Investigating the Role of Learning Technology Adoption in Transforming Pakistan’s Higher Education Sector in the Post-pandemic Context

Abstract

Tackling covid-19 and its spill-over effects on various aspects of the society is undoubtedly the most significant challenge faced by the modern world. In the past two years, there has been considerable research that has highlighted the issues and challenges associated with the pandemic. However, the other side of the story must be investigated as well i.e. the opportunity to ‘unbundle’ certain established practices. This research study focuses on Pakistan’s higher education sector, where the entire operational model of universities experienced a range of significant changes due to the pandemic. In this study, we investigate how ‘abrupt’ adoption of learning technology in Pakistani universities impacted the performance and engagement behaviors of two of the most important stakeholders, the students and the teachers. Data for the study has been collected from a sample of 360 teachers and 360 students using a survey questionnaire. This study used a two-phase study design in which the average age and gender differences for technology adaptability among online teachers and learners were compared through cross-tabulation of the teachers' and students' data. The adoption of learning technologies' mediating effect on the relationship between stakeholder engagement and performance were examined using SEM analysis. The results of this study quantified the weak mediator role that learning technology adoption played in the relationship between stakeholder engagement and performance. At a time, when technology integration within higher education is considered a ‘must’, our findings suggest that unplanned adoption and integration of technology can have negative consequences. Our analysis revealed that adoption of learning technology was a weak variable in the relationship between Engagement and Performance as it had a negative mediating effect and actually lessened the impact of the direct relationship between the variables.