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Due to the recent developments in the delivery of teaching-learning processes when COVID-19 hit the world with a health crisis and pandemic, it is crucial to look into the quality of courses delivered via online means or through distance education modality. This paper examines implementation and application of quality assurance (QA) landscape in Distance Education (DE). A documentary review using bibliographic inquiry is used as a methodology approach to gather relevant information to address the study questions. Previous studies on QA in DE are examined and arranged into themes using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that most of the literature on QA in DE in Africa and Asia based on the reviewed Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions are basically dealing with frameworks, outcomes and performance, instructional design, student services and challenges as well as parity in terms of quality with the traditional institutions. Therefore, this paper concludes that more studies are needed for QA in DE to match the post-COVID-19 trends on improving QA. This implies that there is a need to expand research on QA in DE to include areas of artificial intelligence.

Chatbots have experienced significant growth over the past decade, with a proliferation of new applications across various domains. Previous studies also demonstrate the trend of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence, being adopted in libraries. The purpose of this study is to determine the current research priorities and findings in the field of chatbots in libraries. A systematic literature review was performed utilising the PRISMA checklist and the databases Scopus and Web of Science, identifying 5734 records. Upon conducting the first screening, abstract screening, full-text assessment, and quality assessments guided by the CASP appraisal checklist, 19 papers were deemed suitable for inclusion in the review. The results of the review indicate that the majority of the existing studies were empirical in nature (primarily adopting qualitative methods) and technology reviews with a focus on reviewing the implementation and maintenance, design, evaluation, characteristics, and application of chatbots. The chatbots of interest were mainly text-based and guided chatbots, with closed-source tools with access portals mostly built on library web pages or integrated with social software. The research findings primarily concerned the development models and necessary tools and technologies, the application of chatbots in libraries. Our systematic review also suggests that studies on chatbots in libraries are still in the early stages. [This paper was presented at the 2023 Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) International Conference (Osijek, Croatia, May 24-26, 2023).]

This paper illustrates the mutually constitutive processes of race and neoliberalism in the labour market navigation and integration for Black Caribbean and South/Southeast Asian international student graduates in Canada. The data was gathered from recent international students and key informants in Canada's immigration policy circle using semi-structured interviews. The paper reveals that international student graduates (ISGs) are constrained to seek out precarious and low-skilled forms of employment and participate in a labour market that profits from cheap, exploitable flexible labour. Participants in areas outside the populous Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are perceived as contingent workers. The paper concludes with an argument for centering both race and neoliberalism in future empirical studies of ISG labour market integration.

The OER movement originated and integrated into ODE developments. Mega Universities (MUs) are among the most important of ODE providers worldwide should be to be the primary organizations for providing access to OER. So far, however, in-depth studies on OER developments in the Asian MUs were very limited. This study focuses on the developments, motives, openness, and sustainability of OER at the six MUs official websites in Asia. Data were collected for six months using the documentation techniques and analyzed using web content or textual analyze. Results of the study shown, that: (1) OER developments on the Asian MUs' were an ongoing process, multiyear program, and developed into three characteristics: special projects or initiatives; uploading the existing learning resources collections on the Website; and by taken out-links to the centers of OER websites worldwide. Contents of OER are very rich, diverse in categories, forms, and organized integrally into "One Stop Window". The OER materials have developed by university as well as by joined with various parties of internal and external universities; (2) OER developments are based on three motives: the altruistic motivation of sharing, ego-boost motivation, and combination of both; (3) The OER openness for use or reuse by others can be classified into five categories: openness in the public domain; openness under provision by any license; openness under guarantee by government Laws, policies, missions or visions; openness under guarantee by universities policies, missions or visions; and openness because it was developed as a special initiative of the universities; and (4) Sustainability models that have been used by MUs to makes OER become viable, and stable for the long-term are institutional, governmental, workflow, user-centered, wiki, and social software models.

This paper reports the findings of a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer on 392 Scopus database documents published from 2003 to 2022, aiming to understand the global landscape of the e-learning field and to identify the most prominent authors, institutions, countries and reference publications, as well as the research topics that have recently received the most attention in students' readiness for e-learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The findings indicate that there has been an upward trend in e-learning readiness among students in HEIs over time. Among the countries studied, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, and Malaysia were found to have the most effective approaches to addressing students' readiness for e-learning. The most highly cited author in this field is M-L. Hung. Based on the citations, the most recognised journal in this field was "Computers and Education" and the universities that were most persuasive were two Taiwan universities in the first position. The data also revealed relatively low levels of collaboration among authors, institutions and nations regarding students' readiness for e-learning.

