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Prior to 2020, the Czech higher education institutions (HEIs) did not have much experience with distance learning and blended learning. Experience with hybrid teaching was minimal. The Covid-19 pandemic therefore presented the management of public universities in the Czech Republic with a number of new tasks in resolving the crisis situation. It also made the possibilities of distance education and other flexible forms of education significantly more visible. In 2021, a total of 26 public universities joined together in a central development project, in order to discuss the most important issues of distance education and blended learning, the current background for the implementation of flexible forms of education, and also their future plans in this area. In this chapter, the authors present in detail the results of a study on the background of public universities for the implementation of distance education and blended learning, which have become the basis for creating the action plans of individual institutions. The results of the analysis showed, among other things online supported education is important, especially in emergency situations.

‘I like the fact that it's simple; I like the fact that it's not too complicated, and I think that whoever developed it, developed it with the people in mind’. Blended learning master's student talking about Solent Online Learning.The authors carried out an extended project aimed at making effective use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for the delivery of high-quality online distance and blended learning. This was in response to a greater demand for such courses through the emergence of a new constituency of learner, principally professional learners, those already in employment but seeking to improve their level of qualification and employability through the study of flexibly delivered credit bearing courses. The growth of this constituency can be seen very much as a response to the changes to the funding structure in the higher education sector in the UK. To this end, the authors worked within a team that developed an approach to effective course design, the Solent Online Learning Standard, and then a new methodology for collaborating with academic staff in the development and delivery of such courses. In order to best facilitate this, the team also created a new instance of its institutional VLE, called Solent Online Learning and tailored more to the needs of these new professional learners.

The present work reviews the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on architecture education (AE), with the aim of discussing the interaction and integration of technology-based models.

Different research methods were used to achieve the research purposes including an online survey, semistructured interviews, observations and reviewing recent literature. The study proposes a theoretical framework to investigate blended learning (BL) approaches in AE, based on the blended teaching–learning continuum, the growth of online delivery mode and technology integration and the gradual responsibility adopted for the current Covid-19 pandemic.

The study proposes a vision to reimagine post-Covid-19 education and the required BL strategy to provide a theoretical framework that integrates the instructional models required to be investigated by instructors.

The research findings are based on a theoretical approach not tested practically. A further detailed investigation is required. Thus, the road to reimagining the post-Covid-19 AE is still evolving.

As faculty members, one should take steps toward preparing BL strategies. These strategies present other alternatives to continue teaching and learning while keeping safe in any other emergency in education. In this work, an overview of BL approaches, continuum and related technological and instructional models has been shaped to propose a new vision to post-Covid-19 AE.

This paper responds directly to the initiated call on the pandemic's effect on traditional education by taking a pedagogical perspective. The study presents a holistic BL strategy and proposes a new theoretical and instructional model to design a suitable and balanced BL environment in AE.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse some effective e-tools and interactive tasks to enhance language acquisition and competence building in today’s English for specific purposes (ESP) students in higher education programmes.

There are countless learning methods, often supported by the access of ubiquitous learning materials, which improve students’ engagement, group interaction and independent learning skills in foreign language learners. More frequently, students become successful, independent and cooperative creative learners by means of participating in multimodal virtual learning platforms that would help them to improve a variety of competences. This study is based on English applied to social work, a compulsory subject offered either in a blended (b-learning) or a distance (d-learning) learning environment as part of the degree in social work. It combines its correspondent course book with digital content and multimedia tasks.

Results suggest that a ubiquitous practice for ESP b/d learners can be innovative and successfully competence-addressed when implementing interactive learning tasks that can combine individual and group work inside and outside the classroom hours.

The challenge of this research is to integrate a ubiquitous learning approach so that students would interact more and, consequently, enhance their communicative language skills, both in b-learning and d-learning environments.

The chapters in this book focus on using an array of different Web 2.0 technologies and web-enabled learning platforms to create technology-rich learning environments. These types of social learning technologies can be used to build flexible and agile learning environments and foster collaborative learning activities for students. Whereas Web 1.0 is considered a content-centric paradigm, Web 2.0 is considered a social-centric paradigm. In other words, at the heart of Web 2.0 is social networking, social media, and a vast array of participatory applications and tools. This book examines the possibilities of Web 2.0 technologies in general and social technologies in particular, including blended (hybrid) learning technologies and applications. At least four factors have driven the rapid changes we have experienced in the way we teach and learn with these technologies: (1) these technologies are digital, making them highly versatile and integrative, (2) these technologies are globally ubiquitous, making them accessible to anyone and anywhere there is an Internet connection, (3) these technologies are generally low cost or free, making them accessible to anyone with a computer or mobile device, and (4) the development of more sophisticated learning theories, greatly increasing our understanding of how to best apply these technologies in an academic setting.

The purpose of this paper is to have an overview of how Indian institutions offering undergraduate architecture programs have responded to the pandemic situation. It seeks to appraise the alternative approaches adopted for teaching-learning, communication, assignment and evaluation and assess their effectiveness for progressive improvisations or integration with pedagogy. The paper articulates a view on the suitability of online teaching for architecture education in India, on basis of educators' experiences of teaching during the pandemic.

