Digital Transformation of Education as Overcoming the Global
Digital Inequality within the Framework of Sustainable Development
of Civilization
A. V. Chelovechkova
a
, Yu. V. Adamenko
b
and A. A. Medvedev
c
Institute of Mathematics and Intelligent Systems, Kurgan State University,
63, Sovetskaya st., building 4, Kurgan, Russia
Keywords: Digital University, Information Technology, Roadmap, Educational Process, Strategy, Development, Digital
Transformation.
Abstract: By the end of 2023, all state universities want to introduce elements of a digital university. Projects related to
the Internet are becoming more and more relevant. Over the past 20 years, the field of information technology
has become very popular in all areas, which has made it an independent industry. Recently, the attention of
manufacturing companies and information technology has been focused on university education. Therefore,
universities are beginning to shape their digital strategies to meet the needs of expanding learning formats. In
particular, it is proposed to use "road maps" to assess the performance indicators of universities. The analysis
of the materials presented by such a map should help in identifying the identification of problems in the work
of individual areas within the university and increase the performance of universities. The correct use of
digital technologies in educational activities is an increase in the rating and attractiveness of applicants of any
educational institution. Increasing the rating leads to an improvement in the university's performance, the
possibility of developing promising projects and improving the quality of educational services.
1 INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the education sector has been
increasingly undergoing significant changes due to
the spread of digital technologies. More and more
non-profit and commercial organizations are setting
new trends in the field of implementation in research
activities as an integral part of the educational
process. Therefore, public universities are
increasingly having to think about digital
transformation. The question of creating campuses
and laboratories and translating scientific activities
into virtual reality is becoming more and more acute.
Countless innovative business models are emerging.
Completely new industries emerge, while old ones
disappear. The nature of the educational process itself
is changing. Universities compete for students,
faculty, funding. In addition, traditional technical
means used in the educational process are being
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0236-9402
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4409-1963
c
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2810-0866
replaced by digital analogs. And each university
understands that only by keeping pace with the times
and using new digital opportunities, it will be
competitive and will have a significant advantage in
the new era.
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Regardless of which strategy is chosen by the
university, everyone must go through a number of
significant changes, including digital transformation
and the introduction of processes that optimize the
change in the construction of the educational process
(Manikovskaya, 2019). This becomes possible when
building a new learning model. Its peculiarity lies in
the use of a digital trail of students. But when
developing digital strategies, not everyone,
unfortunately, has enough aspiration and
696
Chelovechkova, A., Adamenko, Y. and Medvedev, A.
Digital Transformation of Education as Overcoming the Global Digital Inequality within the Framework of Sustainable Development of Civilization.
DOI: 10.5220/0010596106960700
In Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure (ISSDRI 2021), pages 696-700
ISBN: 978-989-758-519-7
Copyright
c
2021 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
opportunities to effectively understand digitalization.
As a result, the invested funds do not produce results
and the expected benefits. The biggest mistake that
universities do not want to notice and recognize is that
digital strategies for the development of one area, for
example, a technical one, are not enough. It is
necessary that IT technologies fully cover all the
activities of the university, all areas in which it works
(Chelovechkova et al., 2020). This is due to a number
of factors.
First, given the globalization of the struggle for
students, universities must understand the need to go
international. The introduction of new technologies,
readiness for changes in the educational system will
determine the competitiveness of universities. For the
regions, the personnel problem remains especially
acute, the lack of readiness of teachers to introduce
high technologies into their professional activities.
Secondly, all students of the new generation are
inclined to use new digital technologies in everyday
life. IT-technologies are used by them not only in
professional activities, but also for constant
communication, as well as a means to keep abreast of
all the news and events taking place in society.
Therefore, digitalization will make the university
more understandable, more interesting to attract
students. Modern students are more inclined towards
visual perception of information. The traditional
format of education no longer meets their needs, it is
boring and uninformative. A more lively, dynamic
educational process requires creative educators who
are ready to promote the digital transformation of the
university on the ground. The teacher must be ready
for constant changes, the search for new ideas, self-
realization and self-education.
Thirdly, digitalization of all processes taking
place inside the university is necessary. This will
increase the efficiency of interaction and work
between all departments of the educational
institution. This change is especially relevant for the
scientific environment. With the advent of big data
analysis tools, it became necessary to accumulate a
digital footprint of both the students themselves and
their mentors. Consequently, the teacher must learn,
not only master new tools for accumulating
knowledge, but also be able to interpret them
correctly, be able to draw the right conclusions and
make promising decisions in their activities.