Distance education has emerged out of social compulsion, the dynamics of change and new cultures. It was the failure of traditional systems to be able to meet the demand in countries, where the resources available for tertiary education are limited, which basically gave birth to the new trend of education known as open and distance education. This new and innovative system of education has received a high level of acceptance in different countries as it offers flexible educational opportunities for continuing education to a large segment of their population. The increasing number of older adult learners with varying lifestyles in the population, increasing competitiveness of getting places in tertiary institutions, higher cost of education and a shortage of teachers are the main factors for increasing the popularity of distance education (Duncan, "et al.," 2003). Bangladesh has also taken the opportunity to provide a uniform and mass oriented universal system of education through open and distance education establishing Bangladesh Open University (BOU) in 1992. Objectives of the Study: The main objectives of this study are: (1) to assess the overall status of BOU in comparison with the open universities of two neighboring South Asian countries considering the following aspects: (a) Administrative structural functions; (b) Courses and instructional strategies; (c) Learning opportunities, and (d) Library, laboratory and counselling facilities; (2) to explore the potential of improvement for BOU to enable it to meet the challenges of the country's educational needs in the next millennium. (Contains 1 figure and 8 tables.)

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.

The question of SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) diasporic identity formation has been widely debated in area studies, ethnic studies, and the burgeoning field of Arab American Studies with scholars such as Sarah Gualtieri (2009), Nadine Naber (2012), and Neda Maghbouleh (2017) arguing that people of SWANA descent are racial minorities even though the U.S. government classifies them as white. However, these works have not adequately addressed SWANA racialization in the context of higher education following 9/11. This co-authored paper closely examines institutionalized SWANA erasure from the shared intersectional perspective of one faculty member, one graduate student, and two undergraduate students at a California State University campus in Southern California. Specifically, in this co-authored paper, we draw on our individual and collective co-organizing experiences to illustrate (a) the persistence of specific structural inequities that SWANA heritage people face in the academy, (b) the multilayered impact of these educational barriers, and (c) our wide range of ongoing activist responses to them. We say "khalas!" (enough!) to systemic oppression and argue that the ultimate antidote to institutionalized SWANA erasure is solidarity within and between marginalized subjects at every level of academia in the service of anti-racist and anti-colonial education. This co-authored paper uplifts SWANA resilience and resistance in California's most diverse public university system to shed new light on the understudied issue of how higher education perpetuates SWANA racialization.

This paper draws attention to the current and possible effects of COVID-19 on the mobility trajectories of mainland Chinese students studying in Asia. By drawing on 35 biographical interviews, this paper focuses on their decision to study in Asian countries and regions. Particularly, it calls for more attention to Asia in global student mobilities and discusses whether COVID-19 has changed the position of Asia in the global landscape of student mobility. Results show that even if COVID-19 provides an opportunity for Asian universities to embrace more international students, Asia still lacks the capability to attract great numbers of them. Finally, the study argues that college students' choice of mobility destinations is shaped by their perception of the central-periphery structure of higher education, which is hard to be shaken by the pandemic.

This collective response paper concludes the Special Issue on "Revisiting 'Asia as Method' in Education Research: Toward Ontologies and Epistemologies of Difference." The paper provides reflections, constructive critiques, and key learnings from individual papers and the Special Issue as a whole. A key feature of the paper is the dialogue and inter-referencing it fosters among and between the discussants, authors, and academic journals. As decolonization in education is an ongoing struggle, this paper is a call to continue the work for ontological and epistemic justice in/through higher education.

This qualitative analysis describes the socialist legacy in the governance of higher education within the former Soviet-led member countries that entered the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) between 2001 and 2010. In joining the EHEA these countries signed on for the Bologna Process (BP), but are not members of the European Union. The analysis is based on EHEA BP Country Reports and a survey of Western academic literature and sources from the former-socialist region. It is argued that ministries of education are little engaged with academic and civic communities, in large part because policymakers underestimate the depth of the cultural and institutional changes that are necessary for educational reforms. Therefore, deep convergence of the new signatory countries to the EHEA via the BP has not occurred. Concurrently, West European measures intended to empower educational communities operate perversely in the post-socialist region, characterised by low civic and state capacities. The over-emphasis on bureaucratic checks and controls negates two important aspirations of Bologna: on the one side, university autonomy, empowerment of faculty, and development of local communities; and on the other side, the free flow of international knowledge. Without an adjustment of policies, the prospects for effective reforms are dimmed.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) report (2007) highlights that labour productivity, education and migration play important roles in shaping competitiveness, growth and development in Southeast Asia. The statistics also reveal interesting aspects of labour mobility. Thirteen and a half million migrants originate from countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and this number is continuously increasing. Using primary and secondary data, this paper describes the trend in labour mobility and relevant TVET initiatives in response to the trend at the regional, national and school levels. Some of the ongoing initiatives at the regional and national levels include Regional Skills Recognition and mutual agreements, the progress on the National Qualifications Framework, quality assurance in TVET, and bilateral and multi-lateral agreements. In addition, this paper describes some salient initiatives at the school level in response to labour mobility, such as improvement of programmes and school curriculum, teaching-learning processes, and providing timely job information for graduates of TVET. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

This paper addresses how the Writing Center, a common writing support service originated in the USA, takes shape and evolves as it finds new homes in universities in the Asia-Pacific Region. Using the available literature on existing writing centers in scholarly databases, the paper explores the motivations behind the establishment of these institutional writing centers, their roles in supporting the programs of their host university, their organizational operation, types of services provided, as well as innovative programs (i.e., bilingual support during consultation and the addition of tutors who are content experts). Taken together, the findings offer a sketch of how these Writing Centers takes on different shapes to match the local realities and make them more relevant to the community they serve. Consequently, it may offer guidance to other universities outside North America (e.g., other regions of Asia and Latin American regions) planning to conceptualize or initiate a Writing Center.

