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Technology-mediated interactions and datafication are increasingly central in contemporary social dynamics and institutions, including teaching and learning processes. In order to fully understand the complex entanglements of human and non-human actants that emerge in postdigital education, it is essential to imagine new methodological approaches that are sensitive to the multidimensional nature of education—as a socially and materially-situated phenomenon that increasingly takes place across distributed contexts. The overall goal of this paper is to propose and operationalise a new methodological approach for the study of technology in education. It draws on the notion of relational topologies to improve our understanding of educational settings and, ultimately, how learning unfolds. The proposed approach relies on a multi-paradigm enquiry strategy, based on the idea of using "topologies of digital data practices" in combination with the three dimensions that articulate design-for-learning processes according to the Activity-Centred Analysis and Design (ACAD) framework: epistemic, social and set designs. While the article focuses on presenting the elements of the approach from a theoretical perspective, we illustrate its application through the data collected in a small case study that will serve as a testbed. The topologies of relations we present in this article show uses of technology—as described by participants in their own learning experience—that involve different spaces, devices, and personal situations. In doing so, we reveal how humans and non-humans are entangled in hybrid, unstable and generative ways. The article concludes with some remarks on the value of the proposed approach for studying technology in education and its potential to explore the state-of-the-actual in this field, with the ultimate goal of helping inform educational research, practice and decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational research is reflective of the nature and structure of national and regional education systems and their historical evolution. Educational technology research, as an area within educational research, reflects this case particularly prominently. Although individual countries and regions have varying research traditions, the publication of research in English as the scientific lingua franca can lead to missing nuances in terminology, which is often not reflected upon. Despite this, the exploration of research from different countries can still uncover diverse topical clusters. This study aims to identify the research topics in educational technology research in three countries (Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), each with their own research traditions, through the terms used. To this end, a bibliometric analysis of 3034 article abstracts and keywords from 29 English-language Web of Science journals in the field of education and educational research was conducted, with a focus on educational technology. In addition, the quantitative findings are comparatively analysed by considering the corresponding cultural clusters. Main findings include diverse research foci in the three countries, also showing that distinct research traditions are still present, despite using English as lingua franca. Therefore, research articles written in English by non-English authors often do not reflect the same meanings in each country, despite using the same words. The conclusions reflect upon the need to establish ways of understanding the traditions behind those research articles and build collaborative systems to illustrate nuances in this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the end of 2020, over 16,300 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from 950 universities worldwide had enrolled over 180 million students. Interest in MOOCs has been matched by significant research on the topic, including a considerable number of reviews. This study uses Machine Learning techniques and human expert supervision to generate a comprehensive systematic literature mapping review that overcomes some limitations of the traditional ones and provides a broader overview of the content and main topics studied in the specialized literature devoted to MOOCs. The sample consisted of 6320 publications automatically classified within six research topics, denominated by human experts: institutional approach, pedagogical approach, evaluation, analytics, participation, and educational resources. The content analysis of the topics identified was conducted using visual network analysis, which supported the identification of different thematic sub-clusters and endorsed the classification. Results from the review show that the lowest production of MOOC papers is within the topics of the pedagogical approach and educational resources. In contrast, participation and evaluation are the most frequent ones. In addition, the most cited papers are on the topics of analytics and resources, being the pedagogical approach and the institutional approach the less cited. This highlights the need for more MOOC research from a pedagogical perspective and calls upon the presence of educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic that spread globally in 2020, higher education courses were subsequently offered in fully remote, online formats. A plethora of primary studies began investigating a range of topics exploring teaching and learning in higher education, particularly during the initial semester. In order to provide an overview and initial understanding of this emerging research field, a systematic mapping review was conducted that collates and describes the characteristics of 282 primary empirical studies. Findings reveal that research was carried out mostly descriptively and cross-sectionally, focusing predominantly on undergraduate students and their perceptions of teaching and learning during the pandemic. Studies originate from a broad range of countries, are overwhelmingly published open access, and largely focused on the fields of Health & Welfare and Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics. Educational technology used for emergency remote teaching are most often synchronous collaborative tools, used in combination with text-based tools. The findings are discussed against pre-pandemic research on educational technology use in higher education teaching and learning, and perspectives for further research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Victoria I. Marín acknowledges the support of the Grant RYC2019-028398-I funded by MCIN/AEI/ https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 and FSE "El FSE invierte en tu futuro". Results from a machine learning approach to a systematic literature mapping review References 1 Despujol I, Castañeda L, Marín VI. [Extracted from the article]

The article has been corrected so that the figures in the HTML version of the article match those in the PDF. Correction to: Emergency remote teaching in higher education: mapping the first global online semester Correction to: Int J Educ Technol High Educ (2021) 18:50 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-021-0... Following publication of the original article (Bond et al., [1]), it was reported that due to a typesetting error Figs. [Extracted from the article]

According to various international reports, Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd) is one of the currently emerging fields in educational technology. Whilst it has been around for about 30 years, it is still unclear for educators how to make pedagogical advantage of it on a broader scale, and how it can actually impact meaningfully on teaching and learning in higher education. This paper seeks to provide an overview of research on AI applications in higher education through a systematic review. Out of 2656 initially identified publications for the period between 2007 and 2018, 146 articles were included for final synthesis, according to explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria. The descriptive results show that most of the disciplines involved in AIEd papers come from Computer Science and STEM, and that quantitative methods were the most frequently used in empirical studies. The synthesis of results presents four areas of AIEd applications in academic support services, and institutional and administrative services: 1. profiling and prediction, 2. assessment and evaluation, 3. adaptive systems and personalisation, and 4. intelligent tutoring systems. The conclusions reflect on the almost lack of critical reflection of challenges and risks of AIEd, the weak connection to theoretical pedagogical perspectives, and the need for further exploration of ethical and educational approaches in the application of AIEd in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalization in Higher Education (HE) institutions is an issue that concerns many educational stakeholders. ICT skills are becoming increasingly relevant in every context, especially in the workplace, therefore one of the prime objectives for universities has become preparing future professionals to be able to deal with problems and search for solutions, including digital competence as a vital skill set. Different policies, initiatives and strategies are currently being proposed in Germany, addressing educational technology innovations in HE. The University of Oldenburg is presented as an example, in an endeavour to gain an understanding of what is being proposed and what is actually happening in teaching and learning in German university classrooms. Two datasets were examined regarding the use and perceptions of students (n = 200) and teachers (n = 381) on the use of digital tools. Findings reveal that both teachers and students use a limited number of digital technology for predominantly assimilative tasks, with the Learning Management System being perceived as the most useful tool. In order to support the broader use of educational technology for teaching and learning purposes, strategies for HE institutions are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]