*Review* **Systematic Review and Annotated Bibliography on Teaching in Higher Education Academies (HEAs) via Group Learning to Adapt with COVID-19**

**Chiemela Victor Amaechi 1,2,\* , Ebube Charles Amaechi 3, Ugo Pascal Onumonu <sup>4</sup> and Irish Mpho Kgosiemang <sup>5</sup>**


**Abstract:** Student learning has been affected by the recent shift in education globally which has been attributed to adaptation to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This study will look at these characteristics to better understand gender differences in e-learners' self-efficacy, satisfaction, motivation, attitude, and performance on a worldwide scale. Due to the rapid COVID-19 pandemic, many educational institutions had to close, forcing many students to stay at home and enrol in online courses. Due to the practical laboratory sessions and workshops demanded by Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) modules and other related fields, education has faced difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding student involvement and its role in promoting a number of desirable outcomes, including academic outcomes like greater achievement, lower dropout rates, as well as various well-being and life outcomes, has therefore become increasingly important. This paper presents the scientometric review with an annotated bibliography on teaching styles through group learning in the higher education academies (HEAs) directed towards sustainable education. The current work also gives an annotated bibliography that seeks to compile and integrate the research on student participation, group learning, instructional strategies, equality, and diversity. Some evaluations and suggestions are also made in the study.

**Keywords:** teaching; higher education academy (HEA); learning; COVID-19; education; diversity; group learning; sustainability; systematic review; annotated bibliography; student engagement

#### **1. Introduction**

Education has been identified as one of the key elements of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which should be promoted amidst various challenges. However, all facets of peoples' life have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale. Different people have different levels of resilience and abilities to cope and adapt to difficulties as well as events that are traumatic and that may have happened during this recent pandemic. Due to the pandemic, the year 2020/2021 marked a turning point in the history of digital technology in education, enabling a sustainable education even while the world dealt with an unprecedented pandemic disaster [1–3]. As a result, the transition from traditional classroom instruction to online instruction will take place, forcing students to adopt digital learning [4–6]. Aside from e-learning, which has increased in popularity since the occurrence of COVID-19, there are other areas of teaching and learning that have been adapted to the transition [7–10]. This study will look at these characteristics to better understand student engagements, diversity, and cultural differences in e-learners' selfefficacy, satisfaction, motivation, attitude, and performance on a worldwide scale. Due to the unexpected COVID-19 outbreak, many educational institutions were compelled to close,

**Citation:** Amaechi, C.V.; Amaechi, E.C.; Onumonu, U.P.; Kgosiemang, I.M. Systematic Review and Annotated Bibliography on Teaching in Higher Education Academies (HEAs) via Group Learning to Adapt with COVID-19. *Educ. Sci.* **2022**, *12*, 699. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci12100699

Academic Editor: Kelum A.A. Gamage

Received: 6 September 2022 Accepted: 7 October 2022 Published: 12 October 2022

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

forcing many students to stay at home and attend online courses [11–14]. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curricula had difficulties due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic because they require practical laboratory sessions and workshops; hence, the educators have to be trained [15–20]. Although there are other methodologies that have been very effective, group learning has always been among the best methods [20], and social distancing rules involving staying 2 m apart, closures of schools during the lockdowns in most countries, and restrictions on group gatherings were some limitations to group learning during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

From a bibliographic perspective, the shortage of annotated bibliographies on teaching methods in higher education academies (HEAs) is one of the biggest problems that libraries and educational institutions have to deal with. Annotated bibliographies can be used to pinpoint knowledge gaps, such as how to comprehend student interactions by contrasting studies on low and high levels of student participation. There is a gap for general teaching in HEAs in various areas, as seen from the annotated bibliographies studied. Some of these annotated bibliographies cover various levels of course-based education in English [21–27]. Other annotated bibliographies cover various ranges of topics including those on teaching [28], virtual exchange [29], STEM teacher education [30,31], gender bias [32], digital library [33], plagiarism in engineering [34], online learning [35], technical education career [36], curriculum design [37], engaged learning [38], group works [39], business models [40,41], the economics of education [42], scheduling [43], forecasting [44], algorithms [45], distance learning [46,47], sociology [48,49], search optimisation [50], geological lineation [51], the health response to COVID-19 [52], and teaching methods [53].

