The landscape of education is as well undergoing a transformative shift with the integration of digital technologies. This shift is not just a trend, but a comprehensive overhaul of how teaching and learning are approached, facilitated, and delivered. Digital technologies in education encompass a broad spectrum of tools and practices, accompanied by theoretical explanations, including computer-assisted instruction, e-learning, online learning, digital pedagogy, open educational resources (OER), open educational practices (OEP), and digital assistants. These components complement to create a dynamic and interactive educational environment that allows teachers to extend, augment and diversify education situations beyond traditional boundaries.

Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) represents the early stages of educational technology, where computers were utilized to support and enhance the learning process. Its main advantage was considered providing personalized learning experiences, allowing students to progress at their own pace – to this end, it includes drill-and-practice programs, tutorials, and simulations that provide students with immediate feedback and tailored instruction. It often incorporates multimedia elements, such as videos and interactive simulations, to enhance engagement and understanding. The productivity of digital technology education research has grown significantly since the turn of the century, reflecting the increasing importance of CAI in educational settings.

E-learning encompasses a broad range of learning experiences delivered through digital platforms. It includes online courses, virtual classrooms, and mobile learning applications. Online learning specifically refers to educational programs that are conducted over the internet, enabling learners to access materials and participate in discussions from anywhere. Both modalities offer flexibility and accessibility, catering to diverse learning needs and schedules.

Digital pedagogy goes beyond the mere use of digital tools; it encompasses the study and design of educational experiences that leverage digital technologies to foster interactive and engaging learning environments. It seeks to understand how digital technologies can be best utilized to support teaching and learning in various contexts, including face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online settings.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. OER includes textbooks, course materials, and multimedia content that are openly licensed, allowing educators to adapt and share resources. UNESCO's efforts in promoting OER have been significant, emphasizing the importance of open resources in democratizing education and fostering lifelong learning (UNESCO, 2024). Open Educational Practices (OEP) involves the use of OER to raise the quality of education and training and innovate educational practices on institutional, professional, and individual levels. OEP are about collaboration, sharing, and the open dissemination of knowledge, which aligns with UNESCO's commitment to transparency and accountability in education (UNESCO, 2024). Digital assistants in education, such as AI tutors and chatbots, are becoming increasingly sophisticated, providing personalized learning experiences and support for students. Chatbots can answer questions, provide feedback, and assist with administrative tasks, enhancing the learning experience by offering immediate assistance. They are increasingly used in digital learning environments to facilitate communication and support self-regulated learning.

Pedagogical trends

Integrating multimedia elements into (digital) educational products is no longer an option today, but a necessity. At the theoretical level, it is contracted from multimodal pedagogy, which gains scope primarily because of the current social and technological changes that destabilize the dominance of text-based practices. Issues of accessibility and inclusiveness in education are also factors that put pressure on and accelerate innovation – text needs to be complemented or interspersed with multimedia elements, in a trend called "ensuring redundancy". This trend can be seen in current currents such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and "curriculum decolonization", which advocate multiple means of representation to enable diverse ways of knowing and learning. Even more recently, academic integrity is a growing concern as advances in AI-based technologies make cheating an accessible, hard-to-detect, tempting, relatively common practice.

That's why, in the whole of digital education, multimodal pedagogy comes with relevant, useful, pertinent proposals, primarily offering those who learn adequate, attractive, effective opportunities for academic development.

Without majorly deviating from the used processes of instructional design and training implementation, the current approaches still have some particularities, in accordance with the technical possibilities and practices in similar fields such as film scripts, indications and recommendations for the effective conduct of videoconferences, etc. It is about what the theory gathers under the name of entangled pedagogies – an integrative or intertwined pedagogy. This vision treats technologies, teaching methods, teachers, students and other stakeholders as elements that are not separate and isolated, but interconnected in an educational situation, contributing to the success of learning. Instructional design takes into account increasingly complex environments, taking into account the interaction of many new, novel elements within these environments. The proliferation of open educational resources and open educational practices indicates the strength of this trend and its value to education.

No less relevant, pedagogy based on AI tools proposes consistent and necessary innovations in both teaching and learning and assessment. They must be incorporated into any educational course, often completely changing the objectives, the way of approaching the content and the type of work load, the way in which the student's effort is assessed. For various disciplines and various levels of education, these ideas of introducing AI take different forms, with psycho-pedagogical arguments.

Online learning

In a systematic review of literature, comprising a total of 251 articles analysed, Johnson et al. (2023) identified three common foundational contextual conditions that support student learning in online settings:

• Educators' knowledge and preparation for online instruction. Research emphasizes the importance of teacher preparation for online teaching through preservice teacher training and professional development. Successful online teaching requires specific characteristics and skills, and teachers often lack adequate preparation to teach online effectively.

• Technology infrastructure and support. Having the necessary technology infrastructure and support systems in place is crucial for successful online instruction. This includes access to reliable internet connections, appropriate devices, and technical support for both educators and students.

• Students' developmental needs and abilities. Understanding students' developmental capacities and learning styles is essential for designing effective online instruction, therefore instructional design decisions should consider students' developmental needs and abilities to ensure that the content and delivery methods are appropriate for their age and stage of learning.

These foundational contextual conditions provide a good basis for designing and implementing online instruction that effectively supports student learning. Furthermore, the same systematic analysis highlighted seven pillars of instructional practice that contribute to student learning in online education (Johnson et al., 2023):

1. Evidence-based course design: designing online courses based on evidence-based practices to ensure effective learning experiences for students
2. Connected learners: fostering a sense of connection and community among online learners to enhance engagement and collaboration
3. Accessibility: ensuring that online learning materials and activities are accessible to all students, including those with diverse learning needs
4. Supportive learning environment: creating a supportive online learning environment that promotes student well-being, motivation, and academic success
5. Individualization and differentiation: tailoring instruction to meet the individual learning needs and preferences of students in online settings
6. Active learning: engaging students in active learning experiences that promote critical thinking, problem-solving, and application of knowledge
7. Real-time assessment: implementing real-time assessment strategies to monitor student progress, provide timely feedback, and support continuous improvement in online learning

These seven pillars serve as a conceptual framework for designing and delivering effective online instruction in higher education, with a focus on enhancing student learning outcomes and experiences in virtual learning environments. However, the study highlights the importance of understanding educators' limited experience with online teaching, the need for technology infrastructure and support, and consideration of students' developmental needs and abilities in designing effective online instruction. It underscores the need for teacher training and professional development in online instruction, as well as the importance of incorporating self-regulated learning instruction and supports into online courses. The findings suggest that translating research into practice is crucial for enabling teachers to successfully transition to online teaching and provide robust and engaging learning experiences for students.

Continuous Professional Development

In addition, the emphasis on continuous professional development in digital competencies is crucial, as many educators express a desire for further training in utilizing information technologies effectively within their teaching framework, highlighting a gap between current skills and the evolving demands of the educational landscape (Cook et al., 2023; Gómez-Pablos et al., 2022; González et al., 2023; Grassinger et al., 2022).