Search

Living and working through the challenges of a pandemic offered a unique research opportunity to engage with some core questions about what really matters in Religious Education (RE) in countries across Europe. The "What COVID Reveals to Religious Education Specialists" research project sought to provide a reflective space for RE specialists, drawn from the board members of the European Forum for Teachers of Religious Education (EFTRE), to consider their experiences of RE during the COVID-19 pandemic and to begin to articulate what they might want in the future for RE in light of their experiences. Areas explored in the online qualitative survey included: challenging questions and issues, social unrest, student-teacher relationships, learning scenarios, valued dimensions in RE, opportunities for the future, and 'ideal' RE. Respondents were from sixteen of the twenty-two countries present on the EFTRE Board, offering their individual perspectives from Western, Northern, Central and Southern Europe. Using the tool ATLAS.ti, an inductive analytical approach was employed; a number of key group 'themes' emerged from the responses, which provided a basis for further analysis. This paper will present some of the main findings in dialogue with the focusing research stimulus question: "What does COVID-19 reveal to RE specialists about their subject?" The project is a European collaboration involving researchers from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Wales.

Drawing on communities of practice and social cognitive learning theories, this paper explores language teachers' beliefs, knowledge and practices concerning the provision of high-quality education to learners with specific learning difficulties in various educational settings around the world. The data sample for this paper comprises qualitative data (videorecorded interviews and teaching resources) collected from six teachers working across various educational settings (primary, secondary, college and university) across several geographical areas (Europe, Middle East, and Southeast Asia). Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the data. The findings suggest that teachers continue to experience challenges in educating learners with specific learning difficulties regardless of the educational setting. Limited opportunities for receiving specialised training in this area have been identified by several teachers as one of the key factors affecting the quality of their practice. The change in the mode of instruction from face-to-face to online was not always reported as negatively affecting the quality of educational provision to learners with specific learning difficulties. Technology-assisted online lesson delivery was seen as being advantageous to learners with some types of learning difficulties. Findings from this paper can be useful to teacher-practitioners and teacher-educators who are interested in improving the quality of language education for learners with specific learning difficulties.

Qualitative content analysis is used in this study to review related online education since the outbreak of COVID-19. The aim of this study was to summarize the impact of online teaching on the education industry during the pandemic, sum up the viewpoints of all kinds of people to draw conclusions, and conclude the practical countermeasures. Based on the result of the analysis, firstly, we think that students and teachers are satisfied with online education, but parents have expressed dissatisfaction with this kind of education. Secondly, this paper lists the advantages and common problems of online teaching during study at home from different aspects. According to deficits, we summarize the solutions from three aspects: network equipment, teaching, and self-adjustment. This research is of great significance. It is not only beneficial to the development of educational platforms and personalized teaching but also helps formulate education policy to reduce the burden of education.

This paper analyzes the professional ethical knowledge of teachers in the use of technologies by teachers in training. Based on the disciplinary pedagogical technological knowledge (TPACK) model, it is intended to measure the correct inclusion of technologies in the classroom. For this, a descriptive exploratory methodological design study was carried out. The instruments used have been the Likert scale questionnaire and the personal interview, organized into four dimensions in which the self-perception of professional ethical knowledge, ethical knowledge of technology, pedagogical technological ethical knowledge and disciplinary technological ethical knowledge of the future teachers. The questionnaire has been applied to a sample of 1.051 trainee teachers from a European university in the context of COVID-19 and 822 students participated in the interview. The results show the scarce training in professional ethical knowledge of teachers in training and the importance of addressing this knowledge in the 21st century, a post-pandemic context. Another of the conclusions is the need to include the ethical component in the TPACK model to achieve a correct and ethical use of digital resources in the classroom.