By reviewing regulative documents and extant literature, this paper explores the realities and trends of international students in East and Southeast Asia (ESA). It also shows motivation and strategies of four new players in the international higher education sector in East and Southeast Asia i.e., China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia. Apart from showing that intraregional students have not predominated the overall international student population in the region anymore, the paper highlights that ESA region has become an established hub of international students rather than a new emerging destination as it was in previous years. The overall net flow of international students in this region was still deficit prior to 2010s, but the deficit in 2017 is still less than that of 2010?s. This is probably the first study of its kind to examine the trends of international students as well as of higher education policies of countries in the ESA region. The findings of this study shall provide an insight into international higher education trends among the ESA countries for stakeholders, including policymakers, university managers, faculty, students, and parents.

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.

This paper is a complete student-led, student-edited collective writing project (CWP) conducted virtually in Spring 2022 throughout the course Knowledge Socialism taught by professor Michael Peters for the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal university. The CWP involves 4 international, 5 domestic Ph.D. students, and 2 senior Western scholars as reviewers, revealing their thoughts, arguments, understanding, and criticisms towards the creative economy status in East Asian countries (Japan and China mostly) higher education as reflected in the knowledge socialism narratives. Xiyuan as the lead author, co-editing with Woraport and Stefan, assigned each section to other authors and successfully devoted themself to organizing, proofreading, and revising the paper. Through a month of collective work, the final version of the paper elaborates on the contribution of East Asian creative universities and the economy as a whole to the knowledge socialism through co(labor)ation, with implications to the creative labors cultivation and shifted roles of students.

Purpose: This paper explores the issue of developing and enhancing intra-ASEAN international student mobility given the context of ASEAN integration, regionalization of ASEAN higher education and the various intra-ASEAN student mobility schemes currently implemented. Design/methodology/approach: It explores higher education policies, available higher education and international student mobility data, as well as the various intra-ASEAN (and relevant) student mobility schemes to present the current status of intra-ASEAN student mobility, challenges and opportunities to further enhance student mobility within the ASEAN region. Findings: Aside from showing that intra-ASEAN student mobility is significantly low compared to outbound student mobility from ASEAN countries, the paper also highlights the relationship between a country's income status with choice of intra-ASEAN or extraASEAN student mobility. Finally, it recommends developing a comprehensive intra-ASEAN mobility scheme taking the merits of the various intra-ASEAN mobility schemes currently implemented and guided by developments in the European ERASMUS mobility programs. Originality/value: This is probably the first (in fact, it is an exploratory) paper that address the issue of intra-ASEAN international student mobility, which aims to explore relevant issues to address the development of a comprehensive ASEAN mobility scheme.

This article was originally presented as a position paper at the Symposium on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Social Development held in Jakarta by the ASEAN Foundation Collaboratory (May 2006). Its main premise is that, while there is growing use of open and distance learning (ODL) in formal and nonformal education and training in Asia, planning and practice are not always informed by rigorous and sustained research and evaluation. The article identifies shortcomings in current ODL research, and suggests ways of advancing the research agenda in open and distance learning in Asia to provide strategically significant and robust information for policy makers, planners, and managers; to improve professional understanding and practice; and to enable ODL to become a more scholarly activity. (Contains 3 tables and 20 notes.)

Within an ever-increasing time of globalisation, globalised learning and international mobility, international professional experience can provide a range of opportunities for personal and academic growth. Perhaps unsurprisingly, pre-service teachers commonly attest to the positive impact of international placements. What is less well understood is the impact on the learning and teaching that occurs at the university curriculum level prior to and after an international placement. An emergent aspect of this research and the focus of this paper is the impact of these experiences in terms of what they offer the university teaching and learning context. To gain a further understanding of the extent of these impacts, a set of reflective narratives from 10 pre-service teachers and seven teacher educators were gathered and analysed using inductive, thematic analysis. The findings showed that for pre-service teachers and teacher educators that context both culturally and educationally were paramount. The reflections highlighted the impact on the development of a range of general capabilities for both sets of participants. Additionally, international placement experiences increased levels of reflection for both pre-service teachers and teacher educators, which led to further understanding and refining their teacherly identity.