The teaching standards in HEAs must be maintained, as teaching supports the United Nations' goal on sustainable education. Resilience, adaptability, and flexibility have always been necessary for teachers, but COVID-19 took those requirements to totally new levels [54– 57]. Although challenging, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has provided us with an opportunity to reset and reassess. Schools, educators, and organisations that prepare future educators have had the opportunity to reflect on their past practices and plan how they will enhance and modify their teaching and learning in the future. The pandemic has given us new perspectives, and institutions as well as their teacher-educators have learnt lessons throughout COVID-19 [58–62]. Despite the significant challenges faced during the epidemic, certain positives will last for some time. Our entire educational system and organisational structure had to change to entirely remote communication and online learning as a result of COVID-19 [63–66]. An earlier part of this annotated bibliography has been conducted on online learning as a teaching style [67]. However, there is the need to consider group learning in HEAs. Finally, these annotated bibliographies explore the instructor's role in promoting a dialogue on diversity, instructional reflections, student interactions, and ways for doing so successfully. As a result, one will develop as a teacher and learn how to impart knowledge in a way that will aid students in comprehending a module. The primary concerns of an excellent teacher are for their achievement and interest. They will make sure to cooperate in an atmosphere of love and fairness while upholding the principles of equality and diversity. Their academic success is given first attention, and the instructor ensures that students engage fairly while upholding teaching morals such as equality and diversity. The instructor might also ask some of them to try out some of the problems that are put on the board in order to increase their confidence in their capacity to answer challenges. These teaching and learning experiences are covered in some systematic reviews conducted by earlier researchers [68–83].

This paper presents the scientific review with annotated bibliography on teaching in HEA for group learning. Section 1 introduces the work with themes of group learning, student engagement, diversity, and teaching with their frontiers towards sustainable education. Section 2 presents the methodology of the current work, which aims to consolidate and synthesise the literature on teaching in HEAs. Section 3 introduces group learning, while Section 4 covers lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. Section 5 presents the

systematic and scientometric reviews of the subject area. Section 6 presents the annotated bibliography, while the conclusions drawn from this study are given in Section 7.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

This section covers the materials and methods adopted for this annotated bibliography on the teaching style in higher education academies (HEAs). To obtain this data, search was obtained from existing repositories from various institutions on annotated bibliography and from the SCOPUS database. Using the SCOPUS database, 88 documents were obtained and included in this annotated bibliography in this subject area. The search syntax used in SCOPUS was "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND online AND learning OR COVID-19", as shown in Figure 1, which shows the methodology for obtaining the data used. The search results from the SCOPUS database are in Figure 2. It is noteworthy to state that SCOPUS was used among other databases because of the ease of sorting the relevance, classifying the search, extracting the required results, and profiling the literature.

**Figure 1.** Methodology for the annotated bibliography on the search phrase "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19".


**Figure 2.** SCOPUS database supplied by Lancaster University UK showing the used search phrase on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND online AND learning OR COVID-19" with 112 publications and other search phrases for the research area.

#### **3. Systematic Review and Scientometric Analysis on the Annotated Bibliography**

In this section, a systematic review and scientometric analysis of our annotated bibliography on teaching in higher education academy was conducted based on the research themes. In this study, the research trends were investigated from the publication history, the publication classification, the subject area, the publication by country, journal range, the publication by affiliations, and the author keywords. To understand the research patterns in teaching in HEAs, data were retrieved from SCOPUS to be presented in the findings in Figures 3–10.

**Figure 3.** Result of publication records for research on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19" (data retrieved from SCOPUS database on 22 August 2022).

**Figure 4.** Visualisation mapping showing network of citations from publications on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19" (data retrieved from SCOPUS database, and visualised on VOS Viewer).

**Figure 5.** Result of publications by subject area for the research on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19" (data retrieved from SCOPUS database on 22 August 2022).

**Figure 6.** Result of publications by classification (or type) for the research on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19" (data retrieved from SCOPUS database on 22 August 2022).

**Figure 7.** Result of publications by countries for the research on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19" (data retrieved from SCOPUS database on 22 August 2022).

**Figure 8.** Result on the range of journal publications for the research showing the top journals on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19" (data retrieved from SCOPUS database on 22 August 2022).

**Figure 9.** Result of publications by affiliations for the research on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19" (data retrieved from SCOPUS database on 22 August 2022).

**Figure 10.** Word cloud for the author keywords research on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19" using Voyant tools.

