Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention not only on health and social issues, but on the issue of digital transformation as well. Within a very short time, universities had to convert their courses to digital formats and university life was reduced to a minimum. To shed light on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected universities, we investigated the following questions: How was this transformation accomplished? What advantages and disadvantages did it bring with it? How sustainable was this transformation? and What can the future of higher education look like? This study is based on the responses to two questionnaires for university staff and students conducted at the Chemnitz University of Technology between mid-July and September, 2020 (n = 369), and between February and March, 2021 (n = 252). Both questionnaires were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. The results show wide variations in response to digital teaching and learning. Digital teaching and working/learning from home have brought both multiple benefits and multiple challenges at the same time. Working and learning from home was perceived as both enriching and overwhelming—even for the same individual. Respondents appreciated the flexibility associated with digital teaching, even though digital teaching was perceived as imposing excessive demands. This study reveals striking gaps in our knowledge and our actions linking digital transformation and sustainability and highlights how digital teaching can be further developed.
Highlights
Universities play a crucial role—both as pioneers and role models—in the field of sustainable development [1]
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process of digital transformation that had already been underway at universities, bringing new challenges as well
The results of survey 1 (S1) and survey 2 (S2) are presented in the order in which the four sections appeared in the questionnaire
Summary
Universities play a crucial role—both as pioneers and role models—in the field of sustainable development [1]. The definitions and conceptualizations of sustainable universities within the literature are broad [2,3,4], but a common trend in these conceptualizations is a shift in focus—from the operational level alone to the links between operational and strategic aspects [5]. Education and teaching have taken on new relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic, which presents us with an opportunity to sustainably design digital teaching and to put universities on a new path towards sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process of digital transformation that had already been underway at universities, bringing new challenges as well. Universities had to rapidly make two shifts: face-to-face courses had to be adapted to a digital format, and courses in subjects requiring social interaction, human technology and machine interaction—such as medicine, the natural sciences, engineering and music—had to be
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