IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i22p12912-d685030.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digitalizing Higher Education in Light of Sustainability and Rebound Effects—Surveys in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Marlen Gabriele Arnold

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany)

  • Alina Vogel

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany)

  • Martin Ulber

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Marlen Gabriele Arnold & Alina Vogel & Martin Ulber, 2021. "Digitalizing Higher Education in Light of Sustainability and Rebound Effects—Surveys in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-29, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:22:p:12912-:d:685030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12912/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12912/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marlen Gabriele Arnold & Alina Vogel, 2021. "Digitalisierte Lehre und Nachhaltigkeit: Eine Umfrage in pandemischen Zeiten," Chemnitz Economic Papers 048, Department of Economics, Chemnitz University of Technology, revised Aug 2021.
    2. Jan C. T. Bieser & Lorenz M. Hilty, 2018. "An Approach to Assess Indirect Environmental Effects of Digitalization Based on a Time-Use Perspective," Progress in IS, in: Hans-Joachim Bungartz & Dieter Kranzlmüller & Volker Weinberg & Jens Weismüller & Volker Wohlgemuth (ed.), Advances and New Trends in Environmental Informatics, pages 67-78, Springer.
    3. Santiago Alonso-García & Inmaculada Aznar-Díaz & María-Pilar Cáceres-Reche & Juan-Manuel Trujillo-Torres & José-María Romero-Rodríguez, 2019. "Systematic Review of Good Teaching Practices with ICT in Spanish Higher Education. Trends and Challenges for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-15, December.
    4. María Napal & Ana María Mendióroz-Lacambra & Alicia Peñalva, 2020. "Sustainability Teaching Tools in the Digital Age," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-14, April.
    5. Paul DiMaggio & Eszter Hargittai, 2001. "From the 'Digital Divide' to 'Digital Inequality': Studying Internet Use as Penetration Increases," Working Papers 47, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies..
    6. Katia Vladimirova & David Le Blanc, 2016. "Exploring Links Between Education and Sustainable Development Goals Through the Lens of UN Flagship Reports," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 254-271, July.
    7. Marlen Arnold & Anne Fischer, 2019. "Fluch und Segen der Digitalisierung im Kontext einer Entwicklung zur Nachhaltigkeit," Chemnitz Economic Papers 031, Department of Economics, Chemnitz University of Technology, revised May 2019.
    8. Adesuwa Vanessa Agbedahin, 2019. "Sustainable development, Education for Sustainable Development, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Emergence, efficacy, eminence, and future," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 669-680, July.
    9. Felix Ebeling & Sebastian Lotz, 2015. "Domestic uptake of green energy promoted by opt-out tariffs," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(9), pages 868-871, September.
    10. Anders S. G. Andrae & Tomas Edler, 2015. "On Global Electricity Usage of Communication Technology: Trends to 2030," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-41, April.
    11. Maria José Sá & Sandro Serpa, 2020. "The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity to Foster the Sustainable Development of Teaching in Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-16, October.
    12. Shivam Gupta & Mahsa Motlagh & Jakob Rhyner, 2020. "The Digitalization Sustainability Matrix: A Participatory Research Tool for Investigating Digitainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-27, November.
    13. Sezen Aksin-Sivrikaya & C. B. Bhattacharya, 2017. "Where Digitalization Meets Sustainability: Opportunities and Challenges," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Thomas Osburg & Christiane Lohrmann (ed.), Sustainability in a Digital World, pages 37-49, Springer.
    14. Marko Hakovirta & Navodya Denuwara, 2020. "How COVID-19 Redefines the Concept of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-4, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maria José Sá & Sandro Serpa & Carlos Miguel Ferreira, 2022. "Citizen Science in the Promotion of Sustainability: The Importance of Smart Education for Smart Societies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-22, July.
    2. Lavinia Dovleac & Ioana Bianca Chițu & Eliza Nichifor & Gabriel Brătucu, 2023. "Shaping the Inclusivity in the New Society by Enhancing the Digitainability of Sustainable Development Goals with Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lavinia Dovleac & Ioana Bianca Chițu & Eliza Nichifor & Gabriel Brătucu, 2023. "Shaping the Inclusivity in the New Society by Enhancing the Digitainability of Sustainable Development Goals with Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, February.