From Figure 3, it was observed that there were different shifts in this subject area, as seen in the pattern of publications from 1993 to 2022. The highest publications were 11 publications in 2014, followed by 10 publications in 2012, followed by 9 publications in 2010, followed by 8 publications in 2018 and 2019, followed by 7 publications in 2016. The second highest occurrence by years was one publication, which appeared five times in 1993, 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2001. The second highest occurrence by years was six publications, which appeared four times in 2010, 2013, 2020, and 2021. It was observed that different global occurrences could have affected the research trends noticed on this subject area, such as the 2008 global economic recession, 2016 drop in oil price, and 2020/2021 COVID-19 pandemic. It was observed that the publications did not increase around these times, but further evidence is required to support this pattern.

It was observed that the publications did not increase around these times, but further evidence is required to support this pattern. With the increase in online learning, there is a decrease in group learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It should be noted that group meetings were shunned by the World Health Organisation (WHO), schools were closed during the COVID-19 outbreak globally, and there were national lockdowns which led to fewer peer-to-peer interactions physically. Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen social distancing rules involving remaining 2 m apart and the use of nose masks and hand sanitizers, there has been an increase in online learning as presented in another study [67]. Hence, the publications dropped from eight publications in 2019 to six publications in 2020 and remained as six publications in 2021, and slightly dropped to five publications in mid-2022. This is envisaged to increase as schools have resumed and the post-COVID-19-pandemic era is approaching.

It was observed that the citations from publications on this research showed that there are 11 items from one cluster, as seen in Figure 4. These data were postprocessed using normalization by the association-of-strength method, with a clustering factor of 1.0. The map was generated from bibliometric data using the full counting method for analysing the co-authorship. To avoid bias, the data ignored documents with a large number of authors, with a maximum of 25 authors per document. There were 351 authors with a minimum of one document per author, so the threshold limit was selected With a minimum of five citations per author, 148 citations met this threshold. With the minimum of 10 citations per authors, 75 citations met this threshold. With a minimum of 15 citations per author, 51 citations met this threshold. Using the latter consideration, the total strength of the links for the citations was obtained. It showed that 11 authors had more than five citations in this research area. The authors identified were: Adamchuk D.V., Balanova Y.A., Drapkina O.M., Frolova E.B., Imaeva A.E., Karamnova N.S., Kontsevaya A.V., Muromtseva G.A., Neutroev S.S., Shalnova S.A., and Starikova N.B. However, there are other authors with one document and many citations as identified in Table 1.


**Table 1.** List of the highest-cited authors per publication showing the citations and total link strength for authors with 1 publication.


**Table 1.** *Cont.*

From Figure 5, it was observed that the publications of the search were mostly journal papers or articles (60.7%) which were 68 publications, followed by conference papers (24.1%) which were 27 publications. This was then followed by book chapters (7.1%) which were 8 publications, followed by reviews (6.3%) which were 7 publications. There was also one publication that was a full book and one editorial which were both the least (0.9%). This shows that the most publications on this subject area were available as journal papers.

From Figure 6, it was observed that the subject area of the search with the highest number of publications was social sciences (44.6%) with 75 publications, followed by engineering (10.7%) with 18 publications, then computer science (9.5%) with 16 publications, followed by medicine (8.3%) with 14 publications, followed by business, management and accounting (6.0%) with 10 publications, followed by arts and humanities (5.4%) with 9 publications. The next set each produced 3 publications: health professions (1.8%), materials science (1.8%), and psychology (1.8%), followed by the next set which produced 2 publications each–dentistry (1.2%), mathematics (1.2%), physics and astronomy (1.2%). The rest have one publication each, and include nursing and chemistry, as seen in the funnel chart in Figure 6.

From Figure 7, it was observed that the country with the highest publications is the United States of America (U.S.A.), with 43 publications, followed by the United Kingdom (U.K.) with 37 publications. The next publications were much lower as Australia and the Russian Federation each had 5 publications, followed by the next set of publications whereby each nation had 2 publications (Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain and Taiwan). The countries with the least publications had 1 publication each (Austria, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Cyprus, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sweden, Thailand and Ukraine). However, there were five publications that were undefined from the SCOPUS data retrieved from this search. It was also gathered that the U.S.A. and the U.K. are the top two nations from this study, and they are both developed nations that also invest heavily in research into education.