Emergence and development of the blockchain technology, which is able to transform into "a most powerful disruptive innovation", shall definitely concern universities. Moreover, nowadays the blockchain technology meets the challenges that both the system of higher education and the entire society are currently facing. Advantages of the blockchain technology are decentralized open data, absence of forgeries, safe storage of information, and reduction of transaction expenses related to data checkup, control, and verification. This paper provides a critical analysis of application of the blockchain technology considering with its applicability opportunities and restrictions in education; it also aims to identify the consequences of its influence upon the development of education. The article analyzes real cases when this technology was applied, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an example. The MIT applied it to protect and validate the certificates that it issued. Another example is the Sony Global Education that forms individual data on its trainees' competencies and productivity; a third one relates to the University of Nicosia, which was the first to use smart contracts and accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment. The paper also considers the elements of the blockchain technology at universities (both in Russia and outside it), which participate in massive open online courses. It determines the scope of application of this technology in the Russian educational system. In addition, this article provides a literature review related to application of the blockchain technology; the review includes works by such renowned researchers as D. Tapscott, B. Bleir, A. Watters, A. Grech, A. Camilleri, M. Swan, A. Zaslavsky, etc. The paper analyzes the obtained findings of the survey that its authors have conducted among experts, professors, and specialists involved in accreditation. Thus, the paper provides an analysis of opportunities and restrictions related to application of the blockchain technology in higher education.

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.

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 aims to examine the relationships between undergraduate management students' emotional interest (EI) and cognitive interest (CI) in research methods (RMs), the perceived applicability of RMs to future careers and motivation to study RMs within the Asian higher education context. This draws implications for better pedagogical approaches to motivating them to study RMs. Design/methodology/approach: A pre-post-semester cohort study design was conducted with 172 undergraduate management students enrolled on an RMs subject by means of a self-administrated online survey using Qualtrics. A total of 170 students responded to the pre-semester survey and 116 students to the post-semester one. The main instrument was adapted from Mazer's (2012) study interest scale. Regression analysis was applied to investigating the relationship between students' EI and CI in RMs with perceived applicability of RMs to future careers and their motivation to study RMs. Findings: The findings have shown that there was a significant relationship between undergraduate management students' CI and EI and perceived applicability of RMs to future careers and their study motivation towards RMs. The regression model built on the two independent variables of students' EI in RMs and their perceived applicability of RMs to future careers served to have higher accuracy in predicting their study motivation. Originality/value: This paper contributes to enriching the conceptual understanding of the conflating influences of undergraduate management students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels on studying RMs within the Asian higher education context. Practically, this study explores different pedagogical approaches to better motivating students to study RMs.

This paper discusses empirical comparisons of higher education institutions across world regions. It argues that institutional data systems have the potential for complementing global comparisons promoted by rankings by providing sensible information on institutional size, budgets, staffing, enrolments and activity profiles. With this perspective in hand, this paper tackles three questions. First, how is it feasible to identify Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) given their complex structures? Second, how is it feasible to define the perimeter of HEI sectors? Third, what kinds of data could be used for comparison, and where are the main data gaps? By analysing institutional data systems across the United States, Europe and Asia, the paper concludes that institutional data systems display some remarkable similarities that make them an important resource for global comparisons; however, variation in the context of data production and usage implies differences in the higher education perimeter and on institutional delimitation; sensible comparisons, therefore, require explicit knowledge of the institutional context in which data have been borne.

By applying New Regionalism Approach, this paper delves into a rather unexplored area of regionalism (higher education) in a less investigated region (Southeast Asia) and state (Philippines). It treads through a relatively recent terrain of bridge-building between higher education and regionalism. Through in-depth interviews and document analysis, the exploratory study investigates how ASEAN regionalism has influenced the cross-border research of a Philippine university. Examining cross-border research sheds light on the dynamics of ASEAN regionalism as research is considered crucial to the formation of a knowledge society, which, in turn, serves as a potent tool to pursue regional and national objectives. The findings of this study demonstrate that the ASEAN higher education regionalism offers vital mechanisms to enhance the university's research performance and its overall competitiveness in an era of globalisation. However, in spite of these advantages, there are ideational, political and material challenges that pose limits to this potential. The paper argues that cross-border research has not yet been robustly activated as a mechanism for regional and national pursuits, and that the points of collaborations and contestations are still to be addressed adequately to maximise the promises and mitigate the perils of ASEAN higher education regionalism.

This paper introduces a relatively novel theoretical approach to investigate cross border student mobilities in East Asia, a region growing in importance as a provider of international education. It does so by bringing Sara Ahmad's writings on the sociality of emotions, with Jacques Derrida's analyses of hospitality. We draw on empirical data from a cross national study to explore the emotions that shape student decisions to choose East Asian study destinations. By problematising the gift of the scholarship, using Derridean understandings of hospitality, we reveal the limits of contemporary forms of international education. Reflecting on histories of Asia-focused student mobilities, the paper highlights the entanglements of hostility and hospitality, and the inseparability of hosts and guests. It is this realisation that will enable ethical, non-exploitative forms of education.

