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The integration of digital technologies into education has brought about a profound transformation, fundamentally reshaping the learning landscape. The purpose of this study is to underscore the importance of investigating the factors influencing students’ engagement (SE) in this evolving digital era, particularly within formal digital learning environments. To address this need, the study is grounded in self-determination theory (SDT) and presents a comprehensive model comprising interconnected elements: digital competence (DC), smartphone use (SPU), perceived autonomy (PA), digital formal learning (DFL) and SE.

The research conducted an investigation within Saudi Arabian universities, collecting a robust data set of 392 cases. This data set underwent rigorous analysis to validate the proposed model. To untangle the intricate relationships within the framework, the study used partial least squares structural equation modelling. Given the distinct dimensions of the two constructs under study, the researcher used a disjoint two-stage approach to establish reflective-formative higher-order constructs (HOC).

The findings revealed that digital literacy and digital skills (DS) constitute the foundational constituents of DC. Simultaneously, the study identified facilitation, distraction and connectedness as integral components of SPU. Importantly, the study established that DC, SPU, PA and DFL significantly influence SE. Furthermore, the research illuminated the mediating roles played by SPU, PA and DFL in the complex relationship between DC and SE.

This study advances the literature by delineating the dynamic interplay between DC, SPU and SE in digital learning. It extends SDT within educational contexts, emphasizing the role of internal motivations and DS. Methodologically, it innovates through reflective-formative HOCs, deepening the analysis of complex educational constructs. Managerially, it guides institutions in enhancing DC and integrating smartphones effectively into learning, advocating for tailored strategies to foster engaging and autonomous digital learning environments, thereby enriching both theoretical understanding and practical application in education.

We argue this method of inquiry better represents the participants' learning, lives and experiences in the formal neoliberal education system prioritising performativity, categorising and ranking students.

The paper explores using poetry as a research method to reveal the learning experiences of adult learners, who have often had disruptive experiences of the formal schooling system and return to study in community-based education spaces. Inspired by Laurel Richardson’s transgressive technique of presenting sociological data through poetry as method, we use poetic representations of these learners' lives alongside case study research methodology. The research was conducted in conjunction with Neighbourhood Houses in Victoria, Australia. Qualitative data were generated through conducting multiple case studies of learners across various adult community education (ACE) sites. In this research, some case studies were presented in the traditional method of writing biography, others were written in the form of found poetry, which we refer to as data as poetry and text. The paper uses found poetry through participant-voiced poems written from interview transcripts. We argue this method of inquiry better represents the participants' learning, lives and experiences in the formal neoliberal education system prioritising performativity, categorising and ranking students. Our findings highlight the benefits of using poetry to communicate data in case study research as it effectively represents the experiences of adult learners' lives in a creative and concise form, transgressing normative practices of writing education research. These poetic representations of data reveal learner experiences in an embodied and agentic way while providing readers with a deep and rich understanding of these crucial adult learning spaces.

Our findings highlight the benefits of using poetry to communicate data in case study research as it effectively represents the experiences of adult learners' lives in a creative and concise form, transgressing normative practices of writing education research.

This research paper is empirical research and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication.

Employee training and learning have transformed over the years. The movement from classroom training to the blended format represents the magnitude of this evolution. This has placed much attention on self-regulated learning. This study aimed to understand the individual and organizational mechanisms that sustain the formal learning process in organizations. It explored the goals the organizations and employees strive to achieve by investing in learning. Through this, the authors investigated how technology assistance makes learning more goal-oriented, despite the possibility of different goals for different stakeholders. They also examined how person-job fit can be achieved in employee training.

The study adopted a grounded theory-based inductive approach using a qualitative inquiry that used in-depth interviews of employees working in the Indian IT/ITES sector. This sector is knowledge-intensive and engages in constant skill development. A content analysis of the interview transcripts unraveled the most relevant themes from the participants' discussion.

Individual learners use dimensions of self-regulated learning to set and achieve goals such as better performance and career development. On the other hand, organizations use learning support mechanisms such as better access and flexibility to direct employee learning behavior to achieve organizational goals. Focusing on goal congruence leads to better achievement of results. Goal congruence also implies good person-organization fit.

This research established how aligning individual and organizational mechanisms can help achieve training goals that ultimately contribute to organizational performance. The study differentiated itself by investigating training goal setting and goal achievement at two levels – organizational and individual – using a qualitative approach. It also showed how goal congruence is vital in improving organizational performance and how technology-enabled training practices rely on self-regulated learning and help achieve goal congruence.

As university faculty faced new challenges, such as rapid digital social and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response, this study aimed to identify the daily changes in the interaction between the faculty and the organizational environment (colleague, policy and new issue) by exploring their recent dynamic educational efforts and the professional development.

This is a study wherein perceptions of 20 faculty from 15 universities and colleges were collected through in-depth online interviews. The authors analyzed interview data by arranging and visualizing the analyzed data using network clustering. Further, they applied the Latent Dirichlet allocation of the topic modeling to monitor the appropriate number of clusters, ultimately determined as four clusters using partial clustering.

The results showed that university faculty spontaneously tried to solve the problems through informal learning while the commitment to peer learning was deepening, reflecting the collectivist orientation nature of Chinese culture. Besides, the faculty also required support to reflect on their daily efforts for professional development. These results about their various learning routines prove the justification for the faculty's professional development to be discussed from the “learning by doing” perspective of lifelong learning.