Another aspect of the research trend is seen from the publications where these articles were published as given in Figure 8. This research shows that education is covered across the range of publications. It also shows that education is published by different publishers under different subject titles for the journals on this subject area. With the widespread

across different areas, the highest number of publications found from Scopus database on this area were 3 articles published in the journal called *Teaching in Higher Education*. Additionally, there were other journals that had two publications each, which include various educational research journals listed in Appendix A.

The next aspect looked at are the result of publications by affiliations for the research on "teaching AND higher AND education AND academy AND group AND learning OR COVID-19", as represented in Figure 9. It can be observed that highest publications by affiliations were from Duke University, Purdue University, and the University of Plymouth, as each produced three publications. It was followed by the set of affiliations that produced two publications, which are the University of Illinois, Loughborough University, University of Northumbria, University of Kentucky, Stanford University, University of Nottingham, University of Washington, Coventry University, Deakin University, University of Leicester, and AdvanceHE. The last set of affiliations had one publication each, are detailed in Appendix B.

The last parameter looked at are the author keywords from the search using data retrieved from SCOPUS. It was identified in Figure 10 that the most frequent keywords in the corpus for the word cloud using Voyant tools were education (48); learning (47); higher (23); teaching (19); and practice (11). This can be identified in the word cloud depicted in Figure 10 which was developed using 755 words and 394 unique word forms. From the cirrus on Voyant tools, the word cloud was generated and identified to have a vocabulary density of 0.522, readability index of 32.268, and an average words per sentence of 377.5. Using the most frequent words, a trend was identified as depicted in Figure 11, showing that education is the keyword with the highest relative frequency.

**Figure 11.** Result of relative frequency and trend from the most frequent author keywords generated using Voyant tools.

#### **4. Group Learning as an Effective Technique**

The term "group learning" describes a group of people who are actively working together to solve problems, produce goods, and make sense of the world. Each person participates in group learning both independently and by seeing how others learn. The current article discusses how to introduce group learning, lists its essential characteristics, examines its benefits, describes general tactics for incorporating group work, and describes how to evaluate group work. In group learning, some skills are developed and practised

by learners, such as communication, teamwork dispute resolution, negotiation, critical thinking, values clarity, accommodation, and understanding [20].

In principle, there are two fundamental components to learning: learning on one's own with the aid of one's own understanding and knowledge, and learning in groups or socially within groups. Working in small groups gives students the chance to express their thoughts and understandings, dispel misunderstandings and presumptions, and bargain with others to produce something or come to an agreement. Through group activities, students can learn the material more deeply and develop their thinking abilities. The best group projects involve students in higher-level material that is challenging to comprehend, open to numerous interpretations, or both.

The word "group" means both individual learning that stresses group interaction and the more dispersed type of learning that does not exist inside the head of any one person. Building a communal body of knowledge is the aim, rather than concentrating just on the individual's expertise; learning groups work to produce widely accepted understandings. On the other hand, the word "learning" means the procedures and results involved in resolving issues and producing things that are valued in a culture. This kind of learning places an emphasis on real-world problem solving and engages pupils cognitively, emotionally, and aesthetically rather than concentrating on discrete information that may be created via simple-answer questions.

According to Niharika Gautam [20], group learning is a method of instruction that necessitates meticulous planning and typically employs a facilitator to monitor group progress. It is important to monitor and evaluate how well the group functions and how well the group members learn. The ability of the group to accomplish a common objective is just as crucial as the knowledge and comprehension of the material. Facilitative abilities are crucial, and they call for the teacher to make sure that the task is completed and that functionality and integrity are upheld.

Students are encouraged to build a variety of interpersonal, intrapersonal, presentational, and communicational skills through group learning, all of which are useful in the real world. These crucial abilities are challenging to develop on an individual basis and require constant feedback and contact with group members, which is impossible if the group dynamic is not utilised. Small group learning, particularly that which involves extremely small groups, has drawn criticism from some experts for minimising learner responsibilities and, as a result, decreasing learner motivation. Individuals may neglect their own learning goals in favour of those they share in common with other group members when participating in group learning. In groups with a few highly skilled members, they could also be impacted by the free rider effect.

There are numerous instructional strategies that are ideal for group learning. However, the teaching method which a teacher chooses to employ is entirely up to them. There are several methods for group learning, as summarised in Table 2.