Purpose: This paper aims to understand the development track of skills mismatch research and discover the hidden internal connections between literature. Design/methodology/approach: The authors gathered data through scientometric quantitative analysis using CiteSpace. Specifically, this article applied basic analysis, journal cocitation analysis (JCA), author cocitation analysis (ACA) and document cocitation analysis (DCA), cluster analysis, citation burstness detection, scientific research cooperation analysis and coconcurrence analysis of keywords of 3,125 documents from Web of Science core collections for the period 2000-2020. Findings: Through the document cocitation analysis and the keywords' co-occurrence, this article identifies influential scholars, documents, research institutions, journals and research hotspots in research on the skills mismatch phenomenon. The results showed that the publications had ballooned, and the phenomenon has become an interdisciplinary research subject. The USA and Finland remain the main contributors, which is attributed to their high-yield institutions such as the University of Helsinki, the University of Witwatersrand, the University of Washington and so on. While the African continent lacks research on skills mismatch even with the continent's effort to overcome such a crucial issue. The paper presents an in-depth analysis of skills and educational mismatch issues to better understand the evolutionary trajectory of the collective knowledge over the past 20 years and highlight the areas of active pursuit. Research limitations/implications: The authors only used Web of Science core collection to collect data; however, they can added Scopus indexed database as well to extend the research trends and explore more new research hot topics to solve the skills mismatch phenomenon. Originality/value: The scientometric analysis is of great significance for identifying the potential relationship between the literature and investigating the knowledge evolution of skills mismatch research. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Labor Organization and the World Health Organization are the giants who are mostly concerned of the mismatch skills phenomenon. Researchers can refer to this study to understand the status quo, gaps and research trends to deal with the skills mismatch issue.

Students' action competence must be taught and developed, particularly for prospective science teachers, to have a pedagogical perspective as environmental educators. As indicated by publications in respected journals, researchers' focus and alignment on the issue of action competence are highly expected. This systematic literature review aims to compare the findings of research articles published by Web of Science-indexed journals. The keyword used to find the articles on the Web of Science's database was "action competence," which discovered 193 publications. Furthermore, 25 articles met the criteria to be analyzed. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis was the inclusion and exclusion model used. In the last three years, research focused on action competence has increased. The research employed several methods, i.e., qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, and development research. Jelle Boevede Pauw and Wanda Sass were the authors who frequently published research that focused on action competence. The keyword action competence was directly associated with environmental education, sustainable development, education-based learning for sustainable development, and evaluation. The authors who published their research with this focus were from 16 countries, mainly from Europe, i.e., Sweden, Belgium, and Denmark. The continent diversity of authors who contributed articles indicated that the action competence issue had become a global concern. Furthermore, it was found that the number of non-collaborating publications (universities or countries) was higher than those collaborating, even though single authors rarely wrote the articles. The recent trend shows that publications are authored by scientists with various backgrounds such as fields, universities, and even countries. The authors of this paper developed and proposed eight ideas to be reflected by prospective science teachers or science teacher education providers in educating future science teachers concerned about action competence about sustainable development.

Speaking skills had always been the most challenging skill among the pupils in language learning. The flipped learning approach is an innovative teaching and learning pedagogy that creates better learning experiences in order to improve pupils' speaking skills. Therefore, this systematic literature review focuses on flipped learning approach in improving pupils' speaking skills. This analysis is done based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) review methodology. A total of 39 articles related to flipped learning in improving speaking skills published between 2017 to 2020 were identified from Scopus, Google Scholar and ERIC databases. Based on the results, self-regulated learning, interaction, motivation and achievement were the key themes that promotes the benefit of flipped learning to improve pupils' speaking skills. Hence, this paper is beneficial to policy makers, educators and students in utilizing flipped learning approach to improve pupils' speaking skills from various levels of education.

In this paper we consider the experiences of international students studying in Norway, analysing data from more than 5,000 survey respondents. Variations according to students' region of origin and whether they are full degree students or exchange students are the focus. Students report a high level of overall satisfaction, exchange students in particular, and the vast majority of students are content with the quality of teaching. Students from the African continent report being more content than others, despite struggling somewhat more with academic demands and having weaker social networks, something they have in common with Asian students. Multivariate analyses show that type of mobility (full degree cf. exchange), region of origin, coping with academic demands, satisfaction with teaching and interaction with Norwegians are predictors of overall satisfaction with studying in Norway. The patterns observed are assumed to be related to prior experiences and expectations.

Prevalence of contract cheating and outsourcing through organised methods has received interest in research studies aiming to determine the most suitable strategies to reduce the problem. Few studies have presented an international approach or tested which variables could be correlated with contract cheating. As a result, strategies to reduce contract cheating may be founded on data from other countries, or demographics/situations which may not align to variables most strongly connected to engagement in outsourcing. This paper presents the results of a series of statistical analyses aimed at testing which variables were found to be predictors of students' self-reported formal outsourcing behaviours. The data are derived from an international research study conducted in 22 languages, with higher education students (from Europe, the Americas and Australasia. Analyses found that country and discipline of study as well as the rate at which respondents n = 7806) believed other students to be cheating, were positively correlated to their cheating behaviours. Demographic variables did not show strong statistical significance to predicting contract cheating.

