Understanding the challenges of rapid digital transformation: the case of COVID-19 pandemic in higher education

ABSTRACT

Rapid digital transformation is taking place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing organisations and higher educational institutions to change their working and learning culture. This study explores the challenges of rapid digital transformation arising during the pandemic in the higher education context. This research used the Q-methodology to understand the nine challenges that higher education encountered, perceived differently as four main patterns: (1) Digital-nomad enterprise; (2) Corporate-collectivism; (3) Well-being-oriented; and (4) Pluralistic. This study broadens the current understanding of digital transformation, especially in higher education. The nine challenges and four patterns of transformation actors serve as a starting point for organisations in supporting technological choice and strategic interventions, based on individual, group, and organisational behavioural levels. Moreover, five propositions, based on the competing concerns of these challenges, establish a framework for comprehending the ecosystem that enables rapid digital transformation. Strategies, prerequisites, and key factors during the (digital) technology development process benefit the cyber-society ecosystem. As a practical contribution, Q-methodology was used to investigate perspectives on digitalisation challenges during the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• digital transformation
• higher education
• challenges of digitalisation
• rapid digitalisation
• Q methodology

Acknowledgments

The Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia provided financial support to the first author during his work at the Institute of Positive Computing Hochschule Ruhr West. We also thank IASI-Germany e.V. for hosting an online seminar as an opportunity to discuss the preliminary results with participants from Indonesia and Germany.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.