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The online degree and education market represents a crossroad for Higher Education. Outlines some issues the HE community must now face and several factors to success for their online degree programs. Universities have played an important role in the formation of the Internet and application of online education. The question remains, will universities actively participate and lead this market or sit on the sidelines and watch an opportunity for education slip away? Universities must act now.

The purpose of this paper is to explore emerging synergies and tensions between the twin moves to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and online learning and teaching (L&T) in higher education institutions (HEIs).

A preliminary global exploration of universities’ SDG-based L&T initiatives was undertaken, using publicly available grey and academic literature. Across a total sample of 179 HEIs – identified through global university rankings and analysis of all 42 Australian universities – 150 SDG-based L&T initiatives were identified. These were analysed to identify common approaches to embedding the SDGs.

Five key approaches to embedding the SDGs into online (and offline) HEI L&T were identified: designing curricula and pedagogy to address the SDGs; orienting the student experience towards the SDGs; aligning graduate outcomes with the SDGs; institutional leadership and capability building; and participating in cross-institutional networks and initiatives. Four preliminary conclusions were drawn from subsequent analysis of these themes and their relevance to online education. Firstly, approaches to SDG L&T varied in degree of alignment between theory and practice. Secondly, many initiatives observed already involve some component of online L&T. Thirdly, questions of equity need to be carefully built into the design of online SDG education. And fourthly, more work needs to be done to ensure that both online and offline L&T are delivering the transformational changes required for and by the SDGs.

The research was limited by the availability of information on university websites accessible through a desk-top review in 2019; limited HEI representation; and the scope of the 2019 THE Impact Rankings.

To date, there are no other published reviews, of this scale, of SDG L&T initiatives in universities nor analysis of the intersection between these initiatives and the move to online L&T.

This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy. It provides an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts. The selected bibliography is useful to efficiently keep up with trends in library instruction for busy practitioners, library science students and those wishing to learn about information literacy in other contexts.

This article annotates 424 English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, theses and reports on library instruction and information literacy published in 2021. The sources were selected from the EBSCO platform for Library, Information Science, and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and WorldCat, published in 2021 that included the terms “information literacy,” “library instruction,” or “information fluency” in the title, abstract or keywords. The sources were organized in Zotero. Annotations summarize the source, focusing on the findings or implications. Each source was categorized into one of seven pre-determined categories: K-12 Education, Children and Adolescents; Academic and Professional Programs; Everyday Life, Community, and the Workplace; Libraries and Health Information Literacy; Multiple Library Types; and Other Information Literacy Research and Theory.

The paper provides a brief description of 424 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested as a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy within 2021.

There is increased interest in online MBA programs across the globe. This paper attempts to review and assess online MBA programs and what lessons other universities and students can learn from them. It attempts to compare between the online and the traditional MBA. In addition, a thorough evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the online MBA is made. The evaluation considers point of views from universities, professors, and students that combined together will assess the future and growth of “global MBAs”.

The paper documents the roles played by the institutional quality assurance cells (IQACs) to implement the University Grants Commission (UGC) directive to shift to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic period in Bangladesh. It highlights the government's efforts to ensure quality education, particularly in utilizing IQACs in the various public and private universities. The paper starts with the pandemic situation in the country, followed by the overall responses of the government, including its directives regarding the conduct of higher education.

The paper utilizes as framework the Sloan Consortium's Five Pillars of Quality Online Learning – learning effectiveness, student satisfaction, teacher satisfaction, scale and access. The paper then analyzes the oral reports of 26 IQACs, which were presented to government officials in two meetings.

From the analysis, it is apparent that IQACs have contributed toward the shift to full online education during the pandemic period. Universities responded to the crisis mainly in the areas of governance, teaching and learning and student support services. To guide policy formulation, the IQACs (with the help of other university units) conducted surveys among their faculty and students regarding their access to Internet, financial difficulties and mental health situation. From here, they drafted academic policies (attendance, student assessment and online teaching), conducted capacity building activities, monitored faculty performance, formulated guidelines on student online behavior and encouraged stakeholders to trust the online system.

The study is original since (like many countries) the pandemic has forced education activities to go online. It looks at both the macro level (the concerns of the University Grants Commission or UGC concerning quality education in an online setting) and the micro level (what universities have undertaken to address the concerns of the UGC).

A fuller understanding of the information search behaviour of prospective students in the digital era is one of the keys to success in university recruitment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ university choice factors in relation to the online environment.

