 Okay, it's six o'clock. I hope you can hear me well enough. I have to move closer to my laptop. So sorry, you know, the so that you can hear me. So now we are starting the Eden Gala, I would say Eden Scholar Legala's part. This is the part relating to the awards and I always know that this is always very interesting part. We have been given some awards before during this conference. It was on the Monday when we had welcome session, we awarded Eden fellows and Eden senior fellows our acknowledgement of quality and excellence. And now in this session, we will award Young Scholar Grant, Young Scholar's best paper award and best research paper and award. And with me now, Lisa Marie Blaschke, who was the chair of best research paper award and our dear colleague, Uli Bennett from Uli Bennett Foundation, who is supporting and always young scholars and young people aiming to do innovation and excellence in research. So we are very thankful for Uli for all his contributions in these years and next to come. So let me just say that Young Scholar Grant, we will start first with this, is award for which young scholars who are degree program and doctoral students who are eligible, who individually or in team submit original research paper to the annual conference. This year, it's Eden 2021 annual conference in Madrid. And now I appreciate contribution of Uli Bennett Foundation for research in open and distance learning. And I would like to honor Uli Bennett I would like to ask Uli to present the Young Scholar Grant and maybe to even give a little bit more details about evaluation criteria, which are needed to be able to eligible for this grant. So Uli, please turn on the mic. Okay. Emma, do you hear me now? Yes, we can hear you now. Okay, I have a poor connection. Unfortunately, I have a very poor connection. I'm sitting in the garden because I need connectivity next door. Okay, sorry for all of these perhaps problems that will occur, but nice to hear that you hear me. Yes, we can hear you quite well. Okay. So please, can you present the Young Scholar Grant? I explained a little about who is eligible, but maybe you could give a few details more and pronounce the winner, which is the most interesting part. Okay. Okay, the Young Scholars, graduate students, doctoral students who submit conference papers for presentation participate in the best research paper award competition. So there is no difference in evaluating their papers with the rest of all other papers that want to succeed in the best research paper award competition. We have a limited number of grants. So a selection takes place and all the Young Scholars papers that are above average of competing conference papers are finally checked. Who is the best? Who's the next? Who's the third? Who's the fourth? We've got four grants. Unfortunately, only three succeeded in receiving a grant. And the three winners are a fine team from Turkey, four Young Scholars. I try to pronounce their names properly. Aysa Özdal, Dilek Güler, Esgi Tufan, Heisegul Liman Kaban, and they presented the paper using Patrice up as a collaborative writing tool in higher education, EFL classes. This is also the winner of the Young Scholar, Eden Young Scholar prize. The second paper that will receive the grant was submitted by Atanasios Süpsas, the Young Scholar, who in a team with the Senior Scholars, Evgenia Paxinou and our colleague Dimitris Kallis. Congratulations. And the third who will receive the grant are Laura Eichbrecht, the Young Scholar who in the team with our colleague Ulf Daniel Elis successfully submitted the paper. These three teams or persons, they will receive the 300 Euro grant and the Turkish group will share it, 75 each. Congratulations. It was a great pleasure to read their paper. Congratulations. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ulf Eichbrecht. Congratulations to all young scholars who received the grant. It's very nice. I don't think they do mind it 75 or something. It's the recognition they receive, I think is the most important. And I'm very, very happy for them. So as you already said, the Eden Young Scholar paper award also goes to the team who received the Young Scholar grant. And as you have perfectly pronounced their names the first time, I think it's best that you repeat their names for the second time so that they don't try to pronounce it. Okay. So the Eden Prize for young scholars won. I take my glasses. Vesa Öztdal, Dilek Güler, Esgi Tufan and Aisigul Liman Kaban. Congratulations. Congratulations, Istanbul University, Mentor Education Group and the University. Okay, let's say that we've pronounced it. I'm very happy for you, very, very good. I wish you all the best in your future research work and it's always so nice to have such young people eager to work, to contribute, to research and to give their best for the science and education. Maybe we could take a minute or two and ask one of them to say a few words. So who is going to be from the team? Maybe Vesa, do you want to say or who wanted to say something? Okay, hi. We are really happy and proud because last year was really hard because of COVID. We just turned into online and we had lots of troubles. We had to reach our students but we turned this trouble into opportunity. I think online education is a miracle in the days of COVID-19 and we are a really proud team. So if you want, yes, Vesa, Esgi, Dilek, they work really hard to finish this project in the MA program at Pachishi University. So, yes, thank you for this opportunity. Thank you, great. Congratulations once again and I'm certain we will see you in the future in the activities, conferences, research workshops again. Okay, let's move on to the best research paper award ceremony. This is the decade-long tradition of the initiative in the Uli Bernard