A Research on Digitalization and Performance in Higher Education Between Hybridity and Algorithms

The phenomenon of digitalization has spread in the field of education and research, as demonstrated by the digitalization of teaching and training methods, the use of digital technologies for conducting research and the spread of the concept of the ‘digital university’. One of the main expectations is that digitalization can improve the performance of universities, supporting the delivery of more efficient and effective services. Nevertheless, the relationship between digitalization and performance measurement and management has so far been under-investigated. This chapter studies how this relationship has been addressed in the academic debate by conducting a review of the literature on the topic. The analysis of the literature allows the identification of key themes, both previously studied and future research areas. The findings show that, in most cases, attention has been paid to the effect of the use of digital tools on (student) performance by investigating the adoption of digital teaching/learning tools and resources. Next, attention has been directed to the use of digital tools to measure the performance of universities. However, digitalization does not concern only tools, but it implies changes in the language used in universities, calling for further research on the costs and benefits of digitalization, going beyond the technicalities of digital tools to investigate performance and changes in academia as a result of the digitalization of the language.