Research suggests numerous cognitive benefits of authentic learning experiences. Beyond cognition, there are additional dimensions for learners who engage in authentic learning experiences. In education, the affective experiences of authentic learning and the role of students' social interactions remain largely unexplored. This paper examines students' affective and social experiences derived from blog posts published on the YouthMappers website. YouthMappers is an international network of university students who create open map data for humanitarian and development programming. In an analysis of two years (2016-2017) of 82 blogs from the YouthMappers network, students from the U.S. and abroad report motivating experiences fueled by social events and gatherings. The participants also find value in communicating with, encouraging, educating, and supporting their peers. Geographic region and gender also play a part in their accounts. This paper seeks to advance research in student affect and social interactions during authentic learning experiences. Positive affective and social experiences may be employed to create authentic learning experiences, building impactful social and emotional experiences for globally-diverse students.

This conceptual paper is a future study aiming to shed light on the current state of higher education in the MENA region. The neoliberal agenda for higher education in the region presents a form of education that is commodified, corporatized and focused on STEM rather than on humanities. The paper further speculates on the state of higher education in the near future under the same ideology. As an alternative, the study proposes the implementation of Martha Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach. This approach is capable of re-balancing the tipped scale in the commodification of higher education and will serve in developing well-rounded individuals. The Capabilities Approach can reform higher education through critical thinking, liberal education, and attention to diversity.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are frequently advocated as an educational panacea, an educational technology that can be transported and transferred, reused and revised, to address the global shortage of high-quality online material. This paper explores that scenario by looking at the factors that might promote or inhibit the transfer and re-use of OER into Asian higher education and particularly focuses on the issue of language and culture. The paper identifies culture, as the underpinning of pedagogy, as a significant and unacknowledged determinant of success and proposes culture, as calibrated by the work of Hofstede and comparable thinkers, as a possible addition to OER metadata.

This Special Issue was conceived and developed following a series of international conferences held in Asia, with a particular focus on critically reflecting upon higher education development in the region from broader social and political economy perspectives. Some of the papers in this Special Issue were selected from presentations in the East Asia Social Policy (EASP) Research Network Conference successfully held in Taiwan in 2018, while others were chosen from international events held at Lingnan University in Hong Kong presenting critical reviews and reflections on internationalization, marketization and graduate employment of higher education in Asia. This introductory article puts the discussions of the selected papers in this issue in context, with critical reflections on the key issues being examined in these papers. The Special Issue is published when the world is still confronting the unprecedented global health crisis resulted from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article discusses the higher education development trends in Asia through the massification, diversification and internationalisation processes in transforming the higher education system and examines how these development trends are affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

This report shares the findings and lessons learned from an investigation into the economics of disaggregated models for assessing and accrediting informal learners undertaking post secondary education. It presents some key economic and governance challenges for universities to consider in implementing OER assessment and accreditation policies. It also includes discussion of findings from a small-scale survey conducted by two of the authors on perceptions, practices and policies relating to openness in assessment and accreditation in post secondary institutions, with a particular focus on the "OER universitas" (OERu) concept. [This paper was presented at the OpenCourseWare Consortium Global Conference (Ljubljana, Slovenia, April 23-25, 2014).]

While internationalization is among the top strategic priorities of universities and colleges globally, research into the expanse of internationalization in the kinesiology discipline is not well researched. Given this gap, critical consideration of the state and status of the phenomenon is needed. Knowing more about what is being done in the name of internationalization within kinesiology and reflecting on how those actions and outcomes are aligned, or not, with key theoretical guidance is necessary in order to plan for improvement accordingly. For these reasons, this paper first provides a primer on internationalization in higher education, including how the phenomenon has come to be defined as well as key contemporary critiques associated with it. In particular, we highlight Beck's (2012) theoretical concept of 'eduscape' to critically consider the influences of globalization on internationalization within higher education kinesiology as well as Khoo, Taylor, and Andreotti's (2016) principles of intelligibility, dissent, and solidarity to consider the ways kinesiology scholars engage critically with internationalization processes. Presented next is a review of the kinesiology literature that is explicitly focused on internationalization. Then, the results of a pilot survey into the views of National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education (NAKHE) members and other Western kinesiology scholars on internationalization is reported next. The paper concludes with recommendations as to how NAKHE and the broader community of Western kinesiology scholars might best navigate internationalization moving forward. We recommend the complexity-informed and principle-driven approach of inclusive leadership as a means of pursuing cognitive justice in the 21st century.