In view of the above, there are some identifiable advantages of group learning in HEIs. By fostering cooperative and collaborative abilities as well as lifetime learning abilities, learners are encouraged to become active rather than passive learners. Secondly, it improves the growth of critical thinking abilities. It also promotes students' academic success and learning. Students have the chance to benefit from and impart knowledge to one another. The students are also motivated by depth rather than superficial learning strategies. It helps learners transfer their prior knowledge and learning more effectively.

Other benefits include learner-centered teaching and learning, with a strong emphasis on assessment. Students actively participate in their own education with group learning. It improves social connections and skills. Additionally, the learning's results are enhanced. There are large groups of students that can be served as well as students that can work on projects simultaneously. The ability to interact and work together on a smaller scale is increased, which lessens the isolation some people feel. Working effectively and efficiently in a group is a necessary skill in the current economic world. The capacity to collaborate with others is frequently cited by employers as one of the most crucial skills business

school grads should have. The factors that affect group dynamics, outcomes, and students' attitudes about group experiences are crucial for teachers to comprehend.

**Table 2.** Different group-learning methods and their descriptions.


In small groups, introverted learners have the chance to speak up and be heard, overcoming the anonymity and passivity associated with large groups. In this approach, the options for instruction, learning, and assessment are expanded. As a result of improved teaching efficiency and effectiveness, faculty members are more enthusiastic about their

work (and the students). Students have the opportunity to work on significant projects (larger in scope or complexity than individual tasks). Learners from various backgrounds are given the chance to speak up, share knowledge and abilities, and take part in various ways (this may provide a new perspective). Time can be saved, but a shared task is necessary. In group learning, there is no individualism but alternative thoughts and viewpoints can be generated. It offers a structured learning environment that can help students get ready for the diversity and realities of the workplace, including working with people from all backgrounds and with varied abilities, cultures, and perspectives.

#### **5. Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic**

In this section, the lessons learnt from COVID-19 are presented.

#### *5.1. Policy Implications*

Teaching assistants and teachers have been in the public limelight during the pandemic, dealing with anything from school closures and home schooling to being praised as national heroes. Without a doubt, teachers have had a difficult time. From being important frontline workers to adjusting to new work practises, they have demonstrated commitment and bravery by putting the needs of the country's children first during a moment of genuine crisis. Teaching has always required resiliency, adaptability, and flexibility, but COVID-19 pushed those skills to entirely new heights [52–57]. Although difficult, the epidemic has given us a chance to reset and recalibrate. Schools, teachers, and institutions that train future teachers have been able to examine what they have done in the past and how they will improve and adapt their teaching and learning in the future.

The pandemic has availed us of new perspectives, and lessons have been learned by institutions as well as their teacher educators during COVID-19 [58–62]. Despite the enormous hurdles during the pandemic, there are positives that will endure over the long term. Due to COVID-19, our entire educational system and organisational structure had to transition to fully remote communication and online learning [63–65]. This means that all the teachers, instructors, and students had to understand that technological improvements are needed to urgently and significantly help address our sustainability challenges given how swiftly they have spread around the world. However, it seemed that educators across a range of subject areas needed to work together with many other disciplines, both inside and outside of business, for academic and professional purposes. In order to provide students with the tools of social power and influence so they may transformatively promote sustainability in their lifetimes, they urged the creation of an integrative curriculum and extracurricular projects that yield tangible and beneficial consequences in each of these sectors.

In order to create and deliver teaching lessons that are in line with interdisciplinary learning outcomes and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the teacher could apply blended learning, or building-based learning (BBL), or typical approaches. Complexity, awareness, presentation abilities and confidence, and teamwork(or groupwork) are among the learning objectives that are covered in the article. The recommendations for customising online workshops and webinars using tools like Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Zoom reflect a digital age. Additionally, the teachers have to adapt and acquire more skills to fit the era of this pandemic. To ensure that the students engage appropriately, teachers have had to adopt lesson plans using flip-chart tools or digital tools like Kharhoot! to ensure more student engagement. However, the challenge is that the time that teachers have available for this purpose must be judiciously utilised. The importance of this work lies in its emphasis on and promotion of scenario planning as a teaching tool. As we move into a very uncertain future due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, scenario planning may prove to be a critical tool for identifying risks and opportunities related to sustainability for teachers, students, individuals, communities, organisations, and, possibly, entire societies.

