Higher Education Amidst COVID-19: Challenges and Silver Lining

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected higher education on a global scale but it has also brought numerous challenges to the higher education community. Although initial responses involved faculties rushing to change their traditional curriculums to fit an online environment, we opine that transitioning contents to an online learning environment is not enough. This article adds to the conversations surrounding the challenges and problems faced by the community and opinions to handle these challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• higher education
• digital transformation
• online education
• distance learning

Notes

1. https://www.weforum.org/platforms/shaping-the-future-of-digital-economy-and-new-value-creation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarbottam Bhagat

Sarbottam Bhagat is a PhD student in the Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences (ITDS) at the University of North Texas (UNT). His research interests lie on social media, information disclosure and privacy, fake news, information security and adoption, and diffusion of emerging technologies. He holds an MBA from Washburn University School of Business, and a BBA from Tribhuvan University (Nepal). He has also been inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honors - an international honor society that recognizes the most outstanding students of business.

Dan J. Kim

Dan J. Kim is Fulbright Sr. scholar and professor of ITDS at the UNT. His research interests are in multidisciplinary areas such as information security, privacy, social media analytics, and trust in e-commerce. His work has been published or forthcoming in more than 170 papers, in refereed journals and conference proceedings including ISR, JMIS, JAIS, EJIS, CACM, DSS, I&M, etc. His publications have been cited more than 7,000 times over the last 5 years. He serves or served as a guest, senior, and associate editor for several top journals including MISQ, I&M, ISF, ISM, and ECRA.