Discourses of global education, citizenship and competence have been characterising the higher education literature in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic has both heightened the relevance of global citizenship education and presented new challenges as educators and students continue to grapple with the lasting impact and implications. This paper presents the findings of a research study which looked at the perceived learning outcomes of a "virtual exchange" project which addressed issues relevant to global citizenship, involving students in European and Southern Mediterranean countries in online dialogue programmes. The study used quantitative and qualitative approaches to the analysis of responses to open survey questions using the quantitative tool IRAMUTEQ (Sbalchiero & Tuzzi, 2016) and focus groups. Participants perceived that their learning was happening above all through their encounters and discussions with people from different backgrounds. They reported learning to listen actively and carefully, to accept and/or respect different opinions and experiences. The findings open up possibilities for how higher education institutions might engage students in online transnational and global learning experiences--which can contribute to thinking about renewing education and societies in a post-pandemic world.

Purpose: This systematic review paper aims to examine extant empirical research involving educational technology during COVID-19 to provide an aggregated analysis of how the pandemic has influenced educational technology research. Design/methodology/approach: Using a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis systematic review and an integrative review methodology, 50 primary research studies were selected from ten top-ranked educational research journals. These studies were reviewed regarding research purposes, methodologies, instruments, educational level, geographical distribution, and findings of the studies. Findings: The findings reveal four emerging themes--influencing factors, effectiveness, challenges and teachers. The majority of the studies focused on higher education. Quantitative research design based on a questionnaire was the most adopted method of investigation by researchers. Research limitations/implications: Search parameters focused on the top 10 journals in the field of educational technology. Although this provides a level of quality, it narrowed the search. Practical implications: For practitioners and researchers, this study provides a summary of the field to better understand what knowledge we have gained on the use of educational technology to enable a more agile, knowledgeable response to education in future emergencies. Originality/value: This systematic review is unique in examining how the pandemic has influenced educational technology research. It also provides insight into gaps in the research that future researchers can use as a springboard to enable a more knowledge and a more agile approach to future emergencies.

Purpose: The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 has had a profound impact on education institutions at all levels. Open universities, with their privileged delivery method, have been in an advantageous position. In the earlier stages of the pandemic, they made remarkable contributions to assuring learning continuity. However, with more and more conventional universities migrating online, great changes have taken place in the field of higher education, and it is imperative for open universities to adjust their strategies in order to maintain their leading role in a technology-enabled education context. This paper aims to examine what challenges have been faced by open universities during the pandemic and how they will transform in the future. Design/methodology/approach: Six open universities in Asia, Africa and Europe were selected as cases in this research to make a comparative study based on the papers in the volume beyond distance education. Similarities and differences among the cases were analyzed in order to identify the developing trend for open universities in the international context. Findings: The results showed that (1) open universities in these regions demonstrated their resilience in the pandemic; examples were that new technologies have been leveraged to implement totally online delivery with short notice and huge amount of learning resources were offered to the society. (2) However, they encountered challenges of delivering fully online examination due to the lockdown and quarantine policies, and open universities in African and the sole private institution suffered financial pressure due to improving information and communication technology infrastructure and staff training. Another challenge was the fierce competition from conventional universities that open universities in Asia and Europe came across. (3) Four main areas were identified for future development in order to respond to the challenges: No.1 is that programs such as health care, psychology, epidemiology, virology, immunology, data analytics, biology and bio-informatics have stimulated interest for African open universities to develop in the future; No. 2 is that open universities were seeking to innovate their teaching formats; short courses, such as micro credentials, might be developed as agile and flexible offerings which are expected to be suitable to learners in the pandemic context; No 3 is that programs and courses for upskilling in the context of digitalization will be implemented; and No. 4 is that lifelong learning is given a higher priority in order for open universities to stand securely in the higher education sector. Originality/value: The study may give open university leaders a quick insight into their future development.

Digital contact tracing tools were developed to decrease the spread of COVID-19 by supplementing traditional manual methods. Although these tools have great potential, they were developed rather quickly resulting in tools with varying levels of success. The main issues with these tools are over privacy and who might have access to the information gathered. In general, their effectiveness varied globally, where users expressed privacy concerns associated with sharing identity, illness, and location information. This paper reviews these issues in deployments across Asia, Europe, and the United States. The goal is to begin a discussion that improves the design and development of digital technologies that not only improve the control of infectious disease spread, but also achieve an appropriate standard of privacy and security.