    2. Maria José Sá & Ana Isabel Santos & Sandro Serpa & Carlos Miguel Ferreira, 2021. "Digitainability—Digital Competences Post-COVID-19 for a Sustainable Society," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-22, August.
    3. Larissa Oliveira‐Duarte & Diane Aparecida Reis & Andre Leme Fleury & Rosana Aparecida Vasques & Homero Fonseca Filho & Mikko Koria & Julia Baruque‐Ramos, 2021. "Innovation Ecosystem framework directed to Sustainable Development Goal #17 partnerships implementation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 1018-1036, September.
    4. Stanisław Łobejko & Krzysztof Bartczak, 2021. "The Role of Digital Technology Platforms in the Context of Changes in Consumption and Production Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    5. Miquel Àngel Essomba & Pilar Lleonart & Laura Alfonso & Hye Bin, 2022. "Education for Sustainable Development in Educating Cities: Towards a Transformative Approach from Informal and Non-Formal Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Tekic, Zeljko & Tekic, Anja, 2024. "Complex patterns of ICTs' effect on sustainable development at the national level: The triple bottom line perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    7. Rocío Valderrama-Hernández & Fermín Sánchez-Carracedo & Lucía Alcántara Rubio & Dolores Limón-Domínguez, 2019. "Methodology to Analyze the Effectiveness of ESD in a Higher Degree in Education. A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, December.
    8. Aljawharah M. Aldosari & Hala F. Eid & Yi-Ping Phoebe Chen, 2022. "A Proposed Strategy Based on Instructional Design Models through an LMS to Develop Online Learning in Higher Education Considering the Lockdown Period of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-14, June.
    9. Zhenxiang Cao & Liqing Peng, 2023. "The Impact of Digital Economics on Environmental Quality: A System Dynamics Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    10. Steffen Dalsgaard, 2022. "Can IT Resolve the Climate Crisis? Sketching the Role of an Anthropology of Digital Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-17, May.
    11. Uduak Okon, 2015. "ICT for Rural Community Development: Implementing the Communicative Ecology Framework in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria," Information Technology for Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 297-321, April.
    12. Axenbeck, Janna & Niebel, Thomas, 2021. "Climate Protection Potentials of Digitalized Production Processes: Microeconometric Evidence," 23rd ITS Biennial Conference, Online Conference / Gothenburg 2021. Digital societies and industrial transformations: Policies, markets, and technologies in a post-Covid world 238007, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    13. Lange, Steffen & Pohl, Johanna & Santarius, Tilman, 2020. "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    14. Paul, Ananna & Shukla, Nagesh & Trianni, Andrea, 2023. "Modelling supply chain sustainability challenges in the food processing sector amid the COVID-19 outbreak," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    15. Tabea Bork-Hüffer & Vanessa Kulcar & Ferdinand Brielmair & Andrea Markl & Daniel Marian Immer & Barbara Juen & Maria Hildegard Walter & Katja Kaufmann, 2021. "University Students’ Perception, Evaluation, and Spaces of Distance Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Austria: What Can We Learn for Post-Pandemic Educational Futures?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-25, July.
    16. L. Mundaca & H. Moncreiff, 2021. "New Perspectives on Green Energy Defaults," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 357-383, September.
    17. Bulman, George & Fairlie, Robert W., 2015. "Technology and Education: Computers, Software, and the Internet," IZA Discussion Papers 9432, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Elisa Gavari-Starkie & Patricia-Teresa Espinosa-Gutiérrez & Cristina Lucini-Baquero, 2022. "Sustainability through STEM and STEAM Education Creating Links with the Land for the Improvement of the Rural World," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-23, October.
    19. Denis Hilton & Nicolas Treich & Gaetan Lazzara & Philippe Tendil, 2018. "Designing effective nudges that satisfy ethical constraints: the case of environmentally responsible behaviour," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 17(1), pages 27-38, November.
    20. Wen Chen & Changyi Zhu & Qi Cheung & Siying Wu & Jun Zhang & Jia Cao, 2024. "How does digitization enable green innovation? Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 3832-3854, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:22:p:12912-:d:685030. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.