.
 
 [1] “[I]mplementing smart youth work enables young people and youth workers to, based on existing experiences and seeking new connections and means, create innovative solutions (including digital solutions) for coping with both current problems and new challenges. Smart youth work activities are based on the needs of young people and youth workers, and take into account developments in society and technology, including globalisation, networking and e-solutions” (Schlümmer, 2018).

Previous research suggested a strong connection between students’ experiences of traditional learning environments and study-related burnout (Brown et al., 2012; Chen et al., 2017; Meriläinen, 2014; Kuittinen & Meriläinen, 2014). However, digital learning environments and how they can pedagogically support students’ well-being remain, in many respects, an unexplored area (Ruokamo et al., 2016; Lewin & Lundie, 2016). Moreover, pedagogical assessment, including how it can support students’ academic well-being, often lags behind the latest technological developments (Spector, 2014; Popenici & Kerr, 2017; Bates et al., 2020; Holmes et al., 2019; Luckin et al., 2016). This research systematically reviews the literature relevant to study-related burnout and academic well-being in digital learning environments. It is done by surveying articles published between 2012 and 2021. First, the findings suggest that there is a body of studies focusing on certain dimensions of study-related burnout. Second, students’ well-being in digital learning environments is less studied and relies mostly on emotional achievement theory and research on academic emotions. Finally, supporting students’ academic well-being through digital assessment is mostly enabled through formative assessment, but it is moving toward artificial intelligence and game-based assessment. Thus, more research is needed on the subject.

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is an atypical and multisensory phenomenon in which specific audio-visual stimuli elicit a pleasurable, head-oriented tingling sensation and feelings of relaxation. The purpose of this research was to analyze the ASMR experiences of university students in the light of well-being theory. Two-phased, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with three Finnish university students who identified themselves as ASMR experiencers. Data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Coding was guided by the domains of well-being in the PERMA model: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. The objective was to explore effect of students’ ASMR experiences on their well-being. The findings show that ASMR videos enhanced the well-being of the participants through mindfulness-like experience. The potential of ASMR videos to promote psychosocial wellbeing is intriguing, and this research provide new understanding about ASMR experiences and their meaning.