Achieving Academic Satisfaction through the use of Education-Based Technologies: Strengthening Students Personal Well-being While Facing Online Learning Mandates and Digital Disparities

Abstract

In early 2020, 1.6 billion students were forced to engage in remote learning for the purposes of education continuation. As a result of online learning mandates, digitized and mobile technologies have influenced various dimensions of students’ personal well-being. Many students are subjected to the digital inclusion of having the needed technologies to effectively engage in electronic-based learning platforms and infrastructures. Contrary to such, various student bodies face pandemic and pre-pandemic digital disparities and social exclusions, thus denying them the opportunity to participate in electronic-based educational practices required for academic achievement and success. This study explores how educational-based technologies are used to increase students' personal well-being and academic satisfaction while also facing online learning mandates and being subjected to digital disparities. Moreover, this study evaluates how multifactorial and innovative technologies for educational practices impede or proliferate well being, life and academic satisfaction, and happiness. Seligman’s (2011) PERMA Theory of Well-being is adopted as a grounding method. The PERMA Theory of Well-being comprises five distinct pillars: positive emotions, engagements, relationships, meaning, and achievement. These distinguished dimensions are significant to commissioning educational-based types of machinery and platforms for the purposes of knowledge acquisition and intellectual sustainability. In a broader sense, the digital gap persists between communities, generations, and geographically. Being provided or being able to afford the necessary physical materials and resources is vital when propagating the idea of taking an online/remote/blended learning approach. Implications and future suggestions are addressed and discussed.