We would like to thank Pierre Moeglin and Daniel Peraya for their careful proofreading and relevant suggestions.

1The editorial of issue 45 announced a series of thematic issues based on contributions presented at the international and bilingual conference ‘Distance education, a brave new world?’, organised by DMS, with the joint support of the CNED (EIFAD) and the Open University, which took place on 21 and 22 October 2022. This is the second issue of the series, which includes two articles in French and one in English. The editors of issue 45 concluded by pointing out that the selected articles lifted the veil on some of the hidden facets of educational research and one of its central questions: how to learn and make others learn?

2The three articles in this issue address different topics but they do link and add to those of the previous issue. They all relate to higher education and the analyses and observations of their authors complement each other. Admittedly, the subjects and audiences are very diverse (teacher training, engineering degree and recreational dance classes) and they were delivered in different countries (United Kingdom, France, Canada). However, all articles stress the state of shock caused by the forced transition to online teaching caused by the COVID pandemic, the disarray educators fell into, the need to find emergency solutions, as well as the difficulties that lie ahead in order to deal with the profound changes it created for current and future systems of education. These initial remarks confirm the value of the international character of our journal through which we aim to shed light on differences and similarities between countries, although we will highlight other points of convergence at the end of the editorial.

3The first article by Nia Cole-Jones, Nerys Defis, Alison Glover, Mathew Jones and Rachel Wallis, entitled ‘Using collaborative peer-to-peer reflection to develop the practice of trainee teachers’ reports on a study conducted with trainee teachers engaging in collaborative reflection via video. The authors begin by reminding us that reflexivity is widely recognised as a fundamental skill that novice teachers must develop during their training, but which only took place face-to-face until the COVID pandemic. For this study, participants were asked to observe and comment on a micro-teaching activity in MS Teams using video. Participants were asked to complete two questionnaires, one pre- and one post-activity, about the benefits and challenges of developing their teaching skills through video-assisted peer-to-peer reflection. Extracts from the qualitative data retrieved from the responses suggest that the collaborative nature of the reflection and the environment in which the reflection occurred fostered exchanges and learning from others. The authors believe that peer-to-peer reflection allowed the trainee teachers to improve their reflective skills and confidence. The activity also allowed for more in-depth reflection as participants could make use of the video tool according to their needs. They could stop the recording, pause, rewind as many times as they wanted and return to the specific points of the teaching activity they wanted to dig further into. The technical functionalities specific to the use of video allow each individual to make the resource their own. Although the number of participants decreased from 37 for the first questionnaire to 17 for the second, the authors note that the outcome of the micro-teaching activity was positive and that video-assisted peer-to-peer reflection is an appropriate tool for trainee teachers. The paper focuses on the participants’ perception of their learning in this context, but it does not take into account the specific characteristics and constraints of the video platform and activity set up, although it is very interesting. Indeed it features ‘video within the video,’ a kind of play within the play: micro-teaching sessions, as we know, are based on the viewing of a short teaching session that was filmed for assessment or self-assessment, and in this case the sessions were themselves carried out remotely through videoconferencing.

4In the second article entitled ‘What interactions tell us about the activity of the teacher and students during an emergency videoconference course,’ the author, Saida Mraihi, reports on a study conducted with a group of teachers and students in the second year of an engineering degree. She focuses her attention on videoconferences, through which she observed the participants’ interactions closely. To do this, the researcher relied on a multidisciplinary theoretical framework. For the activity design side of the investigation, they followed B. Alberto’s sociotechnical approach (and their predecessor’s M. Linard) (B. Albero et al., 2019) and the multimodality approach of online communication and interactions (from C. Kerbrat-Orecchioni and C. Develotte). For the learning side of the study, they used interactional analysis (L. Filliettaz et al.). The research therefore focusses both on learning in a videoconferencing context and on the set up of the investigation itself. The mixed methodology, which combines quantitative data through annotations of videos and surveys, and qualitative data obtained through interviews, makes the results all the more interesting. The observations from the video sequence annotations made through the use of pre-established grids constitute a particularly rich corpus on which further research can be built. Among the points raised, we should retain, for example, the use of different communication channels (video, speech, or chat channels for the transmission of messages, visual or auditory modes for the reception of messages) as well as the spatial context, whether private or public, dedicated to training or not, and known or unknown to the other participants.

