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Food, nutrition and the online: Opportunities and challenges for higher education and life long learning

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of food studies, in the large variety of European Food Sciences programmes the central core considers food technology, consumer sciences, business and economics, nutrition and health studies. Research on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) applications in educational systems confirms the potential of ICT to promote and encourage innovation and improve the quality of education, as well as to achieve greater inclusion and equity quotas. On the other hand, online lifelong learning training systems through different training modalities (e-Learning, b-Learning or m-Learning, MOOCs) make a more extensive and inclusive lifelong training possible in formal and non-formal education, proving to have the potential to be effective in expanding food studies. In addition, ICT is also a powerful pedagogical tool for the treatment of curricular contents related to: determinants of food choice, food marketing, food culture, food security, food safety and food technology. This thematic series aims to raise awareness and help to adapt food related modules/courses to these new opportunities and educational challenges. 

Edited by: 
F. Xavier Medina, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain
Alicia Aguilar, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Spain
Ana Pinto Moura, Universidade Aberta, Portugal
Jesús Frias, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
José Antonio Vázquez, Universidad Claustro de Sor Juana, Ciudad de México

  1. Life long training and education in food safety is a crucial issue in particular for professionals working in the field. At the same time there is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of that training in parti...

    Authors: Paula Vaz-Fernandes and Sandra Caeiro
    Citation: International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 2019 16:37
  2. Technology and innovation are essential for students to not only learn and understand the technical skills, but also identify a problem, discover a solution, and communicate the value proposition. In this stud...

    Authors: Lisa Bosman and Sangjun Eom
    Citation: International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 2019 16:35
  3. Tools for online collaboration are becoming increasingly prevalent in recent years. Certain characteristics of these tools encourage this proliferation: they are easy to use, always available, allow knowledge ...

    Authors: David Conde-Caballero, Carlos A. Castillo, Inmaculada Ballesteros-Yáñez and Lorenzo Mariano-Juárez
    Citation: International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 2019 16:30
  4. The Open University is the sole distance learning public university in Portugal. The present paper reflects the work that is carried out in a curricular unit that belongs to the scientific field of nutrition a...

    Authors: Cristina Carapeto and Daniela Melaré Vieira Barros
    Citation: International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 2019 16:19