The COVID-19 crisis has led to widespread temporary school closures and a deep economic recession. School closures have threatened children's ability to learn and later return to school well prepared. The impact of the economic recession is going to be even more devastating: first for students, but also for the ability of some Catholic schools to maintain their enrollment and remain sustainable financially in countries where they do not benefit from government support. This paper, the first in a set of two, looks at some of the likely impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on Catholic Schools in developed countries with a particular focus on the United States, a country not only hard hit by the crisis but also where Catholic schools are especially vulnerable to downturns. While Catholic schools may be able to respond to the immediate challenge of school closures among others through distance learning options, their ability to maintain enrollment during the economic downturn is less clear. How schools will respond to the twin challenges of ensuring learning during school closures and beyond, and remaining affordable for families at a time of economic stress, may affect whether they are able to maintain their comparative advantage. A key aim of the paper is to make Catholic school teachers and leaders aware of some of the discussions on how to respond to the crisis, and provide links to online resources that may be useful. [For Part II of the series, see EJ1278501.]

The premise of this brief opinion piece is that the fundamental paradigm of education appeared with Plato. It is that there is a co-location in time and space of learners, teachers, and resources. The absence of any of these elements can lead to shortcomings in the meaning of the term "to be educated". Recent events such as COVID-19 demonstrate that the paradigm is subject to challenge but that its premises are firmly established. It is recognised that there are complex philosophical and theoretical arguments surrounding distance education debates. It is not possible in a short article like this to canvass all the possible philosophical positions that affect education. Pointers to these debates are referenced in the article. For the purpose of this article, "philosophy" is taken to mean that department of knowledge or study that deals with ultimate reality, or with the general causes and principles of things. More narrowly, it is the study of general principles of some particular branch of knowledge, experience, or activity--in this case, distance education or flexible learning. "Theory" is taken to mean a scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena.

Digital competence is part of 21st Century skills that allow individual teaching professionals to engage in new and flexible ways of learning. Studies have shown that digital competence improves education and equips the teaching staff with expertise on how to use information, communication, and basic problem-solving. The need for digital competence is clearly evident in the current pandemic situation, where digital technologies have taken a more prominent role in communication and education processes. Beyond the digital competence of educators, proper school infrastructure and curricula are needed during pre-service training to help teachers achieve digital competence. To better understand this need, an online survey was developed to analyze digital education in Albania. The survey was designed to analyze the teaching competence of teachers in pre-service and in-service programs, as well as their schools' curricula and infrastructure. Results from the questionnaire highlighted a need for the acquisition of digital knowledge for teachers according to different age groups. The results of the study found that difficulties teachers encountered in the acquisition of digital knowledge were not only due to deficiencies in teacher training but also other issues such as lack of infrastructure. The study concludes by recommending that providing digital education should be in line with European and national policy and legislation, as well as with national and international organizations. The paper reports findings assessing the level of preparedness of Albanian educators in regard to digital education and explores opportunities and identifies challenges for coping with enhancing digital development.

A documentary review was conducted on the production and publication of research papers on studying the variable Digital Transformation, Education and COVID-19. The bibliometric analysis proposed in this document aims to know the main characteristics of the volume of publications registered in the Scopus database from 2020 to 2022, achieving the identification of 464 publications in total. The information provided by this platform was organized using tables and figures, categorizing the information by Year of Publication, Country of Origin, Area of Knowledge and Type of Publication. Once these characteristics were described, the position of different authors regarding the proposed topic was referenced through qualitative analysis. Among the main findings of this research, it is found that Spain, with 49 publications, was the country with the highest global production. The area of knowledge that made the most significant contribution to the construction of bibliographic material related to the study of Digital Transformation, Education and COVID-19 was the area of Social Sciences with 253 published documents, and the type of publication that was most used during the period mentioned above was the journal article, representing 54% of the total scientific production.

