During the time of COVID-19 lockdown over spring 2020, universities shifted teaching from on-campus blended learning to an emergency remote fully online approach. The aim of this study was to compare Psychology and Veterinary Science undergraduate students’ academic performance with their responses on a self-reported questionnaire regarding their digital capabilities, individual’s characteristics, and the role of environment on their independent learning process over the first COVID-19 lockdown period. Social-Cognitive Theory was adopted to conceptualise students’ behaviour, individuals’ characteristics, and learning environment with their academic performance to a learning framework. A total of 303 students from both disciplines (133 Psychology and 170 Veterinary Science undergraduate students) participated in this study by completing an online questionnaire after following the teaching shift from blended learning to full remote online approach at a UK University during the 2019–2020 academic year. Differences between students’ responses were identified due to their discipline’s curricular structure, students’ study behaviours (i.e., being exposed to unrelated learning activities), and students’ cognitive effort to think critically in the search, evaluation and managing of digital information. Students with high level of self-regulation and digital capabilities were able to keep focused and engaged during the lockdown. Although universities and teachers were “forced” to shift their teaching approach due to the unfortunate disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, most students have coped with the changed teaching delivery mode relatively easy with minimum guidance. However, teachers should further consider how digital technologies could enhance students’ learning flexibility promoting critical thinking.

Although the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) has been widely used to measure student motivation, researchers have raised questions regarding its length and several problematic statements. This study introduces a new questionnaire, adapting items from the MSLQ and including three new key themes of course utility, procrastination and use of diverse sources. A total of 1246 students from a university in the northwest of England, studying a range of subjects and from across all grade boundaries, fully completed the questionnaire. Factor analysis suggested a 24-item questionnaire, including 6 factors: test anxiety, self-efficacy, source diversity, study skills, self-regulation and course utility. The measure, Diversity of Strategies for Motivation in Learning (DSML), has good predictive power for students with or without academic successes, and it can be used as a quick and an early alert monitoring tool to measure student motivation and study skills. The DSML has supported various interventions; however, further testing is required in other cultures, languages and educational environments (such as schools and colleges).

First-year university students face mental health challenges like adjusting to independence, forming new friendships and coping with academic pressures. Research highlights mixed findings on social media use; some students use social media to connect with family and/or friends while experiencing mental health issues (i.e., loneliness, depression and anxiety), and others turn to social media for support. This study explores the associations between problematic social media use, mental health and perceived support from university, friends and family while considering EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) factors such as age, gender and disability. EDI promotes fairness and equal opportunities for learning and support ensuring all students receive equitable access to resources regardless of their individual differences. A total of 158 first-year student participants from the Psychology, Electrical Engineering and Electronics and Computer Science departments completed an online questionnaire. Regression analysis revealed that females used social media more frequently than males and problematic social media use was linked to higher levels of anxiety and depression, but not loneliness. University and friend support was associated with depression only, while family support showed no significant relationship with anxiety, depression and loneliness. Addressing these issues is critical to promoting student well-being and academic success.

Serious video games are digital games designed for purposes beyond entertainment, typically to support education, training, health interventions, or behaviour change. They combine game mechanics with psychological and pedagogical principles, such as feedback, repetition, goal-setting, and scaffolding, to create interactive environments that facilitate learning, skill development, and sustained engagement. In many cases, they are built to simulate realistic tasks or decision contexts, allowing users to practise skills, test strategies, and learn from consequences in a low-risk setting. Within cyberpsychology, serious video games are particularly valuable because they provide structured digital contexts for examining how technology shapes cognition, emotion, motivation, and behaviour. They enable researchers and practitioners to observe how users respond to digital rewards, challenges, social features, and immersive environments, as well as how these features influence outcomes such as self-efficacy, persistence, attention, and emotion regulation. As a result, serious video games operate at the intersection of psychological theory, human–technology interaction, and applied digital intervention design. This entry provides an overview of their development, theoretical foundations, applications, effectiveness, and associated ethical considerations.

Serious video games are digital games designed with purposes beyond entertainment, commonly used to support education, training, health interventions, and behaviour change. Within cyberpsychology, they offer controlled interactive environments for examining how digital technologies influence cognition, emotion, motivation, and behaviour. This entry outlines the historical development of serious video games, from early non-digital simulations to contemporary applications incorporating online platforms, artificial intelligence, and immersive technologies. It summarises key psychological theories underpinning their design, including self-determination theory, flow theory, learning theories, and social and emotional frameworks. The entry reviews major application areas such as education, healthcare, professional training, cybersecurity, and environmental education, alongside evidence regarding their effectiveness. Ethical, cultural, and accessibility considerations are discussed, particularly in relation to inclusivity, data privacy, and manipulative design. The entry concludes by highlighting future directions for research and development, emphasising the need for longitudinal evaluation, ethical design, and inclusive approaches as serious video games continue to evolve.

The rapid growth in awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies since late 2022 has significantly impacted academia, with generative AI (GenAI) tools becoming increasingly prevalent in educational settings. Universities are struggling to keep up with the rapid changes in GenAI capabilities, creating an environment where staff and students do not have the necessary support and understanding to use these tools responsibly. The present study aims to develop understanding of how students are engaging with GenAI within the university context. Seven students (five undergraduate and two postgraduate), recruited as part of a wider questionnaire study, participated in an online interview to discuss their experiences of using GenAI in an educational context. Deductive thematic analysis was used to identify and analyse the following five themes: i) usage and perception of GenAI tools, ii) academic support and learning, iii) academic integrity and policy, iv) ethical use, and v) creativity and inspirational uses. It was found that the prevalence of GenAI use is often based on previous experience with such tools. However, this is mediated by local and wider-level guidance. Ethical concerns surrounding data use and academic integrity reduce student use. The findings shed light on student experience of GenAI, highlighting the opportunities and challenges in an academic setting. This has implications for the development of university and departmental level policies relating to the use of GenAI by students. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .