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COVID-19 has “taught” universities worldwide that using digital technologies to support purely online or blended learning is a survival strategy. This lesson plus the inclusion of technology in continental, national, and university policies and strategic plans implicate significant technology integration, especially blended learning, in higher education in the post-pandemic era. However, there lacks sound theoretical frameworks to adequately explain success indicators and success factors in blended learning. Existing frameworks provided particulars about the impacts of blended learning within certain contexts; none provided a comprehensive analysis of the significant factors that transcend specific application contexts. Moreover, the frameworks did not offer clear conceptions of knowledge, teaching, learning, and technology and its role in learning. To better inform successful blended learning adoption, this study problematizes success indicators and success factors based on a configurative review of existing frameworks and emerging theoretical perspectives in higher education. A holistic conceptual framework that transcends context specificity is proposed to better inform policy making, instructional design, and teaching and learning. Conceptions of adaptive policy, policy as learning design, and policy as practice are found relevant for blended learning policy making and analysis in higher education.

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This paper provides an overview of Qatar's educational system. Specifically, it focuses on the national educational reform that has been unfolding since 2003, tracks its progress, and describes the extent to which educational technology is utilized within Qatari institutions of the higher education. The paper ends with recommendations for practice and future research.

Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (RIGOs) play unclear roles in education policy making and transfer. Much comparative education scholarship on the topic focuses on exploring the interplay between global and local/national actors in education policy, overlooking regional dimensions. To deepen our understanding, we analyzed the strategic plans of four RIGOs in Africa, the Arab and Islamic worlds, and Southeast Asia. Qualitative policy analysis is employed to reveal the roles RIGOs aspire to play in educational development. Of the what, how, and why dimensions of policy, this study focuses on the last two, as they reveal the rationales the RIGOs provided to justify their organizational positioning, their strategies to contribute to education policy, and their mediations with the national and the global. Our analysis has showed that RIGOs position themselves as significant actors in educational development in their respective regions, playing several complementary and sometimes conflicting roles. Analysis via institutional theory of the interplay of national, regional, and global contexts has revealed organizational isomorphism, decoupling between policy and practice, expansive structuration, otherhood engagements, and scientization and rationalization of organizational work. The RIGOs view themselves as elaborators of global models and, simultaneously, promoters of regionalism. Implications for education policy and research are identified.