The majority of universities are still unable to
fully appreciate the benefits of digital technologies.
Many teachers, due to their age, try to avoid using
digital devices, as this puts them at a disadvantage for
students. But, despite the fact that modern students
cannot do without mobile devices, not everyone can
correctly use them in the educational process (Butsyk,
2019).
3 RESEARCH RESULTS
Higher education institutions are faced with a difficult
task - to move to digital technologies, create a digital
educational environment that will help in monitoring
the educational work of students. The new learning
environment must be able to be used anywhere,
anytime. In addition, it should be able to update,
provide free search and copying of information. To
do this, universities need to develop the right business
model that includes a wide range of new ways of
organizing work. I would like to note that there is no
universal solution to this problem. Any digital project
within the university must be supported at the level of
all constituent units - institutes, faculties,
departments. In this case, the work plan of a single
unit should coincide with the general strategy of
information development. It is impossible to improve
IT - technologies only in the technological direction.
First, it is a separately taken component of the entire
digitalization process. Secondly, the level of
applicants entering technical specialties is currently
low, since there is a problem of preparing students in
the field of physics, computer science, mathematics
(Chelovechkova et al., 2020;
Nikiforova et al., 2017). It
is necessary that all parties - the administration of the
university, the scientific and pedagogical staff, the
students were stimulated to introduce and use digital
technologies (Boronenko et al., 2019).
4 DISCUSSION OF THE
RESULTS
The development of any project in recent years is
recommended to start with the preparation of a
roadmap, which should help in identifying the
strengths and weaknesses of the university. We want
to present one of the simplest versions of such a map,
which considers one of the most urgent tasks
attracting students.
One of the main goals of universities at the present
time is to attract applicants. These are potential
consumers of educational services, which play an
important role in building a strategy for the
development and work of the university. Informing
becomes the main stage in the phase of achieving the
set goal. Communication allows you to explore
options for exam preparation courses. In the process
Digital Transformation of Education as Overcoming the Global Digital Inequality within the Framework of Sustainable Development of
Civilization
697
of searching for information on courses, information
is also viewed about the directions of work of the
university, specialties that are offered by universities
for education. In this case, the applicant must be
motivated to obtain higher education. And for this he
needs to understand how the training scheme and the
education scheme work. The future student at this
stage of his work should not be scared by the
questions: what would I like to do, what universities
can offer me, whether I can get the necessary
knowledge for mastering information technologies,
which are necessary not only for study, but also for
the future profession.
When the questions are formulated, you need to
get answers to them. And then the applicant must
proceed to the second stage in the goal setting phase
- research. At this stage, the final criteria for choosing
an applicant are determined. He will be able to draw
conclusions for himself on the preparation for exams,
find interesting proposals for choosing his future
specialty. In addition to receiving education, within
the framework of additional programs, you can take
various kinds of practices, retraining courses to
improve your skills in the acquired profession. This is
especially relevant now, when the rapid development
of information technology dictates its conditions in
improving the skills of information systems.
The next step is to reduce the choice of training
programs. Currently, according to the new
requirements, from 2021, an applicant can apply to a
university by choosing five areas of training, and only
one of them should become a priority in choosing a
future specialty. This will be a program that will
allow you to study in an area of interest, which should
be promising, interesting, and highly paid in the
future (Shinde and Prasad, 2019). And, of course, the
most satisfying all the needs of the student. A
prerequisite for training is a highly qualified teaching
staff, with experience in the direction. The
availability of a modern material and technical base
will also be important.
The final stage in goal setting will be the adoption
of the final decision and execution of all the necessary
documents for admission to the university.
In order for this process of defining the training
program to become understandable, accessible and
open, it is necessary that all information on the
university website is timely updated and up-to-date.
In addition, good feedback is needed so that
applicants can receive timely answers to all questions
that arise.
Social networks also play an important role in
making a decision by a future student. This is
convenient because students spend a lot of time
communicating in various groups. But here it should
be remembered that information in the networks does
not always carry a positive assessment of the
activities of an educational institution. Therefore,
there is a possibility of loss of students for
universities.
It is a big misconception to think that digital
transformation is something that can only be
associated with digital technologies. This cannot be
denied, but technology in this case will play only one
role. Acquiring new platforms for the digitalization of
institutions, universities are not always aware of the
possibility of their widespread application and use in
the university. Such spontaneous decisions may not
always give the expected results.
