This report contains a large potion of the result of the KTH e-learning surveys, administered inDecember 2024. One survey was sent out to teachers and one to students. The main purpose ofthe surveys is to gain insights of how teachers and students perceive the current digital learningenvironment and also explore around challenges, within a near future, concerning digital learningin higher education. The themes of those challenges in these surveys were generative AI and digitalassessment. The data gathered and the report will also be used to make informed decision for thework that is carried out within the E-learning object at KTH.

The aim of this report has been to present the result in a straightforward way, mainly with graphsand comments on those visualisation of the data. Thus, no deep statistical analysis will be presentedin this report. The survey was divided into the following parts: demography, digital education,generative AI, digital assessment. The data collection yielded responses from 314 teachers and 1291 students, corresponding to response rates of 19% and 6%, respectively.

The result from the digital education part indicates that teacher think KTH has succeeded well withdigital education in 2024 and that they are offered well-functioning digital infrastructures and toolsto conduct high-quality digital education. Furthermore, students think that the education at KTHuses digital opportunities in a good way and that the education is of high quality. Both groups alsoagree in general that KTH should continue developing digital education.

Students report that they are very familiar with AI chatbots and are also often using these tools fortheir studies. Teachers are less familiar, and 25% report that they use AI chatbots weekly or moreoften in their role as a teacher, whereas 37% have never used i. The wide availability of AI chatbotshas also led many students to change their study habits, and about two-thirds of the teachers havemade some changes to their teaching practice. The most commonly perceived usefulness and reported use of AI chatbots for teachers was help with creating materials for teaching or examination,whilst students perceive it as useful and use it in their studies to pose questions that they have, findinformation and summarize text. Students think that AI chatbots increase cheating, but few reportthat they have used AI chatbots in a way they were not allowed to. About one quarter of the teacherreported that they have made moderate or significant changes in their assessment practices.

The results from the part focused on digital assessment showed that slightly more than half of teachers (54%) had created at least one digital assessment during 2024, while 62% of students had takenat least one digital exam. The main reasons for using digital assessment were the ability to providetimely, frequent feedback and to save time and resources. Among students who prefer digital assessment, 63% cited quick feedback and many also found digital exams to be easier to complete andsubmit. Students who preferred paper-based exams emphasized feeling more comfortable (66%)and better able to focus (61%). Teachers who used digital assessment reported technical problemsduring exams as their main challenge, a concern echoed by students, who worried about log-inissues, lost internet connections, and needing to troubleshoot on their own.

Higher education expects a rapid transformation as envisioned by the Digital Education Action Plan. However, contemporary research reveals a significant gap in the adoption of digital assessment methods compared to digital learning methods. While existing literature identifies various factors influencing assessment transformation, the disparity between digital adoption in learning and assessment continues to grow. We propose that the complexity of the problem is in the details. Concrete methodological evidence on how these gaps are systematically translated into actionable implementation strategies for digital assessments in highly regulated HE environments is lacking in the literature. Moreover, the adoption of digital assessment remains low, even in institutions with robust digital infrastructure, urging the need to investigate the underlying barriers. This research thus empirically explores teachers’ perceived challenges and opportunities in implementing digital assessments. The methodological choice is a case study from the Swedish Engineering HE Institution. A research design of mixed methods is employed, starting with a quantitative situational analysis of the current examination landscape, which assesses the balance between traditional and digital assessments. Semi-structured interviews with bachelor’s and master’s level teachers explored the barriers and opportunities of integrating digital examinations into their courses and programs. The situational analysis was based on scraped data about all the examinations held in the university in the previous academic year. The results showed an alarmingly low proportion of digital to traditional examinations. More than 90% of examinations were held at the end of their courses, and in examination halls under supervision, irrespective of the digital infrastructure of the university that provides many opportunities for the design and implementation of digital assessments. The 6-step thematic analysis of the interviews revealed several practical drawbacks and potential opportunities, which are summarized into a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). The uncertainty of digital tools used for assessment appears to be a key challenge for teachers. Despite being digitally literate, teachers were concerned about the accuracy of tool customisation, the setup for specific exams, potential technology malfunctions, and the need for contingency plans in case of technical issues. This outcome highlights the importance of robust and reliable technology and the need for universities to adopt adaptable and responsive solutions. The opportunities for digital formative assessment were also highlighted. Teachers predominantly prefer using technology to continuously assess and track students’ progress toward learning goals throughout the course. However, they still value a final examination at the end of the course to ensure performance quality and outcomes. While teachers appreciate human-in-the-loop in assessment and are hesitant about fully automated grading for summative assessments, they see the potential for technology to support assessments up to a passing grade. Interestingly, they emphasize the need for sustainable rather than cutting-edge technology to ensure reliable and trustworthy digital assessments. The next phase of this ongoing study focuses on translating these findings into actionable implementation strategies and evaluating their impact.

