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This book explores how higher education institutions across the globe respond to the disruptive changes triggered by online technologies. Contributions address transformations regarding program design, business models and pedagogical interventions in a digital teaching environment.

Abstract As a result of the rapid technological innovation and its disruptive power also on the educational sector, teaching and learning practices changed fundamentally and new forms of education, as well as totally new degree programmes emerged. Today, higher education institutions (HEIs) make use of different online resources and new collaborative tools by integrating digital technologies and the internet fully within the curricula. However, although online education offers numerous advantages and has the power to overcome traditional barriers in education as time and space, many higher education institutions are still struggling with issues such as fostering student collaboration on one hand and reducing feelings of social isolation on the other. In the present case study, we analyse a blended Bachelor degree programme in Management at a European business school with the aim to provide practical suggestions and inspiration for implementing e-learning and online education in higher education. The introduced case demonstrates how collaborative learning aspects, organisational and pedagogical structures, philosophical assumptions and educational settings can be combined to decrease one of the main challenges in online education, namely distance.

SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant of concern (VOC) resists neutralization by major classes of antibodies from non-VOC COVID-19 patients and vaccinated individuals. Here, serum of Beta variant infected patients revealed reduced cross-neutralization of non-VOC virus. From these patients, we isolated Beta-specific and cross-reactive receptor-binding domain (RBD) antibodies. The Beta-specificity results from recruitment of novel VOC-specific clonotypes and accommodation of VOC-defining amino acids into a major non-VOC antibody class that is normally sensitive to these mutations. The Beta-elicited cross-reactive antibodies share genetic and structural features with non-VOC-elicited antibodies, including a public VH1-58 clonotype targeting the RBD ridge independent of VOC mutations. These findings advance our understanding of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 shaped by antigenic drift with implications for design of next-generation vaccines and therapeutics. Competing Interest Statement The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and Charite-Universitaetsmedizin Berlin have filed a patent application on antibodies for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection described in an earlier publication, on which S.M.R., H.-C.K., V.M.C., E.S.-S., H.P., and J.K. are named as inventors. V.M.C. is named together with Euroimmun GmbH on a patent application filed recently regarding the diagnostic of SARS-CoV-2 by antibody testing.