Purpose: Executives who are engaged in strategic planning for higher education generally complain about the process and the lack of clear outcomes from the strategic plan. They generally argue that the process is complex and sometimes confusing and the end result does not justify the time spent in preparing the plan. The extant literature on strategic planning in higher educational institutions (HEIs) is replete with these types of complaints. The work undertaken in this paper provides a solution to this problem. This paper proposes a simplified and efficient strategic planning model which executives can use to facilitate strategic planning in HEIs. This model takes into consideration, all the elements of previous models and synthesize them into a manageable, simplified framework that can be adapted to meet the planning needs of senior executives in any HEI. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses the action research framework to ground the solution to the problem identified. The action research framework is a sound research method that assists in resolving some of the practical problems executives in HEIs encounter as they move towards strategic planning. The researcher and a client in the higher educational sector, the UWI, engaged in collaborative problem-solving to develop a strategic plan for the client. To derive the solution, the researcher drew on the experience of the strategic planning process at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and also a number of selected universities in North American, Europe, Asia and Africa. The researcher then synthesized the outcomes from the deliberations and consultations with the client, the UWI and drew on theoretical knowledge in strategic management to derive the simplified model for strategic planning in higher education. Findings: The research presented in this paper found that the existing strategic planning models used in higher education are generally complex, mostly designed specifically for an individual institution and lacks clarity regarding the implementation process. To overcome these problems for strategic planners in higher education, this paper proposes a simplified model that can be adapted by any HEI to assist with their strategic planning process. The Brainstorming- Visioning Action Results (B-VAR), the solution to the problem, presents the various elements of the strategic planning process that will need to be in place in order to develop a workable strategic plan and one that is implementable and will deliver tangible results for the HEI. Originality/value: Besides adding to our knowledge in strategic management and specifically, strategic management in higher education, the greatest value from this paper is the solution it presents to solve the long-standing problem of having complex and ineffective planning models to lead strategic plan development in HEIs. The added value is that the model is integrative as it draws on elements of previous planning models but simplified them for their adaptation to any HEI.

This paper elaborates on recent trends in Japanese higher education partnerships through three cases of collaboration between Japanese universities and higher education institutions in China, Mongolia, and the Southeast Asia (hereinafter referred to as ASEAN). Our analysis shows that partnerships were shaped by both top-down government policies and bottom-up activities based on institutional visions and past relations. Japan's educational quality and reputation, particularly in science and technology, is highly regarded by higher education institutions (HEIs) interested in developing competitive international programs. On one hand, Japan is striving to deepen and expand its partnerships with HEIs, particularly within Asia. A number of domestic and international factors - such as Japan's population decline; increasing competition among HEIs both on the domestic and international front; an ambition to remain competitive in a twenty-first century, knowledge-based economy; and Japan's strategy to strengthen its influence in Asia - drive the partnerships. On the other hand, while earlier partnerships were limited to student and faculty exchange or joint research projects, institutions increasingly prioritize more comprehensive strategic partnerships. Such strategic partnerships are important to overcome barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic that limit physical movement and interaction, and they may drive even greater collaboration and integration among Asian higher education institutions.

The current paper investigates how ESP teachers and learners may benefit from feedback exchange during the learning process. The article is a qualitative analysis of student feedback provided for ESP classes by learners from a Romanian economic university -- i.e. the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. Responses refer to: the development of (general and business) English skills, enhancing self- and peer awareness, benefits of peer cooperation. The analysis is undertaken by an interdisciplinary team comprising an English teacher and a psychologist and discusses the relevance of such assignments for the development of students' and teachers' competences. We place our analysis against the background of research on (language) teacher competences and (language) learner competences in professional frameworks developed in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, highlighting the complex teacher and learner/ graduate profiles required across the world, as well as the contribution of feedback exchange skills to this profile.

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.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and research are globally recognised as engines of growth and development and indicators of citizens' well-being. Studies have continuously highlighted the unequal access and participation in STEM higher education based on class, caste, gender, disability and other markers of identity. This research paper investigates the underrepresentation of women in STEM at the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) in India. IITs are India's top elite institutions that open window of opportunities to students across the world. The study uses the data available from the All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE), the Council of Indian Institute of Technology and the websites of the IITs. The findings indicate a significant gap between males and females in faculty positions at IITs. Furthermore, the study finds that the underrepresentation of women faculty differs across the STEM disciplines at IITs in India. It needs more gender-just affirmative action policies such as intersectional reservation for women in STEM academic careers, funding, legal protection against harassment, and representation of women in various committees and leadership positions.

This study was to review empirical studies on UAV usage in education. 43 papers were selected and reviewed with respect to the following dimensions: (1) publication time and source, (2) methodology in reviewed studies, and (3) main findings reported by researchers. The results showed that the highest number of published articles was between 2018 and 2020, and that most studies were published in journals and conference proceedings. Most participants were undergraduate students from Asia. Most studies were conducted for five days or less and the most frequent domain to which UAV was applied was STEM. Scholars often used questionnaires and tests as measurement instruments. We found that the most frequent learning activities were collecting data with UAV, learning how to fly UAV, introducing UAV, working in the field with UAV, and programming UAV. Research variables that scholars explored in reviewed studies often were learning performance, attitude and motivation. The main findings concerned skills, knowledge, motivation and responsibility. The advantages of UAV in education were accessing data from inaccessible or dangerous locations, collecting and delivering temporal and spatial resolution information quickly etc., disadvantages were availability issues, legal issues, logistical issues, and privacy and ethics issues.