For the benefits of digital technology to be
tangible, it is necessary to invest not only in the
education of students and the work of the faculty, but
also to constantly update the platforms for potential
students - applicants. For this, it is simply necessary
that all programmatic changes would be clear and
understandable in a common vision. Then they will
not be uncompetitive in the rapidly changing digital
environment. Universities must provide digital
learning on an ongoing basis. Starting from the
moment of admission, with the subsequent
monitoring of their work, so that they, too, could be
participants in the digital transformation process.
At the same time, any management should be able
to listen and, of course, perceive the criticism
adequately from our direct consumers of services -
applicants and, subsequently, students. You can not
neglect any information that can help in the analysis
of the activities of the university. To do this, you can
conduct regular polls in various social networks. But
not everyone knows how to properly use social
media, without the necessary support, in the interests
of the university. Many are wary of private spaces, as
students may leave negative comments there. But this
is also a certain experience and result. Currently,
many educational institutions use the positive impact
of various groups on potential consumers of
educational services - applicants, who can rely on the
feedback of university graduates and students. In a
social group, it is much easier to keep everyone
updated on the latest information. Since the
attendance of such groups is several times higher than
the attendance of the websites of universities.
Everyone should have their own strategic approaches
to such issues. But expanding the boundaries of
communication should have a positive effect on the
introduction of new digital technologies.
In order to help the applicant in the research, to
reduce the choice, and subsequently to make the final
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decision, the university needs to perform many
different functions, present and adhere strictly to its
strategy, which would greatly distinguish it from
competitors. A clear balance is needed, realizing that
today's students are very different from those that
were before. They have their own requirements, their
own concepts, their own expectations. And to all this,
modern higher education institutions must
correspond as providers of educational services.
Having tremendous opportunities, thanks to digital
interaction, we also have huge problems, since
everything changes - the conditions for information,
training, interaction, payment. The digitalization
process is different for each university. With the help
of our map, we wanted to highlight a number of
common problems, which, as a rule, are leaders in the
issue under discussion.
First, the map should clearly reflect all the
information that could be easily found, and provide
answers to the questions: what to study and where to
go. These materials are reflected on the websites of
the university and in social groups. All materials must
be fully consistent with the study of goals and "pain"
of our main segment of the client base - school
applicants.
Secondly, the maximum impact of the work of
social groups is needed. What is needed is a
simplified registration system for sites and a well-
defined feedback. At the initial stages of the search,
the prospective student should be able to track the
process of interaction work in order to make a
positive decision in favor of choosing this university.
Thirdly, any site, any social group should
strengthen the image of the university. To do this, you
can use corporate identity, present the university's
rating in holding various kinds of conferences, events,
not only internal, but also external scale, acquaint
with talented people, graduates of this university. It is
necessary that at the stage of identification, the future
student sees the potential of the highly qualified staff
of the university.
The digitalization process is a set of activities
carried out to achieve a high level of transformation
of a university into a digital university. It is necessary
that a single information space be organized, the
collection of up-to-date data reflecting the state of the
university's activities is established, there was an
opportunity to evaluate the services and services
offered by the educational organization. This will
help tracking new trends and directions in the
development of information systems, considering
new opportunities for their use in the work of the
university. The policy of stimulating the payment of
teachers and students should be reviewed, especially
when developing and implementing new projects.
The use of digital communication channels to attract
international students, especially through social
networks, should not be neglected. The International
relations department can help the university with this,
for the correct translation and presentation of the
necessary information. The marketing department
should fully interact with potential students, students,
graduates, and scientists and use monitoring to clearly
determine the image of the university in the
educational services market (Minina and Mabruk,
2019). This will help the university to develop a clear
strategy to attract consumers-applicants.
5 CONCLUSIONS
As much as we would like to, but digital reality is
increasingly entering our life. Every day we work
with a mobile device, communicate on social
networks, use various programs in the field of
computing, payment, providing all kinds of services
without leaving their home, it is more and more
difficult for us to do without new geolocation data.
The list could be continued. And all this changes the
horizons of higher education, having a direct impact
on it.
The transition of universities to a new era of
digitalization scares not only consumers of
educational services, but also universities themselves.
Each university must understand that when
developing the right business strategy, a lot of new
and interesting opportunities open up for it. There is
no single way to achieve results using digital
technologies. Each university will have its own
development path. To do this, you will have to try out
many ways of working with new information systems
before deciding on the right strategy and personality.
It may be necessary to rethink the stated goals in
training, improve modern standards in accordance
with the requirements of the new information
environment, and move away from the usual form of
working with work programs. And it depends only on
ourselves how correctly we will be able to take
advantage of all the benefits that the new digital era
gives us.
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