Table 1 Findings overview
Dimension | Category | Subcategory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Individual level | Opportunities | Flexible/individualized learning | Digital/remote learning allows for individualized, adaptive learning paths |
Access to education | Digital/remote learning allows for underserved populations to participate in higher education; More lifelong learning opportunities and inclusivity | ||
Barriers | Infrastructure and devices | Lack of broadband infrastructure and poorly connected regions; Students and teaching staff lack technological devices and/or software | |
Home environments | Students’ home environments are described as unsuitable for learning | ||
Systemic inequalities | Additional hurdles disproportionately affect students from ethnic minorities and/or disadvantaged backgrounds; Some students and staff face additional burdens due to learning/teaching at home (e.g., caring responsibilities, domestic violence, food insecurity, mental health) | ||
Digital skills, experience, and acceptance | Lack of training amongst students and teaching staff, often due to systemic exclusion from acquiring digital skills; Reluctant attitudes among students and staff toward shift to digital/remote education | ||
Institutional level | Responses | Technical support | Institutions’ actions to close technological and infrastructural gaps by providing students and staff with devices, securing internet access for them, or providing analog alternatives |
Housing | Accommodation provision for students in need | ||
Opportunities | Cooperation, collaboration and resource sharing | Opportunity for multiple forms of collaboration at various levels, including students, instructors, or HEI leaders cooperating within and between institutions | |
Global collaboration and virtual internationalization | Need for global solidarity and collaborative actions between HEIs; Digital higher education can foster new forms of internationalization and student mobility | ||
Barriers | Systemic inequalities | Inequalities around factors such as race, gender, income, region, etc. are reflected in the HEI system, resulting in the uneven distribution of resources within and between regions and countries | |
Governmental support | Amount and type of governmental support and funding that HEIs are given for digitalization vary greatly |