An online survey was conducted for obtaining primary data from the educators given the paucity of information. The questions elicited structured information on aspects of the transition process, IT/online platform and tools, the efficacy of online teaching-learning and trajectory of blended learning.

All institutions managed the transition to online teaching without much difficulty. However, the paper raises the need for professional training and feedback from students. One-third of the respondents express satisfaction with online teaching, despite low satisfaction about the effectiveness of online teaching of a design studio. The results convey the need for more engagement with digital tools and representational software on integrated platforms. The study finds consensus on the future potential of blended learning and advocates developing an integrated framework and curriculum for architecture education in India.

The paper synthesizes viewpoints on online teaching-learning of architecture program in wake of the pandemic from an educators' perspective. The emergent perspectives are viewed dialogically in context of global voices to articulate a future trajectory of blended learning in the domain of architecture education.

Capacity development (or capacity building, capacity enhancement) is becoming an increasingly important component in development assistance through agreements among multilateral and bilateral donors and developing countries because it is critical for achieving development objectives. Much evidence has indicated that development assistance and projects have not been successful due to capacity constraints; therefore, many training programs for capacity development were implemented and continue to be in demand at various levels.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a web‐based tool that enables the development and provision of learning designs and its reuse and re‐contextualization as generative learning objects, aimed at developing educational materials.

The use of learning objects can facilitate the process of production and delivering of educational material and their reuse and re‐contextualization in different scenarios – such process is due to the current development stage of information and communication technologies (ICTs), which allow easy access to products and services related to them. ICTs combined with instructional design theories, lead to the emergence of new generations of distance learning, which add educational content to web‐based services. From this combination rises a hybrid mode of education, which combines tools for face‐to‐face and distance learning (blended learning).

The use of the web as a platform for production and management of learning objects comes as a solution for storage and sharing. The utilization of objects is justified when its reusability is facilitated. This gives rise to possibilities in a client‐server environment, where information is centralized and available anywhere in the network.

The combination of ICT and instructional design theories has potential and could result in hybrids which are yet to be fully understood and explored. This can enhance blended learning provision.

The paper presents a tool in which the learning designs work as structures built on XML, based on concept maps, which act as an interaction layer between the learning objects, organizing the content to be available.

This paper aims to summarise the methods and main findings of a study of the environmental impacts of providing higher education (HE) courses by campus‐based and distance/open‐learning methods.

The approach takes the form of an environmental audit, with data from surveys of 20 UK courses – 13 campus‐based, seven print‐based and online distance learning courses – covering travel, paper and print consumption, computing, accommodation, and campus site impacts. Results were converted into energy and CO₂ emissions per student per 100 hours of degree study.

Distance learning HE courses involve 87 per cent less energy and 85 per cent lower CO₂ emissions than the full‐time campus‐based courses. Part‐time campus HE courses reduce energy and CO₂ emissions by 65 and 61 per cent, respectively, compared with full‐time campus courses. The lower impacts of part‐time and distance compared with full‐time campus courses is mainly due to a reduction in student travel and elimination of much energy consumption of students' housing, plus economies in campus site utilisation. E‐learning appears to offer only relatively small energy and emissions reductions (20 and 12 per cent, respectively) compared with mainly print‐based distance learning courses, mainly because online learning requires more energy for computing and paper for printing.

Assumptions were made in order to calculate the energy and emissions arising from the different HE systems. For example, it was decided to include all the energy consumed in term‐time accommodation for full‐time campus students while part‐time campus and distance learning students live at home, only requiring additional heating and lighting for study. Future studies could include more distance and blended learning courses offered by institutions other than the UK Open University and impacts other than CO₂ emissions.

Existing HE sustainability programmes should be broadened beyond considering campus site impacts and “greening the curriculum”. Indeed, were HE expansion to take environmental impacts seriously, then part‐time and distance education should be prioritised over increasing full‐time provision. This appears compatible with the Leitch Review of Skills on continuing education and training for the UK workforce.

The paper represents the only existing quantitative study of this issue.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social and digital media in the business school and particularly to examine how such innovative technological processes can be leveraged to enhance teaching instruction and enrich learning about practice and research.

Taking a broad perspective on the range of social and digital media approaches, the paper discusses a series of extant models of technology‐based learning and conjectures about how they can be used creatively and meaningfully in business school teaching.

Despite the pioneering efforts of the Open University in modelling distance and blended learning, adoption of such models in the business school context has been quite slow. These technologies are used more frequently as support mechanisms for “face‐to‐face” learning in order to enrich the quality of conventional professorial instructional approaches. In many business schools “face‐to‐face” learning is perceived to be of much higher quality than on‐line learning approaches.

The paper notes the resistance to the adoption of new technology both by business school professors and deans. In the case of professors, there is inertia to change and a staunch defence of classic forms of “face‐to‐face” instruction. In the case of deans, few have sufficient courage or time (given the short average tenure of deans) to invest in and implement new technology strategies for teaching and learning. However, business school deans can no longer ignore the potentially disruptive innovations that will occur in teaching and learning processes.