This study focuses on discussing the necessity of integrated support services for academics which comprise not only assistance in developing a necessary skills for teaching in online environments, but also a digital readiness and an understanding of the socio-emotional relevance of belonginess in designing and appling educational strategies in teaching (Durlak et al., 2011). These services should respond to identified needs of the academics who have been challenged by the information technology communication they use in relation to their students, affected by the lack of social interaction and isolating remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. These academics also need support, offered by these integrated services in terms of psychological counseling, professional coaching or tutoring (Zaheer et al., 2019, Davidson & Wilson, 2017; Bustamente, 2019; Respondek et al., 2020). The initial design of the study is based on existing needs analyses carried out in 24 universities in Romania after one semester of online teaching activities (ANOSR, 2020). They were complemented with updated information provided by six partner universities in an Erasmus+ project (eBelong: a sense of belonging in online learning environments), regarding the restructured support services among European universities as a response to the challenges of the pandemic. The survey undertaken represents an important step in these partner universities endevour to promote and reward excellence in teaching and skills development, an important benchmark in quality assurance in achieving EU standards for HE (Education and Training Monitor, 2020) . The attempt of developing integrated support services for teaching academics comes to complement and strengthen the efforts to stimulate learning by fostering motivation and a sense of belonging to the academic community, affected highly by the digital environments which mediate interactions. Sense of belonging refers to academics’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or sensation of connectedness, and the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by, and important to the academic community or others on campus such as faculty, staff, and peers. For these reasons, in this study we also address social and emotional needs and ways of approaching these needs by academics and educational specialists working in support services (Durlak et al., 2011), so that they can attend not just the cognitive development of students, but also their emotional and social needs (Bradley et al., 2010; Davidson & Wilson, 2017; Gerson & Fernandez, 2013) in online learning communities (Peacock & Cowan, 2019). Deprivation of middle motivations, like belongingness, prevents movement toward knowledge and understanding, both of which are related to the consummate goals of higher education (Strayhorn, 2005).

For the purpose of this paper, we will refer to the results of a survey intended to map a diversity of needs and services for academics that were adapted during the pandemics, depending on the unique context of each university. The survey is part of a larger study and was applied between October 2021- January 2022. 141 academics from seven European universities responded in relation to their needs of support for their teaching and research activities and the services offered by their university as they have been adapted during the pandemic. There where four areas of interest: (1) existing support forms related to policy and regulations, professional development, community building and identity; (2) Digital wellbeing; (3) Digital Readiness in terms of resources and openness to technology using, level of digital competence and current needs; (4) University internal communication strategies about support services, both in terms of level of awareness and of existing channels of communication. Data is currently being analysed by a team of researchers for intercoder reliability, who also employ a qualitative data analysis program for validity.

Data resulting from the survey will be used to inform an interactive and personalized strategy for developing digital readiness, teaching skills in online environments and a sense of belonging to academic community integrated in a variety of support services for academics, already in place , but adaptable, attached to educational and career counselling and professional coaching services, moreover transferable to different univeristy contexts in the European settings. We will identify various means to create conditions that foster belongingness (Hagerty, Williams, & Oe, 2002; Hoffman et al., 2002–2003; Strayhorn, 2018) and examples of practices among partner universities that will assist academics with their work. There are several options that can be explored further, related to engaged teaching, academic support, tutoring, peer mentoring, and support programs, campus activities, positive messaging, building virtual learning communities where everyone’s voice matters.

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