Foundation for recognizing quality and excellence at the Eden conferences. So Uli, I kindly ask you to explain the rules of the Eden Best Research Paper Award Procedures. Okay, the main criteria that need to be met are six. We are expecting that a winner will contribute convincingly to the theme of the conference and the paper deals with a research question that is also relevant for the conference, participants. We expect a rigorous examination or research methods. Of course, nobody's perfect, the better the earlier you are a winner. The findings and results and outcomes should be convincingly presented and critically examined. That's important, critically examined, just describing the results usually is below average. And the conclusions need thoroughly be discussed. They should also include aspects of applicability, transferability, and further research. And of course, a winner must show that the literature is reviewed against the state of the art. No one is perfect, never a paper reached all the maximum points, but the higher, the better. And the best are now presented by Lisa. Yes, as I said, Lisa is the chair of Best Research Paper Award Jury. So Lisa, please, floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you, Sandra. This year's jury was faced with a significant challenge in choosing the paper award they have received in even best research paper award. We met in the beginning of May to review the first round of papers and to begin the initial selection of award finalists. And from this first round, six highly exceptional papers emerged to form the final list. And I'd like to go through those because sometimes we just forget that there's other people that have really, really devoted some time and effort into this and that they made the first cut. So just to go through that list, the first is differences in academic resiliency when the pandemic forces online was prior learning, was prior online course taking protective from Claire Waldies, City University of New York, Alyssa Hachi, University of Texas, and El Paso, Catherine Conway, City University of New York, all from the United States. The second, learning analytics in a time of pandemics mapping the field from Paul Prinslow, from UNISA in South Africa, Mohamed Khalil, University of Bagan in Norway, Sharon Slade from Earth Trust United Kingdom. The third paper, Reconstructing Subjective Study Experiences During Shutdown in Pandemic Times from Ulf Daniel Ellers, Laura Eigbecht, Baden-Württemberg, Cooperative State University in Karlsruhe, Germany. I feel like a guinea pig, emotional responses to the online pivot. That's from Elaine Vann, my read, and I'm not going to pronounce your last name. Mark Brown, Dublin City University from Ireland. If my read's here, I hope you accept my apologies. The fifth paper is Digital Competence Improvement by Lithuanian School Teachers During COVID-19 by Estella. And again, I'm not going to try to pronounce these last names. And Arena, although I've known you for many years, I still can't do your last name. Elena, and they are all from Vitalitas Magnus University in Lithuania. And the final paper is Emergency Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in Education, a shift from chaos to complexity from Barbie and Svetek, Blatzenka Divjak, and at the Faculty of Organization Informatics at the University of Sakhrab in Croatia. The jury composed of myself as chair, Timothy Reed, a senior lecturer from UNID, here in Spain, and Eden Vice President, Tugba Oztuk, who is an associate professor from Ankara University in Turkey, and a Rodel, your Rodel editorial board member, and Ulrich Bernat and Thomas Hussmann, who are both trustees and directors of the Ulrich Bernat Foundation of Research in Open and Distance Learning in Germany. We began the arduous selection process for the award, and after a meticulous analysis of the papers during which the jury worked painstakingly through the process of aligning the papers and aligning their reviews with the criteria that Uli just discussed that have been established for the award, the jury ultimately and unanimously voted for two papers to share the honor of this year's Eden Best Research Paper Award. The winners of the 2021 Best Research Paper Award are Emergency Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in Education, a shift from chaos to complexity by Barbie Svetek and Blatzenka Divjak from the University of Zakharov in Zakharov, Croatia. The second award goes to Differences in Academic Resiliency When the Pandemic Forced Courses Online, was prior online course taking protective from Claire Valdez, Alyssa Hachi and Catherine Conway from City University of New York in the United States. The research question of the papers of the paper from Claire, Alyssa, and Catherine on the topic of academic resiliency sought answers on whether the forced shift to online learning as a result of the pandemic had an impact on course outcomes for four different groups of students at City University in New York in the United States. Their findings were based on a large-scale database analysis comparing data from the term before the pandemic with the term immediately following that had been rapidly impacted by the pandemic. The results of this paper are intriguing and offer potential implications for the way forward post-COVID. The second paper from Barbie and Blatzenka presents a Europe-based study on emergency responses to the COVID-19 crisis by examining the digital readiness and fitness for change of educational institutions as well as the level of centralized versus decentralized decision-making practices that were undertaken during the pandemic in Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Finland. I just want to make a side note. I really appreciate those who are here from