In this volume of the International Journal of Research in E-learning, authors from different countries are trying to answer the following question: what should be the university / school of the 21st century? Among other things, it should be open to innovation – not only in the world of technology, but also in relation to teaching and learning processes. Personalisation of teaching / learning should take place – a student is in the centre of the university / school of the 21st century. Another desirable feature is highly qualified staff, open and prepared for lifelong learning. One of the pillars of preparing new generation specialists should be STEM education, internationalisation of higher education, and mobility.

The present volume includes seven articles gathered in three chapters.

The paper is devoted to the issues of implementation of STEM education in the learning process of educational institutions. The authors analyse the development of STEM education in Ukraine, determine the level of readiness of educators for understanding the principles of STEM education, and substantiate the need for the introduction of robotics into the educational process as a modern and important trend in STEM education. The concept of educational robotics is analysed. This makes it possible to identify the technical inclinations of students (at an early stage) and development of these inclinations, as well as formation of STEM competency in general. The study focuses on the interdisciplinary aspect of STEM education, in particular on the implementation of interdisciplinary links between STEM subjects and robotics in the conduction process of research and training projects. The authors provide examples of the implementation of robotics in the educational process based on the use of a project method. The article also includes a description of the project for the creation of the Juno Rover robot based on the Arduino robotic platform in university education and two examples of the robotics projects in school education (one of them is implemented on an open platform with freely distributed materials for creating and using 3D printed robots).

QR codes are usually discussed in the context of mobile learning. In our article, we show other opportunities of their use with special focus on mathematics and informatics education and its methodology. Appropriately placed QR codes can, for example, be applied to create a feedback for both students and teachers, as an additional source of problems in a problem solver or a worksheet, or as an input gate to a didactic game. The addressees use their smartphones to read their selected QR code. The code refers to a file containing the data files predesigned and stored by their educator or the author of learning materials. The data are then used in accordance with their educator’s instruction. Similarly, a QR code can link additional information sources in a worksheet or open the student’s gate to the course/instructor evaluation. In the paper, we portray such an approach using examples from various fields of mathematics, statistics, and databases. Finally, we discuss advantages and disadvantages of this approach.

The article deals with the problem of the influence of the innovative educational environment of the university on the development of digital STEM competences in the process of training teachers of the new formation. It is determined that the innovative educational environment of the university consists of organisational, educational, methodological, and technological and information resources, the purpose of which is to create conditions for the development of digital STEM competences of teachers. The main aspects of introduction and development of STEM education in different countries of the world are analysed. Particular attention is paid to the functioning of the STEM Centre, which is the basis of the innovative educational environment of the pedagogical university. The practical experience in introduction of STEM education at Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University is summarised. The peculiarities of the influence of the innovative educational environment of the university on the development of digital STEM competences are explored.

The integration of distance learning and Information Communication tech-nology has brought a lot of convenience for the students who were earlier facing problems in education due to time and geographical limitations. Since the concept of e-learning is comparatively new and different, the discourse on teaching methodologies and the student–teacher relationship in an e-learning environment has brought many new dimensions under discussion. In a virtual system, the communication bonding between a student and a teacher is not so strong. Students are dependent on one-way communication in the form of recorded lectures, published announcements, and information given on a website. Bridging the communication gap between a student and a teacher through MDB (Moderate Discussion Board) is an effective step taken by the Virtual University of Pakistan in online education to address students. The presented research was aimed at investigating the effectiveness of MDB as an interaction platform between students and course instructors at the Virtual University of Pakistan. The effectiveness of MDBs was measured through analysing the number of MDBs posted in a certain course and the nature of questions asked in MDBs by students. It was a quantitative study in which two Mass Communication subjects were selected through purposive sampling. The collected data were analysed in percentages, and a statistical test Correlation was applied to find out if there was some relation between the strength of students and questions asked through MDB. The study found that although the number of MDBs is quite lower than that of enrolled students, it is an effective platform of communication between students and a teacher, as students can ask questions related to subject, exams, semester activities, and general concerns.

The demand for teachers of Ukrainian universities to create multimedia presentations of lectures and their use in the process of teaching the course “Methodology of teaching mathematics” has been formulated as the result of the experimental research. Taking into account the specificity of the discipline and the peculiarities of the perception, comprehension, and memorisation of educational information by students, what has been determined are the requirements for visual and audio content, for the text presented on presentation slides, and for the design and navigation, and their effectiveness has been experimentally proved. In particular, it has been established that, in order to facilitate students’ perception of educational information, presentation slides should not contain large text arrays. Text slices of presentations should be executed using a certain font, with a certain font size and dominant colours of the headings and main text. To facilitate understanding and memorisation of the content of teaching, the theoretical information should be structured and presented in the form of circuits, tables, diagrams, etc. To stimulate interest in learning, a positive emotional background should be created, and thus a presentation should contain bright colour objects, photographs, and video footage of real mathematics lessons. It is emphasised that, in order to create conditions for the perception, understanding, and memorisation of educational information, presentation design should provide a single style of design and identical compositions of components; for example, image of the same type of information should be in the form of identical elements of “SmartArt.”

We live in times dominated by the media, which have an impact on virtually every sphere of our lives. Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine school education without the use of modern technologies such as computers or the Internet. In the context of the ecological crisis and a number of threats associated with it which are brought by contemporary civilisation, including those of conformism or materialism, it is necessary to present a series of actions taken in education to help children and their parents oppose contemporary threats. The Internet today is becoming a good tool for exploiting information.

The article contains theoretical considerations on the important problems of modern civilisation and human education, namely issues related to ecology, the use of modern technologies, and communication. It focuses the reader’s attention on important values in education for sustainable development.

Today’s youth desperately need help, hence the concept of an education model for sustainable development is extremely timely, needed, and desirable. It is defined as the process of patiently building the student’s interior world by passing on values that are cultural achievements.

Only in culture can a human live a truly human life. We strive for the truth because we want to create a community, and it is the interactivity that gives us the chance to participate and implement the community. Despite the pessimistic picture that a human will give in to the machine, we can come to the conclusion that the Internet gives the environment the possibility of integrating societies. It is a tool, but not a guarantee, and if we recognise the Internet well, there may be hope for us.

The 10th edition of the International Scientific Conference DLCC2018:
Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Distance Learning (www.dlcc.us.edu.pl) was held under the theme “E-learning and smart learning environment for preparing the specialists of new generation” and included reports from the IRNet project.
The conference was held on 15–16 October 2018 in Wisła. It was organised by the Faculty of Ethnology and Educational Science at the University of Silesia in
Cieszyn. The co-organisers were: the University of Ostrava (the Czech Republic); the Silesian University in Opava (the Czech Republic); the Constantine Philosopher University in Nitra (Slovakia); the Twente University (the Netherlands); the University of Extremadura (Spain); the Curtin University in Perth (Australia); the Borys Grinchenko Kiev University (Ukraine); the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (Russia); the Dneprodzerzhinsk State Technical University (Ukraine); Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland; Polish Pedagogical Association, Branch in Cieszyn; Polish Scientific Association of Internet Education; IADIS – International Association for Development of the Information Society; and SEA – Polish Academic E-learning Association.