The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized the education system and forced fundamental changes in the teaching-learning process. The present study aims to explore various modes of education used by educational institutions across the world and provide a holistic understanding of different measures taken by governments and universities to endure the crippling crisis. The radical shift to digital pedagogy followed by online assessments and examinations brought new experiences to both educators and learners. This paper elucidates the extraordinary challenges encountered by various stakeholders in making the required shift to digital learning and the substantial attempts made by educational institutions to minimize learning losses. The paper also presents various opportunities induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the need to develop appropriate mechanisms to deal with such an unforeseen crisis in future. To this effect, some recommendations have been made that may enable educational institutions to eliminate adversities and maintain academic integrity in tempestuous times.

This conceptual and descriptive study examines the critical issues, challenges and priorities for European higher education (HE) leaders, drawing upon the theory, practice and experience of leaders inside and outside the open and distance learning (ODL) field. Focussing on the emerging vantage points of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), global trends and the post-pandemic HE landscape, the article discusses their impact on organisational architecture and the emerging leadership roles for driving organisational values, change and sustainability. The authors argue that to maintain institutional stability and agility, leaders must interpret the current zeitgeist to set priorities, build decision-action packages and embrace a new organisational architecture: one characterised by flexible structures, a clear vision of the desired future, a culture of trust and openness, a comprehensive and deep understanding and optimum application of employee skill and talent, and the effective implementation of digital tools and curriculum structures in pedagogically meaningful ways. Leaders must be adaptable, agile and innovative, with the capacity to understand, identify and support the forms of leadership appropriate to their strategic objectives and institutional culture. The paper concludes by targeting critical priorities and actions that leaders must navigate to create innovative and dynamic futures for their institutions.

Purpose: Digital literacy is not the mere ability to use a digital device or know to use various software. It is a domain of exploration for sociology, psychology, education and, of course, technology. This study aims to present a quantitative analysis of the literature on digital literacy using a bibliometric approach. Design/methodology/approach: Using data from the Web of Science database, the importance of the research is evaluated by reviewing 2307 publications and examining the yearly publication, field category productivity, citation structure, most cited resources, documents, most-cited authors, most productive authors, and country in the field of digital literacy. Further, a cluster analysis is conducted to see the most recurrent keywords and emerging trends in this field. At last, the authors analyzed the thematic progression of keywords over these five years based on the normalized citations. Additionally, a graphical representation of the bibliometric data using VOSviewer is presented in the paper. Findings: The results suggest a steady rate of publication in this field, with most of the research published in education and library fields and the USA leading the country in this realm. The emerging themes in this field are 'Fake News', 'Competence', 'Educational Technology', 'Health Literacy', 'Self-Efficacy' and, interestingly, 'COVID-19'. The results also revealed that COVID-19 has been examined and associated with fake news, higher education, social media and information literacy. Originality/value: This paper provides an overall summary of the most recent research work published from 2017 to 2021 on digital literacy in the backdrop of COVID-19. The study presents the thematic progression over the years and particularly the new keywords that emerged in the limelight of the pandemic. It contributes by updating the existing body of knowledge in the field of digital literacy and presents preliminary results related to COVID-19.

Purpose: This paper reflects on changes to end-point assessment (EPA) brought about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and considers how proposed future change will impact on training providers and employers of health apprentices. Design/methodology/approach: The paper provides an analysis of apprenticeship policy, the role of EPA and consideration of assessment strategies used in higher education and health professions. Implications for policy, training providers and clinical practice are proposed. Findings: These changes will bring the completion of EPA closer to education providers and allow them to take a more direct role within the process. Education providers will need to be issued with clear guidance to ensure regulatory compliance. The pedagogical value of EPA is questioned. Originality/value: Training providers and policymakers will need to review their processes and guidance appropriately. This paper provides a summary of salient points needing consideration.

