A research about factors that lead students to choose online courses, as well as the acceptance of these courses, can provide very relevant information for higher education institutions’ decision makers to amend these offers to students’ interests and needs. An investigation through questionnaire was developed involving students who attended online post-graduate courses. It was intended to know which factors affect students' decision to opt for postgraduate online courses. A model, based on the TAM (Technology Acceptance Model), was tested to find out what factors determine the intention to use online learning. The results shows that most respondents favour online courses and that their decision, when choosing this type of course, is mainly influenced by time management flexibility, avoiding going to school and the course curriculum interest. The test of the model, with structural equations, shows that attitude regarding online courses and perceived usefulness are factors that predict the intention to use. It was also concluded that the perceived ease of use induces a direct and indirect effect on the intention to use. The most significant results are consistent with published studies and can help the higher education institutions to define offer and communication strategies to reach a greater number of candidates for online learning.

In a globalization context, underlined by the speed of technological transformation and increasingly competitive markets, the perspective of human capital, as an asset of strategic importance, stands out in differentiating human resource practices. Under this reality, the employer branding (EB) concept gains more and more importance as a strategic tool to attract, retain, and involve human capital, given that this has become a source of competitive advantage to companies. Within this context, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between employer branding strategies implemented by organizations, as well as their impact on the employee’s affective commitment, evident in certain organizational cultures, which are sustained over time. The methodological framework applied to this study is quantitative, and the data collection was carried out with the application of an employer branding and an affective commitment questionnaire. To achieve a good representation of the active population, the sample of the quantitative study was composed of 172 individuals, working in the public and private sectors in Portugal, exercising different positions in the different sectors of activity. Results obtained with these techniques indicate a high level of affective organizational commitment (AOC) of employees in the organizations surveyed, suggesting that affective commitment develops when the individual becomes involved and identifies with the organization.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions with a face-to-face model have found themselves in the contingency of migrating to online learning. This study explores the perspective of all the lecturers at a Portuguese private higher education institution who were invited to participate, regardless of their research area, in this questionnaire. It aims to propose and test a conceptual model that combines attitudes, preferred activities, and technological experience with the sentiment about the impact of this experience on students’ learning process, on their teaching activity, and on the strategy of higher education institutions. An online questionnaire was conducted to 65 lecturers engaging in emergency online lecturing. The obtained results showed that lecturers reveal a positive attitude towards online lecturing, tend to prefer activities in which they feel most comfortable in face-to-face lecturing, and consider having technological experience useful for online activities. Lecturers have a positive sentiment about the impact of online learning on students’ learning, their faculty career, and the strategy of higher education institutions. The proposed conceptual model test shows that the model has well-fitting conditions. The results confirm the hypotheses formulated: namely, the predictive effect of attitude, preferred activities, and technological experience on sentiment. Faculty engagement in emergency online lecturing shows that the members are available to participate in the changing process, and the proposed conceptual model can be used to assess this readiness.

ResumoAs instituições de ensino superior portuguesas têm necessidade de diversificar a sua oferta formativa de modo a adequá-la aos novos públicos para os quais as formas de ensino e de aprendizagem que incluam ensino online são cada vez mais aliciantes. Apesar desta necessidade, não existem muitos estudos que analisem a forma como os professores encaram a adoção de formas de ensino e de aprendizagem que incluam o ensino online. O estudo realizado através da investigação por questionário em 11 instituições de ensino superior privado português, pretendeu identificar os constrangimentos dos professores do ensino superior presencial em relação à adoção do ensino online e o impacto dessa adoção no seu desenvolvimento profissional. Os resultados revelam que o aumento do tempo que dedicam às atividades letivas constitui o maior constrangimento referido pelos professores em relação à adoção do ensino online. A análise fatorial exploratória identificou seis dimensões relacionadas com os constrangimentos dos professores: aumento do trabalho letivo; apoio institucional; reconhecimento social do ensino online; disponibilidade pessoal e apoio interpares; interação online; problemas relacionados com direitos de autor. Os professores manifestam pouca receptividade e um preconceito elevado em relação ao ensino online, verificando-se que, na sua maioria, apresentam reticências em relação à sua adoção e ao impacto que a mesma pode ter no seu desenvolvimento profissional. A criação de estratégias motivacionais orientadas para a melhoria das competências tecnológicas e pedagógicas pode ajudar os professores a envolverem-se em formas de ensino e aprendizagem que incluam o ensino online.Palavras chave: ensino online; ensino superior; professores; TIC. AbstractPortuguese higher education institutions need to diversify their educational offer in order to adapt it to new audiences for which the forms of teaching and learning including online education are increasingly attractive. However there are few studies related to how teachers perceive the adoption of forms of teaching and learning that include online teaching. In this