In total, 637 samples from 11 private higher education institutions were collected and tested against assumptions before performing statistical analysis including exploratory factor analysis and mean comparison.

The findings revealed that there are some significant differences in gender and academic discipline in the use of the internet to search for university information. In addition, four constructs of university information were identified that are perceived as important by students in their search behaviour: “university reputation”, “eligibility and affordability”, “teaching and learning” and “university tangibility”. The outcomes of this research provide some noteworthy insights which have numerous strategic digital marketing implications.

While most existing studies have explored types of social media apps or online channels that prospective students use, little research has touched on students’ university choice factors in relation to the online environment. Responding to Constantinides and Zinck Stagno (2011) and Hemsley-Brown et al.’s (2016) call, this paper aims to address this research gap by investigating students’ university information search in relation to the online environment.

This study aims to explore the effect of social media engagement on the determinants of behavioural intention. Specifically, the authors empirically research the three behavioural intention determinants, namely, attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC), and confirm their effect on students' intention to enrol on a university online programme.

A conclusive research analysis is followed, and a moderation analysis is conducted to test the hypotheses of the model. Empirical evidence from 201 students in the UK higher education is used and a structural equation modelling approach is followed.

The findings suggest a significant effect of social media engagement on attitude, subjective norms and PBC. The latter three are confirmed as determinants of the intention to enrol on a university online programme. Mindfulness is found to positively moderate the effect of the three determinants on behavioural intention.

This study advances knowledge pertaining to the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) by highlighting the effect of social media engagement on the determinants of the intention to enrol on a university online programme. Additionally, the moderating role of mindfulness is also tested with regards to its effect on the relationship between behavioural intentions and its determinants.

This article investigates some ongoing issues faced by higher education institutions (HEIs) having to rapidly move their teaching online during the early stages of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The article incorporates a review of academic and policy literature concerning digitalisation and online learning in universities and qualitative interviews with staff involved in online teaching and learning at a university in Scotland.

For most HEIs and organisations across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the speed at which digitalisation and digital ways of working have been embedded in organisational life and service delivery including new ways of learning and working. This has led to a recognition of the need for practically focused, effective inclusive digital interventions. A range of initiatives that have been developed or accelerated in response to the pandemic are discussed. These should be explicitly designed and implemented to also reach individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, including those with low-skill levels or qualifications and older age groups. Effort is also needed by policymakers and HEIs to better understand the challenges and unintended consequences that digital learning and working poses.

More research is needed into the methods and implications of increased online teaching. The range of interviewees is limited to one main organisation. A wider range of staff, students, HEIs and other types of organisation would add additional insights.

Insights from interviews highlight a number of institutional responses to digitalisation, which were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These identify learning and reflection points for HEIs moving to enhanced online teaching provision.

This article provides an analysis of the processes, issues and impacts associated with the rapid shift to digitisation in HEIs at a point in time shortly following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It raises issues around inclusivity of online learning, pedagogy, unintended consequences of digitalisation and privacy, when moving to online teaching that are relevant both during the pandemic and in the longer term.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) in universities is gaining increasing attention, especially through the adoption of innovative technologies. Online media, as a relevant source of Big Data, is shifting ICD. The purpose of this paper is to explore how Big Data generated through online media, such as websites and platforms like Facebook, can be used as rich sources of data and viable disclosure channels for ICD in a university.

This is an exploratory case study, following the methodology in Yin (2014), that examines how online media data contributes to closing the ICD gap. The IC disclosed through different online media channels by a private university in Albania is analysed using Secundo et al.’s (2016) collective intelligence framework. The online data sources include the university’s website, Facebook page, periodic reports and statements outlining future goals.

What the authors discover in this research is that IC is an important part of how universities operate, and IC is communicated through social media, although unintentionally. However, this only serves to highlight the importance of IC, and if researchers want to discover IC and understand how it works in an organisation, they need to include social media and a prime resource for developing that understanding.

Most importantly, the findings add to a growing consensus that ICD researchers, and researchers in other management and accounting disciplines, who traditionally rely on annual corporate social responsibility and other periodic reports, they need to change their medium of analysis because these reports no longer can be relied on to understand IC and its impact on an organisation.

Online media tools and the advent of Big Data have created new opportunities for universities to disclose their IC information to stakeholders in a timely manner and to gain relevant insights into their impact on the society. The originality of the paper resides in the contribution of Big Data to the ICD research stream.