There has been a rapid growth of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the global education market in the last decade. Online learning technologies are becoming increasingly widespread in the non-formal education sector and in higher and supplementary vocational education. The use of MOOCs in Russia to support the delivery of educational programmes at university level opens opportunities in terms of expanding the educational choice for students, the development of virtual academic mobility, reduction in the cost of educational services, and improvement in the accessibility of education. However, the effectiveness of using different online learning technologies at university level, and the consequences of their widespread adoption, has not been sufficiently explored. In this research study, a comparative analysis is made of the effects of different online learning models on student educational outcomes in a university setting. A study was undertaken in which different groups of students at the Ural Federal University, Russia, were encouraged to study technical and humanities disciplines using a framework of blended learning, and online learning with tutoring support. The results of the study were compared with the results of a reference (control) group of students who studied the same disciplines in a traditionally taught model. It was found that both models (blended and online) of MOOC implementation demonstrated greater learning gains, in comparison with the traditional model. For engineering and technical disciplines, there was no statistically significant difference between blended or online learning technologies. For the humanities discipline, where the communicative component of the learning process was significant, the blended learning technology produced better results. Conclusions of this empirical research may be useful for heads of educational organizations and teachers in helping them to make strategic decisions about the modernization of university courses by increasing the effectiveness of the implementation of new educational technologies. The results of this research project will be used for implementing the State Priority Project, ‘The Modern Digital Educational Environment of the Russian Federation’.

Some students perceive that online assessment does not provide for a true reflection of their work effort. This article reports on a collaborative international project between two higher education institutions with the aim of researching issues relating to engineering student perceptions with respect to online assessment of mathematics. It provides a comparison between students of similar educational standing in Finland and Ireland. The students undertook to complete questionnaires and a sample of students was selected to participate in several group discussion interviews. Evidence from the data suggests that many of the students demonstrate low levels of confidence, do not display knowledge of continuous assessment processes and perceive many barriers when confronted with online assessment in their first semester. Alternative perspectives were sought from lecturers by means of individual interviews. The research indicates that perceptions of effort and reward as seen by students are at variance with those held by lecturers. The study offers a brief insight into the thinking of students in the first year of their engineering mathematics course. It may be suggested that alternative approaches to curriculum and pedagogical design are necessary to alleviate student concerns.

This paper reflects on some of the themes emerging from a consideration of recent research at the nexus of technologies, learning and culture. The authors comment on the expansive nature of the concept of learning spaces in papers featuring an investigation of technology enhanced learning (TEL) and communication design studios in the UK and Australia, the use of interdisciplinary research collaborations to develop novel implementations of TEL learning spaces, and the challenges of developing an e-university in Malawi. They also examine a comparative study focused on classroom-based learning spaces augmented by computer-based assessment technologies, and the role of TEL both within and in response to protests at universities in South Africa. Massive open online courses are then considered as distinctive educational designs that may offer diverse student experiences, either formal or informal. The next emerging theme considers the sources of tension and richness arising from the widely divergent values that can be embedded in TEL. This is followed by consideration of infrastructural issues and the technologies–learning–culture nexus, followed by the use of theory in TEL work, leading to interdisciplinary theory-informed TEL projects that may be beneficial in the wider project of reimagining higher education for work and study. Finally, the paper examines the theme of mobile TEL and the hegemonic issues surrounding the building of sustainable and authentic foundations for learning with mobiles in the globalised South. The theme points to the methodologically challenging and problematic aspects of this hegemonic analysis and considers how the arguments may be further developed.

This paper considers the ubiquity of technology as an enabler for lifelong learning in modern society and the impact this dependence on technology has on the strategic design of learning systems. The role of lifelong learning in modern economies and the diversity of activities associated with lifelong learning requires targeted resourcing and understanding of the meaning of lifelong learning. The dominance of technology enhanced learning in modern education is accepted as a de-facto component in the design of any learning programme. The literature on the technology enhanced learning – smart city nexus explores the technology in depth with a strong focus on learning analytics and big data applications. Evidence of the pedagogical paradigm requirements is not quite so visible and this lack of understanding of the complete model creates tensions in the design of lifelong learning systems. The agency of active learning is considered in the sense of the triune of human, education and economic, systems for the sustainable growth of a knowledge economy. Structured approaches to learning are demonstrated and comparison is drawn with smart city projects in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The COVID pandemic has touched many aspects of everyone’s life. Education is one of the fields greatly affected by it, as students and teachers were forced to move online and quickly adapt to the online environment. Assessment is a crucial part of education, especially in STEM fields. A gap analysis was performed by expert groups in the frame of an Erasmus+ project looking at the practices of six European countries. Specialists teaching university-grade mathematics in seven European institutions were asked about their perception of gaps in the assessment of students both before (2019) and during (2021) the pandemic. This qualitative study looks at the difference in perception of such gaps after almost one year of online teaching. The analysis of their responses showed that some gaps were present before the pandemic, as well as others that are specific to it. Some gaps, such as the lack of IT infrastructure and the need to adapt materials to an online environment, have been exacerbated by the outbreak.

At the end of the 2018, a new multinational project saw its approval as a European Erasmus+ Project. This project, named EngiMath - Mathematics on-line learning model in Engineering education, is closely related to Mathematics Teaching in Engineering Degrees. With its end planned for 2021, the steps needed to kick-start the development of this multinational project have not been easy in general logistic terms and even in more specific and particular issues. One of the first steps in its development was connected to the identification of common themes/subjects on which this project should be based in theoretical and general terms. This paper will describe, in a detailed way, all the educational needs analysis development. Its inclusion within this programme of work was due to the development, testing and deployment of a novel paradigm in the technology enhanced learning mediated environment in six geographically, socially, and culturally separate, engineering institutions. This was not a trivial task and took many resource hours to complete. Prior research to the submission of the project found no literature guiding educational needs analysis for joint-shared initiatives relating to socially, culturally, or geographically, separate locations. Therefore, this paper hopes to mark a complete list of objectives and tasks developed. It will point out several important issues to consider when designing multinational educational projects as well as other international connections made in education.