Digital transformation of higher education involves using digital technologies to improve educational quality and meet the demands of the digital economy. This requires changes to teaching methods, educational content, and institutional structures. True digital transformation is built on strategic use of learning and organizational technologies. It also requires addressing equity and inclusion issues to ensure all students can access and effectively use digital education. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted existing digital divides and the need for universities to support digital inclusion. Universities are learning from this experience on how to better integrate technologies and support faculty, while also addressing data security, change management, and equitable access.

1. Digital
Transformation
of Higher
Education: Equity
and Inclusion
Babu George, PhD, DBA,
EdS
Professor & Associate Dean
School of Business
Christian Brothers University
Memphis, TN, USA

2. An Outline for Today’s Presentation
Digital technologies in
education
Value multiplication
(efficiency focus)
New Value Creation
(effectiveness focus)
Opportunities and
Barriers within
educational
institutions
Opportunities and
Barriers in the
educational
environment
Disruptive changes
(scope expansion: new
products, services,
business models)
Incremental changes
(scale expansion)
DigitalStrategiesinEducation
Outcomes and impacts
of digital education
Digitization /
digitalization
strategy
Digital
transformation
strategy
© George, B. (2021)
Studentengagement,faculty-staffempowerment,operationaloptimization,transformationofeducational
programs,digitalequityandinclusion

3. What Kind of Ed-Technologies do you Use? • Online admission / enrollment management system
• Course registrations management
• Online tracking of students’ attendance / progress (“nudging
technologies”)
• Course / faculty evaluation system
• Managing degree progress and transcription solutions
• Software solutions for organizing campus meetings and other
events online
• Collaborative work solutions
• Solutions for those needing special accommodations
• Smart classrooms for HyFlex learning
• Learning management systems
• Adaptive learning assessments
• Identification / profiling technologies / information security
solutions
• Human resource information / management systems
• Remote proctoring solutions
• Plagiarism checkers
• AI powered Writing Centers
• Workflow automation / CRM systems
• AR – VR solutions for virtual labs
• Campus and external communication solutions
• Physical plant / class & residence room reservation
systems
• Program Assessment / Institutional Research
• Grant – sponsored projects / Research management
• Library resource management system
• Online campus stores
• Career / placement support system
• Counselling / advising support system
• Employee training / professional development system
• Virtual campus tours support system
• Health checkup / thermal screening / mask enforcement /
social distancing solutions
• Comprehensive HigherEd ERP solutions

4. What is Digital
Transformation?
• Digital transformation is a process in which disruptive
digital technologies open up additional opportunities
for dynamically capable organizations seeking to
improve the ways they create value and these
organizations strategically exploit such opportunities
by altering their structures, processes, and cultures
within the degrees of freedom afforded by the
aforementioned technologies.
• It is about harnessing digital technologies to
increase the productivity and value of an
enterprise.
Source: George, B. and Paul, J. (2020). Digital Transformation
of Business and Societies. Palgrave McMillan.

5. Contemporary
Technological
Revolutions Make
digital
Transformation
Non-negotiable!
• Simulated New product Development: Reduces test cycles before introducing new products
• Autonomous (Ro)bots: They will co-work with humans, taking over complex assembly line work.
• Additive manufacturing (rapid prototyping, 3D printing): These technologies will take product
customizations to the next level.
• Significantly improved co-production between buyers and sellers
• Smart Clouds: Clouds will have processing power, in addition to storage capabilities
• Internet of Industrial Things: IoT is already popular in the consumer realm. It will be used extensively
in industrial applications.
• Big data analytics: For big, timely, insights.
• Cybersecurity systems: More sophisticated security systems will (have to) come up to protect a
society built around data and networking.
• Augmented Reality: This will amplify human sensory power
• Blockchains: Decentralized digital infrastructure, smart contracts, a way to authenticate originality
• Cryptocurrency: Possibility to be “free” from governments and bankers
• Brain-Machine Interfaces: Brain-machine interface technology inserts tiny electrodes into the brain
and then lets brain and computers communicate directly (E.g. Neuralink).
• Satellite Internet Systems: Starlink like companies have the ambition of providing worldwide high-
speed internet via satellites

6. The Still Unfolding Digital Landscape
Source: https://www.thegeniusworks.com/2017/07/disruptive-technologies-exactly-applications-mean-business/

7. Source:
https://www.briansolis.
com/2017/01/definition
-of-digital-
transformation/

8. The Digital
Transformation
of Education
• Digital transformation of education is the process
of the transformation of the content, methods,
and organizational forms of educational activities
• improving educational quality
• in a rapidly developing digital environment
• to meet the requirements of the digital
economy.
Source: Uvarov, A. Y. (2019). From computer literacy to digital transformation of education. Informatics and
education, 25(4), 5-11.