This study proved the significance of informal learning for university faculty's professional development and the reasonable value of peer learning, and provided insights into how the Chinese context may influence university faculty's informal learning experience.

When the emergency transition started in the spring of 2020 in the USA, teachers had to quickly switch from traditional in-person teaching to distance and remote teaching, regardless of their level of preparation. The distance and remote learning environments and contexts were different from traditional classrooms, which significantly changed the way teachers communicated and engaged with students in learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the workplace learning experience of K-12 educators during their work transition due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.

In total, 30 qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with K-12 educators in Arkansas in the USA and synthesized their experiences.

This study identified four major themes in the workplace learning experiences of K-12 teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges in workplace learning, including limited time, information overload, lack of relevance and customization and balancing priorities; challenges specific to different subgroups, such as age differences, prior experience and access to technology; strategies of workplace learning, notably collaborative learning, on-the-job training and professional development; and support for workplace learning, encompassing both formal support from schools and districts and informal support from family, friends and peers.

The paper provides original insights into K-12 teachers’ workplace learning during the COVID-19 pandemic by understanding their adaptation strategies. It fills a research gap by highlighting both the challenges and support mechanisms in educational transitions during a crisis.

This paper aims to conceptualize the role of leadership in organizational learning processes in multinational companies (MNCs). The authors present a model describing how managers in an MNC facilitated transitions between sub-processes of organizational learning at several organizational levels.

The authors collected data from the plants of a global process company in Norway, Brazil and China. Observation, in-depth interviews and archival material enabled one to reconstruct the organizational learning process over a period of 30 years as the company developed its own tailor-made improvement programme.

Based on the data, the authors describe the role of leadership in linking the sub-processes of organizational learning as orchestration, sponsoring and persistence. Orchestration included creating faith and optimism and designing the organization to allow close cooperation between operators and managers in the sub-process of experimenting. This eased transferring and institutionalizing in the global organization. Sponsoring included structural changes to support transferring and the demonstration of dedication to improvement programme values. These factors were important for institutionalizing. Persistence involved the continuous focus on adjustment of the improvement programme, which then facilitated further experimenting.

Firstly, this study suggests that activities and decisions in one sub-process have important implications for the following sub-processes. Secondly, this study indicates that leaders’ role in facilitating the transitions between sub-processes extend beyond their individual traits and behaviour, which previous research had focused on, and includes decisions concerning organizational structure and culture that help link social and organizational learning.

This paper aims to focus on academic library managers’ learning practices in the context of cooperative work supported by computational artefacts. Academic library managers’ everyday work is mainly cooperative. Their cooperation is supported predominantly by computational artefacts. Learning how to use the computational artefacts efficiently and effectively involves understanding the changes in everyday work that affect managers and, therefore, it requires deep understanding of their cooperative work practices.

Focused ethnography was conducted through participant observations, interviews and document analysis. Ten managers from a university library in Sweden participated in the research. A thematic method was used to analyse the empirical material. Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and work-integrated learning was used as the conceptual lens.

Five learning practices were identified: collaboration, communication, coordination, decision-making processes and computational artefacts’ use. The findings show that learning is embedded in managers’ cooperative work practices, which do not necessarily include sufficient training time. Furthermore, learning was intertwined with cooperating and was situational. Managers learned by reflecting together on their own experiences and through joint cooperation and information sharing while using the computational artefacts.

The main contribution lies in providing insights into how academic library managers learn and cooperate in their everyday work, emphasizing the role of computational artefacts, the importance of the work context and the collective nature of learning. It also highlights the need for continual workplace learning in contemporary knowledge work environments. Thus, the research generates contributions to the informatics field by extending the understanding of managers’ work-integrated learning in their everyday cooperative work practices supported by computational artefacts’ use. It also contributes to the intersection of CSCW and work-integrated learning.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the driving factors for staff cohesiveness in the workplace and how they are related to workplace learning and development opportunities. Two research questions guided the inquiry: (1) What are the driving factors for staff cohesiveness in the workplace? and (2) How does staff cohesiveness influence workplace learning?

This study is based on a phenomenological research design. The data collection involved interviews and focus group discussions with 22 lecturers in two public universities. Thematic analysis was followed to analyse and interpret data.

The findings of this study indicate that staff cohesiveness is greatly influenced by several factors. Firstly, the presence of shared visions and goals plays a significant role in fostering staff cohesion. In addition, the similarity of age and gender among employees, as well as the presence of mutual support and a sense of belongingness, trust and solidarity, managerial support and the nature of the job that requires collective action, all contribute to staff cohesiveness. It is worth noting that previous studies have not reported the influence of age, gender and job characteristics as factors influencing staff cohesiveness.

Employers should not only focus on the knowledge and hard skills of applicants but also on the soft skills which support teamwork and cohesion in the workplace. Managers who want to enhance workplace learning should create opportunities for social gatherings and informal contacts in the workplace to facilitate informal learning in the workplace. Researchers focusing on workplace learning should include tacit learning practices that occur in the workplace as a result of the closeness between teammates.

This manuscript, which the authors hereby present, is the result of own original work. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors wish to emphasise that it has not been submitted for publication in any other journals.