The Editorial Board of International Journal of Research in E-learning (IJREL) is privileged to present a new volume 8(2) 2022. The content of the current issue was divided into three chapters. The first is devoted to Research on Distance, Online and Blended Learning in particular in the COVID-19 time. The second contains articles concerned with Innovative Methods and Technology in Education. The third concerns Theoretical, Methodological and Practical Aspects and Psychological Determinants of ICT and E-Learning in Education.

During the two-year pandemic period all university education, including language teacher training, was conducted exclusively in the online mode. While for many instructional contexts transition to the online mode meant decreasing the effectiveness of instruction due to lack of physical contact and greater time
consumption for materials development, it became clear that skillful use of e-learning tools and procedures might give university education a boost. The paper will put to test the research hypothesis that using social professional networks, composed of participants who are familiar to one another outside the course but
become new personas inside it, will have a positive effect on the involvement of teacher trainees in pursuing teaching qualifications, evidenced in their increased participation in methodology-oriented tasks in different modes. This will be illustrated with examples from the Foreign Language Teaching Methodology online course for undergraduate applied linguistics students which blended synchronous and asynchronous interactions in different Moodle activities.

Due to the COVID19 pandemic, traditional face-to-face learning was replaced by distance education, e-learning, online learning and blended learning at all education levels, including adult education. Learning Management Systems (LMS) are crucial in organising an efficient pedagogical process online and ensuring
that learners attain learning outcomes. The current research, conducted in six EU countries – Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Romania, Poland, and Czechia, evaluates the suitability of the LMS to non-formal and informal adult learning for various target groups when face-to-face adult education was restricted. The research involved 638 participants, 209 of them were learners with barriers to learning. The participants studied the blended learning course created for non-formal and informal adult learning and filled in a feedback questionnaire after its acquisition. The results indicate overall learner satisfaction with the LMS and the course delivery, and the suitability of the LMS for regular adult learners and learners with cultural, social, and geographic barriers to learning both for non-formal and informal learning. The LMS is suitable for learners with economic obstacles for non-formal learning. However, learners with learning difficulties require special pedagogical approaches to support them to acquire the course in an online-only blended learning format.

Nowadays, the acquisition of a high level of digital competence has become a real need for professional development in any field. Future graduates in Labour Relations and Human Resources should achieve an advanced level of this skill. The main aim of this research is to determine the level of acquisition of digital competence in Labour Relations and Human Resources students. The second purpose is to check whether there is a link between gender and digital competence achievement. This paper is based on the application of a questionnaire on digital competences which is organized around 5 aspects, and mainly based on the basis of Likert-type scale questions. The data collected belong to 26 undergraduates studying at the third year of Degree in Labour Relations and Human Resources at the University of Extremadura. The results obtained show that a large majority of students (65.4%) have an advanced level of digital competence, nevertheless, it would be advisable for the rest to achieve the same level before they graduate and exercise their profession. The second important conclusion is that the level of acquisition of digital competence is not conditioned by gender aspects.

The term “STEM education” has been clarified. It is well-founded that STEM education is a learning process that is based on interdisciplinary and practical orientation and provides the formation of skills to acquire theoretical knowledge, and master scientific methods for their use in solving specific practical tasks (not only in professional activities). A quantitative analysis of the results of the implementation of STEM education, presented in scientific publications, was carried out. A small percentage of publications dedicated to STEM education have been found. It has been established that in countries with developed economies, there are significantly more published scientific results regarding the implementation of STEM education. Practical  cases of the implementation of STEM education in Ukraine and the world are highlighted. Among these are the organization of STEM education through solving problem situations in field conditions; basing classes on solving practical tasks in a certain professional field; examples of organizing and conducting lessons in high school on an interdisciplinary basis; cases for four scenario exercises; cases for solving practice-oriented tasks at home; and cases of inclusive education using STEM projects. A content analysis of modern practices of implementing STEM education on the basis of open educational resources such as Coursera, edX, Udemy, Prometheus, and EdEra was conducted. The analysis of open educational resources shows that there are too few courses that would focus on STEM education and on training teachers to implement STEM-oriented
education. The basis for the research was scientific publications in publications indexed by the scientometric databases Scopus and Web of Science over the past 10 years, and dissertation research conducted in Ukraine.