Training by mentorship enables teachers to communicate better with students via internet correspondence, email, bulletin boards, and online chat, regardless of their physical location. Online tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Skype are also useful in setting the video meetings. This helps the students to become better equipped to acquire their own information when they feel involved in an activity. The feedback from students is also helpful to the teachers, to improve their teaching skills. Understanding learners' attitudes toward online mentoring is essential to ensuring that learners can benefit from it. Both students and mentors may provide feedback. Higher education institutions (HEI) place a strong emphasis on reflecting on student input and using digital teaching aids like e-boards, projectors, public address systems, and cutting-edge lecture e-kits. With these teaching aids, the student can record the lecture notes on their tablets, mobile phones, and laptop computers, or download them as electronic files so they can be revised at a later time.

Additionally, COVID-19 taught us lessons that intend to identify the shifts in student responsibilities, digital literacy, and learning achievement in online learning environments. There are also online tools that are used in the evolving society, especially with the recent COVID-19 pandemic which led to a national lockdown in most nations. Hence, there was the need to adapt new teaching methods like blended learning and having e-mentorships. Ementoring aims to increase the less-skilled person's knowledge, confidence, and awareness of other cultures by using electronic communications. It also offers both a context for how it could be better understood in the classroom and a broader understanding of its significance, and gives room for more development of digital tools and the application of technology in learning spaces, HEAs, and also the creation of more online courses.

#### *5.2. Proposed HE Policy Framework for COVID-19 Pandemic*

Teaching in HEAs during the pandemic faced challenges in ensuring that students' grades were maintained, while keeping the students' motivation up. However, while the students had a willingness to study, the education sector was dealing with school closures due to the rate of COVID-19 spreading from 2019–2021. Thus, many homes had to resort to home schooling, online learning, social distancing, and the avoidance of group gatherings. In higher education, the idea of active learning is problematic and unacceptable. The following are the most concerning worries. First and foremost, the online mode often results in fabricated grades, reflecting higher education as a market-driven good; second, it profits off the good name of HE without developing or producing new knowledge and skills that future generations need; and third, this so-called online mode only values the idea of active learning in higher education if it increases the bottom line. Although solutions to these issues are required to guarantee active learning in higher education, we should always make sure that HE is in place, especially in times of emergency. Significant policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated emergencies are described in various studies [59,68].

In the twenty-first century, quitting higher education in the middle of a life-or-death scenario is not an option. To maintain operations, a different approach is offered, but it is not a full substitution or replacement. The fundamental ideas of education, which are the result of a protracted development process and have passed through stringent testing, should not be destroyed by an alternate technique. It is crucial to remember that an educational system needs constant modification and updating, thus any ad hoc or contingent model should not be fully applied until it has received validation. In such cases, Alam and Parvin [68] proposed a policy framework that can handle the provision of education in an emergency. Figure 12 shows the specialised policy framework for HE during a crisis.

To confirm that the higher education sector must continue to function and provide active learning during a crisis, a dedicated taskforce with experts from various sectors (such as higher education, public policy and legislative bodies, ICT, private and public sector leaders, elites, etc.) should be established. This taskforce should ideally design an ad hoc initiative that is properly planned and timed and is able to address current issues. The government should fund and oversee the ad hoc initiative, and it should be one "in which

the governance and regulatory systems are not compromised" to prevent the profit-making mentality from taking hold. Only institutions with a proven track record of value should be allowed to participate. Ad-hoc project completion must be followed by a number of evaluations, both internal and external. A fair ad hoc initiative might assist prevent market players from altering how the HE sector acts during a crisis based on the suggestions of these evaluations. The idea of active learning in higher education could be in risk from a wholly market-driven strategy.

**Figure 12.** Specialised policy framework for Higher Education during a crisis such as COVID-19 pandemic (Reused with permission from Elsevier Publisher. Copyright year: 2021, Source: [68]).

Policy frameworks for teaching in HE should consider the main components of emergency response, technology adaptation, specialized teachers, training of staff, online support systems, external evaluation, and efficient delivery. It gives credence to the significance of e-platforms and other digital tools. Mobile applications have also been developed to support the application of technology in learning platforms for HEAs and also the creation of more online courses. Presently, online courses like Udemy, Coursera, EdX, Future Learn, and Alison have had increased patronage due to the recent spread of COVID-19 and CoV-2-SARS. These online courses have the advantages of being available at any time, safer as there is no social distancing required, easier because they can be approached at comfort, more flexible for people to learn from, and utilise simpler teaching contents for learners to easily adapt/learn.

