Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the strategic model of distance learning adopted by Italian higher education, showing how the health emergency due to Covid-19 has transformed it from an “optional” for traditional universities to the only means to ensure public health protection and continuity in education programs. Comparing two situations (before and during the pandemic), the aim is to identify best practices that, even after the end of the emergency, can be adopted by Italian higher education institutions to boost their digital supply and compete in an international context. After a general context analysis, aimed to underline benefits and risks connected to the development of distance learning, the case of the Italian higher education system has been analyzed. Data were collected through a documentary analysis, looking at what Italian higher education institutions disclosed through their official websites and documents: every form of communication about digital strategy was taken into account. Then, they were analyzed qualitatively, in order to individuate which platforms have been combined to ensure quality in education provided. Research findings demonstrate the resilience of the Italian higher education, able to react and to re-organize itself in only one week: the results of the pandemic may be a stronger university, able to combine quality in education with the potential of technological devices and to compete at the international level. Distance learning represents a complex field, still characterized by separated understandings and in a context where limited attention has been dedicated to its development for what concerns the Italian context, the choice to examine it represents the originality of this paper.
Highlights
Among different transformations that took place during the last years, digitalization has changed the ways to work and to do things, and to teach and learn [1]
Paragraph 4.1 will present the situation of distance learning in Italy before the health emergency, taking into account the entire higher education system
By referring to the period before the health emergency, in a context where all higher education institutions over the world have started to think and to apply more sustainable learning experiences, exploiting technology, the Italian system turned out to be still concentrated on restrictive bureaucratic regulations
Summary
Among different transformations that took place during the last years, digitalization has changed the ways to work and to do things, and to teach and learn [1]. In a context where education is seen as one of the solutions to many of today’s problems, such as unemployment, world peace, and poverty, the aim of universities is not just to deliver education, but to become more digital learning institutions updating their strategy in order to meet the new requests and expectations of students and other stakeholders. According to Drucker [3], and hereafter, knowledge represents the key to success, and higher education institutions have to satisfy the needs of their students even after the end of their educational path in order to ensure continuously new and updated knowledge during the course of their career [4,5]. Given the rise of these online universities, perceived as new competitors by the traditional ones, higher education institutions have been forced to update their strategy and modify their supply
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