9. Digital Education as a Series of Changes
A change
A change in tools that
educational institutions
use
A change in processes
that educational
institutions use
A change in the
composition and
competencies of people
in educational
institutions
A change in educational
institutions’ cultures
and values
A change in educational
institutions’
engagement with actors
in the external
environment

10. Source: https://www.app-scoop.com/blog/digital-transformation-the-next-phase-for-education

11. Timeline of Ever-Increasing Digital Presence in
Education
Phase of Technological Development Focus of Education
Unaugmented Manual Labor
Mechanization
Mass Production
Automation
Robotization
Education as an exercise in refinement for the elites; education not
linked to industrial skills. The primacy of “thought skills” –
philosophy indistinguishable from science.
Apprenticeship guilds; scholarship driven by individual researchers.
Industrial training; global proliferation of teaching universities.
Universities considering research as a primary mission; birth of
technology enabled distance education; computer programming /
coding as a profession.
Proliferation of non-university actors in the higher education space;
peer-to-peer learning; AI replacing human effort; focus on teaching
things that robots cannot do better.

12. Drivers of Digital Transformation in Universities
Source: https://www.digarc.com/wp-content/uploads/Digital-Transformation-3.png

13. Other Factors
Driving Digital
Transformation
in Education
• Changing student demographics and behavior (digital native students)
• They are no longer passive recipients of what colleges offer!
• They are not captivated; they can search and find alternatives!
• They express voice and expect their voices be heard!
• They want to co-create their learning experiences
• Digital transformation gives universities access to timely and improved
insights on students and the market
• Allows real time data driven “smart” response to their
needs and expectations
• Offers the ability to anticipate in more realistic ways and
be ready for the future
• Opportunities to enter new markets without having physical presence
• Use e-learning and hybrid solutions to effectively reach foreign
markets
• Changing nature / structural composition of knowledge
• More and more data are originated and leveraged digitally
• Going digital is now widely considered to be a futuristic investment
• There is no other way; this is no longer a luxury!

14. The Covid-19 Turn
Source: https://www.leewayhertz.com/digital-transformation-in-education/

15. • But, e-learning is
NOT the full story
It also includes transformation in:
• Learning environment
• University backend processes

16. The Importance of Seeing
Technology as the Tangible
Layer of a “Socio-Technical
System”

17. Source: https://twitter.com/CSREuropeOrg/status/886962590726881280/photo/1

18. A Summary of Key Learnings from Digital
Transformation Experiences in Higher Education - I
• Technological change not only creates digital learning environments but also alter
existing (purely) physical learning environments.
• Digital transformation of education is about academic, curricular, organizational, and
structural transformations.
• Not just about the teaching – learning aspect of it.
• The integration of digital technologies in teaching and learning is a complex process of
negotiation between different stakeholders within and outside the universities.
• True digital transformation in education should be built on strategic advancement of
learning and organizational technologies.

19. A Summary of Key Learnings from Digital
Transformation Experiences in Higher Education - II
• In new iterations, digitally transformed teaching and learning are no longer limited by spatio-
temporal boundaries
• Digitally transformed learning happens more from networks, not from nodes of “authorities”
• The quality of the network and “virtual social learning spaces” determines the quality of
learning
• Digital transformation may not entirely kill traditional education
• It rather breaks down traditional education into components
• Scalable components get automated, resulting in hybrid models
• It might give birth to new kinds of competition
• Emancipation of education from governmental Tsars and accreditation agencies
• It might end of the hierarchy of learning (e.g., High school, junior college, undergraduate, master,
doctoral, in that order)

20. A Summary of Key Learnings from Digital
Transformation Experiences in Higher Education - III
• In the onslaught of digital transformation, low to mid-tier Colleges might become
facilitators of knowledge distribution
• Increasing integration of MOOCs produced by top tier universities into the
curriculums of “ordinary” colleges
• There might be a decrease in the interest to devote “exclusive” years of life for education
• Work, vacation, and education would intersperse
• The boundaries between educational systems and other aspects of public life are
already porous
• Traditional public universities might be squeezed in between online for-profit non-
university enterprises and informal peer-to-peer educational networks!

21. Source: https://info.lse.ac.uk/staff/education/Inclusive-Education-Action-Plan Source: https://www.coalitions.digitalinclusion.org/images/PortlandEquityGraphic.png
Inclusive Education

22. Digital Equity (DE) – Digital Inclusion (DI)
• Digital equity refers to whether people can
access and effectively use the technology
necessary to participate in modern society.
• Digital inclusion denotes efforts to remedy
deficits in digital equity.
Source: https://www.govtech.com/civic/The-Quest-for-Digital-Equity.html
Source: https://digitalcharlotte.org/digital-inclusion-and-digital-equity/

23. Why do we
need Digital
Equity and
Inclusion in
Education?
• If education is a fundamental right and if digital
technologies are the only way to gain access to
education, it is important that these technologies
be made available to everyone for effective use.
• However, as Covid-19 would demonstrate to
us, this has not been the case.
• There have been stark and widespread
inequities in the availability and quality of
digital technologies for education
• The need for purposeful efforts to bridge the
gap was felt prominently.