Surprisingly, distance education is quite an old concept. Its origins date back to the first correspondence-based course, which took place via the postal service in Boston, USA, in the 18th century. Rapid technological developments, especially in video and audio streaming, have increased the availability of such courses and moved learning into the virtual world. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are witnessing an accelerated revolution in the learning process, as nearly all forms of education have been shifted online. Will this have a destructive effect on the human psyche? Is humanity sufficiently aware and ready for such a dramatic change? Will we return to physical in-classroom studies, or is remote distance education set to become the new norm? In particular, in medicine, computer science, fine arts, or architectural design, such a rapid change in the way students learn can be quite challenging. In this paper, we provide an overview of the history of distance learning, taking into account teachers' and students' points of view in both secondary and higher education.

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, the education sector soon faced the unprecedented challenge of moving courses online within no time. The rapid implementation of emergency remote teaching (ERT) led to students and teachers alike being thrown into an emotional terra incognita. This paper sets out to explore if foreign language (LX) grit, learners' passion and perseverance for LX learning, is a predictor of learners' foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and their foreign language anxiety (FLCA) in LX classes taught remotely due to COVID-19. Additionally, the role of trait emotional intelligence (TEI) in mediating the connections between LX grit, FLE, and FLCA is investigated. With a web survey, data were collected from 481 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Europe. Regression analyses indicated that LX grit was a reliable predictor of FLE and TEI. TEI functioned as a partial mediator in the model, explaining a significant proportion of variance (14.3%) in FLE scores. Thus, grittier students, who were also more emotionally intelligent, reported enjoying their English classes more. LX grit was also shown to be a reliable predictor of FLCA. In this case, TEI functioned as a full mediator in the model, explaining 22.5% of the variance in FCLA scores. Therefore, lower TEI scores were linked to higher levels of FLCA. Less gritty EFL learners scored lower on TEI, which consequently determined higher levels of FLCA. Data from two open-ended questions revealed that particularly enjoyable or anxiety-provoking episodes during ERT were similar among all learners. While positive group dynamics, teachers' forgiving nature and easy-going disposition, humor as well as the innovative use of technology were mentioned as common factors boosting their FLE, speaking in front of strangers, overwhelming workload and technology-related aspects were frequently mentioned sources of anxiety.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, children with disabilities were confronted with ableist discourses that justified unfair policy measures. This study is concerned with the discourses recorded in a range of education documents, published during the pandemic within the Republic of Cyprus. It employs an interdisciplinary framework, informed by Critical Discourse Analysis, Inclusive Education, and Critical Disability Studies, to examine the powerful actors and the ideologies that influenced the formation of discourses. The paper undertakes a critical interpretation of the disability discourses developed in Cyprus during the pandemic, links this with other relevant research conducted in other European countries prior to and during the pandemic, and suggests policy actions/measures that value children with disabilities and their families.

In this paper we make a case for 'Little Data', which is real-time, self-collected, idiosyncratic datasets maintained by individuals about themselves on myriad topics. We develop and offer a methodology for combining these messy, highly personal insights, to make deductive observations about collective practices. In testing this approach, we use the case study of the 2020-21 stay-at-home orders imposed in the U.S.A., U.K., and Western Europe during the Coronavirus pandemic to operationalise and demonstrate the applicability of this method. Our main finding is to show that whilst stay-at-home orders did have a significant impact on habits during the COVID-19 pandemic, these changes were often counterintuitive, of an insightful nature on topics that would otherwise not be investigated, and always short-lived. Our main contribution is to present Little Data, despite and because of its fragmented and disparate nature, as a viable and useful tool to understand personal habits at finite junctures.

During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, edX launched an initiative, called the Remote Access Program, to give access to free certificates for its Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to the communities of its partners. This paper describes the experience of a Higher Education (HE) institution in Europe participating in this initiative as a strategic action to spread MOOCs, not just as a resource to open the university educational offer but also to improve the professional development possibilities of its community. This case study explores general data about the participation of over 7,700 people (23,4% of the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia's community) in these courses and data from participants (1,515) about their initiative perceptions. The data obtained evaluates how a university community integrates MOOCs into their day-to-day life under certain conditions and their perception of the quality and usefulness of the courses. Data shows most of the community did not have experience or knowledge about MOOCs (73%), they used it (they obtained 5,202 certificates, a 33% completion rate), they value the course quality (4.1/5) and are happy with the initiative (4.7/5), and they think MOOCs will be useful for their career (3.67/5) and will take more MOOCs in the future (98%, with 71% thinking it is worth paying for the certificate). These results remark the importance of thinking about MOOCs in HE Institutions not just as a punctual resource but as a strategic investment affecting the university teaching offer, the professional development of its community, and their social compromise.

