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The higher education sector in the Arab region is undergoing significant transformation, especially in the area of online and digital learning. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a wake-up call to higher education institutions, pushing leaders and decision-makers to build on the momentum gained and reposition digital learning as central to their strategic plans and future success. However, while Arab countries succeeded in ensuring continuity of education using distance and online technologies and platforms, these initial solutions were mainly devised to overcome the physical separation imposed due to public health concerns, with less attention being paid to the social and emotional ramifications of this shift on learners and instructors alike in the midst of an anxiety-inducing time of uncertainty due to the pandemic itself. This chapter is our contribution to enriching the current discourse surrounding digital learning in …