Background: Medical students experience emotional challenges during their undergraduate education, often related to work-based learning. Consequently, they may experience feelings of uncertainty and self-doubt, which can negatively affect their well-being. Therefore, it is crucial to support students’ development of their ability to manage distressful situations. Self-efficacy beliefs may be a central aspect of supporting them in this development, and have been shown to relate to resilient factors such as students’ motivation, learning, and well-being. Methods: We constructed a scale to measure medical students’ physician self-efficacy to manage emotional challenges during work-based learning, the PSMEC scale. The aim of the present study was to evaluate some of the psychometric properties of the PSMEC scale. The scale consists of 17 items covering five subscales: (1) medical knowledge and competence, (2) communication with difficult patients and delivering bad news, (3) being questioned and challenged, (4) educative competence in patient encounters, and (5) ability to establish and maintain relationships with healthcare professionals. Data were collected from 655 medical students from all seven medical schools in Sweden. To investigate the scale’s dimensionality and measurement invariance with regard to gender and time in education, single and multiple group confirmatory factor models were estimated using techniques suitable for ordered categorical data. Measures of Cronbach’s alpha were calculated to evaluate internal consistency. Results: The scale showed good internal consistency on both the global dimension and the five subdimensions of self-efficacy. In addition, the scale was shown to be measurement invariant across genders and times in education, indicating that the scale means of male and female medical students and the scale means of students at the middle and end of their education can be compared. Conclusions: The physician self-efficacy to manage emotional challenges scale demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties, with regards to dimensionality, internal consistency, and measurement invariance relating to gender and time in education, and this study supports the usefulness of this scale when measuring self-efficacy in relation to emotional challenges.

This open access book expands the scholarly and policy debates surrounding digital transformation in higher education. The authors adopt a pluralistic conceptual framework which uncovers three analytical elements – contexts, mediations, and type of effects – for unpacking empirical manifestations. The publicly funded higher education systems in Nordic countries provide solid empirical insights into how digital transformations have gained ground before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and chapter contributions demonstrate how international digitalisation trends (such as in the global EdTech industry) impact on the core activities of higher education institutions (HEIs). The findings underscore the importance of assessments that consider multiple sub-systems within HEIs, as well as the complex relationships between them. By unpacking Nordic dynamics in the light of global processes and developments, the approach adopted and the results generated are of relevance to a much broader, global audience of students and researchers in higher education.

Digitalisation-related challenges and opportunities in higher education are not new, but awareness of their transformative potential has increased, with global trends including massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other forms of technology-enhanced open education. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of flexible forms of teaching and learning, and, as a result, has intensified the adoption of technological platforms and solutions across the board. In this introductory chapter to the volume, the editors provide a state of the art on the topic of digital transformations, including clarifications on concepts and definitions, alongside the articulation of a systemic framework that considers the complexity, dynamic, and multifaceted nature of the phenomenon under investigation.

This paper addresses how emotionally challenging experiences during work-basededucation may influence the professional becoming of student teachers and medicalstudents. We conducted a qualitative analysis of eight focus group interviewswith undergraduates from two universities in Sweden who studied to become eitherphysicians or teachers, and interpreted their experiences through Wenger’s theory ofcommunities of practice. The findings show that students’ ideal view of how to becaring in their aspiring professional role as physician or teacher collided with existingpractices, which affected them emotionally. In particular, the students found itchallenging when norms and practices differed from their values of professionalismand when the professional culture within practices reflected hardness (physicians) orresignation (teachers). Both medical students and student teachers experienced thatprofessional decision making and legitimacy challenged them emotionally, howeverin different ways and for different reasons. This study makes visible both generaland specific aspects of how students view their future role in the welfare sector andchallenging dimensions of professional practice. The findings bring into focus thequestion of how professional education can support students’ professional becomingin relation to their emotional challenges.

Med distans till distansen – hur kan vi tolka den så hastigt påtvingade omställningen under pandemin och vilka lärdomar tar vi med oss? I den här utökade ledaren vill vi lyfta fram åtta publicerade bidrag som ingår i tidskriftens särskilda tema om högre utbildning och coronapandemin. Vi ger också våra egna reflektioner kring hur omställningen påverkade högre utbildning i Sverige utifrån våra roller som pedagogiska utvecklare och forskare. De bidrag som hittills har publicerats kring temat visar mångfalden av erfarenheter under pandemin liksom komplexiteten i att dra generella slutsatser om (distans)undervisning och lärande, specifikt och mer övergripande generellt. Många lärare mötte nya utmaningar som hög arbetsbelastning och krav på att hitta snabba lösningar. Samtidigt innebar de förändrade villkoren en möjlighet till pedagogisk utveckling. Många studenter hade svårt att upprätthålla motivationen och skapa bra studierutiner, medan andra uppskattade distansundervisningens flexibilitet. Den här ledaren innefattar både tillbakablickar och utblickar över vilka konsekvenser pandemin fört med sig för den högre utbildningen samt några frågor vi gärna ser belysta i kommande studier.

