The Pandemic Crisis: Time for Digitization of Higher Education in Tunisia

Abstract

Our article highlights the negative impacts of Covid-19 on higher education in Tunisia. The future is uncertain for everyone, especially students who face a world paralyzed by the pandemic. Based on a qualitative study based on the Focus Group method among students, teachers, researchers, directors, a number of parents and members of civil society, we want to know how the Coronavirus has affected education and how universities cope with different changes. Our work focuses on the lessons learned from containment as well as the potential positive benefits to higher education. Our results show that the pandemic has forced universities to explore new methods of teaching and learning, including through distance and online education. This solution has proven difficult for students and teachers, who not only have to cope with the emotional, social and economic challenges posed by Covid-19 by doing their best to curb the spread of the virus. The higher education sector has made remarkable headway through accelerating digitization and the pursuit of distance education during the pandemic, but constraints persist. Our article will provide interested parties with a set of courses of action helping to structure such a policy of transformation towards digital education in a changing university landscape. The challenge is to invent a more flexible higher education that offers active pedagogies by integrating the contributions of digital technology and relying on research, and which can meet the different expectations of students.