Online technology: Sustainable higher education or diploma disease for emerging society during emergency—comparison between pre and during COVID-19

Abstract

Even as the pandemic rages on across the globe, the notion of shutting down higher education has never been an option; instead, finding ways to circumvent it has led to a greater reliance on online technology delivery of courses and programs. Although this is not meant as a complete substitute, critics argue that online education has widened the ‘diploma disease’ crisis. They argued that this would lead to serious long-term problems which may become irreversible. This comparative study was conducted using an ‘empirical survey’ with 120 students from each group (before and during COVID-19, giving a total of 240 samples/students) to conduct an in-depth study of the academic and job-ready performance of graduates. Findings show that pre-pandemic students did poorly academically compared to during-pandemic counterparts. On the other hand, pre-pandemic graduates achieved better job-readiness scores which included both aptitude and practicum. Moreover, both groups achieved well in terms of academic performance compared to their job-readiness scores. This leads to the question: is it the role of HE to value the concept of sustainable production or to produce certificates/qualifications? Apparently, the HE system has used COVID-19 as an excuse to extend the “diploma disease crisis”, a situation that must be addressed by devising a proper policy framework.

Teachers’ Satisfaction, Role, and Digital Literacy during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Students' academic scores were considered a predictor to identify the success of their education. Although sustainable education might cater to market popularity, online technology could ensure that the right knowledge and skills were put first for different modes of technology occurring in different situations [69]. Online technology could be useful for academic success, as it could easily make all students focus on online learning [2].…”

“…It was found that online-technology-based sustainable education might be the main tool for making money [69]. It could not ensure a sustainable education system for better educational development [105].…”

Using an Technology Readiness Model to Understand Perceived Usefulness of Learning in the Covid-19 Era

“…Chang et al, 2021;Rafiee & Abbasian-Naghneh, 2021). These results provide new reinforcement of the impact of covid-19, making students ready to prepare for the use of new technology; this is evidence to answer questions that have been made by (Alam & Asimiran, 2021;Winter et al, 2021). His research explained that students during the pandemic had better performance than prepandemic students, so the role of technology will positively impact the role of future teacher candidates, making the teaching and learning process more enjoyable (Danniels et al, 2020;Raja & Nagasubramani, 2018).…”

“…Educational technology choices make it difficult for educators to constantly update their knowledge, skills, and information from multiple sources and exacerbate educational inequalities (Tuma, 2021;Warden et al, 2020). Many developing countries, including Indonesia, cannot use the potential competitive advantage of technology, especially in education (Alam & Asimiran, 2021;Shohel & Kirkwood, 2012). These problems are examples of problems and challenges for students as aspiring future teachers ready for technologybased education.…”

“…One of the terms in preparing technology is Technology Readiness (TR), a concept developed to characterize the tendency of individuals to use and adapt new technologies to achieve goals both in work, tasks, and daily activities (Park & Zhang, 2021;Richardson et al, 2021). The integration of technology into education can develop itself towards technology integration, which has been considered a determining factor in how well a prospective teacher can use technology effectively to improve teaching and learning (Al-Hariri & Al-Hattami, 2017;Alam & Asimiran, 2021). The use of technology is generally profitable but the key lies in its users (Martínez-Gautier et al, 2021).…”