Spain and Sweden, Poland, and Slovakia while the Europe cup is being played right at this moment, those four teams. So results of this study from this paper provide insightful perspectives into the diverse approaches applied by these countries in managing and coping with the reverberating impacts of the pandemic. Both papers are comparable in their approaches, both provide and define articulate and complete research questions and apply meaningful and clear methodologies. Both papers are exemplary in exploring the research themes and in reflecting upon them with arguments that are both theory and research informed. In both papers, the researchers have not avoided the complexity of the surrounding themes, provided their readers to engage and further reflect upon the complexity of these themes. Both papers raise critical and important issues about online and distance learning in the times prior to and during the pandemic, and both showcase the wide spectrum of lessons to be learned from a pandemic for the future of education. Congratulations to all of the award winners, Claire, Alyssa, Catherine, Barbie, and Fletzenka. Back to you, Sandra. I have muted myself, sorry. Congratulations to all nominees, and especially to the winners. I had my tears in my eyes because when creation is in question, I always am very emotional, especially because these are the colleagues I know very well and I'm very happy for them and for calling from USA for their rewards. I would like to invite Barbie and Fletzenka to say a few words because are you here? Can we hear you? I think the both of us are here but you can probably see me as well. Yes. First of all, let me thank you for the award and also to congratulate to all the nominees and winners because I know it is very hard to be the nominee here at the Eden conference or research workshops and I know that all the nominees can get the prize. Of course, I'm happy that we got it especially because for Barbie she is a PhD student and this is her first paper at the conference at all research paper so I'm really proud of her as well because what we try to do is try to do something on the micro level so it's not on the macro level not on the micro level so to look at the different countries in EU and try to find some let's say research foundation how to analyze the responses and to make a reference point for the future research in that area and I'm happy that you recognize that and tomorrow Barbie is going to explain in more details and I hope that you will be there and ask her some friendly question because I think she is terrified right now so thank you very much and I'm proud to be with you today thank you Blažinka we will definitely my colleagues will have to learn how to pronounce your name because this is not the first young scholar that you are mentoring we already had some young scholars seeing the word so well you should change your name or learn how to pronounce because it will be easy for all of us and Barbie do you want to say a few words? Hi can you hear me? Yes Yeah I think you can Yes we can hear you I'll just say that this is really a great honor not just because this is my first conference paper ever but because it's been chosen among such a great number of really really great papers and I think I also speak for my professor when I say that this is a topic that is especially dear to us as at the time of the onset of the pandemic Croatia was in the middle of its council of the EU presidency so both of us my professor and myself worked really closely with the member states and on the exchange of experiences during the pandemic so this is something that really has a special place in our lives so yeah we're really happy to have had this opportunity and looking forward to further research I don't know if it's my network unstable or is it so but thank you Barbie I can say koala Barbie because I know Barbie from the Ministry of Science from before so congratulations again and I know that our colleagues from USA are not able to join today but we have the message from them and I can't ask Lisa to read the message thank you Sandra this is from Claire in the US we are so honored to have been nominated for this award Eden is such a great organization and there has been so much interesting and high quality research presented at the Eden conferences that it is an honor and a wonderful surprise to be considered for this award we could not have done this research without the support of many different offices at the City University of New York who helped us to obtain the data that we needed for the research we also want to recognize the critical contribution that all the students who have participated in our research throughout the years have made in our ability to conduct this research we could not have done our work without them thanks again to Eden for this wonderful honor we are so grateful to be part of the Eden community and one more round of applause for all the winners well congratulations to all winners again I wish to thank Juri for the hard work but I'm glad that I think that hard work is always good when you have lots of papers to revise which conquer for such work thank you to Uli for your work and contribution of your foundation and so we are coming to the end of the second day of the Eden conference long day with number of presentation workshop for keynotes so we are not over yet we have tomorrow one final day we start tomorrow early at 8.30 so please get up early be present when we have our session on Eden presidents and we also have after some presentations and workshops the closing plenary at 2 o'clock so have a rest a nice rest of the evening all winners you have deserve the cup of a glass of champagne but unfortunately we can do it only virtually have a nice rest and see you tomorrow bye