Higher Education Development and Technological Innovation

Dear Colleagues,

Technological innovation has been informing and transforming higher education for over 30 years. While it is noted that the speed of this transformation increased during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, technology innovation is now at the centre of inclusive and accessible learning and teaching practice, particularly blended and online teaching.

Universities need to be strategic in their innovation practices to improve learning and teaching while enhancing the student experience for all (Kane et al., 2022). Introducing new and emerging educational technologies, trialling, failing and the subsequent widescale roll-out often sees innovation being adopted and adapted across the sector to meet the various needs of the student population in the context of each university. 

At the same time, student needs, such as the preference and/or necessity to study online, have driven widespread adoption of certain educational technologies to both enable and enhance learning. However, when employing any technology, we must consider the importance of ensuring the best learning experience for all. Digital technologies and higher education transformation can assist with this, as has been shown throughout the long history in this area.

This Special Issue seeks to move innovation from the singular classroom or lone campus to enable others to learn from, adopt and adapt practices and research from where these innovations have been used. Submissions should report authentic, empirical research and include lessons learnt and best practice moving forward to inform the sector in a learning organisation approach (Senge 1990). 

Technological innovation can help connect and prepare students for the workforce. It encourages online collaboration and transformation across learning and teaching in various ways and can support all types of learners across new and engaging environments. It can provide a safe place for students to learn about, use and engage with AI in order to be productive members of the workforce of the future.

Original research articles are invited for submission. The scope of the submission should be transformative innovation in the broader higher education sector. Research works including these topics are particularly invited and may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Innovation in higher education;
• Higher education transformation;
• Online learning transformation/innovation;
• Digital uplift at scale;
• Gen AI innovation in learning and teaching;
• Innovation in teaching the use of AI;
• The implementation of emerging technologies at scale;
• Strategic innovation;
• Curriculum innovation;
• Sustainability in learning and teaching innovation;
• Technological innovation incubation and implementation;
• Online/virtual universities;
• Digital technology innovation;
• Technological innovation in assessment.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Chris Campbell
Associate Professor Lynn Gribble
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• innovation in higher education
• higher education transformation
• online learning transformation/innovation
• digital uplift at scale
• gen AI innovation in learning and teaching
• innovation in teaching the use of AI
• implementation of emerging technologies at scale
• strategic innovation
• curriculum innovation
• sustainability in learning and teaching innovation
• technological innovation incubation and implementation
• online/virtual universities
• digital technology innovation
• technological innovation in assessment