Recently, sustainable development practices have increased attention as climate change and environmental impacts have increased. Interventions to encourage sustainability awareness are developing, so fostering them through education is crucial. Evidence-based studies conducted in this field have suggested the use of different digital tools to promote environmental learning gains and to foster better sustainability awareness among students. Following the PRISMA method, we found 21 articles published between 2013 and 2023 showing an interest in the use of digital tools in environmental education to foster sustainability awareness among learners. Findings indicate that virtual reality tools and climate change topics are the most trending in this research area. Further, the results show a positive impact of the use of digital tools on students’ concern for the sustainability of the planet.

Continuing education offers healthcare professionals the opportunity to adapt to the many changes in society and to improve their skills and knowledge to provide optimal care for patients. As technology evolves, healthcare workers can benefit from virtual peer-to-peer and mentor interactions with digital technology as a platform for continuing professional development (CPD). Nevertheless, healthcare professionals’ experiences in CPD in online learning settings have not been tackled clearly. The aim of our systematic scoping review is to investigate the effects of distance and hybrid learning settings in continuing education on learning outcomes and perceptions among healthcare professionals. A quantitative literature search was conducted following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses scoping research, allowing data collection of healthcare study scores from previous articles tackling the subject. A total of 17 articles met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. We identified four main categories of learning outcomes: knowledge acquisition, skills and performance, participants’ attitudes toward training, satisfaction, confidence, and self-efficacy. This systematic scoping review highlights that continuing distance education improves health professional learning outcomes. Continuing education in online learning setting allow more learning accessibility for healthcare professionals, as it was found to be a solution for temporal and physical constraints.

Environmental challenges continue to intensify globally, highlighting the urgent need to foster Environmental Citizenship (ECn) among younger generations, particularly within higher education. Despite increasing policy emphasis on sustainability education, limited cross-national evidence exists on how students translate environmental awareness into action. This study employs a quantitative, comparative design using survey data from 2,013 higher education students across seven countries (Croatia, Cyprus, France, Italy, Lebanon, Spain, and Sweden). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to validate a reduced Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (rECQ) and examine students’ motivations, competences, intentions, and behaviors. Results reveal a consistent pattern across countries: while students demonstrate high levels of environmental values (M = 3.54) and attitudes (M = 3.49), as well as strong intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (M ≈ 4.7), their engagement in past environmental actions remains notably low (M = 1.77). Competences and intentions are significantly higher than actual behaviors ( p <.001), indicating a substantial intention–action gap. Correlation analyses further show weak links between past actions and other ECn dimensions, while attitudes, values, and intentions are moderately to strongly interrelated. Cross-country differences highlight stronger motivation and engagement in Cyprus and Croatia, while contextual factors such as family influence play a key role in Lebanon. Overall, the validated 9-factor rECQ demonstrates robust cross-cultural applicability. The findings emphasize the need for higher education institutions to move beyond awareness-based approaches by integrating experiential, action-oriented learning and motivational support mechanisms to effectively translate environmental commitment into sustained behavioral engagement.

Sweden has a long-standing tradition of incorporating Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into its school curriculum, which might suggest high pro-environmental behavior among higher education students. In this study, we have investigated the extent to which higher education students at a Swedish university express environmental citizenship behavior and, in relation to this, how environmental citizenship factors interact with demographic variables such as age and gender. The sample used in this study is composed of 371 students who responded to an online survey. The results indicate that the Swedish students in this study demonstrate relatively high eco-citizenship competences in all ages across several areas. However, the results also indicate a generational effect where the students older than 30 scored higher on values concerning respecting nature and protecting the environment, and they also seemed more willing to act as agents of change. The generational differences reflected in the results may be a consequence of the educational shift in Sweden over the years. From the late twentieth century, the discourse shifted from EE, which focused on ecological awareness and conservation, to ESD, which takes a broader view and integrates environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The results have implications for higher education institutions when designing education to promote pro-environmental behavior across different age groups, as there may be generational differences in perspectives on sustainability and environmental awareness.