Opportunities and Challenges of Digitalization …
345
2 Digital Transformation in Higher Education
The effect of digitalization in higher education is—similar to ESD—a widely discussed topic and a current socio-political challenge. Both approaches have a common
focus: to create new learning and teaching formats to generate skills and competences
which are required to address future problems, which are not known yet.
2.1 History and Current Trends
Digital transformation is shaping the human society these days like no other trend
before. Digital transformation has a tremendous impact on the economy and on society, and for example changed the way the music- and retail, financial and culinary
industries conduct their business. The impact of this change is very powerful, so that
it is leaving an impression even on well-established and slowly changing systems
such as higher education and especially the way that students are learning. Therefore digital media has become part and parcel of research, teaching and learning
in higher education. The intensity of use of digital media differs from university
to university and even internally from faculty to faculty. Usage varies from simple
forms, like inclusion of power point slides during lectures, to more complex forms,
such as campus management systems. The most common use involves electronic
presentation or distribution of learning materials. This can be conducted in classic
on-site lectures as well as in forms of open and distance learning.
Since the beginning of the twenty first century, it has become common practice
to produce and provide videos of lectures. In the spirit of free education, numerous
universities provide video lectures and learning material as freely available content
on the internet. Research funding, the launch of online education platforms and the
ongoing digitalization in other sectors caused a hype about Massive Open Online
Courses (MOOCs) from 2010 onwards. As a result it has become impossible for
universities to overlook the digital transformation. Within a short period of time,
MOOCs grew to a common learning and teaching format used by many universities.
Simultaneously, globalization triggered a phase of extensive change in the working
environment, both inside and outside of universities. Working in interdisciplinary
and international teams, self-management and virtual collaboration became more
important and the use of digital media became a significant part of everyday life.
Furthermore, the use of digital media was no longer limited to the consumption of
content, with the creation of content by everyone also becoming common.
All these factors had very specific effects on teaching and learning in the higher
education context. Even if digital transformation did not have the same effect on the
higher education system as on other fields and MOOCs are no longer state of the
art (because of overwhelming disadvantages as: too large groups, large differences
in education level, high dropout rate, etc.) the trend of the digital transformation of
higher education is continuing. The implementation of digital media in new learn-
345
2 Digital Transformation in Higher Education
The effect of digitalization in higher education is—similar to ESD—a widely discussed topic and a current socio-political challenge. Both approaches have a common
focus: to create new learning and teaching formats to generate skills and competences
which are required to address future problems, which are not known yet.
2.1 History and Current Trends
Digital transformation is shaping the human society these days like no other trend
before. Digital transformation has a tremendous impact on the economy and on society, and for example changed the way the music- and retail, financial and culinary
industries conduct their business. The impact of this change is very powerful, so that
it is leaving an impression even on well-established and slowly changing systems
such as higher education and especially the way that students are learning. Therefore digital media has become part and parcel of research, teaching and learning
in higher education. The intensity of use of digital media differs from university
to university and even internally from faculty to faculty. Usage varies from simple
forms, like inclusion of power point slides during lectures, to more complex forms,
such as campus management systems. The most common use involves electronic
presentation or distribution of learning materials. This can be conducted in classic
on-site lectures as well as in forms of open and distance learning.
Since the beginning of the twenty first century, it has become common practice
to produce and provide videos of lectures. In the spirit of free education, numerous
universities provide video lectures and learning material as freely available content
on the internet. Research funding, the launch of online education platforms and the
ongoing digitalization in other sectors caused a hype about Massive Open Online
Courses (MOOCs) from 2010 onwards. As a result it has become impossible for
universities to overlook the digital transformation. Within a short period of time,
MOOCs grew to a common learning and teaching format used by many universities.
Simultaneously, globalization triggered a phase of extensive change in the working
environment, both inside and outside of universities. Working in interdisciplinary
and international teams, self-management and virtual collaboration became more
important and the use of digital media became a significant part of everyday life.
Furthermore, the use of digital media was no longer limited to the consumption of
content, with the creation of content by everyone also becoming common.
All these factors had very specific effects on teaching and learning in the higher
education context. Even if digital transformation did not have the same effect on the
higher education system as on other fields and MOOCs are no longer state of the
art (because of overwhelming disadvantages as: too large groups, large differences
in education level, high dropout rate, etc.) the trend of the digital transformation of
higher education is continuing. The implementation of digital media in new learn-