The edtech community has promoted claims that digital education enhances access, learning, and collaboration. The COVID-19 pandemic tested these claims like never before, as higher education systems seemingly overnight had to move teaching online. Through a sequential mixed-method approach, we investigated how 85 higher education leaders in 24 countries experienced this rapid digital transformation. Through their experiences, we identified the multiple and overlapping factors that contribute to an institution’s ability to realize the potential of digital education, in terms of access, learning and collaboration, whilst highlighting deeply rooted inequalities at the individual, institutional and system level. Drawing on these empirics, we put forth recommendations for closing the digital divides and pathways forward. Higher education leaders are uniquely positioned to move beyond the emergency adoption of online learning towards inclusive, long-term visions for digital education, which emphasize collaboration over individual gain.
Educational technologies have experienced unprecedented prominence on university agendas with many institutions motivated to keep the lessons learned from the COVID-19 sparked transition with regard to online teaching. In response to this renewed interest in ensuring the longevity of educational technologies in higher education, this systematic review analysed the various organisational factors-for example, leadership, infrastructure, strategy-considered essential in the literature for the successful implementation of educational technologies. Specifically, we reviewed 1614 papers published in five prominent educational technology journals in the last decade. From this sample, we identified 47 papers that discussed organisational factors. Drawing on these studies, we constructed an organisational framework, which outlines the different organisational factors, actors and processes involved in implementing educational technologies. The identified organisational factors are structured into three main categories: (1) Leadership and Strategy, (2) Infrastructure and Resources and (3) Recognition and Motivation. Our aim was to further the scholarly understanding of the organisational layer involved in digital change as well as provide concrete recommendations for practitioners.
Der Artikel behandelt die Erfahrungen Lehrender mit den Bedingungen von Hochschullehre während der Covid-19-Pandemie. Wir berichten über erste Ergebnisse einer zweiphasigen Fokusgruppendiskussion, die wir zu Beginn und am Ende des Sommersemesters 2020 mit Lehrenden deutscher Hochschulen durchgeführt haben. Ziel der Studie ist es, organisationale Veränderungsprozesse in Bezug auf die Digitalisierung der Lehre zu analysieren. Die Covid-19-Pandemie wird dabei als ein Realexperiment verstanden, dass es ermöglicht, die seit vielen Jahren diskutierte digitale Hochschullehre explorativ zu untersuchen. Wir berichten dabei über Ergebnisse in drei unterschiedlichen Dimensionen. Diese betreffen Aspekte der Veränderungsbereitschaft Lehrender, Fragen der Führung sowie der Bereitstellung von Ressourcen seitens der Hochschulen. Aus den Befunden leiten wir Schlussfolgerungen für die (zukünftige) Organisation von Hochschullehre ab. Zentral ist dabei das Prinzip der «Organisierten Freiheit». Dieses Prinzip verweist auf typische Veränderungslogiken auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen der Hochschule. Mit dem Beitrag sollen damit Hinweise für die Hochschulentwicklung gewonnen werden in Bezug auf die nachhaltige Gestaltung digitaler Lehr- und Lehrinnovationen.
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