With distance from the distance – how can we interpret the changes that were so hastily imposed during the pandemic and what lessons have we learned? In this extended editorial, we highlight eight published contributions that are part of this journal’s special theme regarding higher education and the corona pandemic. We also give our own reflections on how the transition to remote teaching affected higher education in Sweden, based on our roles as educational developers and researchers. The publications in this journal show the diversity of experiences during the pandemic, and the complexity of drawing general conclusions about (distance) teaching and learning. Many teachers faced new challenges such as a significantly higher workload, and demands to implement quick solutions, while the changed conditions also gave opportunities for pedagogical development. Many students had difficulties in maintaining motivation and creating viable study routines, while some appreciated the flexibility of distance learning. The current editorial includes both retrospectives and outlooks on the consequences of the pandemic for higher education, as well as, suggestions for a few ‘questions’ that we think should be part of future research.

Digital technology offers several ways to change and fundamentally transform higher education practices. In this chapter, we illuminate digital transformations associated with the use of digital technology to assess student learning. Using qualitative interview data from teachers at two Universities in Sweden, we discuss teachers’ design decisions as they redesigned assignments and courses and introduced automated assessment. The use of digital technology affected teachers’ role and assessment work process in several ways, such as bringing forward and distributing assessment design decisions. We interpreted the possible epistemic consequences of what kind of knowledge teachers assessed with the use of digital technology and found examples of how digital technology facilitated teachers to rethink and create open-ended assignments allowing different ways for students to demonstrate their abilities (divergent assessment). However, against their intentions teachers mainly created pre-defined closed right-or-wrong answers (convergent assessment) resulting in less transparency of student (mis)understanding. Thus, the implementation of digital technology may innovate assessment practices, which in this sense is moving forward. From a pedagogical perspective, teachers’ adaptations of assessment using digital technology imply retrogression rather than innovation regarding how to capture student capabilities.

A broader systemic framework pertaining to multiple manifestations at various scales and involving an increasing number of internal and external stakeholders was introduced in the first chapter of the volume, and further explored empirically in the following chapters. In this final chapter, the editors further discuss the complexity, dynamic, and multifaceted nature of the phenomenon under investigation, and add perspectives on how to expand future debates on digital transformations in higher education.

In this phenomenographic study, we contribute with a critical view on teachers’ understanding of the use of digital technology in education. By analysing engineering teachers in Sweden’s qualitative different ways of experiencing teaching-learning in virtual learning environments (VLEs) pre-COVID-19 pandemic, we found three different approaches: (A) increased transmission possibilities, (B) outlined trail and (C) forced compromises. Based on our findings, the tensions between the possibilities in the virtual learning environment and teachers’ teaching-learning intentions are discussed, and teachers’ decreased room for action to design for learning is problematised. Notably, teachers with an increased breadth of awareness of teaching-learning appear to experience the greatest tensions, forcing them to compromise their student-centred intentions.

Background: For prospective teachers, the school-based learning component of their teacher education programme is a crucial, and often demanding, part of becoming a teacher. During this time, mentor-teachers work in close collaboration with student teachers, who are often teaching in an actual school setting for the first time. As the relationship between mentor-teacher and student teacher is pivotal to the quality of work-based learning and to supporting the professional development of prospective teachers, more needs to be understood about this complex dynamic. Purpose: Our study aimed to contribute to this area by investigating, from the viewpoint of mentor-teachers, how student teachers respond to the demands of work-based learning. It had a particular focus on mentor-teachers’ perceptions of student teachers’ emotional challenges associated with teaching and engagement. Methods: Data consisted of interviews with 22 experienced mentor -teachers from five different municipalities. Data were analysed qualitatively, using tools aligned with a constructivist grounded theory approach. Findings: Describing teaching as a complex practice, the mentor-teachers regarded proactive engagement in developing professionalism, and ability to make appropriately differentiated adjustments to their teaching as important criteria in their evaluation of student teacher progression. The mentor-teachers described student teachers’ emotional challenges in relation to these and discussed support strategies. Conclusions: The findings of the study highlight the complex dynamic of work-based learning and the key role that mentor-teachers can play in supporting the development of prospective teachers entering the profession, including the navigation of emotionally challenging situations.