The competition of civilizations forced the European universities to adapt to the competition with the Chinese and American universities. European integration cannot advance without the collaboration between European universities. An answer to these challenges is the CIVICA project, the European University of Social Sciences, a consortium of the following universities: Bocconi University (Italy), Central European University (Hungary), European University Institute (European Intergovernmental Organization), Hertie School of Governance (Germany), The National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Romania), Sciences Po (France) and the School of Economics in Stockholm (Sweden). This experiment aims to become one of the European pilot universities, in the first round of applications for Erasmus+ in February 2019. The experiment takes into consideration the most important resource of a country: the human resource. The network of universities that are part of the CIVICA consortium will group approximately 38,000 students, 7,000 teachers and 3,000 people from the administrative apparatus. The London School of Economics is part of the CIVICA consortium, as an associate partner. At the Bucharest conference, the public presentation of the consortium and its objectives, the rectors of the seven universities set out to educate the future generations of professionals in social sciences, in order to solve the most pressing problems of the world. Creating a European identity is essentially the long-term, fundamental objective of the CIVICA consortium. In the context of this conference, we interviewed a few representatives of CIVICA, and their answers will be analyzed in this paper's section dedicated to the results of the research.

With schools and universities closing across Europe, the COVID-19 lockdown left actors in the field of education battling with the unprecedented challenge of finding a meaningful way to keep the wheels of education turning online. The sudden need for digital solutions across the field of education resulted in the emergence of a variety of digital networks and collaborative online platforms. In this joint article from scholars around Europe, we explore the COVID-19 lockdowns of physical education across the European region, and the different processes of emergency digitalization that followed in their wake. Spanning perspectives from Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Nordic countries, the article's five cases provide a glimpse of how these processes have at the same time accelerated and consolidated the involvement of various commercial and non-commercial actors in public education infrastructures. By gathering documentation, registering dynamics, and making intimations of the crisis as it unfolded, the aim of the joint paper is to provide an opportunity for considering the implications of these accelerations and consolidations for the heterogeneous futures of European education.

This paper examines data gathered from Jewish day school students in North America, Europe and Argentina about their experiences of remote schooling during the first 4 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data report on student access to technology, student satisfaction with the remote-learning pedagogies their schools employed, students' feelings about what they gained from this experience, and how Judaic studies and general studies compared when delivered remotely. The paper provides an opportunity to probe cultural and structural differences between day school education in different cultural contexts and especially the differences between more communitarian and more individualistic school orientations.

The paper addresses the impact of COVID-19 on vocational education and training, seeking to discern the outline of possible directions for its future development within the debates about VET responses to the pandemic. The discussion is set in its socio-economic context, considering debates that engage with the social relations of care and neo-liberalism. The paper analyses discourses that have developed around VET across the world during the pandemic, illustrating both possible continuities and ruptures that may emerge in this field, as the health crisis becomes overshadowed in public policy by the prioritisation of economic recovery and social restoration. The paper concludes that, alongside the possibility of a narrowing of VET to its most prosaic aims and practices, the health crisis could also lead to a re-conceptualisation that develops its radical and emancipatory possibilities in both the global south and north.

