New information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide educators and learners with novel approaches to enhance teaching and learning processes. Technology enabled learning plays a vital role in contemporary education and blended learning is widely adopted across higher education as a learning mode. In this paper we reflect on the strategies for introducing blended learning in a network of European universities and the first lessons learnt from the experience. A total of 18 universities took part with around 350 students registered in the 2018–2019 academic year. In this report we recount how the lecturers in our network introduced the blended learning in their classes, the different types of lessons resulting from this effort, as well as the teachers’ and students’ perceptions regarding the blended learning activities performed. Our reflection is focused on the use of blended learning and its positive effect on activating students and development of innovation and entrepreneurship soft skills. The perceptions on blended learning are interrelated, with the success of the blending models depending on the blended learning activities, and how well the respective online contents are embedded into the teaching and learning processes.

The paper presents a benchmarking study carried out within the ‘Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils for Engineering’ (MUSE) network aimed at comparing different techniques for measurement and control of suction. Techniques tested by the eight ‘Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils for Engineering’ research teams include axis-translation (pressure plate and suction-controlled oedometer), highcapacity\ud tensiometer and osmotic technique. The soil used in the exercise was a mixture of uniform sand, sodium bentonite (active clay) and kaolinite (non-active clay), which were all commercially available. Samples were prepared by one team and distributed to all other teams. They were normally consolidated from slurry under one-dimensional conditions (consolidometer) to a given vertical stress.\ud The water retention characteristics of the initially saturated specimens were investigated along the main drying path. Specimens were de-saturated by applying suction through the liquid phase when using an axis-translation technique or osmotic method and de-saturated by air-drying,\ud when suction was measured using igh-capacity tensiometers. In general, the same technique was tested by at least two teams. The water retention curves obtained using the different techniques are compared and discrepancies are discussed in the paper.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

This paper reviews the literature concerning technology used for creating and delivering accessible museum and cultural heritage sites experiences. It highlights the importance of the delivery suited for everyone from different areas of expertise, namely interaction design, pedagogical and participatory design, and it presents how recent and future artificial intelligence (AI) developments can be used for this aim, i.e.,improving and widening online and in situ accessibility. From the literature review analysis, we articulate a conceptual framework that incorporates key elements that constitute museum and cultural heritage online experiences and how these elements are related to each other. Concrete opportunities for future directions empirical research for accessibility of cultural heritage contents are suggested and further discussed.

Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI advocate for AI technology that is, among other things, more inclusive. Explainable AI (XAI) aims at making state of the art opaque models more transparent, and defends AI-based outcomes endorsed with a rationale explanation, i.e., an explanation that has as target the non-technical users. XAI and Responsible AI principles defend the fact that the audience expertise should be included in the evaluation of explainable AI systems. However, AI has not yet reached all public and audiences, some of which may need it the most. One example of domain where accessibility has not much been influenced by the latest AI advances is cultural heritage. We propose including minorities as special user and evaluator of the latest XAI techniques. In order to define catalytic scenarios for collaboration and improved user experience, we pose some challenges and research questions yet to address by the latest AI models likely to be involved in such synergy.

Purpose This paper aims to present the case of an Italian SME in the domain of insurance and how it approached its own digital transformation. Together with the founders of the SME, the author investigated the digital trends the company should adopt and identified where to intervene in the value chain of the company with new technologies available in the market. The research was focused on the following three sub-domains: a strategy for adoption of innovative digital solutions to improve the everyday operations of the company, platform connecting the company with the customers and analysis of cyber insurance policies to include in the portfolio of the company. Design/methodology/approach For the part on strategy for adoption of innovative digital solutions, the author performed literature review; for the part in which the study ideates new solution to better connect the company with the customers, the author relied on design thinking, creative facilitation and prototyping; and for the part on cyber insurance policies to include the portfolio, the author relied on data available from other insurance companies the SME collaborates with. Findings This paper presented the analysis on how an insurance SME can embrace digital innovation (via internal innovation, buying from startups, partnering with startups or investing in startups), how an SME can do internal innovation and come up with a simple tool to bring closer the insurers and their customers and types of new cyber risk policies to include in the portfolio to respond to the growing demand for cyber risk insurance. This paper provides useful insights and lessons learned from companies of similar size in the domain of insurance and discusses future extensions of inquiry. Originality/value Big insurance companies and incumbent for their digitization efforts rely on the freshly created InsurTechs wave of companies. In this paper, the author analyzes what small- and medium-sized insurance enterprises can do in this respect and showcases the approach an Italian SME took in this direction.

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In the course "An introduction to FinTech: from mobile payments to blockchains", students are introduced to the broad area of FinTech, from both technical and business side. The course consists of two technical lectures that explain the students the basic technology for authentication and blockchain and two entrepreneurship lectures that discuss the fintech business ecosystem. In the rest of the course the students work on a project provided by companies in which they put into practice the obtained knowledge and provide a solution to a real life challenge. The course is face-to-face, with two weekly sessions of 2 h each. The students work in teams and each week they need to show progress/work towards the challenge resolution. The students are not constrained in any way and are asked to self organize for the team work. In this study we present the results we obtained from questionnaires that we delivered before the course on course expectations (that we used also to form the teams), during the course on teams' dynamics, and after the course to measure students' perception on collaboration strategies. We end the paper with a reflection on the design space for an application that can support this type of collaborative work online.

This paper explores whether older adults can remotely participate in museum visits with the help of virtual environments. We design and build a system that supports shared museum co-visits between onsite visitors inside the museum and older adults from a care home. We make the experience more engaging by providing a meaningful story, connecting the objects in the museum. The aim of the study is to understand whether older adults are able to use such technology and to study the mediated sense of spatial presence, the experienced social closeness, and the level of participants' engagement and enjoyment in the visit. We discuss the relationship between these aspects and factors leading to a better remote experience for older adults. The results show that older adults enjoy and engage in remote visits, and that there is a positive correlation between enjoyment, engagement and social closeness.