A Systemic Perspective for Understanding Digital Transformation in Higher Education: Overview and Subregional Context in Latin America as Evidence

Sánchez-Calvo

2022

Education Sciences

In this paper, quantitative, descriptive, and correlational research is carried out on the impact that the process of digitalization of academic activities in higher education has had on the habits of use of information and communication technologies (ICT) among professors and the influence of the area of knowledge on this impact. For this purpose, responses from 716 professors from different Latin American universities to a survey designed by the authors were statistically analyzed. Following the UNESCO guide on the use of ICT in higher education, the survey distinguishes the following teaching activities to measure the use of ICT: lessons, tutorials, sharing materials, and evaluation. The results show that the use of ICT has increased in all teaching activities, but unevenly, being particularly intense in those in which the use of ICT was less frequent during the pandemic—specifically, tutorials and evaluation, whose frequency of use has increased by around 50%. As a result of this uneven increase, the use of ICTs in different teaching activities has become more homogeneous after the pandemic. This increase was significantly higher among engineering and social sciences professors than in other areas of knowledge, as well as in evaluation and tutorial tools than in other activities. In addition, the ICT tools most used during the pandemic were those with which the professors or students were most familiar before the pandemic. It is recommended that universities increase the specific training of professors in the pedagogical use of ICT and that they should address the specificities of each area of knowledge.

Section: Presence Of Ict In Latin American Universitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Knowledge Area on the Use of Digital Tools during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Latin American Professors

Sánchez-Calvo

2022

Education Sciences

“…In addition to this digital divide, professors in Latin America and the Caribbean have had to face other problems linked to the geographical characteristics of their region, as it is very extensive in terms of territory and population, with a high dispersion of the population and unequal access to technological resources [ 28 ]. This has resulted in difficulties in providing education during the pandemic due to the generalized socioeconomic differences among students, caused by unequal access to technology, connectivity, and digital resources [ 29 ]. Finally, the digital competencies developed by professors, conditioned by their experience in the use of ICT, have been shown to be insufficient or improvable [ 30 ], and it was also observed that inequalities in the use of digital skills by professors were conditioned by gender or age [ 31 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Pandemic Stress in Higher Education in Venezuela

Vergara

Medina

et al. 2022

EJIHPE

The COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on the process of integrating digital technologies in higher education and caused digital stress among professors, mainly in countries with a lower level of digitalization. In this work, quantitative research was carried out on the stress of professors in Venezuela due to the digitalization of their teaching activities caused by the pandemic, and gender gaps were identified in this regard. This digital stress was compared with that of professors in other countries with a low level of digitalization. For this purpose, a questionnaire designed by the authors was used. The questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 129 Venezuelan professors and 132 professors from countries with low digitalization levels. As a result, it was found that Venezuelan professors have lower digital competence and lower digital stress than their colleagues in weakly digitized countries, and that digital stress decreases as digital competence increases. Moreover, among Venezuelan professors, there was a strong gender gap in digital stress, which was higher among females in all subject areas, except for Health Sciences. This gender gap is specific to Venezuela since it differs from that in countries with low digital levels. According to the results, we urgently recommend investing resources in the digital training of faculty members, especially in regards to the integration of female professors.

“…The results obtained also allow to assume that professors in Latin American private universities have, in general, better self-concepts of their digital competence than professors in public universities, and they also value better than the latter the professional aspects linked to the digitalization of higher education ( Table 4 ). Private universities in the Latin American region probably have a higher proportion of distance students than public universities, which may explain why they make a greater digitization effort, both in terms of equipment and faculty training [ 14 , 15 ]. This would justify the fact that both the results obtained here and those of other studies systematically show that professors at private universities claim to have better digital skills than those at public universities [ 26 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In short, COVID-19 evidenced the need to provide relevant, interactive, and user-friendly digital teaching resources and content, constituting a turning point in the development of online content in the classroom [ 29 ]. Most studies related to digital transformation in higher education focus on the need to strengthen digital strategies to reinforce the use of technologies as part of the digital agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean [ 14 ]. In this task, university professors and the digital competencies that this task requires are directly involved.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This situation of digital stress for faculty was experienced differently depending on certain aspects of the geographical location of professors, such as the level of digitization and technological development of the country of origin [ 11 ]. Specifically, in Latin America and the Caribbean, the region on which this paper focuses, the digitization process in higher education had to respond to the strong existing gaps in digital training and access to technologies of faculty for various reasons, including gender [ 12 ] or age [ 13 , 14 ]. The tenure of universities—public or private—is a particularly influential factor in the way this process of integration of digital technologies was carried out since the pandemic has generated inequalities due to connectivity difficulties and limited economic resources depending on each type of institution [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

On the Influence of the University Tenure on the Digital Pandemic Stress in Higher Education Faculty

Vergara

Sánchez-Calvo

et al. 2023

Behavioral Sciences

This paper conducts quantitative research on the levels of stress generated in Latin American professors due to the abrupt digitalization of higher education resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the differences in this digital stress between professors from private and public universities are analyzed. For this purpose, a validated questionnaire has been used and passed to a sample of 750 professors from 20 different Latin American countries, whose responses have been statistically analyzed. As results, it has been obtained that there are no significant differences between the average levels of digital stress of professors of private and public universities due to the pandemic. However, the way in which this digital stress has affected Latin American professors according to gender and age is different depending on the university tenure. As a consequence, some implications and recommendations derived from the results are presented.