24. Digital
Divide in
Education

25. Challenges
in Inclusive
E-Learning

26. Overcoming
Digital
Divide(s) in
Education - I

27. Overcoming
Digital
Divide(s) in
Education - II

28. Knowledge resources should be framed in
a manner that makes it easy for different
segments of students to understand them
The differences in the capabilities of
learners on how to use e-learning
technologies should be respected
For higher education establishments,
there should be an Inclusiveness and
Equity Statement, just like the Mission
Statement
Institutions must live by this, by crafting strategies
informed by this.

29. Embrace Course Design Principles that Recognize
Diversity (Universal Design of Learning)
Source: https://udlleurope.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/diversity_final.png Source: https://www.scillsspartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/udlg.jpg

30. Some Key Equity – Inclusion Questions in the
Backdrop of Covid-19
• Is it true that the urgency for the availability of digital technologies for instruction overshadow the corresponding urgency for the quality of
these technologies?
• Is it possible that heavy stress on technologies that help transmit the educational content digitally (e.g., Zoom, WebEx, MS Teams, Google
Meet) resulted in a significant neglect about digitizing the knowledge elements without losing quality?
• Did the prevailing inequities of access to technologies in different societies mirror in the digital equity issues in education that were
observed during Covid-19?
• Alternatively, did those prevailing inequities amplify or mitigate the educational digital inequities?
• Could digital education be leveraged as a tool to challenge the prevailing inequities in every other spectra of digital engagements in
the society?
• Did international students face a greater digital divide during Covid-19?
• How could universities help increase digital inclusion?
• Intercultural immersion is expected to be one of the key benefits of international education.
• Did the digital exclusion result in reduced opportunities for intercultural engagements?
• What are some of the innovative ways by which universities help strengthen intercultural ties even as education happens remotely,
mediated by digital technologies.
• Could the digital divide experienced by the students be used as a pedagogical device to sensitize them of the importance of digital equity
and inclusion?
• How could ed-tech businesses built around maximizing profits be made to respond to the need for digital equity?
• Is there a market logic for it?
• Or, should governments mandate affirmative action from these companies regarding digital equity?

31. Covid-19 Learnings
on Digital
Transformation in
Universities
• As much as possible, convert infrastructural assets into “internet of things”!
• Make everything connected to the cloud – with local copies!
• Make information security and privacy important priorities!
• Connect systems; offer single point entries / portals with single log-ins.
• Invest in gathering the big picture by data analytics!
• Invest in faculty and staff to update their technological skills!
• Make training materials available and accessible!
• Integrate ML and AI into processes, even when no immediate advantage!
• Chatbots saved numerous manhours in many US universities
• Identify digital evangelists within universities!
• Let hierarchical leaders not merely preach but also practice digital skills!
• Invest in some redundant ed-tech solutions!
• Not have too many concurrent change initiatives!
• Change overload syndrome!
• That said, experiment with promising new technologies in sandboxes.
• Have a plan and budget allocation, even if it does not work!
• Prevent scope creep and empty coffers!
• Have matrices to measure success, but also mindful that short term success is not
the goal!
• Use feedback loops for continuous improvement!
• Use “audience appropriate” and “purpose appropriate” communication /
collaboration styles

32. Covid-19
Learnings on
Digital
Transformation
in Universities
• Nurture within the university, within each of its division, a small
group of employees to experiment with promising technologies
and tech-enabled processes
• Encourage them to present these Endogenous Opportunities
to others within the university and get buy-in from key
decisionmakers
• These employees should be treated as boundary spanners
• Institute a process to absorb these technologies in organic
ways
• Universities that do not do this are doomed to face technological
onslaughts as Exogenous Threats

33. Concluding Thought I: Thinking Style for Higher Ed Leaders
to Thrive in the Digital Era
• Convergent, holistic, thinking made “the wise men” of the pre-industrial times.
• From the early ages of industrialization, divergence began to be the norm.
• A world of specialists.
• Industrial revolution 4.0 brings back a new kind of convergence / integration
• The convergence of the physical, psychological, and the biological dimensions by means of data
and networking technologies
• Nano-specializations exist and thrive, but those all work together quite seamlessly.
• Organizational hierarchies and silos disappear
• This allows new ways of thinking and doing
• In other words, higher ed leaders should develop a kind of ambidexterity to fuse and synergize
convergent and divergent thinking
• Use technologies in an integrative, interconnected, way while also exploiting their standalone benefits.

34. Concluding Thought II: Don’t be afraid of AI takeovers!
Source: https://twitter.com/OECDEduSkills/status/860061674379902976/photo/1

35. Thank you!