Based on interviews with a global sample of ITE [initial teacher education] leaders, this paper explores whether the changes forced on institutions and individuals as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic can be classed as innovation. The paper goes beyond collating the various practical and organisational changes the ITE leaders made and instead focuses on the kind of changes enacted around the world and whether and how these changes can be seen as adding new value to historical ITE practices. Given the consistency of responses evident across the sample of teacher education leaders around the world, the paper concludes with a discussion of potentially global implications of the shifts in ITE practices reported and suggests that COVID-19 has indeed stimulated an innovative stance often perceived to be lacking in the sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic meant a move to emergency remote teaching for many university students around March 2020. Two months later, we undertook an online survey to ascertain experiences of university mathematics lecturers. We received responses from 257 mathematics lecturers from 29 countries. In this paper, we consider their responses when asked what advice they would give to colleagues, based on their experience of online teaching to date. We gather their collective wisdom under a number of themes, including technology options, effective online teaching approaches, and supporting students, as well as reducing stress and setting realistic expectations for both learners and teachers.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted chemistry teaching practices globally as many courses were forced online, necessitating adaptation to the digital platform. The biggest impact was to the practical component of the chemistry curriculum--the so-called wet lab. Naively, it would be thought that computer-based teaching laboratories would have little problem in making the move. However, this is not the case as there are many unrecognized differences between delivering computer-based teaching in-person and virtually: software issues, technology, and classroom management. Consequently, relatively few "hands-on" computational chemistry teaching laboratories are delivered online. In this paper, we describe these issues in more detail and how they can be addressed, drawing on our experience in delivering a third-year computational chemistry course as well as remote hands-on workshops for the Virtual Winter School on Computational Chemistry and the European BIG-MAP project.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments worldwide to produce solutions to the abruptly interrupted work in education. School systems appear to have responded rapidly, creating home schooling and online educational environments, where teachers and students would interact with safety. In this paper, we attempt a synthesis of Sen's capability approach, Bourdieu's theory of capital and Bernstein's framework in order to theorize the relationships between home and school conditions and practices, and to analyse the data of the 2nd Survey of Schools: ICT in Education (a survey conducted in 2019 on behalf of the European Commission collecting data regarding digitalization in education and digital technologies in learning in the European Union). The survey is complemented by a second set of indicators provided by Eurostat to further investigate the availability and functionality of household space per family in selected European countries. We find significant differences in important social and environmental conversion factors, likely limiting children's capability to benefit from digital schooling. The most important differences are found in regard to parents' familiarity with information and communications technology use, while inequalities in environmental factors, such as overcrowded housing, are also existent. Overall, there are large inequalities within and between countries in Europe, which need to be addressed by policymakers.

The underlying methodological approach of the CEFR is defined as being "action-oriented" and task-based (Council of Europe. 2001. "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment." Cambridge University Press: 9), although it explicitly leaves room for a variety of approaches, since the CEFR is a framework document. The action-oriented approach is, however, not coherently developed throughout the publication as it does not explain its application in assessment (Chapter 9). Chapter 9 presents a general introduction to the principles of language assessment but does not explain how the assessment can be contextualised so that the test-taker acts as a "social agent". Although related documents on testing and assessment such as the "Manual for Relating Language Examinations to the CEFR" (Council of Europe 2009) and the "Manual for Language Test Development and Examining" (Council of Europe 2011) provide tools on assessment practices, they do not explain how to conceptualise an action-oriented task-based assessment. The CEFR Companion Volume (Council of Europe 2020) also stresses the underlying action-oriented approach of the CEFR in teaching and learning, but as it focuses explicitly on teaching and learning, it too does not cover the area of testing and assessment. For university language teaching, learning and assessment, it is necessary to develop a coherent, holistic methodology that applies the action-oriented and task-based approach to language teaching, learning and assessment, and applies a constructive alignment, which has a particular focus on the learner as a social agent. Initially, this requires the development of course content and the related assessment tasks to be based on a thorough needs analysis for a specific language teaching programme. In this way, university language centres can rethink their approach to teaching and assessment and implement changes both in their teaching and in their assessment and testing in order to offer a more coherent programme to their learners, which makes better use of the CEFR Framework. This paper summarises the principles of task-based language testing and explains in which contexts this approach might be particularly fruitful. It also presents the author's experience gained in implementing the approach at institutional and national levels, and the challenges involved in managing this change.