This research reviewed the publications in the Scopus database in the museum-based mobile learning field based on the technology-based learning review model from 2008 to 2019. The aim of this study was to investigate trends in the field of museum-based mobile learning from the main journals and papers, including countries and areas, participants, research methods, learning domains, the orientation of adopted sensing or location-based technologies, learning strategies, and research topics. The cluster and co-occurrence analysis methods were used to analyze the main key terms and the relationships between them. Three thematic clusters, namely strategies and media for mobile-based museum learning, personalized supports for mobile-based museum learning, and applications of mobile-based museum learning were identified. The results show that inquiry-based learning was the most adopted learning strategy for higher education, while contextual mobile learning was the most frequently employed strategy for elementary school students; such extensively adopted mobile learning strategies as peer assessment, project-based learning, video sharing, and synchronous sharing were not adopted in the studies. In addition, an important finding in the literature of the main research purpose of museum-based mobile learning research is the affective domain, followed by the influence of learner characteristics and the effects of mobile learning.

Web-based technology has proven itself indispensable in education, especially in distance education and in developing countries. Technological advances and the COVID-19 pandemic have forced higher education institutions to be innovative in delivering education in their countries. This article seeks to demonstrate the role and value of e-portfolios as an alternative teaching and learning tool in distance education and the online environment, especially in developing countries. A systematic review of peer-reviewed academic studies of e-portfolios between 2010 and 2020 was conducted. A total of 18 papers were selected according to the inclusion criteria. The review shows that the use of e-portfolios is still a relatively new trend in developing countries. The study also revealed that e-portfolios can infuse important skills such as self-directed learning, critical thinking, and lifelong learning. These results have the potential to help institutions to creatively design appropriate support tools and strategies alongside the implementation of e-portfolios in their contexts.

The paper presents the results of an investigation into the virtual teamwork of culturally mixed teams engaged in common projects in international settings. Data was collected from students attending four different universities on four continents (Asia, Europe, North America, and South America). They worked for a semester, in virtual teams, to solve problems for real businesses in Asia and/or Latin America. Each team worked with a specific client that asked them to make recommendations and develop action plans. A model was developed to understand the way satisfaction with teamwork outcome, as dependent variable, is fostered on antecedents such as global identification, collective mind, and team cohesiveness. The analysis, exploratory as structured, was conducted using the partial least squares method provided by SmartPLS. Results show the similarities and differences in behavior for different groups of students coming from different countries and their implications for teaching teams in a multicultural virtual environment.

Canada is among the top three receiving countries for international students globally, and the leading sources of international students consist of countries in the Global South. Despite the multilingual reality of universities in Canada, most institutional language policies require only English or French to be used in instruction and assessment. The consequences of these policies include challenges in ensuring inclusive and equitable education. A translanguaging pedagogy has the potential to affirm and leverage the diverse language practices of international students, but it needs to be centered in the lived experiences, language practices, knowledge systems, and goals of a multilingual student body. This paper reports on the experiences and recommendations of international graduate students from the Global South related to pedagogical translanguaging in higher education. Data sources included interviews with 15 graduate students enrolled in the education faculty of a Canadian university. A thematic analysis of the data suggested that students' translanguaging practices are restricted to informal spaces and 'secret talk,' and influenced by their instructors' varied attitudes and language policies. Students' recommendations include affirming translanguaging as a right and pedagogical resource for international students, incorporating translanguaging in academic writing, diversifying hiring practices, and providing training for instructors and prospective teachers.

For the past few decades, stylistics has emerged as a discipline that encompasses both literary criticism and linguistics. The integration of both disciplines opened many opportunities for English literature and language teachers to get creative in their teaching--by introducing the stylistic approach in their classrooms. However, in a typical Southeast Asian classroom (Sadiman, 2004), several problems such as the lack of resources, scarcity of quality teaching strategies, time deficiency, as well as the unfamiliarity of authentic assessment seem to impede the utilization of the mentioned approach or other learner-centered approaches. Moreover, only limited literature on the analysis, let alone the teaching, of the ballad adopting the stylistic method are evident. This paper could be described as an attempt to address these problems. It provides a fresh perspective in analyzing a well-known 18th century British ballad, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," in the syntactical/structural, lexical, and phonological aspects of stylistics. It also attempts to explain the evident theme of warfare based on textual evidences in the aforementioned aspects. In addition, it contributes to the existing literature advocating the stylistic approach in both the teaching of language and literature. Furthermore, it provides several potential comprehensive activities that take into account the challenging setting and situation of Southeast Asian English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, especially at the tertiary level. This paper also has implications on classrooms that experience the same aforementioned challenges, and is not only limited to the Southeast Asian context.

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.

Due to global attention on student employability, employers are expected to be involved in institutional governance in higher education and quality assurance (QA). Due to the difficulties in recruiting motivated employers to participate in external QA governance and process, this has become a challenging issue in many Asian nations. The paper aims to explore employer legitimacy in Asian national higher education regulations and EQA system according to a four-dimensional diagram of institutional governance model. There are two major findings. First, Asian governments developed QA policies with a focus on employer engagement but the emerging practice is still ineffective. Second, approaches of employer engagement in QA governance vary context to context, such as HK and Malaysia in the excellence mode; Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand belong to advanced type; and China, Thailand, and Vietnam fall in the intermediate category.