#### **6. Annotated Bibliography**

In this section, an annotated bibliography on teaching in higher education academies (HEAs) is presented in this paper together with their frontiers in sustainable education. In Tables 3–5 and 8–10, the annotated bibliography from a plethora of publications were listed based on the classifications based on different categories.


**Table 3.** Some studies related to systematic reviews on teaching in HEAs.


**Table 4.** Educational research on teaching systematic reviews.






#### **Table 5.** Related studies on group learning in HEAs.




**Table 6.** Related studies on teaching and learning to adapt to COVID-19.



for evaluation.


**Table 7.** Related studies on teaching and learning to adapt to COVID-19.


**Table 8.** Related studies on teaching and learning to adapt to COVID-19.

**Table 9.** Related studies on digital literacy on teaching in HEAs.







**Table 10.** Related studies on diversity and cultural differences on teaching in HEAs.






#### **7. Conclusions**

In this paper, a scientific review with annotated bibliography on teaching in higher education academies (HEAs) is presented together with their frontiers in sustainable education. This study covers literature on reflecting comments, reflective thinking, and reflective behaviour in the classroom. This annotated bibliography is made up of references and their summaries with the authors' views on the collected literature to aid academics, such as professors, workshop tutors, teaching assistants, laboratory demonstrators, postgraduate researchers, and educators in obtaining a comprehensive overview of the literature on the subject to enhance their teaching abilities. Different studies demonstrate how a teacher's teaching skills and assessments may affect the mode of students learning. This is evident based on the studies conducted on teaching styles, student assessment, and group learning. The literature utilised for the annotated bibliography shows that the learner's attitude and the teacher's skills have an effect on the students' learning process.

The scientific review and scientometric analysis conducted was used to understand the research pattern in this area. It is evident that there are key indicators that affect the research pattern on teaching in HEAs. Based on the publication records from 1993 to mid-2022, it was observed that different global occurrences could have affected the research trends noticed in this subject area, such as the 2008 global economic recession, 2016 drop in oil price, and the 2020/2021 COVID-19 pandemic. It was observed that the publications did not increase around these times, but further evidence is required to support this pattern. With the increase in online learning, there is a decrease in group learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It should be noted that group meetings were shunned by the World Health Organisation (WHO), schools were closed during the COVID-19 outbreak globally, and there were national lockdowns which led to fewer peer-to-peer interactions physically. Due to this recent COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen social distancing rules involving remaining 2 m apart and the use of nose masks and hand sanitizers, there has been an increase in online learning. Hence, the publications dropped from eight publications in 2019 to six publications in 2020 and remained six publications in 2021, and slightly dropped to five publications in mid-2022, which is envisaged to increase as schools have resumed and the post-COVID-19 pandemic era is approaching. On the one hand, the international lockdowns revealed new loopholes and difficulties, such as the challenge of providing

Chromebooks and laptops for students to use at home during the lockdown. On the other hand, the relationship between technology and education has been growing, which has given education the chance to advance and improve the use of digital technologies in the classroom. In addition, there are advantages adapted from the COVID-19 pandemic leading to learning-readiness and job-readiness in higher education [68,157,158].

It was also observed that the highest publications were produced in the U.S.A. Additionally, it was also gathered that the U.S.A. and the U.K. are the top two nations, and they are both developed nations that also invest heavily on research into education. These affiliations are from various locations, demonstrating that research on education is being undertaken with a focus on teaching in higher education academy. However, the rates of production per affiliation are not very high, which may indicate that there is little funding for this field of study. The survey also reveals that articles and journal papers made up the majority of publications on this topic. Using the most frequent words, a trend was identified as depicted in Figure 10, showing that 'education' is the keyword with highest relative frequency, namely, as education (48); learning (47); higher (23); teaching (19); and practice (11). However, future research can include an annotated biography on teaching in HEAs with themes like student participation, diversity, teaching pedagogy, and blended learning in HEAs. Additionally, detailed scientific literature reviews can be conducted on teaching in HEAs. Further studies should include inclusive learning, teaching pedagogy, socio-cultural differences, and advanced teaching techniques for STEM courses.

