**6. Conclusions**

Emergency online teaching has allowed schools to provide learning largely undisrupted during the school closures forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are several challenges to be faced. The results of the analysis of the online discussion forum with international experts, the data from ISTAT and statements of opinion leaders in Italy have revealed several technological, pedagogical and social challenges, additionally confirmed by the reference literature.

The technological challenges are mainly related to the unreliability of Internet connections when thousands of students and workers are simultaneously connected as well as the lack of technological

devices for many students. This aspect has been underlined by di fferent studies [16–19], particularly in developing countries like Ghana, Malaysia [20–22]. The pedagogical challenges are associated with teachers' and learners' lack of digital skills, the lack of structured content versus the abundance of online resources, learners' lack of interactivity and motivation and the social and cognitive issues that teachers and schools must address in this situation. The lack of interactivity and motivation of students is connected with the social challenge related to the loss of human interaction between teachers and students as well as among students. In order to encourage children's engagemen<sup>t</sup> and curiosity, our results sugges<sup>t</sup> the use of more interactive resources to gamify education, in accordance with Thomas and Rogers [18]. Moreover, there are problems related to the lack of physical spaces at home where lessons can be received and, sometimes, a lack of parental support.

Researchers, universities, educational institutions, businesses and policymakers must be involved in providing adequate answers to the challenges emerging from this worldwide experience. Online learning and emergency remote teaching should become a priority for policymakers in di fferent countries, both in Europe and globally. Lessons learned from this emergency enable us to indicate challenges and proposals for action to face these same challenges addressed to policymakers from di fferent countries so that they can address some of the open challenges. Here we reflect on the summary of opinions by experts coming from the online discussion forum and the data analysis of the Italian case study which served to substantiate the following proposals for action to respond to the identified challenges.


The open challenges emerging from this health emergency may prove crucial in improving the capability to provide e ffective online learning, in evolving educational models to overcome inequalities and isolation in emergencies and in preventing social exclusion. Policymakers, enterprises, experts, schools, students and families should collaborate closely to develop accessible and smart learning environments, educational resources and tools additionally able to maintain the sociality, inclusiveness and accessibility of education.

This study aimed to collect opinions, information and experiences and to identify challenges at the European level and proposals for action to face these same challenges addressed to the di fferent actors (policymakers, researchers, teachers, etc.) to overcome the problems that arose during the first lockdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study has enabled us to gain a picture during the first crisis of COVID-19 and it does not presume to be exhaustive. We are planning to extend it in the future providing a major empirical and theoretical corroboration to support the list of actions here hypothesized. Moreover, further research will analyse students' perspectives, experiences, attitudes and feelings and compare them across di fferent countries, in order to provide a more comprehensive view of the phenomenon and to attain more detailed results.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualisation, F.F., P.G., and T.G.; methodology, F.F., P.G., and T.G.; data analysis, P.G., and T.G.; investigation, F.F., P.G., and T.G.; writing—original draft preparation, F.F. and T.G.; writing—review and editing, F.F., P.G., and T.G.; supervision, F.F.; funding acquisition, F.F., and P.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was carried out in the framework of the activities of the H2020 project "The HUB for boosting the responsibility and inclusiveness of ICT-enabled research and innovation through constructive interactions with SSH research–HubIT" funded by the European Commission, Grant Agreement No: 769497.

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to acknowledge the important contribution of all the participants in the forum discussion organised within the framework of the HubIT project (https://www.hubit-project.eu/).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
