Digital University Teaching and Learning in Management—The Gini from the COVID-19 Bottle and Its Empirical Representations in Germany

Abstract

Digitalization of teaching, learning, and assessment in higher education has gained increasing attention in research in the recent years. While previous research investigated issues of effectiveness, course attendance, and course evaluation from a long-term perspective, the current COVID-19 pandemic forced higher education institutions to digitalize teaching, learning, and assessment in a very short time. In this context, we investigate the effects of the digitalization of three courses from operations research and management science in the summer term 2020, namely two large lectures and tutorials for undergraduate, and a seminar for graduate students. To that end, student performance, course and exam attendance rates, and course evaluations are compared to the setting of the same courses in the previous year 2019 with a traditional, non-digitalized setting. Next to the quantitative data, qualitative statements from the course evaluations and students’ expectations expressed during the term are investigated. Findings indicate that the lecturers’ understanding of learning behavior has to develop further as interaction is required in any format, on-site or digital. Absenteeism and procrastination are important risk areas especially in digital management education. Instruments would have to be adapted to digital settings, but with care and relating to course specifics (including digital evaluation). Digital education does not make learning per se easier or harder, but we observed that the students’ understanding and performance gap increased in digital teaching times. As an outlook, we propose the longitudinal investigation of the ongoing digitalization during the COVID-19 pandemic, and going beyond, investigate opportunities of the current crisis situation for implementing the long-term transition to digital education in higher institution institutions.

The Impact of Digital Competences on Academic Procrastination in Higher Education: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…Accordingly, it was revealed that students' attitudes towards academic procrastination decrease when the level of perceived digital competences increases. Consistently, prior research supports this result in the context of higher education (Kaliba & Ambrožová, 2021;Rahardjo et al, 2013;Sage et al, 2021;Witt et al, 2021). Apparently, this finding proves that digital competences have a significant effect on academic procrastination in the post-pandemic period.…”

“…In the post-pandemic period, as a result of digitallysurrounded learning environments in HEIs, it is significant to reconsider the impact of digital competences on academic procrastination; however, the current research on these two variables investigated among students is quite scarce (Kaliba & Ambrožová, 2021;Rahardjo et al, 2013;Sage et al, 2021;Witt et al, 2021). Kaliba and Ambrožová (2021), in their study with 322 university students in the Czech Republic, reported that the student tendencies to procrastinate during online learning were stronger than the regular learning, and underlined the impact of digital competences of the teacher and the application of the digital tools on procrastination.…”

“…Another correlational study conducted by Sage et al (2021) revealed that students' technology use inf luences their level of procrastination individually during online courses suggesting technology training for both faculty and students. Moreover, Witt et al (2021) detected procrastination as one of the risk areas for students in the management of digital education. In this context, due to the limited number of studies in the literature, it is obvious that there is a research gap focusing on specifically digital competences and academic procrastination of students in the post-pandemic period where HEIs have been digitally transformed at an unprecedented speed.…”