**Supplementary Materials:** The supplementary data used in the study can be downloaded at: Amaechi, Chiemela Victor (2022), "Data on Scientometrics of Teaching in HEA and adapting to COVID-19 (group learning)- Paper 2", *Mendeley Data*, V2, https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/ hnjmzhskz3, accessed on 6 September 2022.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, C.V.A. and I.M.K.; methodology, C.V.A.; software, C.V.A.; validation, C.V.A., E.C.A., U.P.O. and I.M.K.; formal analysis, C.V.A. and I.M.K.; investigation, C.V.A. and I.M.K.; resources, C.V.A.; data curation, C.V.A.; writing—original draft preparation, C.V.A.; writing—review and editing, C.V.A., E.C.A., U.P.O. and I.M.K.; visualization, C.V.A., E.C.A., U.P.O. and I.M.K.; supervision, C.V.A.; project administration, C.V.A.; funding acquisition, C.V.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by Lancaster University: Engineering Department Studentship Award; Niger Delta Development Commission (NG): NDDC Overseas Postgraduate Scholarship; Standards Organisation of Nigeria (NG): SON Study; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK): EPSRC's Doctoral Training Centre (DTC). The financial support received for the doctoral research conducted along with this study is highly appreciated.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data supporting the reported results has been as supplementary data, which was also used to produce some related works on this study.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors acknowledge the librarians of Lancaster University for the support in providing requested publications. The first author acknowledges the teaching certifications and training received from the Organisation and Education Development (OED), Lancaster University, UK during the Associate Teaching Programme (ATP), and the fellowship of higher education academies (HEAs), UK. Also, the feedback from the reviewers to improve the quality of this paper is well appreciated.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; and in the writing of the manuscript or in the decision to publish the results.

#### **Appendix A. List of Some Journals on Teaching and Education in Higher Education**

From this study, the list of journals include: *Teaching in Higher Education*, *Diversity In Higher Education*, *International Journal For Academic Development*, *Journal Of Further And* *Higher Education*, *On The Horizon, Pediatrics*, and *Tertiary Education and Management*, all having two publications each, except *Teaching in Higher Education*, which has three publications. The last set of publications had one article each, and include journals like *Academic Psychiatry*, *Advances In Intelligent Systems And Computing*, *Alt J Research In Learning Technology*, *Arts And Humanities In Higher Education*, *Asian Social Science*, *Atlantic Journal Of Communication*, *Journal Of Education Policy*, *Bioscience Education*, *British Journal Of Educational Studies*, *Cambridge Journal Of Education*, *Cbe Life Sciences Education*, *Community College Journal Of Research And Practice*, *Currents In Pharmacy Teaching And Learning*, *Nurse Education Today*, *Electronic Journal Of Business Research Methods*, *European Journal Of Training And Development*, *Journal Of Higher Education Policy And Management*, *Journal Of Higher Education Theory And Practice*, *Foot And Ankle International*, *Head And Neck Russian Journal*, Health *Information And Libraries Journal*, *International Journal Of Adult Community And Professional Learning*, *International Journal Of Art And Design Education*, *International Journal Of Early Years Education*, *International Journal Of Innovation Science*, *International Journal Of* Learning *Teaching And Educational Research*, *International Journal Of Technology And Design Education*, *International Journal Of Technology Enhanced Learning*, *Journal Of Chemical Education*, *Journal Of Criminal Justice Education*, and *Journal Of Dental Education*.

#### **Appendix B. List of Some Universities and Related Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) on Teaching**

From this study, it was observed that highest publications by affiliations were from Duke University, Purdue University and the University of Plymouth, as each produced three publications. This was followed by the set of affiliations that produced two publications, which are the University of Illinois, Loughborough University, University of Northumbria, University of Kentucky, Stanford University, University of Nottingham, University of Washington, Coventry University, Deakin University, University of Leicester and AdvanceHE. The last set of affiliations had one publication each, and include HEFCE, Ionian University, Unidades Tecnológicas de Santander, University of East Anglia, University of Cape Town, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, East Tennessee State University, Stellenbosch University, Princeton University, Norfolk State University, Western Washington University, The University of Manchester, Uppsala Universitet, Washington State University Vancouver, University of West London, Tel Aviv University, The University of Auckland, University of Houston, Nottingham Trent University, UCL Institute of Education, University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy, National Changhua University of Education, University of Wolverhampton, Louisiana State University, and Glasgow Caledonian University.

#### **References**