5In the third contribution, by Cathia Papi and Geneviève Dugré, ‘The challenges of teaching dance at a distance: between absurdity and opportunity,’ the authors directly raise the question of the relevance of distance learning in a discipline where physical human contact is so important. It should be noted, however, that the same question applies to other domains, particularly to vocational courses, which makes the conclusions drawn from the 34 interviews that were conducted for the study particularly interesting. In addition, there is a growing demand for courses related to recreational and leisure activities, which must be met. The use of digital technologies to teach dance is well documented in the literature, where the issue of the lack of interaction, and in particular of immediate feedback for those who need it, is identified. Some features specific to dance as a discipline, but also shared with other subjects, are highlighted. In particular, these are connected to the body and to the physical use of space for movement. In addition, teachers need to invent new strategies, such as drawing physical lines on the floor and demonstrating how a choreography can be performed in a limited space at home. In order to collect the points of view of practitioners, the authors conducted interviews via videoconferencing with 34 professional or amateur dancers who teach different types of recreational dance and analysed the verbatim transcripts. They provide a very detailed description, showing in particular the efforts and creativity that teachers had to deploy to adapt to the situation, the improvements that were made possible by moving to distance teaching, as well as the frustrations that have led some to withdraw from distance learning.

6While the first issue of the journal dedicated to the 2022 conference focused on studies putting forward new conceptual frameworks for theorising, categorising, designing or evaluating courses, this issue considers the question of the transition to emergency distance learning through contributions grounded in lived experiences which illustrate the general theme of the conference through specific real-life situations and progress the discussion through reflections related to specific contexts. The articles highlight both the lasting changes that the COVID pandemic has brought and the difficulties that remain for trainers and their students in certain contexts.

7The three articles also have in common that they investigate the role of the visual dimension of technological tools, which have been frequently used in distance education since before the pandemic, and its contribution to the success of online courses and their evaluation. The use of video is examined, whether it has made it possible to forge stronger interpersonal relationships between participants in a situation of peer-to-peer evaluation (first article), whether it has revealed difficulties or contradictions in the approach and perception of interactions for teachers and their students (second article), or finally whether it has allowed the teaching of practices related to physical movement (third article), despite the limitations identified. It emerges that the management of space, physical or social, and of the physicality of communication, through multimodality and different semiotic registers, is a central dimension of the situations analysed and an important issue affecting the success, or otherwise, of the teaching contexts studied. These analyses echo ‘videographic practices in training’ (Oliviera, 2014). The use of video for training has not often been addressed in this journal, whether it is a question of learning with video (Favel-Kapoian and Lignon, 2023), a way for learners to present themselves to others (Oliviera, 2014) or an analysis of the discursive and communicational characteristics of video capsules (Peltier and Campion, 2018).

8The three articles, like those of the previous thematic issue, also highlight the development of teachers’ and learners’ reflective practices. The authors thus confirm that the shock of the forced transition to distance learning has been an opportunity for many to examine their own practice, and to consider the nature and shape of learning before, during and after COVID.

9This issue also includes two article reviews. The first one, on Maelle Crosse’s work on the transformation of pedagogical practices in higher education, provides frameworks to situate the practices described in this issue. The second one is also particularly useful to shed light on the difficulties described in the three articles since it presents Laurent Souchard’s work on psychological connections and educational continuity through distance learning.

10Finally, the debate and discussion section on the evolution of teaching methods based on lecturing contributes to the questioning that is necessary to the transformation of higher education. Introduced by Claire Peltier, this section includes two contributions. Bertrand Mocquet discusses, among other issues, the need for interaction between teachers and students, while Chrysta Pellissier proposes an analysis of changes in teaching methods based on professional gestures and teaching postures.