Distance learning is a type of instruction between a teacher and students separated by a physical distance where communication takes place through mediated information encompassing one or more technological media. In other words, the instruction participants stay in different places, yet take part in the same learning
activities sequenced, paced and controlled by the teacher using new technologies. The paper aims to show the advantages and disadvantages of distance education during the COVID-19 lockdown at the primary level, the emphasis being placed upon, among others, the teacher–student and student–student relationships, the
infrastructure and skills required for a lesson, as well as some “food for thought” in the form of possible changes and areas of improvement to be introduced suggested by the sample. The data comes from the questionnaire distributed among 60 parents of first graders. This age group is believed to be extremely
demanding and difficult to teach, mainly due to the literacy and numeracy skills included in the core curriculum, falling on the onset of the first grade in a primary school.

The research focuses on the issue of learning technologies for people with mild intellectual disabilities. The analysis carried out is grounded in the theses of the network society. The initial objectives addressed three main issues: analysis of risks of digital exclusion of people with mild intellectual disabilities in highly technological developed societies; a conceptual view of learning technologies as tools to support social inclusion; and the importance of creating accessible e-learning environments to support inclusive e-education for people with mild intellectual disabilities. The authors used the analytical and descriptive method on the basis of the chosen literature sources to draw the conceptual view of functions of learning technologies in network society. The paper is structured as follows: introduction; analysis of theoretical background of network society to understand the need to go beyond technology to understand contemporary digital disparities; the overview of learning technologies for inclusive e-education for individuals at risk of digital exclusion, the research conclusions and directions for future research.

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is an important element in the work of social workers. Recent progress in ICT creates fundamentally new opportunities for social work in the provision of social services, including high-quality and timely responses to the requests of vulnerable population groups and persons in crises. In the information sector, work in the social sphere requires knowledge and skills in effective search, accumulation, processing, storage, presentation, and transmission of data using computers and computer networks. A social worker must be able to use information and computer technologies both for self-development in the professional sphere and for organizing their daily practical activities and solving socially significant problems. Therefore, it is necessary to form and develop ICT competence in professional activities for the quality provision of social services. The purpose of the study is to determine the ICT tools used in the practical work of social workers in the provision of social services, the scope of ICT application, and the analysis of the needs of social workers in Kyiv regarding the introduction of ICT into the system of providing social services.
An online survey of social workers of state and non-state organizations in Kyiv, which provide social services to vulnerable population groups and persons in crises, was conducted. The theoretical sampling method was used, which made it possible to formulate generalized recommendations regarding introducing ICT tools into the social services system. To determine the typical ICT tools and directions of ICT used in social work, an expert meeting was held with specialists of the Department of Information and Analytical Work of the Kyiv City Center of Social Services. Resource monitoring was used for the automated search of information on the Internet.
The authors of the article researched the information and communication technologies used by social service providers in their work and highlighted the prospects of ICT tools in state and non-state organizations. The ICT tools that are most often used in the provision of social services have been determined as a result of a survey of social service workers of state and non-state organizations in Kyiv. These tools are grouped into three main categories: communication channels, information dissemination channels, and methods of building online service provision processes. The key needs of social workers regarding the use of ICT tools in the process of providing social services and the most typical challenges in the implementation of these technologies are presented in the article. The authors identified the advantages of using ICT in the provision of social services and proved the effectiveness of the use of electronic services as a quick and effective tool in the process of meeting the requests of vulnerable population groups. The prospects for the use of ICT in the provision of social services are highlighted as well. It has been shown that the use of information and communication technologies in the provision of social services will positively affect the quality of the provision of social assistance and social services. The use of these technologies by social institutions makes it possible not only to effectively respond to the challenges of the military situation in Ukraine but also to promptly respond to the requests and needs of social service recipients and provide them with quality services. The authors presented the main ICTs that can be used by social workers when providing social services.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread school closures and therefore forced students to study outside of the classroom at home via the Internet. However, for some students remote education was found to be challenging and stressful (Bilal et al., 2022). Past research revealed that despite the advantages of online classes, there are several threats e .g. lower academic performance, lower engagement and work avoidance goals, higher depression and anxiety (Daumiller et al., 2021; Srivastava et al., 2021), and school burnout (Salmela-Aro et al., 2022). Because previous studies regarding the student burnout syndrome have used predominantly traditional school in-personal learning, there is a great need for developing an instrument with the potential to measure online student burnout symptoms. The aim of this research was to investigate the appropriateness of using an E-learning burnout scale with an adolescent population. The E-Learning Burnout Scale (E-SBS) was designed specifically for measuring exhaustion and learning difficulties caused by school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. E-learning burnout syndrome, which is defined as the five-dimensional construct, captures thoughts, feelings, and behaviours related to educational difficulties experienced by adolescent students during online classes. The results confirmed the E-SBS to be psychometrically sound regarding the five-factor structure, content validity, and discriminative validity. Hence, the E-SBS scale has shown potential for use in a variety of educational areas.