I en föränderlig tid ställs allt oftare krav på att examination ska utvecklas, till exempelgenom digitalisering. För att kunna stödja lärare i dessa förändringar behövs förståelseför deras syn på examination. I denna studie har sex matematiklärare intervjuats för attundersöka deras syn på examination. I resultatet identifieras en skillnad mellan lärarnaskunskapssyn och bedömningspraktik, där ambitionerna i examinationen intenödvändigtvis genomförs i praktiken. Dessutom läggs en större vikt vid examinationensreliabilitet (att den ska vara rättvis och likvärdig) än på dess validitet (att bedömningenverkligen mäter de kunskaper och förmågor som är mest relevanta för kursens mål). Föratt skapa bättre överensstämmelse mellan bedömningens syfte och lärarnaskunskapssyn behöver dessa perspektiv göras tydliga och kopplas till det praktiskagenomförandet. Kompetensutveckling kring bedömning behövs för att kunna stärkaexaminationspraktik som mäter det lärarna vill mäta.

Blended Learning (BL) is defined as a combination of face-to-face and digital activities that, in recent years, has been adopted more and more frequently by Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). In the engineering field, the adoption of BL allows creating challenging situations for students with industry-like problems to foster the acquisition of advanced problem-solving skills. Thus, it can be used to enhance traditional learning by enriching it with new aspects, allowing to update the Intended Learning Outcomes traditionally defined by teachers. Although prior coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) teachers had the time to prepare and programme the transition to BL, during the pandemic they had to abruptly move to the full digital delivery of the content, requiring technological and organizational adaptation, as well as change in the content teaching and assessment methods. Through a systematic literature review, this paper aims to understand how BL has been implemented in the engineering field by HEIs, discussing if and how the learning expectations of teachers (evaluated through Bloom's Taxonomy) change when using different mixes of face-to-face and digital activities and when the target audience changes. More specifically, the investigation addresses how content and learning expectations are split and set in face-to-face and digital settings. Additionally, the interest is towards understanding how COVID-19 impacted the adoption of BL, not only during the pandemic but also after.

Digital meetings enable opportunity to conduct synchronous engagement in blended and online courses. Such meetings also provide favorable conditions for interaction and collaboration between students and teachers. Unfortunately, digital meetings often tend to be used for one-way communication, like traditional lectures. This chapter outlines the general advantages and limitations of digital meetings as an overview of the differences between synchronous digital and in-person meetings. Principles and guidelines addressing these limitations are presented based on the goal of creating and sustaining a community of inquiry during digital meetings. A study of how teachers perceive and plan for digital meetings in higher education is also presented and discussed from the perspective of Social and Teaching Presence. The chapter also includes a digital meeting template for practitioners to use when preparing and conducting digital meetings.

This presentation outlines the imperative of integrating academic research into developing higher education institutions’ digital learning environments to foster innovation and tailored educational experiences. It presents the KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s co-creation model, where IT experts, administrators, learning designers, and researchers unite to create more engaging, equitable, and effective digital learning environments, showcasing how such integration can significantly enhance educational outcomes in the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education.

This study examines the influence of educational culture on the integration of campus and digital education in traditional higher education institutions. Educational culture encompasses shared norms, values, attitudes, beliefs, and practices shaping the educational environment. Focus group discussions were conducted with teachers, students, and educational leaders at a Swedish technical university. Five focus groups, each with two interview sessions, involved 32 participants representing diverse university roles and disciplines. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data. The analysis identified seven themes that address educational culture. It was clear that the participants did not perceive university cultures but rather viewed that each faculty member or group/department had specific unique conditions and preferences that formed their culture. At the same time, a university-wide key driver identified was effectiveness and streamlining rather than educational innovation. While digitalization trends and the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated digital education, clear guidance, actionable steps, improved conditions for teachers, and student-driven approaches are needed to ensure educational quality by integrating campus and digital education.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has forced HEI to quickly adjust their approach to teaching and learning by massively adopting, basically overnight, approaches based on digital learning. Covid-19 gave a huge impulse to the spread of digital tools and the consequent literature is rich in details and information about more and less successful experiences with digital learning. This unexpected 'experiment' exposed the effectiveness and efficiency of well-conceived learning strategies that blend digital and traditional learning approach. While blended learning per se is an established discipline, a unified framework to go from theory to practice is still elusive. Given the above, the knowledge developed and acquired during the pandemic has a huge potential to reveal what are the features of a good blended learning strategy in different educational situation. This work aims at investigating what would be an optimal blended learning strategy for program design in the context of engineering education. The contribution is based on a focus group discussion involving teacher from 6 different European HEI and results indicates that the level of understanding, as presented in the Bloom taxonomy, of the focal activity and the correct balance between the educational and social dimensions of student's university life are the two critical drivers for blended learning design. The study confirms also the main findings in literature, related to the use of digital tools before and during the pandemic and suggests that the Covid-19 had a positive impact on the readiness to adopt digital tool of HEI. Finally a few problems experienced in the post covid phase are presented along with the identified future directions of research.

Online tutoring has been found to have a positive impact on student learning in STEM education. The aim of this study was to explore how and to what extent students supported their own and other students' processes of inquiry during online tutoring. More specifically, question and answer sessions (Q&As) were studied, and online tutoring transcripts were analyzed using the Relationship of Inquiry coding scheme adapted from the Community of Inquiry framework. The students interacted voluntarily with each other and with the teachers. The results show that the students supported both their own process of inquiry as well as other students' process of inquiry. Furthermore, the results indicate that students acquired metacognitive development through self- and coregulation when they expressed teaching presence. Overall, we conclude that Q&As have the potential to support student learning when working on assignments in STEM education.