COVID-19 has significantly affected and impacted our world on social, mental, health, cultural and economic levels. To respond to this crisis, educational organizations had to swiftly adjust by introducing online learning for all units. Academics and teachers needed to transfer their teaching, assessments and activities to online facilities by using specific platforms to allow adequate interaction between students and academics. This rapid change raised several challenges and opportunities for

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... cademics, teachers and students, from teaching delivery, students' interaction and technology use. This special issue aims to investigate, assess and examine academics' perspectives and perceptions with regard how they have handled this challenge as well as highlighting any opportunities and challenges they have experienced during this period. This new issue will add a new theoretical and practical significance to the e-learning literature review, as currently academics are facing new challenges and opportunities by changing their teaching mode from blend teaching to pure e-learning from the COVID-19. This special issue explored the following themes, namely, teaching mode, e-learning, blended learning and collaborative technology The special issue is comprised of eleven papers Article 1: "Online university education is the new normal: but is face-to-face better? by Stevens, Garry; Bienz, Tobias; Wali, Nidhi; Condie, Jenna; Schismenos, Spyros". This paper compares the relative efficacy of face-to-face and online university teaching methods. Although previous research has supported a "no significant difference" position, our review of 91 comparative studies during 2000-2020 identified 37 (41%) which found online teaching was associated with better learning outcomes, 17 (18%) which favored face-to-face and 37 (41%) reporting no significant difference. Purpose-developed online content which supports "student-led" enquiry and cognitive challenge were cited as factors supporting better learning outcomes. This study adopts a predefined methodology in reviewing literature which ensures rigor in identifying relevant studies. The large sample of studies (N = 91) supported comparison of discrete learning modes, although high variability in key concepts and outcome variables made it difficult to directly compare some studies. A lack of methodological rigor was observed with some studies. As a result of COVID-19, online university teaching has become the "new normal" but also refocused questions regarding its efficacy. The weight of evidence from this review is that online learning is at least as effective, and often better than, face-to-face modalities in supporting learning outcomes, albeit these differences are often modest. The findings raise questions about the presumed benefits of face-to-face learning and complicate the case for a return to physical classrooms during the pandemic and beyond Article 2: "Distance learning during COVID-19 pandemic: satisfaction, opportunities, and challenges as perceived by faculty members and students by Kaba, Abdoulaye; El Refae, Ghaleb; Eletter, Shorouq". This study investigated and assessed the first experience of faculty members and students with distance learning implemented at Al Ain University (AAU) to contain the spread of coronavirus or COVID-19. The paper attempted to understand faculty and students' satisfaction with institutional readiness for distance learning and perception towards opportunities and challenges of distance learning. The study is based on data collected in March 2020 through an online survey questionnaire from Guest